R.I.P.: Billy Pearl, Former L-A Radio Personality

Billy Pearl

Former Los Agneles personality Billy Pearl — most popularly heard playing the hits on KHJ 930 AM and KIQQ (now KKLQ (100.3 FM) as well as later talking law on KABC 790 AM — passed away January 4th after a two-year battle with esophageal cancer. He was 71, according to The L-A Daily News.

His radio career began at UCLA, as part of the campus student-run station. After graduating with a degree in history in 1972, he started his career in radio — a far cry from the teaching career in American history he had been planning.

He never worked outside of the Los Angeles area; his first stations after college were KKDJ (now KIIS-FM, 102.7) and K-100 (KIQQ, now KKLQ, 100.3 FM). He arrived at KHJ — at the time the top-rated music station in the country —  in 1974 with great fanfare, “part of KHJ’s on-air urban renewal” as was written in an LA Times story from that era. In that same story, Pearl told of practicing the KHJ call letters in the shower, long before he was hired, demonstrating how much he wanted to work there. His charm, high-energy, and on-air positive persona impressed both listeners and insiders alike.

Longtime KHJ (as well as numerous other stations) Production Director Douglas Brown had this to say about Pearl: “Bill was very energetic and focused; he had a great sense of timing on-air and was really excited to be at KHJ. He used to sit in the studio getting familiar with the tempo and timing of new song intros and fades as show prep.”

Unfortunately, his tenure at KHJ lasted only about a year. The revolving door of KHJ programmers was the culprit. Pearl was hired by Charlie Van Dyke and when Michael Spears was brought in from KFRC/San Francisco and took the station in a more bubble-gum direction, the hipness of Pearl was not desired. Pearl went on to help consult KRLA (now KRDC, 1110 AM) in 1976 and program KIQQ when he returned in 1977, but neither lasted long. While at KRLA, though, he helped launch “the Hitman” promotion where the station would give prizes to people who had homemade KRLA signs in the yards or on their cars.

In 1977, Pearl — a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UCLA — decided to enter the UCLA School of Law and became an attorney. His love of radio never left, though, so he went back on the air first in 1981 at KMPC (now KSPN 710 AM) and a year later at KABC (790 AM) – talking law rather than playing music. You may remember him paired with liberal Bill Press as one of the Dueling Bills on KABC.

He left radio in 1991 to begin a writing career, first with op-eds in newspapers across the country and later as the publisher of one of the internet-based newspapers, LBReport.Com, which he launched in 2000.