B Mitchel Reed, 980 KFWB Los Angeles - Summer, 1967

B. Mitchel (correct spelling) Reed was a pioneering disk jockey who worked in both of the United States’ largest markets. At one time, he was called the fastest mouth in America, due to how fast his delivery was. (No offense, but Broadway Bill Lee perfected the art!)
This recording is from Reed’s second tour of KFWB. Listen to the commercials! Those are amazing, and we haven’t heard anything like those in a very long time! The music is telescoped out, as usual, but from the bits you hear surrounding Reed’s jock patter, aren’t those some rare songs? Many didn’t chart well, and others had no lasting power.
Overall, this is a fantastic aircheck for a lot of reasons. It’s a rare history lesson on how Top 40 radio used to be - on the AM BAND.

[@dennisdivine7448]

I loved the BMR show recreation from the 1963 entry of the "Cruisin" series of radio greats by Increase Records--that was my intro to Reed, depicting his time at WMCA in New York. (I'd read that in order to get him to get the speed into his speech, it required numerous cups of coffee in the recording studio!)

[@dannymac7657]

2 in a row on the BMR Show....oh Baby that's what I like! 😂

[@rsands9]

I used to listen to BMR everyday in the afternoon when he became “cooler” before his KMET days. I’d call and talk to him making requests. Often “Waterloo Sunset”!

[@wxsawxsa2941]

MISS BMR & CASEY DON STEEL & SF/OAKLAND ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5 STARS

[@ApartmentKing66]

Nice to see someone who knows how to spell "Mitchel" correctly.

[@lovesvegas]

NO one in the industry was faster than Jack Armstrong.

[@AirchexxClassicRadio]

Yes, but in 1967, Armstrong hadn't really made his mark yet. In the early 60s, BMR had that title all to himself.

[@lovesvegas]

@@AirchexxClassicRadio In 1967 Jack was working at WKYC in Cleveland, after spending a year at WIXY...and that was his fourth radio gig. After that, he was all over the board. I heard he's in the Guiness Book of World Records.

[@gary9426]

KFWB legend.. R.I.P. The very next year KFWB would switch to an all-news format.

[@AirchexxClassicRadio]

Yes, but to their credit, the owner, Westinghouse, did news very well. KFWB was their second all-news station, preceeded by WINS New York. The news departments at KDKA and WBZ were excellent as well, all owned by Group W at the time.

[@gary9426]

@@AirchexxClassicRadio Yeah, I guess by then, running consistently third in the ratings behind KHJ and KRLA, they felt the need to go off in another direction with an all-news format, to try and boost ratings.

[@wxsawxsa2941]

OWNED BY WANNER BROS UNTILL (THE LEADER JACK ARMSTRONG) WAS FASTING TALKING DJ REMEMER BMR CAME TO DALLAS @ K-BOX 1480 AS GUEST DJ ALSO IN NYC/NJ WMCA OR WINS 1010

[@gsnfan]

Today, KFWB plays Mexican music.

[@AirchexxClassicRadio]

Yes. The owners were losing money with All-News, and 980 has only a 5,000 watt signal - not very big when you consider the size of the entire Los Angeles market. Eventually a few years ago, they sold it to a company that specializes in Hispanic programming and they changed the format to regional Mexican.
Of course, my snarky comment to that is, as if there's not enough authentic programming of that kind floating up from Mexico itself already.