KROQ's Early Days

(August 9, 2000)

"Insane Darrell Wayne" belongs to a unique period in Southern California radio history - KROQ in the 1970s. He was born in Los Angeles and raised on "Boss Radio" in the late 60s. He worked at KEZY, KAGB and KHNY before getting to KROQ in 1976. During his time there, Darrell Wayne Wampler was pd, operations director, chief engineer and he worked afternoon drive. From 1981 until 1984 he ran the Don Martin School of Radio and TV. In 1994 he went back to school and completed his master's degree in business administration in 1999. Darrell is vp of sales and marketing for an Aerospace manufacturer in Ventura County. His story:

I started working at KROQ in fall of 1976. The AM had been back on the air for a few months and the FM went back on in August. The licensees received a "turn it on or turn it in" notice on the licenses of the stations and things were put together with spare parts collected out of storage and what could be quickly bought from a local used broadcast equipment store in Long Beach. Until the FM went back on, we were broadcasting from the AM transmitter site, which was at the end of a dirt fire road, on top of the Verdugo Hills in Glendale. What a view, but a nasty drive, especially in bad weather.

Arrangements were made with the Pasadena Hilton Hotel (City of license for the FM) and we had two suites on the top floor, 1220 and 1221. One was the control room (facing West) and the other was the office/production studio. Quite convenient with a bar downstairs. Jimmy Rabbit didn't drive, so quite often he got a ride over about 10 a.m. and started preparing for his 2 p.m. shift in the bar. Wild times were had by one and all. It was really Sandy Beach (Brad S.) who did most of the technical patchwork in the beginning to put the studios and transmitters back on. We didn't have broadcast lines or an STL to the AM site, so we hooked an FM tuner set at 106.7 up to the AM Transmitter. The next year, we were getting around the simulcast law by tape delaying FM live to AM air by 24 hours.

We were supposed to pay the Hilton $1000 per month for one of the suites, and the other was gratis for the "Broadcasting from High Atop the Pasadena Hilton Hotel" announcement. What a great lineup on the air. Sandy Beach, Dusty Roads (before Street came down from up North and kicked this town's ass), Bob Sala, Jerry Kaye, Don West, The Enigma, Jimmy Rabbit. KROQ was a star factory, taking some non-radio talent and developing professional broadcasters like April Whitney (pictured with Darrell) and Ian Whitcomb.

Gary Bookasta was still running things (his grandfather was one of the 12 or 14 licensees), but we had no money. To that end, we never paid the Hilton and they proceeded to evict us. They put U.S. Marshals outside the door to guard the place. I found a place across the street at 117 S. Los Robles in the nick of time. We rented the building from a local dentist. The problem with moving was the Marshals. A little work on the request line and they were distracted with wine, women, and whatever, and we snuck away in the middle of the night, lock, stock, and jock around April of 1977.

We had great listener response when we encouraged listeners to tune their radios to either AM 1500 or FM 106.7 and remove the tuning knobs and mailing it to the station. Rabbit had a "Wall of Flesh," which was a wall of solicited candid pictures from listeners. Amazing what some women will do with a bottle of Wild Turkey. We were doing the K-ROQ Cabaret live shows at the time in downtown L.A. areas to raise cash, but it was never enough to go around. Gary would either give out checks, which he sometimes fell asleep writing, and we'd have to wait for him to wake up to finish, or he'd ask us how much we needed to "get by for the next few days" Ken Roberts, who was a creditor, started to take an active interest again by this point. Gary met Ken when the station put on "The Ultimate Roq Concert" in the 1972-1973 time frame. Ken and his partner Pat Welsh were concert promoters and business managers from Jay and the Americans, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sly and the Family Stone (just Sly by now.) Ken had money and a very nice estate in Brentwood and Gary only had the money that he could beg, borrow, or steal (all of which he was very good at). So the fight began - Gary to protect his position as "Owner" and Ken to protect his "Investment" Gary had borrowed the money from Ken to buy KPPC-FM, and change the calls to KROQ in 1973. (The stations were #1 in 1974 under Shadoe Stevens programming genius when they went dark.)

After we moved in April, we didn't have all of our equipment up, like frequency monitors, and the transmitter was drifting up the FM band. Bingo, in comes the FCC, suits, badges, and all. We were written up for several technical violations, none of which we could afford to fix. The carpet was a trade-out for thousands of Carpeteria spots and the green-cloth wallpaper Ken Roberts had an interior decorator come in and put up. There was no money to pay people, so we had a heavy turnover in air staff. A lot and I mean A LOT of great announcers wandered through at that time. Shadoe back again, The "Obscene" Stephen Clean, Frazer Smith, Rabbit came back for a short time. Yes, we were the last holdout in free-form radio.

Progression of thought. There was a period in 1977 to 1978 where I was living in my office at the station and working one shift on and one shift off (6 hour turn arounds) cause no one else would show up for work. Kevin McKeown was appointed gm for awhile by whomever was claiming ownership that week, and he tried very hard to bring a level of professionalism into the place. It was a real party atmosphere and we were all participating. Through contacts I had made with Frank Zappa, we even got him down one night to play his Leather" album, which he couldn't get released at Warner Bros. (He didn't party - just Winstons and coffee). Sly even had a show for awhile, but he rarely made it and when he did, he was sailing.

Because Gary lacked money, Ken took over the running of the station, and he brought in Pat Welsh as gm (his high school pal and long time associate). Pat knew nothing of radio, so I convinced him that our on-air was working. I was program director. I hired some wonderful talent. Jed the Fish as Music Director from KEZY AM/FM, Dusty Street and Chuck Randall from KTIM-San Rafael. Scott Mason (friend of Rick Carroll's from 10Q (1020AM, formerly KGBS). John Clark (Andrew Amador) from KNAC. And a host of other crazies including the return of several former djs like Larry Woodside, Darryl Evans and Rabbit, During my tenure as pd, I believe I only fired two or three, usually at ownership's direction. I let Frazer Smith go for creating what Ken Roberts saw as bad press in LA Magazine and Rabbit for asking LA record promoters to bring down cocaine and calling Pat Welsh a monkey-face on the air.

Pat Welsh started golfing with other radio execs from KRTH and others. We were making some noise in the marketplace. Jed and I had met with Jeff Gelb at Radio & Records and had added some (not much) mainstream rock back into the new wave and punk, but we were still free-form. Balance new with old, familiar with unfamiliar. The records are watercolors, paint pictures, and tell a story. Make it mean something. Well Pat's golfing buddies were asking him about formats and hot clocks and record rotation. Pat would ask me and I'd tell him we had none of that and there was no need. He finally strongly felt the need and they (Pat and Ken) brought in Rick Carroll out of KEZY and KKDJ before that. Imagine that, a Top Forty programmer at KROQ. I vividly remember when Jed and I were asking Rick (new pd) and Larry Groves (new md) whether they would play Devo, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, etcÉ.The answer came back NO, NO, NO.

The AM programming rights were sold to a Spanish broadcasting operation around 1979. They actually broadcast down the hall at 117 S. Los Robles for the first six months of the deal. I did a few fill-in shifts late at night for no-show announcers Suavacito, Oye Como Va and LA Woman.

Well, things changed. I accepted the morning drive position and Jed stayed on as well (he's still there and very well off). We were very formatted, pulling 3 x 5 cards with song titles. The record companies screamed because they no longer had an outlet for new music. Jon Scott took out a full-page ad in an industry trade protesting the format change. Advertisers pulled out right and left, and finally the new wave crept back in. I stayed as operations director and on-air until 1981 full-time, but the celebrity life style and party atmosphere was taking its toll. I'm a full-blown alcoholic and finally couldn't keep up. The last air shift I worked (very sober) was in 1982, July 3 and 4th, filling in when the jocks went to Hawaii. My last show there and the first show that weekend was for a newcomer from KNAC - Richard Blade.

Frazer Smith was the one who coined the on-air name "The Insane" Darrell Wayne for me, inspired by The Obscene Stephen Clean.

The FCC was investigating what they termed "illegal control of power of the station from the licensees to Ken Roberts." It was kind of a sale without the sale. I was testifying in Federal court and getting pretty nervous that they may be looking for a little guy to take down. Ken had the best attorneys that money could buy, as evidenced by the fact that Mandeville Canyon Broadcasting was eventually awarded a license and was able to sell for $40-some million to Infinity later. Not bad for lending Bookasta $350k in 1973.