One
of the many reasons I became a writer is that I got tired of being
fired as a disc jockey. Today marks the 47th anniversary of the last
time I signed off my show with “see you tomorrow” and was never heard from again.
1974,
I’m Beaver Cleaver on KSEA, San Diego, playing “The Night Chicago Died”
and “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” five times a night and seriously
considering blowing my brains out. Yes, I know – why “Beaver Cleaver”?
Ken Levine sounded too Jewish.
The
fall rating book came out, the numbers were not good, and at 3:00 I was
told to hurry down to the station for an all-important staff meeting at
4:00. We all assembled and were told the station had decided to change
formats to gospel and we were all being let go. “Even me?” I said in
mock amazement. “Especially you.” “But I could change my name to Eldridge Cleaver.” “I’m going to need your station key”.
Quick
aside: a year earlier at KMEN San Bernardino they wanted to get rid of
me by moving me from the evening shift to the all-night show. The cheap
bastards were hoping I’d quit so they wouldn’t have to pay severance
(maybe $300 at most) and be on the hook for unemployment insurance. I
asked the program director to at least do the humane thing and fire my
sorry ass. “Nope”, he said, “Starting tonight you’re midnight to six.”
So I stopped off at the local record store, picked up an LP, and
dutifully reported on time for my shift.
Like KSEA, we were a high energy Top 40 station. (Our program director was in love w
ith WLS whose slogan was “the Rock of Chicago” so we became the much catchier “Rock of the Inland Empire”.)
I signed on and started playing the hits. Then at 12:30 segued smartly
into FIDDLER ON THE ROOF….in Yiddish. The entire album. I was fired
during “Anatefka”.
Back to the KSEA staff meeting -- Our morning
man, Natural Neil asked when this format change was taking place. A
month? A week? The program director looked at his watch and said “45
minutes”. And with that we were all canned. KSEA was gone…along with the
promotion we were running at the time --
“Christmas the way it was meant to be!”
That was it for me. Another station in San Diego offered me a job that day and I turned it down. It was time to go to LA to starve. I moved home, got a 9-5 job to pay the rent, and David Isaacs and I began writing script after script. I was officially a writer -- okay, an out-of-work with no guarantee of ever getting work writer. But I was loving it. This was what I meant to do.
36 comments :
Love the way you convinced them to fire you at KMEN- brilliant!
That's a good story, Ken... well, as much as a story about being fired can be "good".
I suppose we never know which events in our lives that push us in a new and, ultimately, better direction.
I don't think anyone is ever truly successful at something unless they have a passion for it - and by success, I don't mean the money so much as being considered good at what you do by your peers and by loving what you do. Your passion for writing and comedy is evident in everything and it's a testament to the work you put in to reach that level. And being fired from radio provided an opportunity to channel and explore that passion.
Well, it could have been worse, Ken...in 1974 you might have had to play/hear "Seasons in the Sun" TEN times a day (a song about dying, think The Archies on depressants).
Happy Holidays to you and yours. Thanks for this terrific, informative and entertaining blog.
Look forward to more posts in 2022.
William
Hi, Ken.
I remember the KSEA incident very well.
I was working at your sister station, KSON, both stations run by dear old, beloved, Dan MacKinnon.
As you will recall, Dan MacKinnon took great pleasure in telling everyone what a devout Christian he was. "Holier than though," I think is the expression.
And this lovely Christian boy decides to fire an entire radio station staff just a few days before Christmas. If he had to do it, why not wait till after Christmas? After all the staff had a chance to share a warm and somewhat happy Christmas with their friends and families. He couldn't afford payroll for one more week? (For those who did not know Dan MacKinnon, he and his family were, and are, loaded).
I never felt the same about Dan MacKinnon after that. Was never terribly fond of him to begin with but after this slimey action I felt compelled to report him to Santa.
Santa wept.
Sorry we never got a chance to meet when we were under the same MacKinnon roof.
Glad things worked out wonderfully well for you.
As to Mr. MacKinnon?
"Meh."
To William (Fed by the Muse)- Seasons in the Sun was sung by Terry Jacks.
KLAC Guy: Yes, I know it's Terry Jacks that had the hit version of the song, it just sounds, to my ears, like The Archies on downers.
I think of 1974 as the last year for "bubble gum pop."
I played the crap out of "Seasons in the Sun" earlier in the year at WDRQ Detroit.
Happy anniversary ... and the final sentence says it all.
A wise-guy friend of mine used to sing in English101: "we had joy, we had fun, we had raisins in the sun."
Shannon is gone they say
She' drifting out to sea
She always loved to swim away
also, "Run, Joey, Run"
Agree. And perhaps not coincidentally, '74 was also the year ABC canned those television equivalents of "bubble gum," "The Brady Bunch" and "The Partridge Family."
Out of 7 stations, there was only ONE station that I voluntarily left on my own over the years. And as I've said before, being hired and fired in 6 hours has to be some sort of record. Hired in the morning, getting ready to go in to start that afternoon to be trained on the board only to be called by an embarrassed PD/GM as I'm walking out the door to be told "Don't bother, as of midnight the format is changing and we're all out of a job." If I had only waited one more day to apply.....
@Kevin FitzMaurice
"The Partridge Family" was not just canned after four seasons, ABC practically put in front of a firing squad. It was moved from its preteen-friendly Friday slot to Saturday evenings opposite All in the Family, TV's hottest show on what was one of the greatest nights for comedy in TV history. The new time was mentioned on the front cover of "The Partridge Family Bulletin Board" album, the final of their eight original LPs.
Yiddish FIDDLER is on YouTube. Otherwise I was going to ask you to make it a podcast.
I think we're all glad you went into writing. Have a happy healthy new year.
Congratulations on your anniversary. The follow up question is, once you started writing when did you realize that you could make a living at it?
I got fired on Thanksgiving Day. The station went under a few months later. I wish I could say that it was because they let me go. But the real reason was because of mismanagement and a format too narrow to sustain a viable advertising base. The station was purchased by a company that converted it to all Asian programming which it still is to this day.
I also wish I could say that leaving radio ultimately led to success. Instead it eventually turned me into the unwashed bum that I am now.
Not an F.Q., but I recently saw the "Frasier" arc where they all lose their jobs because KACL goes "Spanish." Was that inspired by your experience?
M.B.
Interesting. Today we were running errands so I turned the car radio to the 70s on 7 channel to hear American Top 40. Turned out the AT40 they chose was from (drum roll) 47 years ago. Nice coincidence. A lot of songs I haven't heard in 47 years. "Kung Fu Fighting" was Number One (love that KSEA poster BTW).
Good stuff, thanks.
The other day me and my fellow coworkers were bitching about the current state of shitty music. After reading your post, I will no longer bitch. I remember those songs from the 70's. They really could be used as a means of torture.
I remember the day in 2005 LA's album rock station (Arrow 93) transitioned into "Jack" ('playing what we want'). One moment they were playing, I think, Led Zeppelin, the next, Devo ("Whip It"). The same thing happened when I was living in Jacksonville, Fl, when the album rock station there (playing Pink Floyd) in a blink of an eye, suddenly was playing synth-pop, Blondie probably. (and no more "King Biscuit Flower Hour" on Sunday nights! Damn it all!) Why do they make these format changes without any forewarning to the audience? How far in advance do the DJ's learn they're out of work? Weeks? Days? The morning they report to work?
Hey, Ken (re: radio days) You must have some great stories about misheard or misinterpreted song lyrics. Or have you covered the subject on one of your podcasts?
LOVED this. "Christians" not only destroy radio formats, but today, they can annihilate the world. (I'm currently in anti-vax East TN, and going bonkers.)
That's always a dirty trick, shifting people around to intolerable time slots or jobs so they are basically forced to quit, with no compensation. I haven't had it happen to me (at least I don't think) but I know that it's common.
In your particular case, I would have just played "Kung Fu Fighting" repeatedly for six hours.
Ken discussed in detail some of his experiences in radio and making the transition to writing in his podcast EP245: Getting through the “Bad” times. It was the first of Ken's podcasts I listened to. Great storytelling and wise too.
Somehow I forgot the KMEN story, but always felt fortunate that I had the chance to work with you there. I seem to recall Frank Kelly (our KMEN chief engineer) telling me that FM would soon rule the world. He encouraged me to listen to KSEA when in San Diego. I guess that suggestion was a few years ahead of the great migration to FM. Great stories Ken!
Ken, after 15 years, I finally watched some of "'Til Death", about two empty-nesters (Brad Garrett, Joely Fisher). The concept seems like a CBS demographic, not FOX. Wikipedia summarizes it had a different focus each of its four seasons. I'd put this down to the limited concept. It's not like it's a workplace comedy (M*A*S*H, Cheers, WKRP) or family (Modern Family) with multiple characters and limitless storyline possibilities. Thoughts?
Anyone who works in radio who has never been fired has never actually worked in radio. If you're smart you learn a lesson every time. When I was a radio youngster 50 years ago it wasn't uncommon to be offered, and accept, a gig over the phone. To my regret, I did that one time. I took a job in a Top 20 midwestern market about a thousand miles away. When I arrived I found the station was out in the middle of nowhere in a drab modular building housing studios, offices and transmitter. The station's better years were history. It had become, in the radio vernacular of the time, a "revolving door." They drifted from format to format, hiring and firing announcers on a whim. I lasted two months and that was almost a record. One hapless morning man signed on at 6am and was fired at 6:35am!
Ken, thanks for another big laugh.
"Eldridge Cleaver." For the Win.
Though the biggest laugh you've ever given me on this blog was the story of the rip 'n read newscast at 4am, and the jock couldn't pronounce the assassinated South American leader's name, so he said his name was being withheld pending notification of his next of kin.
Thanks and happy holidays, and, of course, stay safe.
Ah the days when a person could TURN DOWN a job.
Friday Question: how was it determined which cast member got the coveted "With" or "And" title at the end of the credits? Popularity with viewers? A damn good agent? I've noticed the title used on actors/actresses with decades under their belt, as well as for relative newcomers.
@Ere I Saw Elba "That's always a dirty trick, shifting people around to intolerable time slots or jobs so they are basically forced to quit, with no compensation. I haven't had it happen to me (at least I don't think) but I know that it's common."
TV too. My last year-and-a-half in news, they suddenly moved me to overnights. They threw me into a producer position I had no experience doing, and gave me more work but no raise. Eventually I found my footing, but never quite to what management wanted. They did me a favor in firing me...that was 10 years ago, when social media infiltrated everything. I couldn't imagine how toxic it is now. I definitely learned my lesson about working in TV or radio.
Friday question: This week many people will celebrate Festivus, which began as an episode of SEINFELD. Has anything you wrote taken on a life in the real world? Would you want it to?
@Fed by the muse: I've asked this too a few times! I think it'd be great fun to hear from Ken and the other radio type folk around here about both Favorite Mondegreens and Most Hated Songs of All Time.
Cheers, happy Solstice!
Storm
Speaking of bad 70's music, Youtube somehow led me to a performance by Neil Sedaka of "Bad Blood" on The Midnight Special in 1975. He was in his mid-30's at the time and looked 10 years older and 30 pounds overweight, doing dance 'moves' that consisted mainly of shuffling from side to side. Guessing it was a hit mainly because Elton John sang backing vocals on the record.
On the subject of "doing a last shift," I would like to publicly give shout outs to program directors Gerry Desmond (WLNA), Charlie Parker (WDRC-AM) and Mike O'Malley (WYNY) for allowing me to do my final shows after deciding to leave their stations.
I appreciate their trust in me as a professional to let me depart on my own terms.
What was your 9-5 job after radio? I don't remember you ever talking about it.
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