Does anyone recall hearing The Real Don Steele in Portland in the early 60's before his KHJ days? Was curious to know if his rapid fast air style delivery was like that in the early part of his career. In my opinion, truly one of the all time great Top 40 PM drive talents of all time!

Catch some of his KISN work from 1964 at reelradio.com. There's a subscription fee but well worth it for a year's worth of access to hundreds of Top 40 airchecks.

Yeah, I am interested in this as well. Would love to hear a KISN aircheck from the man! Lots of KHJ ones floating around...

Go to the front page of this site and click on "History"(not to be confused with the Portland History board). There, you will find among other things, various airchecks from this area including some from the Real Don Steele.

I heard him...everyday! Looking back from today, he was still cutting his teeth while in Portland, but his style was very close. In a word, I'd say the answer is, "Yes!"

But don't take my word for it...hear him for yourself...It's such a treat!

http://www.therealdonsteele.com/

Curious if anybody on here ever had the chance to meet him? Stories?

Back in 1974 when I was a part time jock in Seattle, I took a trip to LA and couldn't resist
dropping by K100 to maybe meet my idols Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele. Morgan actually spent 30-minutes with me talkin' radio.
He was quite generous. Steele wouldn't or couldn't meet with me, but later when I was using the men's room at KIQQ, some guy came in and used the urinal next to mine...I took a quick glance as I left the room and it was The Real Don Steele takin' a leak! Naturally I didn't
try to talk to him in there, respected his space.

You'll find a couple of REAL DON STEELE audio snippets from KISN as you scroll down the below linked page. Possibly an RDS story, too. I met him at the KISN transmitter at Smith Lake in late November 63.

http://www.rma1.com/

Tom Murphy and I were speaking about this old transmitter site via phone just a couple of days ago. It periodically flooded every few years, and the DJs & Newsmen who had to pull a shift out there had to take a rowboat from the roadway to the Transmitter. Murphy mentioned a colorful story from Steele about the rowboat being full of snakes....imagine....SNAKES ON A BOAT...perhaps that inspired the movie.

Met him in L.A in 71...My buddy & I drove down to Melrose to walk into radio mecca...KHJ...He was coming down the stairs (off his shift)...Took us to Nicodels Bar next door (we were under age of course)...Talked radio for an hour or two...Nicest guy in the world. Set us up that night for VIP treatment at Gizzaris on the strip which was the hottest joint in town at the time. Have a photo of him & I standing in front of KHJ on a 105 degree L.A day.

"Talked radio for an hour or two...Nicest guy in the world"

Jeez! And all I got was a look at Mr. Microphone!

Don't want to get off topic here but I've wondered about this for years.

Robin or Tiger Tom: With 18? hours a day broadcast from the Kisn Burnside studio and 6? hours a day from the transmitter studio, how were current records & spots handled? I can imagine two record libraries.

Were there two spot racks also? Meaning duplicate spots had to be made by the production guy?

Did they use the overnight guy to transport the latest records and spots?

Was there running water and a rest room at Smith Lake?

Here's the Real Don Steele on KRTH (3/95)

http://www.divshare.com/download/225899-934

Craig,
Ask Pat Pattee.
He was the overnight guy that was out there every night.

It sounds like he was a pretty private person. Probably spent most of his time at the station or holed up in his apartment perfecting his craft during his time here...

I listened to the Real Don Steel on KISN almost everyday. Then years later, when I first got into radio, the jocks would all gather at somebody's house and listen to airchecks of Don Steele and the rest of the KHJ jocks. As a result of those sessions, most of us understood what being "tight" was all about. Don Steele and the KHJ crew raised the bar.

Wannabe:

Sounds like radio was fun then. I can just imagine the funny looks I would get if I ever tried to invite someone over to listen to airchecks. Sadly, people just don't care anymore.

Tiger Tom says, "THERE WAS RUNNING WATER!"

Tiger Tom passed on first-person insight into the Studio/Transmitter protocol for Craig, below:

Hello Craig:
You probably know why KISN had to broadcast from the transmitter. Don Burden knew he had to "make"
KISN a Portland station to enable him to sell the station to Advertising Agencies in the major media centers: NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. It was impossible to explain to someone in NYC that KISN-Vancouver was "just across the Columbia River" from Portland. So, Don being clever as he was want to do, claimed the KISN Transmitter was KISN's "Main Studio" and the KISN KORNER in Portland was the "Remote Studio & Sales Offices."

In the summer of 1962, KISN had a major FCC inspection and among the many, and I do mean MANY violations, it was noted by the FCC that if the transmitter site was the "Main Studio" since KISN was not a "Network" station, 51% of the KISN's broadcast schedule had to emanate from its "Main Studio."

AND SO BEGAN THE EVERYONE'S "TRIPS" TO THE TRANSMITTER.

To answer your question about commercials I can only give you a partial answer. When I did my show from the transmitter, I would go to the the Portland studios and pick up the commercial carts I would need for that evening along with my "copy book" and any other "stuff" and then drive to the transmitter. After the show, I would go back downtown and return the commercial carts. I seem to remember a reel to reel tape was dubbed for the spots that would be needed between 6:30 and 7:00, while I was on the way to the transmitter. All the jingles, production pieces and the records were at the transmitter.

After about 6 months of this, I prevailed on Burden...actually I threw a minor tantrum...to return ME to the window at night and send somebody else to the Transmitter. It turned out that one of the mid-day shifts assumed Transmitter Duty. Addie never went to the transmitter but I remember, among others, Dick Sainte did. He was unamused. Besides my not wanting to do the "Transmitter Thing" MY being in the window at night, along with the Afternoon Drive Jock, made more sense since in those days more of "our audience" would be able to see the "jock" during those hours than during the mid-day.

I think it was rare that Pat picked up anything from downtown. He lived in North Portland and it wasn't a long drive for him to Smith Lake.

Early on, when I stopped doing Saturday Night ( tired of 6 nights a week ) and moved into Saturday Afternoon 3PM to 7PM, another result of the aforementioned "tantrum", mine was the only show on Saturday from downtown. Later on I also ended up going to the transmitter on Saturday.

Don Steele did a Sunday Night shift from the transmitter and that is when he encountered the snakes in the boat. By the way it was a motor boat not a row boat. I used to meet Don @ KISN downtown after his Sunday shift and we'd go over to the Fish Grotto for a few "rounds." The night he came back from the now "infamous boat ride" he was really beside himself. When he saw me he yelled something to the effect, "Hey Baby!!!!There were F*****G snakes in the boat." One of many RDS moments I still get a kick out of.

It was really difficult to get to the 51% but between all the news, all weekend programming and some other maneuvers, we did it.
I think, as time went on, Les Parsons just duplicated all the spots for the transmitter but my recollection on that is a bit fuzzy, since I didn't broadcast from the transmitter very much.

I hope this hasn't gone on too long. When I begin to recall stuff that happened I tend to go on a bit. Those were "fun days" and I must say the interest shown by yourself and others into what we were doing and what went on is very gratifying.

At the time we didn't realize the impact that we were having.

Take Care,
"Tiger" Tom

The transmitter location was not a glamorous place. The lights for the KISN Carol tree were stored on the first floor of the building and the main stuff was on the second floor. The same as in the KGW building a mile or so to the east. The first floor of that was basically just a garage. The main broadcasting studios, record library, and transmitter were on the third floor. The Vanport high water mark was about 4 feet up the wall on that third floor.

When I went out and saw Pattee one night at the transmitter, I remember the room light was just one of those simple white porcelain fixtures that was just hanging by the wire from the ceiling. Spider webs and such around. Pat said he liked it out there because it had soul.....

Yes, those days of radio were fun. Never will happen again. Things were simple then. Not all the high tech stuff of today. No computers, no mp3 files..... just records, turntables, consoles, cart machines, tape machines, and a few other miscellaneous stuff. DJ's had personalities then and you listened as much for them as the music.... some more so.

Cousin Brucie did an hour show on the Stern Sirius Satellite a few weeks ago for the top 10 songs from the Stern show and did it just like it was an old radio show of his from way back then. You can find mp3's of it if you look on newsgroups.

And get this, Tiger Tom, the impact is *still* being felt more than 40 years later...Amazing, ain't it?

Love the stories...this fan says, "Thanks for sharing!!"

Jimbo,

Do you recall the old egg cartons hanging above the board and "news table"? High-tech acoustic devices at the transmitter!!!

I know it's been asked here before, but I couldn't find the post:

How did KISN get it's audio from the KISN Corner to the transmitter?

Robin: Thanks for posting Tiger Tom's answer.

Tiger Tom: Great first hand account as usual! You & Robin weave the best radio stories! Was hoping you'd tell a good tale and you did! You guys have nothing to worry about in the boring dept. Thanks!

Love this stuff. Is there a book in the works folks? It shows what impact a station had on it's audience and Portland. My parents hated KISN. My dad wished it would go off the air. They got the biggest kick when I would beg them to drive by the KISN window and wave to whoever. Freaked me out when I didn't see anyone in the window but heard them on air.

I had moved to the Bay Area in late August 64 listened to RDS on KEWB 91 Oakland 3-7. He sounded like he prepped himself even more forKHJ. Ment for my above post to go to the KISN thread. sorry

Even though KISN was licensed to Vancouver, Washington, it will be part of Ron Kramer's history of Oregon Radio. KISN was an OAB member almost from the beginning. Other Vancouver stations will also be covered.

I imagine the project is still quite a way from completion, but...any idea of a timeline or goal when that book is to be published?

Davey sez: "My dad wished it [KISN] would go off the air." "Freaked me out when I didn't see anyone in the window but heard them on air."

You weren't the only one.

BTW, I mentioned this before in another thread, the Vancouver Bus Company's Portland route went by the KISN corner. Man, that was .35 cents well spent back in those days for a kid living in Vancouver.

ps: the "FCC official" KISN corner was in Vancouver a few doors down from the Kiggins theatre on the ground floor of the Rich Building. Never saw any of the KISN goodguys there though.

Mark: Ron has another project he's working on, so he want's to wrap this up. Ron's been working on this book since 2003-04.

Robin,
No, I do not remember egg cartons at the KISN transmitter.... they may have been there but I don't remember that item. I was only there once. I remember the news table, however.

I do remember egg cartons on the walls and ceiling over at KRRC at Reed College. I did a few "shifts" there one summer. I remember crawling through the window to get in because I didn't have a key. It was summer. There was a miniature toggle switch on the console that turned the transmitter on. I was supposed to be playing classical music. I was about 12-13 and knew nothing about the music other than to play it. One morning I brought some 45's in and occasionally interspersed some of them in. I remember playing one by Sal Mineo.... don't remember the name..... when the phone rang and someone from SW Portland called and asked me why I was playing it instead of the symphony or whatever. I don't remember my answer but I got right back to the "classical" selections from their library. But the egg cartons were definitely there for soundproofing. They were common in some other places, also. I just don't remember where. My curiosity had taken me to just about every station in town in the late '50's and early '60's.

Thanks, Craig... Ron's book sounds like it will definitely be worth the wait.

And thanks, too, for your research on Portland R&B on the other thread... That's rich stuff!

I'll always remember the time while visiting L.A. that I watched Steele's Saturday TV show. The guest that day was Filthy McNasty, which I'm guessing is why I remember it. (Filthy owned a local club.)