Pat Gaffey is a longtime radio newsman who got his start at the legendary KPOL/KZLA combo (now separately-owned KMPC, 1540 AM and KLLI, 93.9 FM) in the days when radio news was still a big deal. He also worked at KHTZ (now KNX-FM, 97.1) and spent time as a production assistant for Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40.”
Bobby Rich is a longtime on-air DJ, having worked in numerous cities including New York, Philadelphia, Tuscon and Seattle; locally, he was heard on KHJ (930 AM), KHTZ, KFI (640 AM) and — stretching the local thing a bit — B-100 in San Diego, officially known at the time as KFMB-FM (now KFBG, 100.7 FM).
What ties the two together? Gaffey has just published an authorized biography of Rich, entitled “Bobby Rich: My Life in Your Radio.” And it is fabulous. But before we get into the book’s content, I asked Gaffey: What is the connection, and why write a book?
“I worked with Bobby at various stations, and I always respected him and what he did,” Gaffey explained. “I consider him the ultimate nomadic DJ, moving to progressively larger markets, working as a jock and eventually a program director and later owner … all the while staying true to his calling. He was a jock at heart, always on the air. He is a man who lived, breathed, and drank radio, and I believe he captured that era of personality-driven music radio.”
The idea for the book came from his Gaffney’s wife, Annie. Gaffey was between radio jobs and writing biographies for others; Annie asked him, “Why don’t you write Bobby’s story?” The rest is (a long) history.
Long, not because it was complicated. Long because the lives and jobs of both men got in the way of its completion. Gaffey started the project in 2013, then put it on the back burner, as both he and Rich changed employment, completing it earlier this year. As I alluded, it was worth the wait.
Extensively researched, as you would expect from a good newsman, the book follows Rich from his earliest radio gig at the age of 14 and his amazing success here in Los Angeles and San Diego all the way to launching his own station in Tucson, where he stayed until retirement.
Rich was on the AM side of KFMB (now KGB, 760 AM) when the decision was made to dump the beautiful music being played on the FM side.
As Gaffey writes, “Paul Palmer, general manager of the KFMB radio combo, put it bluntly: ‘What would you do with the FM if you had your hands on it?’ Without hesitation, Bobby responded, ‘I’d rock that sucker.’ Palmer had found his next programmer.”
Launched in March of 1975, B-100 was one of the first FM stations I ever heard from San Diego, and it was a great one. Rich took everything he learned from earlier gigs, including KHJ, where he worked in 1973 and ’74, and created one of the hottest top-40 stations ever.
As a programmer, he hired DJs who were genuine and had a good time. He wanted people on the air to “have fun and sound like it,” Gaffey says.
I never knew where the dramatic pause came from when the station call letters were said at the top of each hour, “KFM … BFM.” Turns out that is an element that came from Rich. “It was just a little extra flair that created a memorable feeling,” Rich told Gaffey. “And it caught on with listeners, who started repeating this new way of saying our call letters.” Certainly, it hit a chord with me, remembering it after all these years.
“The biography is reliving a time when life was simpler,” Gaffey says. “When you listened to the radio to be part of the in-crowd, and a radio DJ was an integral part of your musical life. It was our social media.”
And a superior form of social media at that, I personally believe. Available in print — both hard and soft cover — and Kindle formats, the book is available at Amazon.
Melinda Lee Passes
Melinda Lee, longtime host of the KNX (1070 AM) Food News Hour, passed away on December 3rd at the age of 80 from complications of heart disease; it was almost a year after her house burned in the Altadena fire. She is survived by her two sons, David and Eric Leach, and four grandchildren.
To say that Lee had been “driven” is to put it lightly. She once told Don Barrett, author of “Los Angeles Radio People,” how she landed the job at KNX.
“I called the PD, Bob Sims, and told him, ‘I see a major error in your life, and I am here to fix it.’” Lee filled in on one show, then just a few months later officially joined Mel Baldwin as co-host of the show. Eventually, she hosted it solo. The program was heard not only on KNX, but also KABC (790 AM) and KLSX (now KNX-FM, 97.1) during its talk days.
A graduate of UCLA and Columbia University, Lee was active in food outside of radio as well. She founded The Perfect Setting catering company, published Whisk magazine, “A Serious Resource for Foodies,” and collected thousands of cookbooks, along with books on architecture, art, philosophy, film, and even words. She had a full set of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Her Food News Show was a tremendously popular program and became a staple for aspiring chefs and everyday cooks throughout the area – and it was a huge area as KNX’s AM signal is strong from San Diego to Santa Barbara and beyond. People would call in for help with recipes, kitchen ideas, and even humor, making it popular for even someone like me. It was entertainment during an era when stations truly served the audience with a variety of programs, often missing today.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com