By Hardy Price

The Arizona Republic, N1 – December 11, 1977

Two days and two nights on the road. Fighting fatigue and accidents by playing the radio. Picking up Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Chicago, Fort Worth. Listening to announcers pitching everything from pine tar and Pontiacs to alum and autographed photos of Jesus that glow in the dark.

Roaring up I-10 north of Casa Grande in the pre-dawn hours. It was with great anticipation that eyes started straining for the blinking red lights atop South Mountain. Not only would it mean that home was near and the end of a long trip, but the tinny car radio speakers would begin to shoot with familiar voices.

Hey that’s Toad Hall on KDKB and there’s Heywood on KOY and Spero on KXIV. Wonder what corn Len Ingebrigtsen is dishing out this morning on KOOL? Art Webb, W. Steven Martin and Richard Ruiz on KRIZ, KUPD and KRUX, respectively, will have already started to talk a mile-a-minute. Chris O’Connor at KNIX and Larry Scott at KJJJ have already fed the chickens, milked the cows and slopped the hogs, getting ready for four hours of Buck, Willie, Ol’ Waylon and Hag. Too bad Johnnie Linn is no longer talking about July pork bellies on KTAR.

Just as soon as the sun breaks over the Superstitions, the Christian stations will start saving souls, KMCR will begin educating and KXTC will be denying rumors that it will change from an all jazz format to a gospel-Christian-Catholic-Jewish-Zen-agnostic country-western station.

That’s good old Phoenix radio. A little something for just about everybody, unless you happen to be black. Phoenix has 33 radio stations (18 AM and 11 FM) but not one with a dominant black format. Matter of fact, Phoenix is the largest metropolitan radio market without a black station.

It would seem that Phoenix has just about more radio stations than anybody. According to Spot Radio Rates and Data, a monthly radio trade publication, Phoenix has more radio stations than Los Angeles, 28; San Diego, 18; Denver, 26; Miami, 24; Chicago, 27; Kansas City, 20; St. Louis, 23; Buffalo, 28; New York, 29; Boston, 28; Dallas, 18; Houston, 25 and Salt Lake City, 18.

Radio in Phoenix grew with the population boom. KOY signed on first in 1922, but KTAR gets the nod as the first commercial radio station to hit the air, also in 1922. KOY started out as an experimental station with the call letters of 6BBH. It turned commercial shortly after KTAR.

KJJJ (then called KPHO) went on the air in 1940 to be followed by KRUX and KQXE (formerly KBUZ) in 1946, KOOL in 1947, and KIFN in 1949. Things really began to pick up in the 1950s with KRIZ (1950), KXIV (1954), KHEP (1956), KSGR (1956), KMEO (1957), and KPHX (1958) right on into the 1960s with KNIX (1960), KUPD (1960), KRDS (1960), KDKB (1960), KCHS (1962), and KASA (1966).

You have to understand that some of the call letters are not the same ones as those originally granted the licenses. Many times when ownership changes, so do call letters. And a recent Federal Communications Commission recommendation calls for stations with both AM and FM outlets to have separate call letters. The FCC has already required that stations with both outlets provide substantial differences in programming, thereby eliminating the goold old days of cost-cutting, simultaneous broadcasting.

For many stations in Phoenix, cost-cutting is essential. There are just so many ways to split the profits pie and no matter how thin the slices, somebody always comes out with the crumbs.

“This just might be as competitive a radio market as there is in the country,” said one station manager. “And that does make it hard on the coffee pots (small stations). I would guess there’s always one or two stations in the Phoenix market for sale.”

Radio stations, just like any business, operate in different ways. One station use to pay its on-air staff by allowing the staffers to sell their own programs, splitting the fee with the station management. “I was trying to sell spots on my show for $8,” said a former disc jockey. “Come to find out this other jock is going to the same people offering spots on his show for $6. Helluva way to make a living?”

This instance is an exception to be sure, but would seem to indicate that all is not well on local airwaves. To attempt to judge the relative healthiness of a station by checking the rating can be just as misleading. There are almost as many ways to interpret radio ratings as there are ways to interpret the bible.

Station managers privately admit to this, but would rather see their children spirited away by gypsies in the night than tell a potential advertiser that his station is not at least No. 1 during some time of the day.

Several years ago one station manager wrote an advertiser, and friend, asking for a letter of recommending the merits of buying time on the station. The station’s rating was so low that even a ladder wouldn’t provide much help. “I really hated not to write him the letter,” said the friend. “I know it would probably help him, but next year when I go to buy advertising, he could pull my letter out and tell me I could afford to pay more since advertising on his station proved to be of such benefit to me.”

Gillette now ads programming duties under his belt for KOOL, while Garrison continues to be OM of the cluster and PD of KMLE Country.

Painting by artist and listener Brian Brooks, in celebration of Radio Free Phoenix's 6th birthday and depicting founder Andy Olson.

Radio Free Phoenix (RadioFreePhoenix.com), the free-form internet rock radio station based in the Valley, turns six years old this week.

Founded by Phoenix radio veteran Andy Olson in 2004, Radio Free Phoenix has continued to gain a loyal group of listeners that grow each year. The station prides itself on being free-form and on the internet. The on-air lineup is made of terrestrial radio veterans– a majority being from the Phoenix market–who have made the transition into the world of internet radio.

Some Radio Free Phoenix names that longtime Valley radio listeners would remember include Andy Olson (KSTM, KSLX, KZON), Liz Boyle (KOOL, KDKB, KESZ), Dave Cooper (KZON, KYOT, KJZZ), and Angela Allen (KOOL).

Jeff Garrison, Vice Present of Programming of CBS Radio’s Country stations, has been named operations manager of KOOL, KMLE, and KZON, with additional programming duties for KOOL and KMLE.

Garrison is not new to the Phoenix market, or KMLE, having been KMLE’s program director from 1996 to 2002. He comes over most recently from being program director of CBS Radio’s country station in Houston, KILT.

In addition, Rick Gillette has been named program director of 101.5 JamZ (KZON). He comes most recently from programming Chicago’s KISSFM, a Top 40 station.

Program director and operations manager Kris Abrams is out at CBS Radio Phoenix since yesterday, sources say.

Abrams has been with CBS Radio Phoenix since March of 2007 as PD/OM of oldies/classic hits KOOL, and taking on the additional duties later on for KMLE Country 108.

Recently back to duties at only KOOL, he leaves behind a station that has transformed from oldies to classic hits under his reign and one that had gone through terrible times in 2008 along with much of the industry. During his time with KOOL and KMLE Country 108 in 2008, both stations went through several rounds of firings including long-time on-air personalities like Dave Pratt and Bill Gardner.

Abrams’ first major moves on KOOL were bringing back the “94.5 KOOL-FM” station imaging instead of “KOOL 94.5″ and bringing aboard new voice guy, Jeff Laurence, as “Nameless Faceless Voice Guy.”

Valley stations have gone “orng” for the Suns’ two home playoff games at US Airways Center.

CBS Radio Phoenix stations 94.5 KOOL-FM, KMLE Country 108, and 101.5 JamZ attracted fans and listeners to sign the Suns board in front of US Airways Center.

101.5 JamZ and Power 98.3 staff and listeners represented themselves on national television last night, holding signs in support of the Suns with station logos on the back. They could be seen throughout TNT’s after-game show, “Inside The NBA.”

Power 98.3 signs held outside of US Airways Center Tuesday after a Phoenix Suns Game 4 victory over the Lakers. Photo Courtesy: TwitPic.com

“70s at 7″ was first introduced a couple of years ago and lasted throughout many shift changes and staff maneuvers prior to the arrival of Tom Kent– a syndicated personality from the suburbs of Cleveland. This made the “70s at 7″ an impossibility to continue.

Tom Kent lasted almost a year and a half until the end of February when KOOL dropped him in favor of returning to local, original programming and rehiring Valley and KOOL Radio veteran, Camelback Jack, for evenings.

In addition to Mason’s newly acquired duties, he will also continue to be heard middays on KOOL and afternoons on KMLE.

Jack has been on-the-beach since getting the budget cutting ax from the station in December of 2008. He has spent nearly seventeen years, prior, “riding in the front seat” with KOOL listeners each weekday afternoon.

Now Jack is able to return to the station and listeners who love him most, in the evenings. He takes place of the syndicated Tom Kent show.

He is no stranger to the Phoenix market– in fact, many longtime Phoenicians may know him from the KRIZ 1230 (AM) days as the Chucker– Chucker Dean. He was the last on-air as the station came to an end in 1978.

This recording captures the final moments of KRIZ then, and Camelback Jack, as Chucker Dean, wrapping it up and asking for listeners to honk their horns when the station falls silent:

Since joining KOOL in 1992, he has put the numbers in the books for his time slot and is a top rated afternoon on-air personality of all-time in the Phoenix market.

Jack is also known for his salute to our nation’s veterans, honoring each day on-the-air and in the charities and benefits he does in his off-time for organizations such as “Packages from Home.”