(August 9, 2010) On the occasion of TALKERS Magazine’s 20^th anniversary, the editorial staff put together “The Heaviest Hundred” list calling them the 100 most important radio talk show hosts of all time. Rush Limbaugh was voted #1 (“The most important innovator in modern news/talk”) followed by Howard Stern (“The standard by which younger-demo talk is judged.

 Blogs and radio Web sites debated the positioning of Rush over Howard. KABC’s Don Imus said he could make a case for either one of them being at the top.

Other LARPs who appeared on the list:

3. Larry King (“The ‘king’ of syndicated talk during the format’s infancy.”)
4. Sean Hannity (“The modern-era titan of conservative news/talk.”)
5. Don Imus (“Remains relevant after four decades as talk icon.”)
6. Arthur Godfrey (“Pioneer of unscripted talk radio and live endorsements.”)
7. Dr. Laura Schlessinger (“The champion of moralism in the current talk radio era.”)
8. Sally Jessy Raphael (“An early leader in friendly, female chat. Syndicated.”)
10. Bruce Williams (“Trailblazer in syndicated, business and life how-to-talk.”)
11. Bob Grant (“Infamous watchdog of public figures. 40+ years in NYC.”)
14. Tom Joyner (“Historic leader in urban talk. Two-market ‘fly-jock’ in 80s.”)
15. Neal Boortz (“Dominant populist talk host in Southeast. Also in syndication.”)
16. Michael Jackson (“Decades as dean of erudite talk in Southern California.”)
17. Art Bell (“Achieved dizzying success with oddball topics in late nights.”)
19. Michael Savage (“Molded modern talk format to fit his idiosyncratic persona.”)
22. Glenn Beck (“High energy political talk host changing the face of news/talk.”)
24. Joe Pyne (“Early adopter of the ‘angry conservative’ mantle.”)
26. Dave Ramsey (“Instrumental in bringing personal finance talk to weekdays.”)
27. Laura Ingraham (“Important female satirist and political observer.”)
29. Dr. Joy Brown (“Champion of radio psychologist talk in modern era. Syndicated.”)
30. Bill Handel (“Dual disciplined host: AM drive in L.A., syndicated law show.”)
31. Jim Bohannon (“Decades-long master of late-night issues talk.”
32. Tom Leykis (“Long career in rough-edged issues talk and hot talk.”)
33. Bob Collins (“Master of the avuncular AM drive ringmaster talk style.”)
34. Ronn Owens (“Leader in smart, non-partisan issues talk for decades.”)
36. Mark Levin (Molding arch-conservative talk into new 21^st century model.”)

#37 George Noory

37. George Noory (“Maintaining momentum of paranormal talk radio genre.”)
38. G. Gordon Liddy (“Early leader in new breed of Washington insider talk hosts.”)
40. Alan Colmes (“Modern-era developer of syndicated and liberal talk.”)
41. Ed Schultz (“A current-era creator of successful progressive talk.”)
42. Thom Hartmann (“Built intellectual approach to liberal talk of commercial radio.”)
43. Doug Stephan (“Crafted national AM drive talk show for multiple formats.”)
44. Stephanie Miller (“Uniquely blends comedy and issues talk in progressive radio.”)
45. Randi Rhodes (“Successful progressive talk host even before recent wave.”)
46. Dr. Ruth Westheimer (“Radio sex-talk show spawned international career.”)
47. Clark Howard (“Consumer issues talk star with daily, syndicated show.”)
48. Steve Dahl (“Early practitioner of hot talk. Worked in multiple formats.”)
50. John & Ken (“Independent duo rocking the boat in L.A.”)
51. Bob Edwards (“Huge presence on public radio. Superb interviewer.”)
52. Al Franken (“Lightning rod who made political talk radio front page news for years.”)

#53 Mike Gallagher

80. Phil Hendrie (“Creative and offbeat player with striking originality.”)
84. Don McNeill (“Early leader in network morning chat.”
85. Tom Snyder (“Huge in tv talk but significant in radio as well.”)

#86 Ray Briem

Stella and Brian in courthouse ceremony

She made an appointment to have the stent removed and everything went fine. “Three hours later I was at home and all of a sudden I knew exactly what I was feeling. My kidney was failing again. I went back to the hospital and they put in another stent and I was immediately feeling much better,” said Stella.

Her doctors at St. Joseph’s conferred with colleagues at UCLA. They determined that Stella needed reconstructive surgery on her ureter. “On December 21 I went to the Ronald Reagan hospital at UCLA and it was awesome. They reconstructed my ureter. It was an unbelievable surgery and I was back to work on February 1.”

This story needs a happy ending and Stella comes through. “Brian and I were planning for our wedding on February 6. We got our wedding invitations, I found a dress and we were excited to have a small family wedding with a few friends. With the reconstruction of the ureter, the doctors said I would be out and not feeling well and not to go back to work until around February 7. We looked at each other knowing we planned a February 6 wedding. This conversation was happening December 9 so Brian and I went to the courthouse the next day and got married. It was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. I literally married my best friend. It’s been awesome.”

While Stella recuperated she was so thankful for the help of Andrew Jeffries (MY/fm pd), consultant Jim Ryan, and Monica Medina.

Brian has moved to Southern California and he found a job with a marketing company in Pasadena. Stella now has Brian’s two daughters in her life – Mikayla, 12, and Ashley, 14. “They live with their mother in Dallas. The daughters and I get along great. They arrived last Friday and will be with us for 42 days this summer. The thing Brian and I focused on was not putting the girls into our lives right away. We both had to decide where we were going to live. I didn’t come around so much in the beginning. I try to be more of a friend to them than another mom in their lives. They are really good girls. We laugh a lot. It has been a great transition for all of us.”

With Stella’s health back and embarking on a new life with Brian, they took their delayed honeymoon in Tahiti and stayed in Bora Bora. “I can’t imagine ever taking another trip. It is the prettiest place in the world.”

“I really feel good in my skin. I feel good about myself,” said Stella.

Stella still has her wedding dress in the closet and she and Brian are contemplating a renewal of their vows in December. “Then we’ll actually have wedding pictures.”

You can reach Stella at: StellaPrado@clearchannel.com

Michael Linder

Michael is a terrific newsman and you can reach him at: mike@linder.com.

Also swept up in the dismissals yesterday: Lindsay Mendoza, programming assistant; sales assistants Aki Tsuruoka and Hilda Banuelos.

An earlier report that Leslie Taylor, KLOS traffic and continuity, was part of the layoffs was not true. "Leslie is still a valued employee working at KLOS," emailed Bob Moore on Monday morning.

News of the KABC terminations were pieced together from several sources.

Bob Moore

Ballots were submitted by Los Angeles Radio People, truly reflecting peer admiration. Bob Moore may be one of the best sales executives in the history of L.A. radio. He has taken his stations into the country’s Top 10 best billers three times during his career.

Born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1946, the vp/gm of KLSX graduated from Wisconsin State University with a major in marketing and business administration. Bob started his radio career in sales in 1968 for WISM, then WLVE-Madison. Bob started in Southland radio sales in the 1970s at KEZY in Orange Country, followed by sales jobs at KKDJ and KFWB.

Bob had three careers at KLSX. First, it was pre-Howard Stern with Real Radio, then the incredibly successful years with Howard holding down morning drive as well as being the hood ornament for FM Talk Radio, and post-Howard Stern with Adam Carolla.

In 1991 Bob was executive vp of Westwood One. Then in 1994, he was made vp/gm of KIKK/KILT-Houston. In the summer of 1995 Bob returned to KLSX where he stayed until February 2009.

Some of the comments from those who voted for Bob:

• “KABC and KLOS are his latest success story.”
• “A steady hand that knows what to do and how to do it. He is the best turnaround executive working in LA today.”
• “The guy knows how to run a station, treat employees great and just win, baby.”
• “Knows his end of the business and a genuine nice guy, too.”
• “Very easy to work with and he’s very accessible at any time and knows the radio business.”

(August 5, 2010) For radio people getting started during the halcyon days of Top 40, a mention in Claude Hall’s Vox Jox column in Billboard was nirvana. Claude was the radio editor and he seemed to have the pulse of radio people. Remember this was long before the Internet and we depended on the weekly Billboard for the radio news of the day.

Claude went on to be a professor after he left Billboard and he has continued to write. He founded his own website where he has on-going travels and journeys of radio people, along with heroes and villains. His latest writing is a 251-page e-book titled, I Love Radio. The book is a tribute to the exciting time period between 1955 and 1970. Radio was fueled by a new force – rock ‘n roll music and the culture the teens were begging for and maybe some rebellion thrown in for good measure.

Gordon McLendon

Such observations set the stage for Hall’s book. He quotes from a speech titled, “Independent, Alive and Healthy, delivered by Todd Storz at the University of Georgia: “We do not believe that our mission in this world is to educate people because radio is a purely voluntary listening habit – that is, the listener is free to turn the dial or turn the set off. Programming cannot be based on compulsive listening. We feel that a station’s public service value is closely parallel to the station’s rating. For that reason, our programming is all directed to mass listening. We omit virtually all types of minority programming even though, in some cases, the minority may be large.

Hall calls Storz and McLendon “The Gods of Radio!” There are plenty of other names and stories during the period Hall writes about. He is a big fan of Chuck Blore and Ron Jacobs. You’ll read about Mikel Hunter, George Wilson, B. Mitchel Reed, Bill Drake, L David Moorhead, Ted Atkins, Sam Riddle, China Smith, Jim Tabor, Jimmy Rabbitt, Jimi Foxx, Bill Ward, Frank Jolley, Joey Reynolds, Lee Baby Simms, Elliot Field, Bill Ballance, Hal Smith, Al Jarvis, Ted Quillin, Chuck Southcott, Joe Yocam, Bruce Hayes, Red Blanchard, Mike McVay, Gary Owens, Don Imus and more pages of LARP names.

Lee Baby Simms - KRLA 1972

Phil Spector, the legendary producer of the “wall of sound,” gets a mention from Claude. “Raechel Donahue, already the widow of Tom, mentioned to me once that when she attended a party at the home of Phil Spector, ‘he was always waving a gun.’”

One of the programming geniuses of that era, Bill Stewart said that Storz was like McLendon in putting programming ahead of sales at his radio stations. “And Todd liked to experiment. Without action, a station soon decays. Doing anything at all is really difficult. It’s an old saying, and very true, that a few people make things happen, many watch them happen and the majority has no idea what has happened. With enough action the time will come when listeners will be afraid not to listen to your station because they might miss something.”

Here’s the link to purchase the book: http://www.firststrategy.com/iloveradio.htm