THE ORIGINAL BOB SHANNON OF TOP 40 RADIO

It all began in 1964 when I got my first weekend air shift at the very mellow KXIV radio in Phoenix. The music list consisted primarily of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. But I wanted to play ROCK 'N' ROLL!!  

But all was not lost. Fortunately, I was also working as a sales representative at the number one Top Forty station in town, KRIZ, and had access to all the latest heavy hits. Since as I said, my first love was rock 'n' roll and not the mellow stuff, I decided to take full advantage of the KXIV on-air studio and practice my Top Forty deejay skills. So, each Sunday night at 10 pm after I signed the station off the air and shut down the transmitter I would hang around in the on-air studio, where I began practicing my rock 'n' roll jock rap with my stack of  KRIZ records. My pretend format even included the very loud and screaming KRIZ jingle package. 

Shortly after my shifted ended at 10  pm on KXIV,  I took the transmitter readings and began my first Top Forty practice run. It was a wonderful mixture of rock 'n' roll, fake commercials and the latest KRIZ jingles: Fun Lovin' K-R-I-Z...channel 1-2-3.

If  I made a mistake, I would simply lift the needle off the record and start over again, sometimes adding a few choice cuss words out loud like, "You stupid  &*^%$## idiot, don't ever talk over the vocal" or "That was a *&%^$$# horrible set, DON’T TALK OVER THE &^#^%^% VOCALS!!" Well, after several hours and a dozen takes later I ended up doing what I thought was some of the best Top Forty radio I'd NEVER done. But wait a minute. The request line was lighting up. Why would anyone be calling at this hour?. We’ve been off the air for nearly two hours! “Good evening, KXIV?”.  “Hi, I wanted to know if you can play 'Little Deuce Coupe' by the Beach Boys?” "The Beach Boys???",  I remember thinking, “What a moron. He must be drunk or something. KXIV doesn’t play the Beach Boys”. Then another call, “Hey can ya play the Stones?…by the way, the music is great, but you might think about cutting down on a little on the bad language”  You guessed it. I had forgotten to turn the transmitter off before my practice session started. I had managed to morph KXIV into KRIZ.  Now Phoenix had TWO great rock stations by the same name and it was all done without getting FCC approval   And so it was that on a beautiful summer Sunday night in August 1964 that the Top Forty radio career of Bob Shannon was born.

From KXIV/KRIZ it was on to KUTY in Palmdale, California where I lasted just three months. You see folks, I not only succeeded in landing my first full disc jockey shift, but landed my first job as a program director as well. Okay, so I embellished a little on my resume. Actually, it was amazing that it took them three months to catch on. It would’ve taken anybody else three minutes. Then it was on to KDWB Minneapolis/St.Paul and then back to Phoenix and KRUX. Then to WKBW Buffalo, KXOK St. Louis, KJR Seattle, WIXY Cleveland, KDKA Pittsburgh and then back to KDWB in the twin cities. Okay, enough already!!!! I had seen enough of the fruited plains to last a life time and I was now ready to settle down in one place. So in 1975, I picked up my family (literally, we didn’t have a car) and it was off to sunny southern California. It was in the land of palm trees and nuts (mostly nuts) that the radio career of Bob Shannon hit its zenith when I joined the staff of KFI, and later the legendary KHJ for afternoon drive.

In the early eighties I departed the radio biz to pursue a film/TV acting career. But this didn’t go much better than my radio career. You see, this time when I made a major mistake the audience would be able to see my face.  Anyway, after several years of appearing in a few dozen TV shows and several feature films (including Rocky IV) I started producing and directing documentaries. Eventually though, I would find my way back to radio at oldies KRTH, Los Angeles.

It was about this time that word reached me that I was also doing afternoon drive at WCBS-FM. I was??.  How is that possible??  I’m here in L.A. and CBS-FM is in New York. And I know this isn’t the East Coast, 'cause the ocean’s on the wrong side. I remember thinking to myself, “Okay, so now you’re doing afternoon drive at CBS-FM. and you don’t even know it . It just means that you’re probably getting older and like many other elderly people forget things.” Just to make sure, I went to the WCBSFM.COM website to see for myself, and sure enough there I was. It was all true. I was on the air at one of America’s great radio stations and in the number one market in the country.  Then again maybe I’m only dreaming. So I decided I’d better pinch myself just to make sure. And when the Bob Shannon in New York didn’t say “ouch” I immediately knew something was terribly wrong.  Another pinch and still no “ouch”.  In fact, I spent the next three hours pinching myself, and by the time the New York Bob Shannon got off the air I was totally black and blue.  So I guess I’m not him and he’s not me. But as it turned out, the WCBS-FM Bob Shannon was an old friend of mine and it makes me proud that one of us made it all the way to the very top.  New York City is lucky to have him!

The New York Bob Shannon's note: Thanks, Bob, that's a great compliment, coming from a guy as talented as yourself! I am honored to share your name, although my actual namesake was yet another Bob Shannon, who works for the TM Century radio production company! By the way, none of us is the first Bob Shannon in the radio biz. That honor goes to Bob "Shamrock" Shannon. He was a longtime radio and TV announcer who worked for the CBS network in the late 1940s. His voice was heard on such shows as Lionel Barrymore's Mayor of the Town and The Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore Show. From 1949-54, Bob had a radio quiz show, The Man Says Yes, which he attempted to revive on KCSN, Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s. "Shamrock" died August 15, 2000 at the age of 79.

Bob Shannon on KFI Los Angeles 1977 (RealAudio)
Bob Shannon on KDKA Pittsburgh 1973 (RealAudio)