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We were funny for a while. L.A.was, in the early 90s at least. AM radio was breathing its last, slowly being taken over by pundits and alarmists and conspiracy theorists. Am radio was a shell of its former self – it had been vital once; the only kid on the block, as it were – but those days were long gone. FM Radio and standard equipment on most models of 1968 cars started the steady decline. Much like 8-track players in cars – eclipsed by cassette players – eclipsed by CD players – eclipsed by MP3 players – the changes and evolution of technology, leaving the previous technologies behind to flounder, gasp for breath and die.
In the early 1990s, AM radio was on life support – no one would admit it because it would mean all those hundreds of millions of dollars of investment would prove worthless as audiences, coming of age and taking over would render those vestiges of the previous generation pretty much null and void.
But AM radio in the early 90s was still the place you could go to hear people talk – where the audience could call and rant, fight, agree with, joke around, fawn over or complain and have an instant audience of at least a few thousand.
KABC-AM was a bastion of sorts – one of the stalwarts of the Talk Radio format going back to the early 1960s – they were good at trying things out – they were good at bringing in on-the-air Therapists, practitioners of food, gossip and how-to’s and letting the audience find them and become regular listeners.
Around 1992, KABC-AM got an idea to try being funny – clever, witty and off-the-wall. So in rode two comic writers, who had long lists of award winning TV series and who frequently collaborated – Peter Tilden and Dianne Dixon were something of an oasis in the rapidly disappearing art of the personality and brought a level of oddball, often absurd but hysterically funny situations to the mix and it clicked with the audience.
But apparently, it didn’t click loud enough because The Peter and Dianne Show” would only last about a year before it joined the other “really good ideas” into relegated obscurity by those arbiters of mediocre taste; the station owners and Marketing “experts”.
I ran across several of these shows, all from around May of 1993 and thought I would run one from 1993 as a sort of reminder and an example of what was a very enjoyable glimmer of optimism for radio in the 90s, but one which didn’t last long.
Maybe you remember the show – it was on in the afternoon and people liked it – clever, sharp and witty and gone far too soon. For a reminder, or an introduction – here is a two hour snippet of one of those shows, from May 25, 1993.
It also seems fitting to include on of the highly evocative photos by the iconic L.A. Street photographer ZORAN MILOSAVLJEVIC as a sort of appendix to what you’re hearing. Further evidence that L.A. has never been a wasteland – nor is it likely to be anytime soon.
Press Play and relax.
