A  Radio Memory

If you were a kid growing up in L.A. back in the 60’s and 70’s, there were two radio stations that would have most definitely made a profound impact on your life… “93 KHJ “Boss Radio” and “The Mighty Met: KMET”.    In a sense, one would have discovered the absolute joy of Top-40 radio at its very best during the mid 1960’s through the early 70’s, and then as maturity set it, turned to the FM dial for what was termed, “Album Oriented Rock”.   There were other fine radio stations in Los Angeles at the time, but KHJ and KMET were the absolute Monsters!

Most Top-40 stations came and went.  Others came and hung on for a while.  Then there are those who became the stuff of legend and 93 KHJ was such a station.  From a year after the birth of “Beatlemania” to a month before the death of John Lennon, 93 KHJ brought Southern California the latest and greatest hit tunes.   KHJ’s disc jockeys were all-stars with the likes of such talent as Charlie Tuna, Machine Gun Kelly, Robert W. Morgan, Humble Harv and Sam Riddle.  The Real Don Steele became a legend with his fast-packed quick-witted style.  Don Steele was the inspiration for jocks for many years.  For hours,  I would  sit in my bedroom yapping into the microphone of my Emerson reel to reel tape recorder trying to emulate great Don Steele.  Problem was, I couldn’t spit the words out fast enough without becoming tongue-tied.  Then there was the memorable music from the absolute greatest decade of musical talent.   The British Invasion had just crossed the Atlantic with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks,  Peter and Gordon and the Herman’s Hermits.   The Beach Boys were singing about surfer girls, while the Doors were “Lighting their Fire”.   It was an amazing time for popular music and every kid in the Southland was tuned into 93 on the AM dial.

Fairly soon, most of outgrew the “Top-40″ format.  We matured into our late teens and 20’s and soon discovered that FM was the new, cool medium.  Gone was the static, the lost signal when you drove under a freeway overpass and the thin, metallic sound of the AM signal. FM featured a rich transmission compared to AM and it was in stereo, which was huge!  Pretty soon, all my friends and I purchased our first stereo receivers. It was a golden time.  KMET, known by its nickname, “The Mighty Met” was the pioneering station of the “underground” progressive rock format.  KMET stood in direct contrast to other music stations of the era.  Rather than the tight, high-energy of KHJ, KMET played more eclectic artists and much longer songs and more socially-conscious lyrics.  The disc jockeys talked much less and in a more personal, relaxed manner.  They were also not afraid to voice their opinions on controversial topics, such as politics, the Vietnam War and civil rights, and most importantly, the jocks chose the music that they played.   It was during this period I was exposed to the greatest music of my lifetime with artists such as Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, The Who, Steely Dan, Yes, David Bowie and The Eagles.

Unfortunately, as with life, things you love the most come to an end.   By the early 80’s, changing trends in music, culture and society, plus the advent of strict formatting in radio eventually turned KMET into a relic of the past.  On February 14^th, 1987, KMET officially signed off with the Beatles singing, “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.