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Hitchhikers on Sunset Strip in 1968. Posted by PastDaily.com.
Sound archivist Gordon Skene has a huge collection of radio clips and other audio files. After the news broke last week about KFWB AM 980 changing its format again — to unspecified foreign-language programming — he posted a clip of the final hour of KFWB's reign as a Top 40 hits station in Los Angeles. The date is March 10, 1968. The next day, KFWB would begin its era as an all-news AM station, and there is a brief newscast at the end of the sound clip.
The clip features veteran LA deejay Gene Weed playing some songs, counting down the last minutes and urging listeners to record the various KFWB jingles he aired between songs. Weed also mentions a lot of the KFWB deejays and other personnel who were going on to other jobs or, like him, were leaving the radio business.
Weed, a popular deejay who hosted the nationally syndicated lip-synch and dance show Shivaree in 1965-66, announces on the air that he was going into film production with a partner. I don't know how that worked out, but Weed hooked up with Dick Clark Productions as a producer and director. Weed produced or directed the Academy of Country Music Awards for several years and has a special award named for him. He also produced and directed several years of the Golden Globes TV show. Weed died in 1969 at age 64.
