The 93 KHJ-LA Complete Boss 30 - 1967

The third in this KHJ series was completed last night and what a great year it was! By my count, all but nine songs are original mono single mixes. I had a lot of help from AYBCS readers, as well as a couple of Faltonians! I'm sending it out without having listened to all of it yet, Your comments are appreciated! 444 tracks and nearly 16 hours long. Every single song that appeared in KHJ's Boss-30 Survey for the year, with as many 1967 airchecks added in as I could get. Coming up next are upgrades to 68 through 71.

Commentary from Kwai Chang:
KHJ 1967(The Wrecking Crew)
Technology by definition must keep advancing...a never-ending sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes in the effort to create new value.

Hence, a perplexing situation was that of KHJ in the quest to be BOSS! For all of the technical limitations of the late 1960s, radio was not immune to the effects of the primitive playing field which was nothing more than a threshing floor. In that regard, never before had something so business-like seemed like something so genuine in its essence...so everyday-lifelike!

And yet, we all know the first rule of business: If you're not bringing in more capital than you spend...you're NOT a business. So, it seems amazing that KHJ brought a flair to the world of radio and even more so, to the world of music than had ever been known prior. KHJ had no real advantage in the radio world. It was still becoming modern. It was in the process of being created and it was pretty simplistic in terms of risks, odds, vision! It was still trying to figure out what it wanted to be. This might be enough to keep a radio station busy even when objectives are practically realizing themselves. So, in KHJ's situation, things were going very much as planned. The project seemed to be devoid of monetary concerns when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

We needn't concern ourselves about the protocols of commerce. This was already part of the mechanism as The Beatles learned when Andy White was able to relegate the drummer, Ringo Starr, to tambourine at the sessions for Love Me Do. It is simply a matter of economics to never let investment become more of a risk than the situation requires. In the early years of KHJ, this was an unwritten rule that preceded all other considerations. It is not exactly clear where one entity stops and another begins...but in the radio world(...in BUSINESS) it's always about efficiency. This is apparent by the inserted advertisements that corporate sponsorship pays large premiums for. Broadcast slots are strategized and even more so, the commercials themselves are crafted by professionals who do nothing else but specialize in making you want to buy products.

In Hollywood, most of this work was sub-contracted out to The Hellers. This was the slickest team of gimmick creators who made most of the connections with the tuned-in consumer. We have never seen any amateur efforts on television when the programming breaks for a word-from-our-sponsors. It is common industry knowledge that our favorite television shows are only there to fill the space between the commercials. So, with that pretext in mind, we can only marvel at the clever finesse utilized by BOSS radio when their own airchecks were broadcast sounding very much(read EXACTLY) as if they were recorded by the current hitmakers in the TOP 30.

This was not the work of The Hellers...but, rather by a group of their contemporaries. In fact the collective didn't really have a name. They were simply a small group of musicians that worked 40 hours a week doing what they did best...providing musical backing tracks for very realistic sounding endorsements. However anonymous such a function could actually be, there was much more to this relationship than anyone knew.

We now know this elite team by the name The Wrecking Crew. The KHJ airchecks DID sound exactly like the Beach Boys had made it...because The Beach Boys records were actually backing tracks produced by The Wrecking Crew. Why would it...why SHOULD it be any other way? Music is a business and most of the BOSS Top 30 was created in this most efficient manner. In this way, the VERY best music could be created, broadcast, surveyed...and purchased. It isn't an accident...it is professionalism. It wasn't intended to be illusory...but it WAS a huge blur that kept everything running smoothly and profitably. Most of all, it made everything sound fun while captivating anybody who loved music, radio, or record collecting. It isn't clear whether KHJ and The Wrecking Crew were really separate limbs of the same tree...it didn't matter. Very few artists have the technical expertise to ever achieve stardom. We'll never know what The Beatles' own fate would have been had not Andy White been there for 'them'.

But a quick glance at KHJ surveys should reveal that current stars in the airplay rotation are really only singers...possibly only actors pretending to be music stars...trying to be loved. Probability gives better odds to those who know their own true functions. So, without dwelling on how the OTHER faces(band members) are selected to be on the record jackets...just know that NEVER before had so many been entertained by so few. This is why the music was so good in the first place and at least for KHJ...why they were BOSS!


1966 to 1967   Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 1 (Jan-Feb)    Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 2 (March-April)   Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 3 (May-June)    Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 4 (July-Aug)    Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 5 (Sept-Oct)    Yandex    Zippy

1967 Part 6 (Nov-Dec)    Yandex    Zippy