Los Angeles

"NBC's All Star Parade of Bands - New Year's Eve"

It was New Year's Eve 1994/1995, and the last remaining Big Band station in Los Angeles was in danger of being sold right out from under its owner.  Back in 1960, former KTLA-TV sound engineer Bob Burdette put KGRB on the air at 900 AM, and now he was incapacitated due to a stroke.  The courts had put the station, and all of Burdette's affairs, into the hands of conservators. Although they were noted for handling celebrity probate (including the controversial Martha Raye estate), the conservators were not experienced broadcasters, and they were looking to liquidate the property to settle outstanding debt.  Apartment buildings, record collections, furniture, and the companion FM station KBOB-FM had already been sold.

I was brought to the station as the GM of another radio outlet that was programming Adult Standards.  On behalf of the other owners, I evaluated the property, which had the good chance of filling in the mainland signal of our offshore FM on Santa Catalina (KRCI 92.7 FM/Radio Catalina), and the two formats would have blended nicely into a simulcast.  Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, a group of Hispanic broadcasters had already made offers to buy KGRB.

I was hired by conservators to try and revive KGRB, which had never really done well against MOR powerhouse KMPC, but had become a station with a diehard cult following.  It had been mentioned by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, and many celebrities and Big Band leaders had appeared on the station over the years.  Having been at KMPC, I knew the impact a full-service outlet could have, especially when branded with a big name in broadcasting...NBC.  Since NBC Radio hadn't had a full-time outlet in Los Angeles since KFI in the late 60's, I made a few calls and secured not only the NBC Radio News at the top of the hour, but as many of the NBC Radio Sports features and other identifiers of the NBC product as I could.  We revamped the station into "AM 90 NBC," and we were working on permission from KNBC-TV and the GE corporate office in New York to change the call letters of KGRB to KNBC-AM.

JAM Productions in Dallas did a wonderful job of incorporating old NBC "Monitor" sounders and a clean version of the NBC Chimes into a new jingle package.  Legendary NBC announcer Don Pardo graciously agreed to voice the new liners, ID's, and show introductions.  As we made the change, the impact was so great that listeners thought we had been bought by NBC!  It breathed new life into the station and attracted radio press.  We received "The Most Improved Station Award" from the Long Beach Press-Telegram radio columnist, and the collectors of old radio programs came out of the woodwork to help us out with vintage NBC material.

What you are about to hear is considered KGRB's swansong.  Less than a month after this New Year's Eve special, we were notified that the station had been sold to the Hispanic group, and the recently revamped on-air crew of Bob Stone (on his third tour with KGRB), Tom Murphy, myself, Lyman Jay, and the lone engineer David (who had been with Burdette almost from the beginning) were all let go unceremoniously.  Listeners who had been leery of ANY changes to their beloved KGRB knew that they had to give in to modernizing the station (which still had an old Gates control board and two 78 RPM turntables in the studio), but the complete loss of their last Big Band outlet was an outrage.  Their protests went unanswered as the door shut on an era in L.A. radio.

Thanks to collectors of NBC radio programs, we were able to assemble an evening of Big Band remotes from around the country, along with the legendary Ben Grauer in Times Square, and reports from around the country in each time zone.  It aired on AM 90 NBC/KGRB on December 31, 1994.  The earliest original tapes and transcriptions were from the mid 1940's and 1950's, with the majority of the evening taken from the NBC network feed on December 31, 1961.  You'll hear a virtual Who's Who of Big Bands and their leaders, who step to the microphone to wish us all a Happy New Year!  It was airchecked right in the KGRB studio from on-air monitor feed onto VHS tape.

KGRB was licensed to the city of West Covina, with a daytime power of 500 watts, and served Los Angeles and Orange counties for almost 35 years with the same basic format, with the same owner, and with thousands of loyal listeners.  It was never a powerhouse, but because of its unique tower placement and position on the dial, KGRB could be heard as far away as Arizona and Bakersfield at night.  At 900 AM, the only real interference it had was XEW in Mexico City, but it had great competition from KMPC and KPOL, and in later years from KLAC and K-JOY Adult Standards formats.  KGRB became Hispanic formatted KRRA in 1995.  I hope you enjoy the program.

To the future listeners of this broadcast, please make a copy of this letter and the program log if you dub these tapes for others.  I have purposely rewound  a bit at the changeover points on each of these 120 minute cassettes, so you can hear a continuous program or edit them together.  Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Steve Ray, former General Manager/Program Director KGRB "AM 90 NBC"