Up until this point, my radio work had little to do with the passion that drove me into the career in the first place. The magic and mystery of “theater of the mind” was something I set aside as I explored the basics. That was about to change.
The studios of KGON and our AM sister KYXI were located in a 50’s style ranch house.
When I walked through the front door of what we called “The Radio Ranch” I felt a sense of magic in the air. I was joining two friends who would soon be my mentors.
Program Director Bob Brooks and News Director Paul Hanson would supply the magic for me. It was their attitude I guess. Open minds that allowed me to think that anything was possible. We just needed to do it.
A lot was going on. Watergate had taken down Nixon and the end of a very unpopular war was in the headlights.
I used my new found documentary skills on a project that foretold the negative experiences so many service men and women would feel when they returned home from thar unpopular war in Vietnam.
The music that aired on KGON in the mid 70s carried meaningful messages.
We were being told to teach our children well so we don’t get fooled again.
While Bob was mixing the message music, Paul was airing many gripes on our news segments from people who were threatened with a loss of their job if they didn’t be a good neighbor and give to a certain charity.
All of this brought our audience closer to us. They believed that we cared about their lives. It’s part of radio magic. People pick up on your sincerity. And we really did care. I really felt the need to be honest with our listeners.
We also fought against the accepted hard hitting and exaggerated news delivery of the time. A “conversational” approach for information would make us sound more personal on the air.
Paul also started subscribing to alternative news sources that would give us perspective and stories not available in most popular publications.
News and information became a centerpiece of the station. Not just an hourly requirement to toss away between commercials once an hour.
One of our projects that won recognition was a National Headliners Club award for best radio documentary in 1975. The Strange Story of the Two was an early look at Heaven’s Gate.
Followers of the UFO CULT gave up all worldly possessions to join the group. Twenty years later most of their members committed suicide to reach that promised higher plane of existence. We had cult leader, Marshall Applewhite on tape from a meeting in Waldport, Oregon.
This caused us to create hour-long documentaries on other religious cults that many people were joining at the time and the controversial de-programming methods used to get them back.
We knew we were gaining listeners but we had no idea at the time just how big that audience would grow. How far our ratings would climb.
And looking back on it that was not necessarily a good thing.
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