In January 2011, I published my first Radio Geo’s Media Blog.
Since then, I’ve written about a thousand of them, which has produced over five thousand comments.

However, after reviewing the LIfe-Liners, what I found most interesting was how many of them I’ve changed my mind about over the years.

Now, as we head towards the twelve days of Christmas, I thought it might be a good time to repost some of my most-read blogs.
So, with that in mind, may I present Radio Geo’s Media Blog, “All Time Top 12.”

#7 GORDON ZLOT

My good friend Gordon Zlot was recently inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, and it’s my honor to post a Blog about him, followed by his acceptance speech.

A lot of Businessmen are well known for saying and doing a lot of distasteful things. However, I think the worst may be hearing him say, “I’m going to have to let you go, but it’s not personal; it’s business.” What the f*ck is not personal about being fired?

These guys must make this sh*t up, hoping we won’t hit them.
Thankfully, all businessmen are not created equal, and one of the best lives in Santa Rosa, California.

His name is Gordon Zlot, and he was recently inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame. (Gordon is pictured above at one of our many “Confabs in The Desert” held each year in Palm Springs.)

Gordon, as a young engineer, built his own FM radio station, which he launched as KZST in Sonoma County in April 1971.
Not only did KZST become successful, but to this day, it’s still “The Big One” in Sonoma County. Over the years,

Gordon has added four more stations to his roster before finally retiring since then has added four more stations to his roster before finally retiring last year.

I didn’t know Gordon back when he got started because I was still back in Canada working with another Hall of Famer, Ted Rogers.
Ted once told me, “George, to become even more successful, sometimes you have to leave behind the people who made you successful.”

Gordon couldn’t disagree with Ted more and believes the exact opposite. Gordon’s philosophy has always been, “You stick with the ones that brung ya!

Over 30 years ago, Gordon and his crew, GM Tom Skinner, and PD/ Morning Man Brent Farris visited me at my home in Coronado.
The chemistry was so good that day that even now, whenever I visit Santa Rosa, I feel like I’m going home.

I’ve worked with a lot of radio companies over the years, but very few run their operations the way Gordon does.
They have a super modern facility with the best radio equipment available; they pay their people well; they also have profit sharing a great pension plan and a super health plan.

Over the years, Gordon has had many offers for his group but was reluctant to sell because he didn’t believe the new company would take good care of his staff as he does.

 
Even though Gordon runs his stations pretty fat, he still manages to eke out a living well enough to own two beautiful homes.
One of them is in Santa Rosa and the other in Palm Springs, which he flies to in his own jet.

Knowing Gordon as I do, radio is not just a business; to him, it’s very personal.
Hey, here’s to the newest member of the Bay Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Gordon Zlot.

Gordon’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech

My fascination with radio began when I was a kid…when I was about nine years old.
I had a low-power AM radio station in my bedroom at 1090 on the dial.  The call sign was KEBC, which stood for El Patio Broadcasting Company …. Named after the street, I lived on.  I even got approval from the Engineer in Charge at the FCC in San Francisco, Ney Landry who many of you engineering types might remember.   I had one listener….the girl next store.

Like many of you growing up in the Bay Area, I listened to Dave McElhatton on KCBS,  Doug Pledger on the then KNBC, Les Crane live at the Hungry Eye on KGO, Al Collins from the Purple Grotto, Russ “The Moose” Syracuse, Terry McGovern, and everyone’s favorite Disk Jockey, Don Sherwood.

In 1958 at the age of 13, I got my first job in radio, a 250-watt AM daytimer in Vallejo, where I grew up. The Call Sign was KNBA …the Mighty 1190.  I started by taking out the garbage, changing light bulbs, mowing the lawn, running the board, taking transmitter readings, setting up remotes, and progressing to being on the air.

I loved the smell of a radio station.  It was a combination of cigarettes, burning tubes, the yellow teletype paper, and the smell of lacquer from the cutting lathe where the ETs were CUT.  For those of you who don’t go back that far…ET is not a creature from a Spielberg movie but stands for Electrical Transcription, which was those 16-inch lacquer disks before tape was widely used. We had no cart machines; all the spots were either read live or on ET’s.  

At that time, I met Jerry Dean, who would become my mentor.  He taught me everything about radio. Jerry eventually went on to found KJAZ along with Pat Henry.  It was the world’s first full-time jazz station.

While other kids were listening to the Beatles, Elvis, and the Stones, I was listening to Sinatra, Dizzy, and Miles.  That’s where I got my appreciation for jazz. Jerry was later inducted posthumously into the BARHOF class of 2007.

I worked at KNBA until 1966. Signing the station on Saturdays and Sundays and working a 6-hour DJ shift.

During my college years at San Jose State, I worked at KREP in Santa Clara, which later became KARA.  After graduating in 1969 with a degree in Electrical Engineering, I went to work for Bauer Broadcast Products in Palo Alto as an Engineer.

However, my real dream was to own a radio station, and being a believer in FM radio, I signed Sonoma County’s first FM stereo radio station on the air on April 18, 1971.  The call sign was KZST, which stood for K-ZEST. The format was Beautiful Music.

In those days, AM humorlessly stood not from Amplitude Modulation but Ample Money, and FM stood for Few Money.

With only two full-time employees, it required a lot of work.  I did everything from sales, engineering, programming, announcing, and traffic.  There were many burnt dinners in those days when I would return home at 8 p.m.

Eventually, we changed our format from Beautiful Music to Soft AC.  I called it “Easy Stereo.” Then, in 1983, through the efforts of the acknowledged father of AC Radio, George Johns, we became a Full Service AC radio station with a full news department with our own traffic airplane we called Plane Jane; Kristine Hanson, our meteorologist, our morning personality Brent Farris, General Manager Tom Skinner and Chief Engineer Eric Peter.  Within months, KZST became the top station in the market, and it continues to do so. One of the secrets of our success is the long-term and dedicated staff we have. Many of whom have been with me for 30-plus years.

My second dream was to build my own world-class, state-of-the-art radio facility, and that became a reality when we began broadcasting from our new 10,000-square-foot building in Santa Rosa In 1989.

As an FCC licensee, I have always believed that the license holder was not the owner of the airwaves but was the steward of them and must always operate in the Public Interest, Convenience, and Necessity.  As a non-public company, I have not had to worry about balancing the needs of stockholders against those of the listeners.

Some 47 years later, our company now has five radio stations with formats in AC, Soft AC, County, Oldies, and Smooth Jazz.  It has truly been a marvelous ride, and I must say that radio will always be in my blood. I still marvel at the technology that allows us to send words and music through the air, let alone pictures.

In closing, I am humbly honored for this recognition.  I didn’t get into the radio business to make money. My main goal was to produce a high-quality product while serving our listeners while having fun.
Like the Broadcast Legends masthead says: To celebrate with colleagues from the years when broadcasting was fun!”

Radio Geo’s Media Blog is a politically incorrect inside look at Radio, TV, Music, Movies, Books, Social Media, Politics, and Religion, but mostly about Life, primarily written with men in mind.
For a peek at upcoming Blogs or to see some you may have missed, go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.
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