In the 1950s, what were the odds against a Honolulu kid growing up to radically change the dynamic of the national radio industry; and then dominate it through the last half of the 20th century and well into the first decade of the 21st? Staggering, perhaps, but for Ron Jacobs, not impossible.

Early years

A cub reporter at 15, the FCC issued Ron Jacobs his license to broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1953. Dropping out of high school, he turned pro as an all-night DJ at Honolulu’s KHON Radio. This was before his first big break when he was picked up by NBC affiliate KGU as the Honolulu correspondent for the network's groundbreaking new program, Monitor.  

Connecting with the visionary industrialist, Henry J. Kaiser, in 1957, Jacobs teamed with fellow KGU DJ (and future concert impresario/record producer) Tom Moffatt to jump-start Kaiser’s new KHVH Radio. The young deejays broke with mainstream radio traditions with a solid injection of rock ’n’ roll. In no time, the two dominated Hawaii’s airways; brought the best young talent to perform concert dates in Honolulu; and developed incredibly tight relationships with the era’s best rock talent – including lifelong relationships with industry legends Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (even serving as honorary pallbearers at Parker’s 1997 funeral).   

In 1958, at the age of 20, Jacobs – now at KPOA Radio – became Hawaii’s youngest program director. This was incubation time, where Jacobs honed his skills, mixing with trailblazing radio executives Bill Gavin (Lucky Lager Dance Time) and Mike Joseph, the medium’s first programming consultant. 

Then, in 1959, Jacobs launched and programmed fabled K-POI Radio – Hawaii’s first Top 40 outlet. Together with Moffatt and news director Tom Rounds, in the first six months of K-POI’s life, Jacobs programmed it, was the morning guy, the afternoon guy, and the production/promotion manager. Within six months, K-POI ruled the ratings, and Jacobs ruled the station’s success. Jacobs’ wild stunts also landed him and K-POI in a feature story in TIME magazine.   

Using the large K-POI studio, Jacobs wrote and produced the first Pidgin English rock ‘n’ roll records, among them: “Da Kine,” about Hawaii’s delayed entrance into the US, and local Hawaii rock hits by “Lance Curtis” (real name, Dick Jensen); and co-wrote  “Dahil Sa Lyo” (“This Song of Love”), still available on Alfred Apaka’s Greatest Hits.  

Programming the Nation 

At 23, Jacobs had gone as far as anyone could go in Honolulu radio. His drive soon took him to the mainland where, in 1962, he was promoted to vice president of programming at the Colgreene Corporation. Fine-tuning his format and promotional concepts, Jacobs took them to San Bernardino’s KMEN Radio and, three months later, to Fresno’s KMAK. Within months, both were rated Number One.  

In Fresno, Jacobs found himself competing head on with radio consultant Bill Drake, but rather than duke it out in smaller markets, Drake and Jacobs not only buried the hatchet, but combined their talents to program RKO General’s KHJ Radio, and simply slayed the competition in Los Angeles. Within six months, the Drake-Jacobs’ “Boss Radio” format was Number One in America’s second largest radio market, garnering national recognition for creating pop radio’s most influential sound of the 1960s. Ron Jacobs was just 27 years old. 

Jacobs’ KHJ finale was the 48-hour, fully produced, History of Rock and Roll. Radio’s first "Rockumentary" – coined by Jacobs to describe the much-imitated, never duplicated broadcast – brought together the considerable talents of Los Angeles Times’ syndicated pop-music columnist Pete Johnson, who scripted the show; and legendary Boss Radio morning man Robert W. Morgan, who narrated the original 1969 broadcast. Jacobs’ History of Rock and Roll was accepted into the Library of Congress as the “first aural history of rock and roll music.” 

Though still programming the RKO radio chain from KHJ, Jacobs teamed again with pals Moffatt and Rounds to form Charlatan Productions. Ten years before MTV had occurred to anyone, Charlatan produced more than 30 “concept” films featuring extraordinary recording artists in weird, eye-catching settings: “My favorite film was shot in a deserted Santa Monica lighthouse,” Jacobs remembered. “It was a most bizarre flick, with Jimi Hendrix performing ‘All Along the Watchtower’ while Aretha Franklin floated along in a rowboat in a small lake in Echo Park.”   

Watermark  

After four years atop the L.A. radio ratings, Jacobs left KHJ to co-found and become vice president of Watermark, Inc. In 1970, with Tom Rounds and veteran LA deejay Casey Kasem, Jacobs co-created American Top 40, which enjoyed a 25-year international run. AT40 evolved to become the most widely syndicated radio program in history.   

At Watermark, Jacobs also produced the award-winning Elvis Presley Story, written by noted rock author Jerry Hopkins and narrated by broadcast personality, Wink Martindale. The program earned the distinction of being the first American radio production ever purchased by the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

Next, Jacobs began a long-dreamed-of project: A 13-album record series saluting pop radio pioneers. Entitled CRUISIN': A History of Rock 'n' Roll Radio, each LP recreated an historic disc-jockey’s show, starring the very air personality who attained regional dominance during Top 40 music’s nascent years. Besides the hits, each album included authentic retro radio commercials, and each album cover drew upon the teen fashions of the year it represented.   

Jacobs produced several other notable records at Watermark’s “Farm Studio” -- built by a carpenter/aspiring actor named Harrison Ford – including the cult classic, A Child's Garden of Grass, for Elektra Records; Key: An Album of Invisible Theater, the debut album of internationally renowned performance artist Meredith Monk; and, Music From Another Present Era, the first recording by the jazz ensemble, Oregon.  

KGB San Diego 

There would be one more mainland stop before Jacobs returned home to Honolulu: San Diego’s KGB AM/FM Radio owned by broadcast pioneer, Willet Brown. Within months of Jacobs taking the programming reins of KGB, the station was Number One. In 1972, the sold-out KGB Charity Ball in then-San Diego Stadium was the largest public-service concert in California's history.   

While programming KGB-FM, one of the first profitable album-oriented stations, Jacobs conceived and produced the original Home Grown album. Winners were chosen from hundreds of entrants in this song contest – sort of a hometown, way ahead of its time, American Idol – which gave raw, young talent a chance to be heard on the radio and the possibility to record. Among the winners in San Diego and Honolulu was Michael Damian – whose group, The Weirs, was selected for the first album – now an international idol with his long run on the CBS soap, The Young and the Restless. 

A loyal KGB listener – and, today, a top film writer/director – Cameron Crowe wrote the first Home Grown liner notes. In 1973 that LP became the largest-selling album in San Diego history. For more than 30 years, this proprietary project was repeated in other US cities, also benefiting charities. 

The KGB Chicken, later known to the nation as “The San Diego Chicken,” was also hatched from Jacobs' fertile imagination. In 1972, Ron Jacobs was honored by Billboard as Program Director of the Year. Jacobs’ documentary about Max Yasgur, on whose farm the Woodstock festival was staged, won Program of the Year honors and two years later, Billboard named KGB, Station of the Year. 

Concert promotion 

Through all his mainland years, Ron Jacobs never stopped the concert promotions he, Tom Moffatt, and Tom Rounds had begun in Honolulu in the late 1950s. In 1964, the three men formed Arena Associates, staging the first rock show in the Honolulu International Center (now, the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena). In 1968, Arena Associates produced the Miami Pop Festival, the largest event of its kind to that time and precursor of The 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, which was staffed by many of the Miami Pop crew

The concert promotion team of Jacobs, Moffatt, and Rounds presented the brightest stars on both sides of the Pacific at such venues as the Waikiki Shell, Honolulu Civic Auditorium, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Palladium, San Diego Stadium, the Orange County Show Grounds, Fresno State Fair, and even Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  

Home again 

In July 1976, 21 years after Jacobs began his hometown radio career, he was again behind the mike in Honolulu doing morning drive on KKUA Radio as “Whodaguy Ron Jacobs.” Serving as KKUA’s program director, Jacob brought the station Number One ratings by November, while successfully introducing his Home Grown concept to Hawaii.

“I couldn’t wait to bring this project back home considering the great response I had over the years in San Diego,” said Jacobs. “The concept brings exposure to new musical and graphic artists, which was always exciting to me.” 

Hawaii’s first Home Grown breakout artist was Noelani Cypriano, who earned a record contract based on the popularity of her winning entry, “Lihue.” (Incidentally, of the 10 slack-key (or kī hō‘alu) guitarists who performed on the first CD ever to receive a Grammy Award for Hawaiian music, three performed on Home Grown albums that Jacobs released through KKUA, KDEO, or KRTR: John Keawe, Ken Emerson, and John Cruz. 

For his efforts, Jacobs was honored by the Hawai‘i recording industry with a Nā

Hōkū Hanohano Award — the Hawaiian Grammy — in the first year of its existence.  

Radio & TV – Local Style 

Jacobs’ TV career began when he hosted the Coca-Cola Record Hop on KHVH-TV, owned by Henry J Kaiser. A 16mm original negative of one of the programs from the series is in Honolulu’s Bishop Museum, classified in the archives as Hawaii’s earliest sound-on-film specimen.    

In 1977, Jacobs expanded his television work, producing Home Grown TV specials; a half-hour documentary on contemporary Hawaiian music entitled Slack Key and Other Notes, and a quarterly magazine-format series, Pictures of Paradise, for CBS affiliate, KGMB-TV. The program won local recognition and several national Clio Awards.  

            In 1980, Jacobs launched KDEO Radio as Hawaii's only full-time country music station, "the Western-most country station in the nation."  Within six months, KDEO ranked among the top-ten stations in the state.  

And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’ 

In 1985, in conjunction with Hawaii's visitor industry, Jacobs conceived, wrote and produced a nationwide radio promotion, The Hawaiian Chief. The contest ran in 48 markets in the continental United States under the sponsorship of American Airlines and Sheraton Hotels. 

From 1935 through 1975, Hawaii Calls was the most-listened-to radio show in the world. In 1992 the program returned for a one-year run. Broadcast live each week from Waikiki Beach, the show featured live music, dancers, and a studio audience. Jacobs was hired to produce and co-write the show. 

After three decades in broadcasting, Jacobs shifted his focus to print. His first book, Backdoor Waikiki, was published in 1986. For seven years he was a contributing editor to both Honolulu and Hawaii magazines. More than 150 of Jacobs’ articles have appeared in both local and national publications. 

            In 1994, Jacobs returned to the mainland briefly for a final assignment, joining Radio Express in Los Angeles as executive producer of The World Chart Show. By the end of 1995, The World Chart Show was heard on 360 stations in 54 countries with co-productions in 27 different languages.   

In April 1997, having successfully launched The World Chart Show, Jacobs returned to Honolulu, this time pledging to stay. He produced Home Grown ’97 for KRTR-FM and an inter-island network of stations and, once again, all for charity. In fact, profits from the CD of previous Island Home Grown records all went to Habilitat, a rehabilitation facility located in Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu. 

On February 9, 1998, Jacobs joined KCCN-AM 1420 as host of the morning-drive show. A year later, the station changed to an all-sports format. Jacobs left the airwaves.  

In February 2002, Zapoleon Publishing, Stafford, Texas, released KHJ: Inside Boss Radio, a 407-page narrative and series of oral-history interviews covering Jacobs’ tenure at Boss Radio, with hundreds of memos and graphics. 

With a broadcasting career spanning five decades, the Hawaii State Legislature recognized Jacobs for his cultural contributions in the area of Hawaiian music and the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu honored him with a “Ron Jacobs Day.”  

And the Beat Goes On 

Jacobs has lived in Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii since 1997. He has continued to consult mainland stations. “With the ever-expanding technology – monitoring on streaming audio, I can e-mail copy in a few seconds from Kaneohe to Chicago – quantum speeds faster than I could in L. A., where memos sometimes took a day to travel upstairs via the mailroom,” said Jacobs. 

Now, as Lynn Cook wrote in the May 2008 issue of GENERATIONS magazine, Ron Jacobs is “leading Hawaii into the brave new world of Web sites morphed into a new way of broadcasting and a new way of listening” through http://whodaguyhawaii.com.

“He describes it as a world where radio stations and other media have Web sites that are still presented as an adjunct to the main thing – tuning in the station or reading the paper. He says it is changing as quickly as we turn the pages of a magazine.”

“The broadcaster who understands this will operate from the most phenomenal vehicle to come down the pike since guys like Gutenberg and Marconi began futzing with ways to bridge the gap between human minds and hearts,” wrote Michael Harrison in his “Letter from the Publisher,” Talkers magazine, June 2007.

Ron Jacobs is that broadcaster. Check out WhodaguyHawaii.com.

Bibliography

More detailed information about Ron Jacobs, or material

written by him, can be found in the following publications:

Elvis: A Biography, Jerry Hopkins, 1971, Simon & Schuster, New York

This Business of Radio Programming, Claude and Barbara Hall, 1977, Billboard Publications, New York

Da Kine Hawaiian Music, Robert Kamoalu Kasher and Burl Burlingame, 1978,

Press Pacifica, Hawaii

Na Mana‘o Aloha O Kaho‘olawe Diary, Ritte & Sawyer, 1978, Aloha ‘Aina O Na Kupuna, Honolulu

Hawaiian Music and Musicians, Edited by George S. Kanahele, 1979, The University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

Back Door Waikiki, Ron Jacobs, 1987, Niniko, Honolulu

Honolulu magazine, Ron Jacobs, 1987-1994, monthly column and features, Honolulu Publishing, Honolulu

Back Door Hawaii, Ron Jacobs, 1987-1994, HAWAII Magazine, bimonthly column and features, Fancy Publications, Tustin, California

 Miscellaneous magazine and newspaper articles, Ron Jacobs, 1987-1998,

Hawaii & Pacific Room reference desk, Hawaii State Library, Honolulu

Hawaii Caricatures by Pritchett, John Pritchett, 1989, “Who-da-Guy” Ron Jacobs, MidWeek, Honolulu, http://www.lava.net/~pritchet/jacobs.html

Hawaii, 1959-1989, Gavan Daws, 1989, Publishers Group Hawaii, Honolulu.

The Birth of Boss Radio, Ron Jacobs, 1990, “Birth of Boss Radio,” 25th Anniversary Scrapbook.

Sonny Bono: And The Beat Goes On, Sonny Bono, 1991, Simon & Shuster, and New York

Dream-House, The History of a Major West Coast Radio Station, Bill Earl, 1991, Desert Rose, Montebello, California

Rock Radio Scrapbook HALL OF FAME, 1992

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Peter Guralnick, 1995, Little Brown & Co., New York

ReelRadio.com

An Authentic Aircheck Museum of Classic Top 40 Radio,

1996-current, “The Ron Jacobs Collection,”

various audio productions and written notes by Ron Jacobs, Richard Irwin, Webmaster, Sacramento

Journey From Hell, Vinny Marino, 1996, Habilitat, Inc., Kaneohe, Hawaii

Radio’s First 75 Years, B. Eric Rhoads, 1996, Streamline Publishing Co., West Palm Beach.

The Story of Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth, Einarson & Furay, 1997, Quarry Press, Kingston, Ontario.

Los Angeles Radio People, 1957-1997, Don Barrett, 1997, db Marketing Co., Valencia, California.

Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records, Jac Holzman, 1998, FirstMedia Books, Santa Monica.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio, Ben Fong-Torres, 1998, Miller Freeman, San Francisco.

Uncle Tom’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Scrapbook, Tom Moffatt, 1998, Paradise, Honolulu.

The Age of Mass Communication, Wm. David Sloan, 1998, Vision Press, Northport, Alabama

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, Peter Guralnick, 1999, Little Brown & Co., New York.

American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century, Rob Durkee, 1999, Schirmer Books, New York.

The Great Chevy Killer, Ron Jacobs, March 1999, Car & Driver, Ann Arbor, Michigan

A Rams Fan in 49ers Country, Ron Jacobs, 2000, NFL Insider, NFL Properties, Los Angeles

The Radio Station, Fifth Edition, Michael C. Keith, 2000, Focal Press, Woburn, Massachusetts

Turn! Turn! Turn! The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution, 2000, Ritchie Unterberger, Mark Brend, Backbeat Books, San Francisco

FM: The Rise & Fall of Rock Radio, Richard Neer, 2001, Villard Books, New York

KHJ: Inside Boss Radio, Ron Jacobs, 2002, Zapoleon Publishing, Stafford, Texas

Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero, Stuart Holmes Coleman, 2002, MindRaising Press, Honolulu

Elvis In Hawaii, Jerry Hopkins, 2002, Bess Press, Honolulu

Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography, James Mc Donough, 2003, Anchor Books, New York

The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story, Alana Nash, 2003, Simon & Shuster, New York

Aircheck: The Story of Top 40 Radio in San Diego, David Leonard, 2003

 Original Photography, Ron Jacobs, misc. publications, 2004 to present.

Showman of the Pacific: Tom Moffatt, Jerry Hopkins, 2006. Watermark, Honolulu,

Frank, Sammy, Marlon & Me: Adventures in Paradise with the Celebrity Set, Eddie Sherman, 2006, Watermark, Honolulu

 California Dreamin', Henry Diltz, 2007, Genisis Publishing, London.

Online Resources

Audio production and performance: Search: The Ron Jacobs Collection. http://www.reelradio.com/ 

 Misc. published pieces: http://www.firststrategy.com/ronjacobsindex.htm

In-depth interview (Re. KHJ and other projects): http://www.bossradioforever.com/html/jacobs.html

Peers’ comments (D. Clark, C. Kasem, etc.): http://www.93khj.com/ronjacobs.htm

KHJ book excerpts, from staff memos: http://www.93khj.com/memos.htm

Stations and projects: http://www.440.com/440sat.html “J” then Jacobs, Ron

“Birth of the Boss”: http://www.johnnymannsingers.com/jacobs_story.htm