So, you thought Cigarette advertising was banned on the radio? Not on KSBK. Since the station was owned by RBC/Radio, and Television, The "Big 8's was free to advertise Cigarette ads from the U.S. If you listened from 1968-1973, you heard all the top brands:Camel,(Walk A Mile for a Camel)Marlboro,(The famous Marlbaro Man)Kent.(What A Good Time For a Kent)Yes,Yes, Yes, such a unique outlet.
And....This is neat! KSBK was a big influence on Far East Radio. When Performers, and Groups(The Recording Artists)would appear on Okinawa,(Thru the USO, or sponsored Appearances at Officers Clubs ect.)they would eventualy meet-up with someone from KSBK's announcing staff. The Recording Group OCEAN,(The Group that recorded "Put Your Hand In the Hand")LOU RAWLS,THE VENTURES,JOHNNY OTIS,were either introduced during thier Appearances at the Officers Clubs,USO Shows,or hung-around with the Disc Jockey's from KSBK during their stay on the Island.These Recording Artists
knew that they would get Air-Play from the station.
From Jeff, comes this question:"Since you were directing your programing to the Military, who were stationed on Okinawa(And the Dependents)Were you officially endorsed by them"? NO!......Since we were a commercial operation, the Army,Air Force,Navy,Marines---officailly did not endorse us. But.....If you entered just about all of the Barracks---it was probably KSBK/JORO,that you heard coming out of the radios/stereos. I know, in the Barracks dayroom of B Company Supply, in Machinato---the dial was stuck @880 AM.
This brings me to this story........One of the Dj's on The Big 8's wanted to have the Commanding Officer of the Machinato Suppy Depot as a "Guest" DJ. After a couple of calls to the General's office---a call came back saying that the General thought that appearing on KSBK would not be appropriate for his field members to think that a General would de-mean himself by going on a Radio Station, to play Records.
I, of course thought differently-----This guy probably would have been a rallying piont for his men. That would have been a milestone for the Military on Okinawa, And it certainly would have been a Ratings-Buster for the station! Imagine the ID for this guy: "Playing The Hits.....Your Listening To General *******"! What a fun Aircheck that could have been!
Please Note:
I have had some inquiries regarding getting a hold of some Air-Checks from the Station. Those of us, that worked on-the-air probably air-checked our shows many times.There are NO Airchecks commercially available for sale. Individual DJ's may have some of their work on tape----but as far as I know, they are probably in an old 3M Tape box in a Closet somewhere. It was never a thought that someday we would even be talking about The Big 8's, on this level.
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Great stuff! I listened to JORO when I was teen on Okinawa in 1973, and mourned its passing on October 31, 1973. I was a work-study at AFRT/FEN-Okinawa from 1974-1976 and returned in 1982 as an active duty Navy broadcaster to serve with FEN-Okinawa as an announcer.
ReplyDeleteI have JPG scans of articles from the Okinawa Morning Star and Stars & Stripes (written by my late friend and mentor, Jim Lea) about the end of KSBK/JORO. If you'd like to post them, I'd be more than happy to share them with you.
Jon Yim, San Diego
kpbsjon@san.rr.com
Just read the story about that General. That would have been very interesting to hear. It's too bad sometimes all the top brass is so "Stuff-Shirt" about things like that. But, that is why on Okinawa we listened to KSBK/JORO.
ReplyDeleteJust found the Blog. Great Job. Was at Futema Base from 72/74. Always enjoyed the Station. You brought us a little taste of home.I'm from Chicago, and this station was just as good as the Chicago stations.
ReplyDeleteI was stationed @Tori Station. If I remember right---when a song was played on AFRTS, and the same song was played on KSBK/JORO, the song on KSBK seemed to be longer sometimes.What with that? Did KSBK/JORO have different Recordings, than the ones that were released?
ReplyDeleteThanks for contacting the blog, Kerry. KSBK/JORO,was in a very unique situation. One of which I've never had since, in any other station I worked. Back in those days "Official" releases from Record Company's were released three ways:Mono,Stereo, and sometimes extra length cuts from an LP, that the Performer would record. 99% KSBK/JORO would play the extended version of the tune. Thus, you would hear an additional few mins of the song. An example of this is the famous In-A-Gadda-Di-Vida, by The Iron Butterfly.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of tunes were recorded like that.
We always played the LP versions, if there were one available. Again...That was the freedom we had at the station.
Are there any clips of audio of Bubblehead Ed or the other DJ's from back in the late 60's....like year 67 or 68?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Greetings Dave,
DeleteThere are some Airchecks of Bubblehead Ed.You can find his address here on the Blog. Contact him.....he might have some available to you.