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.”

The Scottsdale Public Library auditorium was packed last Saturday afternoon as many witnessed the on-air staff of legendary Phoenix AM Top 40 powerhouse, 1360 KRUX, unite on stage and the Q&A event.

KRUX alumni arrived in town from all over the country to reunite for the first time in as much as nearly five decades. The KRUX group was made up of a few from the station in the 1950s (Jim Spero and Bob Pond), four others from the 1960s (Bob Shannon, Al McCoy, Kit Carson, and Norm Seeley), and ten from the 1970s (Mitch Heller, Gary Stevens/John Sebastian, Barry Michaels, K.C. Kennedy, Larry Dean/Gary Mack, Todd Wallace, Steve Casey, Dennis King, Tom Wright, John Driscoll/Bob Shannon).

A crowd of over 50 fans, listeners, and interested individuals took their cameras and some brought along KRUX memorabilia and a question in mind to ask their favorite on-air jock. The Q&A began promptly at 1pm with an introduction video produced by Bob Shannon and voiced by Charlie Van Dyke. It went through KRUX in the 1960s, 1970s, some of the jocks at the event including plenty of photos, airchecks, and laughs.

Following the video, Bob Shannon got the 1950s/1960s KRUX group to the long table on stage and introduced everyone. They went down the line talking about how they had made it to KRUX, and shared great Phoenix radio memories.

After an hour has passed, it was time for the 1970s KRUX group to sit at the table on stage and talk. Todd Wallace, former morning host and program director of KRUX led the group with introductions and stories– after the prop he brought to the table– an Al McCoy bobblehead.

A decent amount of questions were asked from the audience, which led to more stories and memories. A few people wore KRUX t-shirts brought along KRUX albums or hitsheets. In attendance included a handful of current CBS Radio Phoenix staffers like KOOL-FM afternoon personality, Steve Goddard, KMLE Country afternoon personality, Big Shoe Stu Evans, and engineer Eric Schecter.

The KRUX group celebrated afterwards with dinner at Bill Johnson’s Big Apple at its original location on Van Buren Road. A section of the restaurant was closed off to the public for the dinner, and it attracted more KRUX alumni than were able to show up earlier in the afternoon for the Q&A event.

The dinner was loud, with lots of laughter and moving around to talk to old friends. The reunion got many compliments throughout the evening and many of the compliments were given to Bob Shannon, who put the entire reunion together himself– with great success.

KRUX REUNION 2010 Q&A ATTENDEES:
Kit Carson
Steve Casey
Larry Dean/Gary Mack
Mitch Heller
K.C. Kennedy
Dennis King
Al McCoy
Barry Michaels
Bob Pond
Norm Seeley
Bob Shannon/R.J. Adams
Bob Shannon/John Driscoll
Jim Spero
Gary Stevens/John Sebastian
Todd Wallace
Tom Wright

The reunion of a Top 40 Phoenix giant, rivals of such a Valley station as KRIZ 1230 in the 60s and 70s, is growing strong for KRUX 1360.

A reunion is planned for Saturday, August 28 and the day is made for not only the disc jockeys, programmers, and news staff, but for the general public as well. The Saturday starts off with a KRUX meet and greet at the Scottsdale Public Library from 1-3pm. The public is welcome to attend and mingle with their favorite radio personnel.

Bob Shannon, a KRUX alumni who has went on to have a career in both radio, and on the screen, established the whole idea of the reunion.

“I’ve spent many hours trying to track down many of the guys from that era,” Shannon said.

Among the lineup to the meet and greet alone, are: Al McCoy, Jim Spero, Bob Pond, Kit Carson, Jack Daniels, Bob Shannon, Norm Seeley, Todd Wallace, Dennis King, Gary Stevens/John Sebastian, Scott Carson, Tom Wright, Bob Shannon/John Driscoll, K.C. Kennedy and Phil Taylor.

Later that evening a dinner is planned at a Valley restaurant for the KRUX people and their families.

For more information on attending the KRUX reunion public meet and greet, contact here.

INFO

What?
KRUX Reunion Meet and Greet / Q&A

Where?
Scottsdale Public Library
3839 N. Drinkwater Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ

When?
1-3pm

Facebook Profile
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001432384814&ref=ts

Facebook Invite RSVP
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=120278364686395&ref=ts

Norm will break the interview up into segments, posting piece by piece each day of this week. The interview will be uploaded in its entirety on Saturday.

(Pictured Left to Right) Norm Seeley, Dick Gray, Kit Carson, Bob Shannon, and Dennis Wilkerson stand before a crowd awaiting a concert at the Coliseum in 1966. Courtesy: Norm Seeley

KRUX, in the lead: KRUX

And KRIZ is here: KRIZ

It’s classic radio meets new media!

Some of those included are names us Phoenicians may know: Larry Daniels, John Sebastian, Gary Stevens, and Todd Wallace.

Turn It Up!: American Radio Tales by Bob Shannon.