Univision To Launch Univision Deportes Radio

Univision Deportes, the multimedia sports division of Univision Communications Inc.(UCI), officially announced that it is rounding out its portfolio with the launch of a new national sports radio network called Univision Deportes Radio.

The radio network will initially be available in 10 markets, including Chicago’s WRTO 1200 AM, Dallas’ KFLC 1270 AM, Houston’s KLAT 1010 AM, Las Vegas’ KLSQ 870 AM, Los Angeles’ KTNQ 1020 AM, McAllen’s KGBT 1530 AM, Miami’s WQBA 1140 AM, New York’s WADO 1280 AM, Phoenix’s KHOV 105.1 FM and San Antonio’s KCOR 1350 AM.

Already considered the No. 1 home of soccer in the U.S., Univision Deportes will bring listeners the best in live sports commentary, live games, original content and programming beginning the first quarter of 2017. In addition to broadcast programming, Univision Deportes Radio will offer digital streams of select games and content as well as podcasts so that fans can access their favorite shows on their mobile device.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez

“The launch of Univision Deportes Radio marks yet another milestone in the growth and evolution of our brand across all major media platforms,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, President of Univision Deportes. “Our fans enjoy the award-winning soccer coverage Univision Deportes regularly provides throughout the year on broadcast, cable and digital platforms. We look forward to delivering the same high-quality soccer content on radio but also to enhancing listeners’ experiences by adding an expanded all-sports approach.”

“Univision’s radio stations are among the most-listened to in the country—growing its audience by double-digits since last year,” said John Eck, Chief Local Media Officer for Univision Communications Inc. “We’re thrilled to expand our collaboration with Univision Deportes to continue to leverage the power of our Local Media to reach fanáticos like never before.”

Univision owns and operates 67 radio stations, including in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets, covering 75% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Univision’s radio stations consistently rank at the top of their market and in the country, regardless of language. Among Hispanics, radio is one of the top three media forms, together with TV and mobile.

Roanoke Radio: Danny Meyers Exiting WXLK-FM

After 14 years of the K92 Mornin’ Thang with Danny and Zack, show host Danny Meyers announced Monday he will be leaving WXLK 92.3 FM in Roanoke.

He did not disclose his future plans.

It was also announced that on Jan. 9, co-hosts Zack Jackson and Monica Brooks will relaunch the morning show as their own.

The last edition of Danny and Zack will air on Wednesday morning.

Originally from Canton NY, Meyers previously worked at WPLJ 95.5 FM in NYC.

Milwaukee Radio: Talker Charlie Sykes Signs-Off At WTMJ

House Speaker Paul Ryan called into Charlie Sykes' final show at WTMJ 620 AM Monday and thanked the broadcaster for elevating conservative ideas and politicians, according to jsonline.com.

Sykes is retiring from local radio but plans to write a book and make frequent appearances on the cable news outlet MSNBC.

Ryan said that on Sunday night he and his wife, Janna, joined Gov. Scott Walker and his wife, Tonette, at a supper club and they reminisced "about the enormous impact that Charlie Sykes had on Wisconsin, on conservatism in Wisconsin, the conservative movement."

"Before you came around, the left had arguably a monopoly on information through the media," said Ryan, a Janesville Republican. "And there was really no one challenging the premise of what everybody was being fed in Wisconsin. And you just smashed that model, you crushed it and helped bring a disinfectant into our political system here in Wisconsin that gave rise to what I would call truth."

During the brief interview, Ryan and Sykes reflected on key points in the rise of conservatism in Wisconsin the accelerated with the 2010 tea party wave that brought Walker to the governorship and Johnson to the U.S. Senate.

That wave also washed over Congress and helped catapult Ryan to key Republican leadership.

Fewer Journalists Killed During 2016

Deaths of journalists in the line of duty fell sharply in 2016 compared with the year before, a news media advocacy group said Monday, attributing the decline to fewer intentional killings of journalists.

According to The NYTimes, the group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the number killed unintentionally in combat while covering wars remained high and accounted for a majority of overall deaths for the first time since the group began its annual tally in 1992.

At least 48 journalists were killed in relation to their work, compared with 72 in 2015, the group said in an annual report.

The group suggested that the final figures for 2016 could change, because it was still investigating the deaths of 27 journalists to determine if they were work-related.

“It is undeniably good news that fewer journalists are being murdered, and the decline shows the critical importance of the fight to end impunity,” Joel Simon, the executive director of the group, said in releasing the 2016 report.

However, he said, “Journalists covering war continue to be killed at an extraordinarily high rate, a reflection of the brutality and unpredictability of modern conflict.”

More than half the journalists killed this year died in combat or crossfire, making war coverage the deadliest assignment, the group said.

NYC Radio: WSKQ Personality Killed By Hit-And-Run Driver

Jean Paul Guerrero, 39, who spun records from 7 p.m. to midnight as DJ Jinx Paul for Spanish Broadcasting System's WSKQ La Mega 97.9 FM, died early Monday morning when he was mowed down in Brooklyn.

Police report Guerrero was crossing Jamaica Ave. at Sheffield Ave. in Highland Park, police said, when a woman driving west in a black Nissan Maxima slammed into him. Police believe the driver to be a woman in her 20s or 30s.

Authorities released video of the car after the crash.

Jesus Salas, executive director of programming at the Spanish Broadcasting System, said the station will do everything it can on-air to help solve the case.

“For him to have gone the way he passed, we’re all still in shock,” Salas said. “Our listeners are calling in now and expressing their feelings of loss, because he was not only on air, but he was also active in the community.”

“He had a very positive aura to him, and it saddens me very much. He was one of the DJs that became very popular, very quickly, on the station,” Salas said.


Guerrero started at the station four years ago and earned a full-time spot within a year, Salas said.

“And ever since, it’s been nonstop with him,” he said. “He was always the first one to be at all our events. He was the type of person you always wanted on your side, and it reflected on air."

R.I.P.: Former PA, Long Island Radio Personality Gil David

Gil David

Gilbert David didn't enter the U.S. Air Force expecting to end up with a career in radio.

But, according to the York Daily Record,  the 1949 William Penn Senior High graduate spent four years of his service at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, where he played radio announcer under the name Art Nash. It led to a 50-year career in radio, including more than a decade on the air with WSBA in York as the station's first all-night jock.

Gil David, as he became known, died Dec. 10 at his home in North Carolina at age 85.

After leaving the Air Force, David, a York native, attended University of Southern California and Don Martin's School of Radio and Television, according to his obituary. His first radio job in 1956 was as a first-class licensed engineer at WSBA.

He soon took an on-air spot in West Virginia, but returned to WSBA in 1958. His post-midnight show, "Little David, Keeper of the Mushroom People," ran until 1969. He was Susquehanna Radio's first all-night jock, he wrote on his website.

"It took its toll. But, this is where I really learned the fundamental value of radio and its ability to connect to people like no other medium can," he wrote.

After more than a decade, he was ready for a daytime schedule and moved to a station in New York.

He eventually landed in Long Island, which was home for more than 30 years. David was on air at several radio stations during that time.

As stations moved toward more talk radio format, he briefly hosted a morning talk show. But music was what he loved, and his final job came at WHLI in New York, playing the songs he'd grown up with, he wrote on his website. He retired in 2006 and moved to North Carolina.

December 20 Radio History

Bob Hope

In 1920..Engllish-borrn comedian Leslie Townes Hope became an American citizen. He had lived in the US since 1908 and became one of that nation’s true ambassadors for show business and charity. We say, “Thanks for the memory,” to Bob Hope.

Hope's career in broadcasting began on radio in 1934. His first regular series for NBC Radio was the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, a 26-week contract. A year later, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope began, and Hope signed a ten-year contract with the show's sponsor, Lever Brothers. Hope hired eight writers and paid them out of his salary of $2,500 a week. The original staff included Mel Shavelson, Norman Panama, Jack Rose, Sherwood Schwartz, and Schwartz's brother Al. The writing staff eventually grew to fifteen.  The show became the top radio program in the country. Regulars on the series included Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague. Hope continued his lucrative career in radio through to the 1950s, when radio's popularity was overshadowed by television.

Charita Bauer

In 1922...radio/TV actress Charita Bauer was born in Newark.  While she had participated in 2,000 dramatic radio broadcasts by 1944, her most memorable role was as the soap opera Guiding Light’s Bert Bauer for 35 years, first on radio & later television.  She died of complications from diabetes Feb. 28 1985 at age 62.


In 1939...Radio Australia began its overseas short-wave service.




In 1957...Elvis Presley received his draft notice from the U.S. Army. He immediately applied for, and was granted, a 60-day deferment that allowed him to complete the filming of "King Creole."


In 1971...Talk show host Larry King was arrested in Miami on charges of grand larceny. He'd accepted money on a promise of influence he couldn't deliver, and didn't have the money to pay it back. The charges were eventually dropped because the statute of limitations ran out. King pled guilty to passing a bad check, however, and was out of radio for three years.


In 2002...WRAL Mix 101.5 FM became the first licensed commercial radio station on the east coast to broadcast in HD Radio.

Les Tremayne

In 2003...Les Tremayne died. Tremayne was a leading man during Radio's Golden Era.  On radio during the 1930s and 1940s, Tremayne was heard in as many as 45 shows a week. Replacing Don Ameche, he starred in The First Nighter Program from 1936 to 1942. He starred in The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Romance of Helen Trent during the 1940s. He also starred in the title role in The Falcon, and played detective Pat Abbott in The Abbott Mysteries in 1946–47.

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Tremayne was married four times. He did a morning talk show: The Tremaynes with his second wife, Alice Reinhardt. When Tremayne died in 2003, he was married to his fourth wife, Joan.  Tremayne was once named one of the three most distinctive voices on American radio. The other two were Bing Crosby and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.


In 2014…Longtime Nashville radio and television personality (WSM-AM, WSM-TV, WKRN-TV) Teddy Bart died at age 78.

Teddy Bart

Bart was the personality on several shows during his career, including long-running hits such as the "Waking Crew" on WSM 650 AM radio, the "Noon Show" and "Teddy Bart's Nashville" on WSM-TV, and "Teddy Bart's Round Table" with co-host Karlen Evins on a number of radio stations. He was also a news anchor for WKRN-TV.

"It was like Johnny Carson asking you to be on his show," said David Ewing, a lawyer and Nashville historian who was on "Round Table" several times. Local politicans and business leaders tuned into the show, and guests would often have messages waiting for them when they got back to work after an appearance, Ewing said.

The shows tackled local news and issues with lively yet civil debate.

Bart's legacy in Nashville loomed large in the broadcast community even after he retired, and he was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame in May 2014.

NYC Radio: Z100 Adds Brady For Late Nights

iHeartMedia/New York today announced that popular Seattle radio personality Brady has been named the Late Night Host and Music Coordinator for WHTZ 100.3 FM Z100, New York’s No. 1 Hit Music Station, effective January 9, 2017.

Brady’s show will broadcast weeknights from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“We’re extremely excited to have one of the brightest young up-and-coming talent join our family at Z100,” said Mark Medina, Program Director for Z100. “Brady’s love for the brand and his unique insight into the millennial mind will be a great asset both on air and inside the Z100 programming department.”

Previously, Brady was a nighttime on-air personality for KPWK in Seattle, WA. He also hosted nights for KBFF in Portland, OR and for WAZY in Lafayette, IN. Brady was born and raised in Detroit, where he worked as a producer and on-air personality for WYCD and WDZH after high school.

WHTZ 100.3 FM (6 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

“I can’t believe this is real life,” said Brady. “The fact that I’ll get to crack the mic and say Z100, New York’s No. 1 Hit Music Station every night is a dream come true. Plus, to be in the presence of legends like Elvis Duran, Mo Bounce and Maxwell is so exciting. Words can’t even express how grateful I am to the iHeartMedia family for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Chicago Radio: Talk WLS-AM Adding 'Sirot & Murciano"

Bob Sirot and Miarianna Murciano

Cumulus Media announces that it will debut a new live talk show featuring Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano, Chicago’s favorite husband and wife on-air team, on WLS 890 AM, the flagship radio station of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox.

“Sirott and Murciano” will debut on WLS on Monday, January 2, 2017, and will air weekdays from 10AM-12 Noon.

Multiple Emmy-winning broadcasters Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano previously hosted the popular Sirott and Murciano program weekdays from Noon-3PM on Chicago’s WGN 720 AM Radio.

With a longtime passionate fan base on-air and on social media, they are fixtures on the Chicago media landscape. They co-anchored Fox Thing in the Morning on WFLD-TV in Chicago from 1994 to 2000. Their web site, SusosFork.com, combines their personalities and passion for food. Most recently, Sirott was seen doing commentary on CBS News’ CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley. Murciano is currently writing a book on her native Cuba and the story of her grandfather who was murdered there in 1948.

Peter Bowen, WLS AM 890 General Manager and Vice President/Market Manager for Cumulus Media-Chicago, said: “Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano are deeply rooted in Chicago and are well known to the community. With their addition, WLS is more local and more relevant to Chicago listeners and advertisers.”

Peter Bolger, WLS AM 890 Program Director and Operations Manager, said: “Bob and Marianne are simply great local storytellers who will inform and entertain Chicago radio listeners and keep mornings on WLS fresh, fun and always interesting, with more than a few surprises.”

Sirott said: “Generations of Chicagoans, like me and listeners all over the Midwest and beyond, grew up with WLS. That makes hosting a show on this station very special.”

Murciano said: “I look forward to talking about the news of the day, the trending topics, and even the marital disputes I have with Bob! It’s going to be fun.”

WLS 890 AM (50 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

Concurrently, WLS will launch its new weekday programming line-up for 2017, with the following new airtimes:

• 6AM-10AM: Big John and Ray
• 10AM-12 Noon: Sirott and Murciano 
• 12 Noon-3PM: Rush Limbaugh
• 3PM-7PM: The Steve Dahl Show
• 7PM-9PM: TBA
• 9PM-12 Midnight: The Mark Levin Show

DC Radio: Ken Roberts New VP/Sales For Cumulus Cluster

Ken Roberts

Cumulus Media announces that it has named radio sales veteran Ken Roberts as Vice President, Sales, for its Washington, D.C. radio stations, Talk WMAL 630 AM/105.9 FM and HotAC WRQX 107.3 FM.

Roberts was previously Senior Vice President of Sales for iHeartMedia’s Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, stations. Prior to that, he was Director of Sales for Bonneville International in Phoenix, AZ, and was General Sales Manager for Susquehanna Media/Cumulus Media in Dallas, TX.

Jake McCann, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Media-Washington, D.C., said: “I’m excited to have Ken Roberts leading our sales efforts in Washington D.C. He has a proven track record of running successful sales teams and tremendous relationships in Washington, D.C. His passion and enthusiasm will be a great addition to WMAL and WRQX!”

Roberts said: “I am honored to lead Cumulus Media’s D.C. team in developing creative solutions for our marketing partners. I was attracted to the company’s mission and success in building exceptional local programming with tremendous national products.”

Capitol Records Hopes To Take Pre-'72 Hits Case To Supreme Court

Capitol Records is seeking to take its seven-year copyright battle with Vimeo over user-uploaded clips to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MediaPost reports the dispute centers on uploads that incorporate music recorded before 1972.

Capitol argues that different legal standards apply to those tracks -- including records by the Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Nat King Cole -- than to music recorded in 1972 or later. Specifically, Capitol contends that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" protections for Web platforms don't apply to music recorded before 1972. The DMCA's safe harbors broadly protect Web sites from infringement based on user uploads, provided the sites remove the material at the copyright owner's request.

Capitol's argument turns on language in the Copyright Act stating that the DMCA doesn't “annul” or “limit” copyright protections that existed in individual states for music recorded before 1972.

"Rights in pre-1972 sound recordings, and remedies for violations of those rights, are matters for the States to regulate and control," Capitol argues this week in a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Earlier this year, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Capitol on that point. The appellate judges said that Capitol's interpretation of the law "would defeat the very purpose Congress sought to achieve."

"Service providers would be compelled either to incur heavy costs of monitoring every posting to be sure it did not contain infringing pre-1972 recordings, or incurring potentially crushing liabilities under state copyright laws," the appellate judges wrote.

Vimeo and digital rights advocates had urged the appellate court to reach that conclusion. They said Congress passed the safe harbor provisions to enable companies to allow users to post material dynamically. If the safe harbors don't apply across the board, companies would have to vet all clips in advance, to make sure that they don't include pre-1972 recordings, Vimeo and its supporters said.

Obama: To Avoid Fake News, Stay Away From Talk Radio

Obama Press Conference Friday

It’s no wonder that voters fell for “fake news” planted by foreign governments during the election when partisan media outlets and political talk radio shows have been pushing a similar tone for years, President Barack Obama said on Friday.

According to McClatchyDC.com, the president slammed these organizations, which he called “domestic propagandists,” for going so far in their efforts to discredit the other side that they make voters vulnerable to fake news meant to undermine the U.S. electoral system.

“If fake news that’s being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it’s not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect,” he said in his last press conference of the year at the White House on Friday during his news conference.

“It doesn’t seem that far-fetched compared to some of the other stuff that folks are hearing from domestic propagandists.”

Voters “who have been getting that stuff every day from talk radio” will find fake news stories convincing as long as the political debate continues to be so heatedly partisan, Obama said.

“We have learned lessons about how internet propaganda from foreign countries can be released into the political bloodstream,” Obama said.

Obama on Friday blamed partisan outlets for enabling foreign intervention by spreading their very message: that when it comes to the government “everything is under suspicion, and everybody is corrupt, and everybody is doing things for partisan reasons, and all of our institutions are full of malevolent actors.”

Morning TV Wars Heat Up As NBC, CBS Gain On ABC's 'GMA'

It took 16 years for ABC’s “Good Morning America” to end the historic streak by NBC’s “Today” as the most-watched program in morning television in 2012.

The LA Times reports toppling the mighty “Today” was so significant that Ben Sherwood, the network’s news president at the time, was elevated to run parent company Disney’s entire TV operation in 2014.

But the race has tightened considerably over the last year. “Good Morning America” is still the most popular show overall in the 2016-17 TV season, averaging 4.65 to million viewers compared with 4.53 million for “Today.” But NBC has topped “GMA” twice in overall viewers in the last five weeks and has led among the 25-to-54 age group most important to TV news advertisers for more than a year. “GMA” is off 8% in the demographic this fall while NBC has remained flat. Last season, “GMA” was down 19%.

Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC is also looking over its shoulder at “CBS This Morning.” The trio of Gayle King, Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell is up 6% this season to 3.68 million viewers. Among viewers ages 25 to 54, CBS is up 12% and less than 400,000 viewers behind “GMA” in the category — the network’s best competitive showing in the morning in more than 20 years.

ABC's Tom Chibrowski

The three programs are the most lucrative franchises for the broadcast networks, collectively taking in around $1 billion annually, a figure that has remained steady in recent years despite the increased competition. While the programs have significantly higher ratings than their cable counterparts, the availability of news on digital devices is poaching viewers who have long looked to the shows to start their day.

“Good Morning  America” got to first place as the upbeat alternative in the morning and Strahan’s presence is meant to secure that positioning. “We did not hire him to be a journalist,” Tom Cibrowski, senior vice president for ABC News programs said. “Michael can ask all kinds of questions. He’s a curious, engaging human being and a fantastic television broadcaster.”

“GMA” has also recently added a studio audience to the second hour of the program, when the show shifts away from serious news and focuses on pop culture stories, consumer information and celebrity interviews.

“We feel the changes we are making on the show are modernizing the show,” Cibrowski said. “Bringing that live studio audience in energized the 8 o’clock hour and created a new way to do morning television.”

CBS is seeing dividends from its decision five years ago to go with a newsier format in the morning — offering fewer softer features and no anchors dressed up in costume on Halloween as seen on the other shows.

Retailers Abandon Print Newspapers This Holiday

Retailers are slashing spending on print newspaper advertising, a response not only to declining newspaper circulation but also to shifting behaviors by consumers, who are doing ever more of their holiday shopping online.

According to eMarketer, Retailers’ spending on newspaper ads so far this holiday season has declined more than 30%, the biggest decline in at least four years, Kantar Media data showed. The measure declined 15% in 2015.

The reduced spend on newspapers is a key driver of an overall 13% drop in retailers’ holiday media spending on TV, newspaper, radio and digital display ads between November 21 and December 11, Kantar said. Excluding newspapers, holiday media ad spending on those measured channels would have declined just 3% to $945 million. (The data doesn't include ad spending on paid search, online video or mobile—all growing parts of retailers’ advertising strategies.)

“Newspapers have been a challenged medium with declining circulation and revenue,” said Jon Swallen, Kantar Media’s chief research officer, in an interview, adding that retailers have so far been reducing newspaper ad spending at a slower rate than other advertisers.

Retailers have been one of the top two to three advertiser groups that newspapers rely on for ad revenue, he said. “As newspaper circulation declines, that [local market] coverage becomes smaller. It’s down to the point where retailers now see the return on investment is no longer there.”

R.I.P.: KSMX Clovis NM Radio Personality Steve Rooney

Steve Rooney

Steve Rooney, a popular radio personality for KSMX Mix 107.5 FM in Clovis NM was killed in a single in a car crash near his home in Portales.

Rooney, 45, was northbound on South Roosevelt Road S when the vehicle he was driving encountered ice on the roadway, according to a news release from New Mexico State Police.

“Mr. Rooney lost control of the vehicle, the vehicle exited the roadway and collided with a tree,” the release said.

Officials said the time of the accident was not immediately clear, though Rooney died at the scene. No other injuries were reported.

A Facebook post on Mix 107.5 asked for prayers for Rooney’s wife and four children.

R.I.P.: KLOS-FM L-A Radio Personality Bob Coburn

Bob Coburn, a Los Angeles radio personality who had also hosted the country's premiere rock and roll interview program, died Saturday.

He was 68 according to City News Service.

Coburn had worked at rock KLOS 95.5 FM for decades, and most recently held the 9:30 a.m. to noon slot. But he had also worked at L.A. rock stations KPPC, KLSX, KCBS-FM, KZLA and the legendary 1970s rock giant, KMET.

The nationally-broadcast interview and music show, "Rockline," was fed from L.A. to stations in nearly every market in the nation in the '70s. Coburn took the reins at "Rockline" from its founder, B. Mitchell Reed, and hosted the show from 1981 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 2014, when it ended.

George Harrison, Keith Richards, Robert Plant and Paul McCartney were all hosted by Coburn, as well as the groups Black Sabbath, Rush, Def Leppard and others in the pantheon of rock fame.

"Van Halen in Atlanta in 1984 was outright insanity: strippers, Schlitz Malt Liquor, Jack Daniels and a few 'other' things," Coburn recalled in an interview with All Access in 2015.

The midmorning slot at "The Rock Of Southern California" KLOS had been Coburn's gig for the new millenium, where he was playing new rock and the 30- or 40-year-old standards from the rock and roll FM era.

Coburn was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and died Saturday, the station announced. No public services have been announced.

December 19 Radio History

In 1932...The British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting "Empire Service" to Australia and New Zealand, the BBC's first overseas service.


In 1944...ABC took over ownership of WJZ 770 AM




In 1956...Elvis Presley had 10 singles on the Billboard chart, a record high number for an individual act, which stood until 1964 when the Beatles had 14 simultaneous chart hits.


In 1958...the first radio broadcast from space occured when President Dwight D. Eisenhower said "To all mankind, America's wish for Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men Everywhere".

Les Tremayne

In 1985...ABC Sports announced that it was parting company with Howard Cosell and released him from all TV commitments. He continued on ABC Radio for another five years.


In 2003...radio & TV actor Les Tremayne died of heart failure at age 90. He was a leading man during Radio’s Golden Era on shows such as The Thin Man, The Falcon, Betty and Bob and The Romance of Helen Trent.  It is estimated that Les worked on more than 30,000 broadcasts, with as many as 45 radio shows a week in the 30s and 40s. Later he played scores of character roles over the first 45 years of commercial TV.


In 2004...a single-engine Cessna 182 crashed into the KFI 640 AM radio tower knocking the station off-the-air for an hour and killing the two people in the plane.

On December 19, 2004 at 9:45 am Pacific Standard Time, Jim and Mary Ghosoph were killed when their rented Cessna 182P single engine airplane, travelling from the El Monte Airport to Fullerton Municipal Airport, struck KFI's transmission tower, located in the City of La Mirada.

The solid steel truss, originally built in 1948, collapsed upon itself, mostly landing in a parking lot to the north of the site (KFI was relatively late to convert from a horizontal to a vertical antenna—same-market Class A KNX converted to a vertical in 1938, and same-state Class As KGO and KPO (now KNBR) converted to verticals in 1941 and 1949, respectively). KFI's signal was knocked off the air for approximately one hour.

Pilots had complained for years to KFI management that it needed to put strobe lights on the tower and highly reflective balls on the guy wire. KFI and Clear Channel Communications management responded by saying the tower was in compliance with Federal Communications Commission and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and that it did not need to make any changes. Until a replacement was successfully erected, the station transmitted from a 200-foot auxiliary tower at a power of 25,000 watts.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm Pacific Standard Time the replacement tower collapsed while under construction.  The tower was about 300 feet tall (the final height was to be 684 feet) when a guy wire support failed, causing the tower to tip over the opposite direction. There were no major injuries, and only limited collateral damage.

A new tower began construction at the end of July 2008 and was completed on August 14, 2008. The station returned to full power (50,000 watts) on September 25, 2008 at 17:00 PT.

The new tower has a 50-foot-wide (15 m) top-loading "capacitance hat", which electrically extends the tower's height another seventy-five feet, effectively, without actually needing more tower sections (the local regulation authorities in apparent defiance of electrical engineering principles, and communications law, demanded "a 10 percent reduction in overall height", otherwise the necessary permits would be refused, not withstanding the federal government's primary authority over radio communications, and KFI's strategic role as an Emergency Alert System station for the western U.S. region).

The new tower is also equipped with high intensity strobe lights due to its proximity to the Fullerton Municipal Airport, and additional safety upgrades because of the previous plane crash. The new tower has torque arms which limit the twisting of the tower in high winds. The tower has been dedicated to the memory of John Paoli, KFI Chief Engineer from 2000 to 2008, who died suddenly from a previously unknown genetic heart condition soon after overseeing the construction of the new tower.