Charlie Webb Biography
Personal Website Address: |
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Employment Dates(KFXM/KDUO): |
1979-1980 (1 month at KDUO) |
Time Slots while at Station: |
Midnight to 6 a.m. and worked up to middays. |
Stations prior to KFXM/KDUO: |
KCIN/Victorville, CA, KBON/San Bernardino, CA and KDUO |
Stations right after KFXM/KDUO: |
KSLY/San Louis Obispo, CA |
All other Stations after KFXM: |
KZOZ/San Louis Obispo |
Current Employment: |
President/CEO Medical packaging firm. |
Born: |
San Bernardino, California |
Birthday: |
July 1st |
Education: |
University of Relands, Redlands, CA B.A. in Business and Management |
Hobbies: |
Hiking, running, moutain biking, Ham Radio and sailing. |
Favorite song(s) of all time? |
"Precious and Few" by Climax |
Favorite artists of all time? |
Oingo Boingo |
My KFXM Story
Who remembers the TV show Wonderama, hosted by Bob McAllister? This show was kind of a pre-teen American Bandstand. I would sit fixated in front of our TV every Sunday watching kids my age dancing to the teenybopper hit parade. I was so drawn in by the music and the Marcia Bradyesque girls dancing to the Raspberries. At 10 years old my Zenith portable transistor radio was my close companion. I remember climbing the mulberry tree in my backyard singing along to my favorite songs, songs like I’m So Dizzy by Tommy Roe, Indian Lake by the Cowsills and the teenybopper tour de force, Sugar Sugar by the Archie’s.
The 1970’s were all about AM radio and the boss radio DJs with their strong, deep, resonant voices. In San Bernardino, California, the most important station was KFXM Tiger Radio, 59 on your AM dial. At ten years old I remembered thinking how cool it would be to be a KFXM disc jockey. KFXM served the Inland Empire of Southern California with several million listeners. The station was located in the Holiday Inn where they installed a huge plate glass window with an intercom system. If you were lucky you would have the chance for a brief chat with the disc jockey on duty. As a promotional gambit KFXM gave away stuffed tiger tails that were orange and black configured with a clip to hang on your rear view mirror and throughout the Inland Empire the tiger tails were everywhere.
At 18 I still maintained my strong drive to be a DJ and the Holy Grail was KFXM. My first job in radio was at KCIN radio in Victorville, California, a small 500-watt daytime radio station. I did not come in as a disc jockey; I came in as a salesman. At the time, in order to get work you needed to have experience and/or be a graduate from a broadcast school such as the Columbia Broadcast School. The tuition for such a school was out of my reach so I needed a more creative way to get into radio and if it meant being a janitor on my way up I was willing. As it turned out, in just a few months I became one of the leading sales people at this small radio station. One day I approached the radio station owner and asked him if I could have a shot at the part time position that just opened on the air. Every chance I could I would sneak in and watch Dave Murphy, the mid day disc jockey, run all the controls and I quickly learned how to perform all the log entries. The station owner agreed to give me a shot. Like all newbies I would work the weekend shift when listenership was low. In order for me to legally work the board I had to apply for a third class radiotelephone permit with a broadcast endorsement which was a provisional license, granted by the FCC. In a few days I received my provisional license and had my first shot on air. Admittedly, those early days on the air were a bit notchy but eventually I fell into a natural rhythm and my talents on air multiplied quickly.
I would talk to some of the disc jockeys working the station about my goal to work at KFXM. To them this seemed ridiculous as some of them had worked in small market radio for over a decade and had been trying to get into KFXM but to no avail. Eventually I left KCIN and took a position as a news director at KBON radio in San Bernardino and only after a few months I was hired in at KFXM’s sister station KDUO that played a musical format called beautiful music. This was effectively background music that would run in 15-minute blocks. And every 15 minutes I would open the mic and simply give the time and temperature and then go into a commercial set and back into the next 15-minute block of background music. This station was programmed for seniors. I remember our slogan was, “The first new station of the 80’s”; the joke amongst the DJs was that it should be, “The first new station if your 80”.
After only a month of working at KDUO I was hired to work the midnight to 6 am slot at KFXM. And in only a few weeks I was promoted to mid days. I remember standing behind the microphone announcing a Michael Jackson song and thinking to myself, “Man, I’ve made it”. During my time at KFXM I would enjoy all the perks like celebrity interviews and backstage passes. I will always revere those as some of the most exciting years of my life. In the 80’s, MTV would redirect attention away from radio and the power DJ style became too polished for the new wave movement. I would later go on to work at other radio stations in various capacities but eventually it became just a job. I just couldn’t picture myself twenty years from then being a disc jockey. But this was no surprise as through my entire work career I have always been stricken with vocational wanderlust. Radio was a great experience for me - the speaking skills that I acquired during that time have served me well as a businessman. My quest to work at the radio station that meant so much to me as a child provided me my first lesson in goal identification and achievement. And that alone was worth all the graveyard shifts and sappy song dedications. |