The Beatles, with "Lady Madonna," hold down the top spot again this week on the KYA Official 12-60 Survey, which shows a little bit of everything from everyone — from the Irish Rovers (#7) to Cream (#24) to Dean Martin (#45) to Blue Cheer (#28). San Francisco's own Jefferson Airplane have stalled out at #44 with "Greasy Heart," while "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas" by Guy Marks makes its debut at #53. The talented air team at Avco Broadcasting of California's KYA during the Spring of 1968 includes "Big Fat" Chris Edwards (6-10 a.m.), Gary Schaffer (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), Johnny Holliday (2-6 p.m.), Tom Campbell (6-10 p.m.), Tommy Saunders (10 p.m.-2 a.m.) and Russ Syracuse (2-6 a.m.). Bill Holley — not listed on this survey — was the station's go-to guy, covering weekends, vacations and other fill-in shifts. Syracuse (pictured on the survey, above) was known to one and all as "Russ The Moose," captain on the all-night flight of "Super Freak 1260." A native of Rochester, N.Y., he came to KYA in the Summer of 1962 after three years at WKBW/Buffalo, an exodus that also brought current teammate Saunders, former (and future) KYA morning man Gene Nelson, and longtime newsman Larry Brownell from upstate New York to the City By The Bay. The Moose worked at KYA on four different occasions, at KSFO three times, KFRC twice, and at KNBR during his career in San Francisco. He died on April 18, 2000. RELATED EXHIBITS:
SOURCE: Bay Area Radio Museum Collection. We gratefully acknowledge Ben Fong-Torres for biographical information included in this presentation. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
