Ed Mann Biography
Ed Mann and his boys today
“In the mid 80's to the spring
of '82, I was the weekender at KFXM, from 6pm to midnight I did fill-in and was
the 'Out on the Street' promo man, the 'KFXM Millionaire.'
“Prior to KFXM, I worked at KWRM in Corona.
After KFXM, I worked at KUTE-102/LA, KIIS-FM/LA, KEZY/Anaheim, KIK-FM/Anaheim
and was the co-Founder of Premier Radio Network, now a part of Clear Channel.
“I was born in Long Island,
NY. Later, my family moved to Saratogain Northern California.
I have 2 boys, 7 and 4.
“I am currently the president
of MannGroup Radio, a national syndication company.
“I graduated from UCLA in 1979...my Hobbies are reading, travel and exercising.
“My favorite song's of all time are Hello,
It's Me, by Todd Rundgren and So very
Hard to Go by Tower of Power. I also enjoy music by Chicagoand, of course, the Beatles."
“Most radio stations do promotions. At KFXM, our sales crew left the almost famous air staff to think up a promotion that might generate some excitement. We loved doing stuff for the listeners, and I believe it was Rich Watson, our chain-smoking, expletive-shouting PD who thought of an idea that would send a jock out on the town by car with a tape recorder to speak with everyday listeners and ask them, ‘What station plays more-better music?’ If they answered the grammatically impaired question by replying, “KFXM plays more-better music,” they would receive fifty dollars. The dope that drove around with these mounds of cash was deemed the ‘KFXM Millionaire,’ and that dope was me.
“First of all, what millionaire gives money away in fifty-dollar segments? If I was the listener and somebody calling himself the KFXM Millionaire came to me, I’d want some serious cash. ‘Fifty dollars? Are you joking? All for listening to the station that speeds up my favorite songs beyond recognition? Up yours!’
“Twice a week I’d cram my 200 pound body into a beat up little Datsun B-210—there’s a dead giveaway—haul my sorry butt to the Inland Center Mall and inform unsuspecting strangers that I was really a millionaire. I’m lucky I wasn’t mugged and killed. But the listeners were so sweet and unsuspecting, they were thrilled to meet me and get the money. And back in the early 80s, fifty dollars was a good hit of money for saying nothing more than our syntax garbled slug line. I was seriously tempted to ask myself the questions and give myself the money.
“After I had taped about a dozen segments and gave away about six hundred dollars, I trudged back to the station and edited the pieces together to form a promo and made it sound like thousands of excited fans getting unheard of money. ‘Here’s fifty for you, and you, and YOU!’ ‘WOW, thanks KFXM Millionaire. You’re the greatest millionaire ever! WOOOO HOOOO!!!’ We’d play it on the air about once per hour. Our fans met the millionaire, got money, got on the air, all because of me!
“Meanwhile I’m driving 150 miles round trip to and from West LA, twice a week to perform these shenanigans, and I received $4.40 per hour, no benefits. My parents thought I was a lunatic. I had a degree in economics from one of the top 10 universities in the country and I was driving to a mall 75 miles from my apartment giving away fifty-dollar bills. But still, I stayed in LA and kept my dream alive of getting to KIIS-FM, the dream that got me in the business in the first place, and I'll be damned if it didn't come true.”