Without a question it was the guy I worked for in Miami at WMYQ.
He ran the station on fear which is always a potion for disaster.
He was blown out and Gary Allyn was brought in from sister station KCBQ in san Diego....Gary was a great PD that put a team together in perfect harmony. The first PD who's name escapes me right now would hold jock meetings and split the crew on two sides of the room & scream "YOU ON THE LEFT....YOUR NEXT TO GO"....The hot line would ring & ring & ring.....He never liked anything. The best was when he had to pull a shift on a Sunday and all the guys had friends calling the hotline screaming in his ear that the break SUCKED. A real schmuck.
First words to me when I had the first meeting was "You will do it my way or no way"

Truly confidence-inspiring...

There was another PD-consultant that took over KOOL-FM down here a few years ago and tried to fix what wasn't broken. Started hotlining the very professional air talent with the same type of yelling. A couple of parttimers walked. Not a happy place. After he left about a year later, one of those parttimers was convinced to come back.

That kind of radio doesn't work...especially today.

Gotta be Rick Hansen at Tacoma's KTAC-AM back in the early 80's

I use to do fill-in weekends - he really hired some bumbling bozos during his tenure there:
J.J. Reagan, Gary Franklin, Paul Miller, Ron Harris

Hansen even pulled Robert E Lee Hardwick from KVI to do a 'permanent show',
however, it wasn't 'quite' so permanent!

I worked for a group PD in Washington state who had been an undertaker, funeral director, whatever, before he was a PD. No personality or kindness in him at all.

When I worked in San Diego at KSON the PD harrassed the evening jock constantly. He was on the hotline with this guy every night critiquing his show while he did it. The guy, who was a descent jock, was finally fired after pot was "discovered" in his locker. He said it was "planted." I believed him.

Interesting that a group would hire a funeral director as a PD, rather than a person with actual radio experience...... Wonder if I can walk in to a funeral home an get a job as an FD with my radio experience?

Rick Hansen..... memories...

John Schnase at KHSN is the runaway winner. Very antagonistic, very nasty and abusive and the major reason why 14 or 15 air staff traveled in and out the door in ten months.

So you would think with that much turnover, higher powers would recognize him as the problem....

I had a PD that first of all didnt particularly like me from the get go as he came in after I was hired, but didnt like me for other reasons than professional as far as I could tell. Used to come in on my air shift and ask me: " how long have you been in radio?" as in you were hired by our now GM and we did it based on a bland air check , I did it like a news or promo thing as I didnt want to sound like a jock at the station where I made the aircheck, cause I was an engineer at that station in Spokane and all of a sudden I didnt sound bland anymore when THEY put me on the air as a DJ at this new one...because I wasnt an engineer anymore you DOOFUSES ! Now I am in Programming now DOOFUSES !

So he kept bugging me about basically how I was TOO experienced to be doing weekends on their station...and WHY was I there? And always while I was on the air. Over and over again.."how many years in radio do you have" in a real aggressive tone always, Jerk!

That station had a policy about signing the Program log..you didnt just sign the face page you did that to conform to FCC rules but there you had to sign each page every hour, not initials SIGN. So he came to me a couple of times bitching about how I didnt sign each page..So once he comes in while Im on the air and tells me that he is taking me off the air the next day because you didnt sign all the program log pages, eventhough I signed the facing page which has all the shifts on it and is specifically for that purpose to sign the shifts in and out...God...

It was all intended to get me to quit, which I didnt and they never did fire me, I was in love with CHR at the time and they were the only game in that town at the time. I got another gig from a former afternoon jock at another station and just took it. This was in Medford, Ore and so I will leave it all just at that for now and not identify anybody.

without a doubt it would be the PD Golden West hired to put KVI-FM on the air in Seattle in September of 1976. This guy was unbelievable. Hired me for mid-days the week before the station went on the air. By the time I got there two weeks later he had decided to put the guy he hired for overnight on midday and throw me to overnights. He would tell the staff that he had to sit in his car for 20 minutes before he came into the station in the morning and pray for the strength to work in a heathen environment and deal with obscene rock and roll music every day. He fired me ten months after he hired me (the jerk came to my house to do it!) It all worked out. The PD and his GM both got fired by Gene Autry and I ended up working for ten years for Derek Shannon, one of the best programmers ever.

He would tell the staff that he had to sit in his car for 20 minutes before he came into the station in the morning and pray for the strength to work in a heathen environment and deal with obscene rock and roll music every day.
________________________________________________
No problem....I used to bring my hot new hits to him between the pages of a Bible. He thought that was pretty funny...and he added most of them.

Stan,

Thats quite a way to 'win friends and influence people"...I will have to say !

Stan...I didn't say a name, but you obviously know who I'm talking about. Am I right? He was a complete whack job!

Todd Bitts was the GM who hired him...or maybe Todd inherited him when Golden West bought the FM. Our unamed PD was a Christian of the highest order. What the hell was he doing in radio, especially CHR radio? I used to make it a point to bring in all the latest publicity photos, especially the ones of our female artists in skimpy outfits showing lots of T&A. I'll bet the minute I left his office he was taking a second peek at those photos. Praise The Lord!!!! Forgive me for my sins!!!!! I worked some pretty strange PDs in my career but he was truly a different dude.

I heard that Todd Bitts finally got fired as he was sitting in a mink-lined booth at El Gaucho at 7th & Olive in Seattle. Someone told me it was at about 2pm when Todd was having his five martini lunch!

The PD Stan and I have been talking about was also said to have had a very "personal" relationship with a female part-timer. Strange thing was that when he fired me, she was made full-time. She had been living with the PD and his wife, who we were told gave him an ultimatum: "get her out of the house or start looking for a divorce attorney!" Like I said earlier...probably one of the best things that ever happened to me...got me to Chehalis with Derek Shannon and put me in a position to move into news, which I enjoyed a lot more.

Worst PD I ever worked for was.....ME!! Man I sucked at it. Didn't know what I was doing but loved the title. Thank God someone was smart enough to relieve me of command and just let me be a jock.

"She had been living with the PD and his wife, who we were told gave him an ultimatum: "get her out of the house or start looking for a divorce attorney!""

Bill: Todd was probably only trying to "SAVE HER SOUL FROM ROCK & ROLL!"

Now I'm wondering if this could be the dude:

http://www.toddbitts.com/

Now I'm wondering if this could be the dude:
_________________________________________________
In looking at the photo on the site it doesn't look to me like the same guy but I haven't seen him in years....last I heard Todd had purchased the Seattle Business Journal and was running that operation.

>without a doubt it would be the PD Golden West hired to put KVI-FM on the air in Seattle in September of 1976. This guy was unbelievable. Hired me for mid-days the week before the station went on the air.

I note with interest Bill Cooper's mention here of his involvement in the launch of KVI-FM. I was editor of the campus newspaper at Seattle Pacific University at the time, and "the FM KVI at 101-plus" was THE station that our student staff all constantly listened to in our humble office. (In fact, ads for the station ran in our paper).

But one thing about KVI-FM always puzzled me. Why did Golden West feel obligated to have the KVI-FM studios in a COMPLETELY different location from KVI-AM? As I recall, the FM was set up in the University District, correct? And the AM was downtown.

For that matter,I always thought it a bit funny that KVI-FM never in any way even acknowledged the existence of KVI, which was always a popular AM station with well-known personalities. I was expecting some cross-promotion between the two stations, and there was NONE.

Maybe Bill can enlighten on what the thinking was back then...

As one who arrived at 45th and I-5 post-Cooper, I can shed a little light.
The station (whatever it was before KVI-FM) was already there, and it took a while to come up with proper digs (nearly two years before we moved to 600 Stewart, a block away from KVI in the Tower Building.
The lobby of the Sherwood Inn was a hell of a place for a radio station, especially for the night man who had a steady stream of Bourbon and 7's coming his way each shift.
What took the cake, however, was when I was doing the overnight shift from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day of 1977. I walked out to the lobby just as someone was running in telling about a bad accident on I-5, and asking me to call 911. After making the call, I went looking for the night clerk. I eventually found him passed out behind the bar... speed gun in hand. He was gone the next day, I believe.
The PD in question was certainly a whacky guy, but was always good to me.
And as far as praying before coming to work in such a den of sin, he was spot on!

Stan: I can't tell if the Whidbey Island guy is our Todd or not. Its been a long, long time.

------

JohnF: theFMkvi was located off the lobby of the Sherwood Inn Motor Hotel at 45th & I-5 in the University District. Golden West bought the frequency, which had been KETO, a country station, and wanted to get the new format on the air quick, so they just left us there. The only good thing about working the overnight shift was that the night desk clerk would knock on the station door about 2:30am when he was going down to the restaurant and bar to zero out the cash registers. We would cruise through the kitchen and make ourselves sandwiches and grab a beer from the bar. The only other thing I remember about the Sherwood Inn was the lounge singer, Patty Summers, who I think is still singing at a dive somewhere near Pike Place Market.

Another point to make, Robert Hardwick, Jack Morton and the rest of the folk down at the Tower Building at 7th & Olive kinda looked down on us long-haired rock-n-roll types from the FM. Now its one big happy family with KVI, KPLZ (formerly theFMkvi) and KOMO under one roof in the Fisher Plaza near the Seattle Center.

The Seattle record promo people didn't pay any attention to theFMkvi until Todd started calling us and begging for service. We did it as a favor to him because KVI-AM was still reporting AC/MOR to all the trades and we didn't want to piss off Don Hoffman who was playing a lot of our AC tunes. Somewhere along the line KVI-FM became KPLZ and when Casey Keating took over as PD the station became a powerhouse that broke a lot of hits.

To Bill: Looks like the Whidbey Island Todd Bitts is the one and the same from Seattle Radio. I found this info on a Google search:
________________________________________________
"Todd Bitts (Capital Campaign) is a Seattle native and spent 25 years in the commercial broadcasting business in the Seattle area. He went on to purchase a publishing business, which he operated for five years, then did marketing projects for various clients before moving to Whidbey Island in July 1992. In 1993, Todd obtained his real estate license and joined Coldwell Banker/Tara Properties in Langley ."

Wow! Talk about a trip down the proverbial memory lane. I had no idea that there had ever been a radio station in that funky Sherwood Inn. A friend of mine is a jazz singer and I used to go (maybe 12 years ago) often to hear her sing at a bar in that hotel. (the hotel had a Robin Hood Sherwood Forest theme) Patty Summers, btw, had her own jazz lounge in the Market until a couple of years ago. It's now a trendy cabaret called The Can-Can. At the first station I worked for, KLIQ in Portland, we broadcast from the lobby of the Hoyt Hotel. All meals and drinks, before, during and after my show, were free. Nice.

Brad how funny. I remember all those drinks, before, during and after your show at KCYX too. Man was that staff soused.

Ha! I do remember (in addition to Alf's and The Bagel Barn) some great meals at Augustine's back in the KCYX days....

Brad..If you remember the funky Sherwood Forest theme...do you remember the weird artificial tree in the lobby with the hidden speakers with phony forest sounds? Gotta say, it was the strangest environment for a radio station ever. As we all know, you can't make sh!# like this up!

Sure you could.

But it wouldn't be as funny as real life!

I was the afternoon news anchor at - well, let's just say it was an extremely popular top 40 station in Portland with a pretty decent news reputation - the day John Lennon was murdered.

I broke into regular programming when the first bulletins hit the wire. Immediately, the PD entered the newsroom and ordered me to cease with the bulletins and NOT to use the story in any newscasts.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Because we don't want to depress our listeners," said the radio programming genius.

Of course I disregarded him. The entire newscast was devoted to Lennon. Midway through, the PD stormed into the newsroom, glared at me, then slammed the door on his way out.

He never spoke to me again - ever, which was just as well. Lord knows what I would have said had he opened his mouth.

Mike - that's amazing. I was doing AM drive at KYUU in San Francisco at the time of the John Lennon assassination. That night I got a phone call from the PD, Sandy Beach, waking me up to instruct me to "absolutely not make a big deal out of it" the next morning. What a piece of work... but Steve Lloid could tell a far more bizarre story about him.

Now, if only he was the worst PD I ever worked for...

Rick Scott

Tom. You're right, it is weird that PDs in SF and PDX would be similarly ridiculous. The fact that a radio programmer -in any format - would consider Lennon's assassination to not be a "big deal" should have told us something all those years ago.

The fact that we continued to stick with radio as a profession is either a testament to our stupidity or genius. I'd opt for genius, but that would be stupid.

As for Mr. Lloid, I have more than a few stories about HIM, too, having had the great privilege of being his sidekick at 62KGW.

That same ratlike PD gave me the same stink eye after our little Mt. St. Helens adventure in 1980, Beardo.

Hey Stan the Man...it seems Todd Bitts stumbled upon pdxradio. He didn't want to go through the process of registering to post, so he asked me to pass on a note:

"I just found this message board. Very interesting!

Just to clear a couple of things up! I didn’t hire Frank. He was the choice of Don Hoffman at KVI at the time.

I am the guy who fired him!

As for 5 martinis at El Gaucho! Never!

I lost out to Shannon Sweatte during a period of consolidation within the company in all markets in preparation for sale.

Where there were two managers in a market, then there was one! Same thing in Portland and Detroit.

Regarding relations between KVI and KVI-FM?
You have to remember that was at a whole other time in broadcast history. Most of the AM guys couldn’t spell FM. So, I don’t think they would promote us…particularly during the KVI-FM days…many people called us KVI. I know. I’ve been to Beltsville and looked at diaries. Hence the call letter change

Jim Johnson, GM of KVI at the time wouldn’t even supply the FM with a Mariner parking pass, he thought we were so competitive.

Like I say, different time…different people."

--------

I always thought it was Todd who inflicted Frank on us, so I hereby publicly apologize to Todd for all my evil thoughts over the years on that subject. One thing remains however, Frank was a whack job of the first order. The guy should never have been put in charge of programming a radio station!

Mike & Tom: Couldn't resist posting after both of You mentioned "MR. FUN" Steve Lloid! I've had such a great time playing on the radio with him over the years, I know exactly what you mean. I also know if Steve could post back to his KGW Buddies, he would say two words: "YOU PIGS!!"
(inside joke)

Bill:I do remember that bizarre tree at the Sherwood Inn! I wonder what that place is like now. I see it several times a week from I-5 but I haven't been in there for years. I'll have to stop by soon. Also, does anyone remember a similar Sherwood Forest theme in a restaurant in Tigard...almost to King City? (near an Elmer's...)

Brad: It was at a location called "Six Corners" on 99W.

I remember eating there a few times...

Great thread Bill. Haven't thought about the "Monterey Mafia" in years. Eric Norberg, Don Hoffman, Frank Coburn, Scotty Johnson. Before The FM KVI it was KETO an automated country station. Not a dime for promotion. They just put it on the air right where it was.

Hi Bob...It didn't take me long to figure out I had been hoodwinked into taking the job at theFMkvi. Hey, coming from Salem the move to Seattle seemed like a really big deal! Too bad the station was such a joke. Its turned into a nice operation now...but way back when, with the people who were in charge at the time...nuff said.

BTW Bob...remember that interview we did with a certain actress who had a really bad "B" movie premiering in Seattle?? Good times at the old FM kvi!!

Hey, Bob Bennett, Welcome Aboard !

Hey Bill, the first time I ever heard you on the air was overnights at the FM KVI! Actually listened to KVI AM too. I think Robert O. Smith was doing nights at the time.

Ron, You're right, Robert O was on KVI-AM overnight. Several times a month a bunch of the overnight jocks in Seattle would get together for breakfast. We'd either hit Beth's Cafe or 13-Coins. Fun time!

I also got to work with Steve Lloid back in 1969 or so...the manager ruled we all had to wear ties, since the studio was on the second floor with a big window...so....Steve went out and got one about six inches wide...and pink...but he did wear it regularly. I notice he still has his touch for quick thinking while on the air.....

The Sherwood Inn was next to I-5 right at the Carmen Drive exit next to a gas station and and was actually part of a motel. Big yellow sign you could see for miles. I remember they had good happy hour food, and the guy I was carpooling with between McMinnville and Portland liked to stop there for a quick snack and maybe a shot of something on the way home.

Six Corners had Charlie's Place which was known for its adult entertainment...and there was a Sherwood Forest Inn there too...more of a local tavern..

McMinnville still has Alf's, owned and operated by a lady who worked many years for Pat Alf before he retired. The Big Burgers are still the there and very good...

The Bagel Barn moved to Willamina, I think, and is apparently now gone.

Bill.. I actually remember 2 bad "B" actresses.. Marilyn Chambers and Monica Van Deven(sp). The strangest morning ever was when I came to work at 5am.. I was followed in to the studio (a refurbished janitor's closet) by the entire cast of the "Bad News Bears". I think that Derrik somhow conveinced them the we were their target audience.

Bob...I only remember the Marilyn Chambers interview. Bad News Bears??? That could NOT have been fun!

So, I'm dying to know; what's Tatum O'Neil really like?

Bill....The Chambers interview is a little HARD to swallow.

Stoner...the only thing HARDER to swallow was that Frank Coburn actually wanted the interview for part of a public affairs program the station produced. Maybe he thought entertainment and movie news was vital public affairs material!

This PD wasn’t the worst I ever worked for, but this thread inspired me to write.

About an hour out of Los Angeles up the Ventura Freeway in the small market of Thousand Oaks, I worked several months at a day-timer on the AM dial when I was 19 or 20. We played the hits of the day and sprinkled-in local features like “The Pet Report.” This was the late 1970’s and the PD who hired me had a overgrown, swoopy hair doo like Don McLean when American Pie was a hit. He wore oversized tinted glasses so you could never see his eyes and the same faux leather jacket no matter what the weather was with his shirt unbuttoned to mid-chest. A classic 70’s goof-ball who thought he was a real ladies-man. I started doing weekends and moved up to middays when the shift opened up. The swoopy-haired PD did afternoons and called himself the Bronze God of Radio on the air. And he believed it. He was awful, using every crutch known to jocks. “On a good looking Tuesday afternoon with ya.” “Stick around,” “22 and one half minutes on the downside of 3.” You know the kind. I don’t remember a single staff meeting at that station, nor any air-check sessions with the PD. The only feedback I recall was something about, “Hey, don’t skip through the currents to play your favorites, they must rotate evenly.” The 45’s lived in those sturdy dark-green heavy stock sleeves, and sat on edge in a box affixed to the turn-table console.

The small staff was rife with characters.

The station manager conducted all his business at a bar up the road, so if a call came in for him, the receptionist would take a message, then call the bar. The manager would then return the call from the bar. I never had a check bounce, but I think they had some cash flow issues. One day while I’m doing my midday shift playing James Taylor’s Handyman, when all the lights go out, my turntable stops and it’s nothing but dead-air. Turns out the power bill hadn’t been paid in many months. “Someone needs to call the bar,” was my first thought. On another day, when morning news was added to my duties, I was in the newsroom putting together a cast, when I hear the constant clatter of the UPI stop cold. I found the machine shut down. That bill didn’t get paid either. From then on the newscasts were created from articles cut from the LA Times and scotch taped to 8.5 x 11 paper. Luckily I got a job offer in Las Vegas, drained my waterbed, stuffed it in the front trunk of my ’67 VW bug and never looked back.

I've been fortunate to work for good PD's at some great radio stations, but early in my career I ran into a real nightmare of a PD.

I had just turned 19, so my transportation was not of high quality, (put another way, a 12-year old Pontiac Grand Prix). So I get an offer in a small Idaho market, pack up the Pontiac with everything I owned, and wham my timing belt goes out in the Columbia Gorge about 40 miles from the nearest town. After the towing expense I didn't have enough money for the repair. So I call the PD and explain my circumstance and he says "if you're not here by tomorrow at 9 am I'm giving the job to someone else." Well, I knew that was the first sign of trouble, but I pushed on and somehow made it with some parental help.

When I arrived the station was a joke. Basically built in a house, the studio was in one of the bedrooms. The format wasn't Top-40, it was Top-60. There were literally 60 currents on the playlist. Then at 8pm, the whole station suddenly changed from a bad Top40 to a bad AOR, with a segment called "Something Different", with tracks that went deeper than Crater Lake. Nobody in the market really knew what we were. Nevertheless, it certainly helped me learn how to do radio the WRONG way. BTW, the PD was the owners son.

Paul,

That was a Hoot !

Great read...Al....

Okay... my first PD was also the station manger and owner. This was mid-70's in Columbus, Ohio... and the station was a daytimer with a FARM format. WRFD. Yep. We called it "Radio Free Delivery".

We had a 6a - 9a newsblock, w/ heavy emphasis on farming/commodities, etc., then went to easy listening.

Of course nobody listened, which meant it was nearly impossible to sell spots other than for pig dewormers.

So this idiot decides to record off-the-air, spots from competing radio stations (United Air Lines, Wendy's(HQ'd in Columbus), some major banks) and then PLAYS THEM ON OUR STATION in a pathetic attempt to make us SOUND big-time (which, I guess, was supposed to convince potential sponsors that they would be in good company?)

Which was bad enough....

But this idiot held a mid-day air shift. Did I mention that we had an easy listening format?..

This idiot had a wife who really and truly believed she had a good singing voice. And this idiot obviously thought so, too, because he paid to have her cut a half-dozen Doris Day songs at a local studio and then PLAYED HER SONGS AT LEAST ONCE AN HOUR on our stupid, little FARM format station.

Do any of you remember Mrs. Miller?

No, it wasn't Mrs. Miller. This woman was even worse.

And that, my friends, was my introduction to the wonderful world of radio.

When vacationing in Alaska, I heard a station whose regular format appeared to be all late 60s album rock. It was on AM and the year was 1983!

Okay, I was my own worst PD. Hated the job... really. Had a corporate PD plus a consultant "above" me and lots of meetings. When the GM sent us middle management types to a mini seminar on goal setting, they gave us 10 minutes to write out a 5 year goal plan just off the top of our head. The old "where do you see yourself in 5 years" question. When I was done with the assignment, I read it back and everything I loved and wanted to do had nothing to do with being the PD and going to all the endless meetings that I was attending at the time. So I went back to the station and resigned as PD. Looking back, I could have dealt with the position better, but I followed my heart and stayed on the air focusing on that alone. It was the right thing to do. However, I love being APD and dealing with other "office" stuff.

You got caught up in all that work place psycho babble stuff that someone at corporate paid a lot of money to some corporate consultant who knew not a whole lot about the radio "biz" to execute in a specified cluster of endless meetings.

Huh????

2 PD's that drove me nuts...yep..Bwana Johnny and Bill Thompson aka...Bill Dudley. They never or hardy ever followed their own format. Dudley was famous for the line..after chewing me out at KASH...I said to him...."so I suppose you want me to get spontineity approved ahead of time?" His reply was "YES". I really liked working for Bill...often wondered where he ended up. Anyone know?

Worst PD I ever worked for was a guy in the Upper Midwest who was absolutely NUTS about correct pronunciation and grammer; i.e.: "short-LYEvd", "feb-ROO-ary", "pled" not guilty, not "pleaded", etc. He would go so far as to dock our pay, if he heard us make a mistake on the air. The guy who followed me on the air was a friend of mine and a great extemporaneous talker, but couldn't read cold copy worth beans. Before I could go home, I had to go through his news copy for the next couple hours, and mark out all the tricky pronunciation. This worked well, until the evening that the news of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba (the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo) came across the wire. I was driving home when I heard him go into the breaking news intro: "Flash...this just in from the associated press ... the former prime minister of the Congo has been assassinated...(EXTREMELY pregnant pause) ... his name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin!"

Very well played!

....so I suppose you want me to get spontineity approved ahead of time?" His reply was "YES...

I had one of those as well. EVERY ad lib had to be submitted for pre approval, not one reply to anything I ever left on his desk

Bill Thompson (Dudley) closed his record stores (Dudley's and Route 66) and moved to San Diego, I think.