Was WHB an oasis where black and white pop music came together joyously, or a soul-less desert, where major domo Johnny Dolan turned up his nose at local groups and even the Beatles? Remember the 40 Star Survey? Or did you prefer the KUDL Boss 30?
Kansas City Rock History Project
Documenting rock history in the heartland
Was WHB an oasis where black and white pop music came together joyously, or a soul-less desert, where major domo Johnny Dolan turned up his nose at local groups and even the Beatles? Remember the 40 Star Survey? Or did you prefer the KUDL Boss 30?
Believe it or not KUDL-1380 was the first Kansas City station I tuned in when my family and I moved to Kansas City from Fort Belvoir, VA. For me KUDL durring it’s CHR years was my favorite station. Their music was a lot more uptempo than WHB. It was listening to their night jock Robert W. Walker (the second jock to use that name) that inspired me to get into radio. One of their morming jocks, Buddy Van Cleave was the one that told me where I could purchase Billboard magazine! When their music format moved to their FM station I worked there on the air part time while still living in the dorms. For me at the time I honestly thought I had “arrived”. I didn’t make a lot of money but I had the time of my life.
During the 60’s WHB was dubbed the number one local station and I tuned in to them most of the time on my old AM radio at home or in the car however I drifted to KUDL eventually to listen to a different format. I listened to KPRS at night because that was the music I loved most and many of those songs you would never hear on WHB or KUDL. Late at night when the local stations would go off the air is when I would explore, tuning in to stations from Little Rock, Oklahoma City and Shreveport. I was a lucky high school kid that had a car and no curfew which allowed me to park and on a clear night I could pull in Wolf Man Jack on either XERF or XEG which stated they were broadcasting from Del Rio, TX. Station call letters that began with X though were in Mexico. They had high powered transmitters which drove the FCC crazy and I could usually pick them up between midnight and 1:00 AM. I love the memories.