I Still "Q" In My Mind

You know you're getting old when historic markers start popping up at places where you used to work.  San Diego's KCBQ is one of the myriad of radio stations where I got my ticket punched.  It was a truly legendary blow torch that belongs in the pantheon of American radio stations like:WABC, WLS, KHJ, KFRC, WBZ and a few others.  Anybody who cracked a mic on 1170 AM (and later also 105.3 FM)) knows the thrill of having your voice blasted all over Southern California and damn near all the way to Hawaii.  It was fifty-thousand watts of shear ego driven energy.  (By the way, KCBQ delivered killer ratings in the much sought after 18-34 year-old bottlenose dolphin demographic.)

Over the decades KCBQ's studios were located at different places around San Diego, but  wound up spending the most time at what was once considered "way out on Mission Gorge road" in the suburb of Santee.  "The Santee Ranch" was what it was often called by the guys, (and some gals), who practiced the bump and grind of commercial radio on "the Q".  They called it that too. 

In fact, at one time there was an entire ad campaign built around "Where do you Q?"  "I Q in my car"was on some billboards while "I Q in my bedroom" invited lots of pruient speculation.  The station was a vital part of life in San Diego for several generations.  Competitors were always around but the "Q" endured.

It's still around--sort of. Like much of radio, these days it is pretty much a conduit for syndicated talk shows and bartered infomercials for colon cleansers and Last Supper steak knives.  You know...crap 24/7.

Things change.

So now, where those of us once toiled on the air perched one floor above "Q's" fifty-thousand watt transmitter, there is a Lowe's.  The radio towers, all six of them, are gone and the building is just a memory.

We used to joke about what the close proximity of all that transmitter juice was doing to our bodies.  Looking at the number of radio names on this new monument who are no longer around to swap stories, I question what six years exposure did to me.....Okay, I'm still here,but was I  crazy before working at KCBQ?

Don't answer!

Shotgun Tom Kelly, just about the only one of us left who still has a radio job, and his wife, Linda, got the ball rolling on this KCBQ monument.  Tom works at KRTH in Los Angeles these days but still calls San Diego home.  He had at least two tours at the "Q" and put up with MORE than a few idiot general managers and program directors.  I did my own tally and realized that KCBQ had no less than five G.M.s and four program directors in my six years.  A "meat grinder'?  You make the call.

Soon this monument will reside front and center on Mission Gorge road in Santee to remind one and all that once on this spot some fun was had. You see, when radio was fun...IT WAS GREAT.

And, KCBQ was a GREAT radio station!!