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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 284 Today's Peep Presents The Radio Legend's Last Call- Beyond the Airwaves/ What Made the Talented Chris Collins Fearless
Sacramento radio lost a true original when Chris Collins passed away at age 65 after a brief but intense battle with cancer. Just two days shy of his birthday, Collins left behind a legacy that spans decades of broadcasting excellence, business ventures, sports management, and thousands of grateful listeners whose mornings he brightened.
The shocking speed of his decline caught even his closest friends off guard. As Tony Cox shares in this emotional conversation, Collins was intensely private about his illness, with many discovering he was sick only after his passing. The broadcasting community rallied around him in his final hours – a testament to the bonds formed in radio studios decades ago that never weakened with time.
Collins' approach to radio was revolutionary in its simplicity: be authentic, speak your mind, and never hold back. During his time at KSFM's Morning Zoo in the 1980s, the show achieved the unthinkable – a 50% share of Sacramento's radio audience. Half of all radio listeners chose one station, one show, one team of personalities to start their day. In today's fractured media landscape, such dominance seems almost mythical.
Beyond the broadcasting booth, Collins built an impressive career that included serving as the color announcer for San Jose Sharks hockey, managing three-time champion boxer Tony Lopez, and owning hockey teams. He was a man of strong opinions and stronger principles, refusing to compromise on either.
The stories shared by Pat Walsh and Tony Cox offer a glimpse into a golden era of radio when personalities weren't just voices but cultural touchstones in their communities. From battles with management to on-air mishaps, these tales reveal not just how radio worked but why it mattered so deeply to both the broadcasters and their audiences.
Listen to this tribute to a radio legend whose influence continues through the broadcasters he inspired and the industry he helped shape. If you loved local radio, if you remember when DJs were local celebrities, or if you simply appreciate hearing stories of people who lived life absolutely on their own terms, this episode is your backstage pass to a world that changed how Sacramento woke up each morning.
here we are back for the pats peeps podcast Today. We're at 284, 284 podcasts. Man, hey, this is a Wednesday, 18th day of June 2025. My name is Pat Walsh, also the host of the Pat Walsh Show, the radio show as heard everywhere on all the streaming platforms, particularly the iHeart platform. You know I push that since I work for iHeart. But, yeah, 93.1 FM and 1530 AM in Sacramento. My show goes 7 to 10 pm. It is a beautiful day as I look out my studio window into the foothills of Northern California A slightm. It is a beautiful day as I look at my studio window into the foothills of Northern California A slight breeze. It is warm, it is perfect. I love this kind of weather.
Speaker 1:And on today's podcast here, this is going to be a kind of a somber podcast because you know those of us in the radio community, whether or not we work together, we are a community. We know of one another. Proof in the pudding is, everywhere I go, tony Cox, who also has worked in radio forever. Thank you for joining me. Everywhere I go, tony, people say, people say, oh, are you pat martin? And I understand, tony, because I got a phone call on my radio show last night that somehow I owe you and pat martin a drink. I think every time I got mistake, get mistaken for pat martin, that someone did. They owe me a drink. See, I hope that pat martin sometimes gets gets confused with pat walsh. So how are you, tony?
Speaker 2:I'm fine, pat, hello to you and to your peep. And the funny thing is, is I actually called pat martin pat walsh to his face one day? And we're all friends. I'm glad you did that, man.
Speaker 1:I'm glad me too.
Speaker 2:Now I got a call saying that.
Speaker 1:I owed you guys a beer for some reason. What is going on with that? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's just someone giving me a bad time, a fun time on my show last night. That's what she was doing probably probably, but we'll certainly take it.
Speaker 1:Were you guys hanging out? You guys were hanging out. I know that for a fact. Tony is here because you know, like I said, tony, and I think you can back me up on this, you can confirm this for sure that you know when you're in radio it could be in other businesses as well, but we're going to talk about radio, and when you're in radio in a market, you're part of this community. It's a special community of people I say special amongst us that we keep an eye on one another, we know one another. Perhaps we've worked together at some point in time.
Speaker 1:A lot of times you move on in radio. Sometimes it's to a different market or a different city or what have you, but sometimes it's across town and you end up running into people that you know, you worked with before you make new relationships and all of that. And along the way, uh, both of us worked with a gentleman by the name of Chris Collins, by the name of Chris Collins, and I wanted to bring up Chris because Chris just passed away and I was so sad. You know, tony, I didn't realize that Chris was even ill, had I have known, and you know sometimes, again. The real harsh truth is that sometimes now you and I keep in touch a lot, but sometimes we don't keep in touch with everyone as much as we wish we would have, and then you kind of regret that. So I did not know, because I think he was so private that Chris was ill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he kept it very quiet. I knew that he had been battling cancer for a couple of years and he had a few surgeries and he came out of them all with flying colors. Last week he had a surgery and when he came out he developed an infection and he went downhill immediately. I saw him two days ago and he was uh in a lot of pain and within eight hours he died. I was with him with Marcus Allen on the morning zoo. Chris had a show back in the eighties on ASFM, uh called the morning zoo, and it was Marcus Allen and me and a few other people, lucas, our friend, and um, he went downhill so quickly. We were all there yesterday at his bedside, the four of us, and he could not respond. I'd never seen anyone go downhill so quickly. And he passed away this morning, the 18th of June, at 2 am, two days before his 65th birthday. Oh boy, he leaves behind a wonderful wife. They've been married 34 years, two sons and thousands of people.
Speaker 2:He was a worldwide businessman. He owned hockey teams. He and I worked together at KFRC in San Francisco. He was the play-by-play actually the color announcer with Dan Rusanowski for the San Jose Sharks for many years. He went on to buy a couple of teams, a very successful businessman. He was a lover of animals. He was a vegetarian. Few people knew that and he kept his illness very quiet Some of his closest friends. We are all in shock because we found out he was ill and then dead. And God, we love the man. He was amazing. He traveled the world and met so many amazing people. And Chris was a unique individual. He did not hold his punches, he was actually a manager. He was a manager for a world class three-time champion boxer, tony Lopez.
Speaker 2:He managed Tony Lopez for four years, and mine too, and so, yeah, chris was family and, with that said, condolences to his family. Um, cancer is a terrible thing and in America when you get cancer it pretty much drains your bank account. And um, it left him in a terrible place, but, um, the family will be good, uh, and I just pray for him. And um, he's up there in heaven right now. You know calling hockey games. I'm sure they've got some good games going on up there.
Speaker 1:Jeez Tony, you know you say something so profound and it really stops you in your tracks when you said that, because we hear and we have experienced and both you and I know people again with Chris and so many others we can mention Joey and Mark the voice guy and so many others others the challenge of not only the, the illness, but then the challenge of your emotions, right, and then the challenge of the medicine or the. So you know these treatments, but what we don't hear about is the challenge of, as you say, draining your bank account and you, you know, sometimes I don't know how that works, but you know what One day things could be. Everything could be fine, chris Collins. The next day things aren't fine. And now you do.
Speaker 1:You, can you cover that? Are you okay? Do you have enough money? Are they going to take it away? You know that that's an aspect that doesn't get talked about too often and, um, I'm really sad to hear this. I'll tell you this. Um, you know you mentioned chris being a guy who didn't hold back, didn't hold back any punches. I think what you mean, and maybe you can tell me if this is what you mean he told it like he, the way he felt it, right, he was honest.
Speaker 2:Every word in the dictionary he would use to express himself and, being a master of language, he was real easy to tell you what was on his mind. Yes, and I loved him for that. You know how hard it is to find somebody who can tell you exactly what they feel, without holding back and without offending you. He didn't mean to offend anyone, but he certainly had his views and he stood tight on them. You could ask him anything about sports. You ask him about the Raiders. He loved and hated the Raiders, same with the eggs and the sharks. And you know he was and and when we worked together you said he hated the Raiders.
Speaker 2:Well, a love-hate relationship with the Raiders he loved them, but he was the first to say how much they sucked.
Speaker 1:Sure, I mean, you have to be honest.
Speaker 2:What are you going to tell someone that they're really?
Speaker 1:good, they're not, they weren't.
Speaker 2:It's like you with your love affair for the Rams. I mean, you're very honest. When they're good, they're good and you don't. You don't blow their goodness out, and when they're bad, you let them know that they're bad or they suck and you stick with them, and that is a true fan. You and Chris were not bandwagon jumpers. You stay true, just like your patriotism to America, and and same with chris.
Speaker 1:and yeah, I miss the guy so much, so the world is a little more dim without him in it it really is, tony, and I'd like to go back to some of the, some memories with you and play some audio, and then you and I can talk back and forth and make comments about this. But I want to also share, before I do that, a story, uh, that that how I got to know chris. I did not know chris as well as you knew chris, but I knew chris very well. Last time I saw him we were at sam's hot brow together. I can recall that and I think that was my 65th birthday?
Speaker 1:yes, it it was. And so I get a job. I get fired out of Chico, from radio. I've mentioned why on a previous podcast. I wanted to work down here anyhow. I knew that KSTE was a new station. It seemed like an empty pallet, like you could just do anything you wanted on this new station in the talk realm. So I come down here and I get hired Never in a hurry. Derek Murray hires me and I remember we were out on Hemlock, madison and Hemlock at the time, and this was 1993.
Speaker 1:And when I got there, one of the talk shows that was on was Chris Collins. I don't recall if it was a weekend or if it was like a mid-morning. I think it was a weekday mid-morning show. Perhaps you recall better than I do, but I remember him being there and I remember, you know, like geez, this is going to be the new place I'm really going to make it here.
Speaker 1:And Chris Collins inspired me in two ways. Number one, by what you said. He said what he felt. You know what I'm going to say, what I feel when my turn comes and it will I'm going to do that Because that's the only way I can be. It's called being genuine, it's called being authentic and Chris Collins was that All right. The other thing was I remember him on his his desk, he had a big stack of cds. This is back when cds were the thing. And I look at these cds and I go, hey man, uh, because I'm a music guy, you know me, tony, we're both music guys, oh yeah, I said hey man, uh man, you got a nice stack of cds there, a lot of nice discs, and so we start talking music.
Speaker 1:Now, I know these bands, I know who they are, I'm listening to them, but I didn't hear things like Lickin' Stick by James Brown until Chris Collins and I are sitting there and I'm like, hold up now, hold up now.
Speaker 1:Oh, mama, come here quick and bring that Lickin' Stick. I like, hold up now, hold up now, mama, come here quick and bring that licking stick. I said, hold, this is way better in my estimation than I feel good, because I've heard that song 10 billion times. I heard this and I heard Hot Pants. Mama, come here quick and bring that licking stick.
Speaker 1:And so, chris, he would occasionally play these CDs on the air and I think maybe he was using them for his own show, for bumper music. Well, kst had these new jingles in Tony and you being a production guy, wizard everyone. Tony is a production master, he's seen it all, he's done it all, he's produced it all Film, radio, all of it, Live shows, movies. Do I need to go on? So you know. And so we had these reels in that they were so happy at KSTE and I go in this room and they put these reel-to-reels on Tony and it's like this I swear to you and this is 1993. Kst talk radio 650. I'm like, I'm thinking, is this 1965? Because that is straight up lame. But who am I to say I'm a newbie, so I can't say anything.
Speaker 1:But that's corny, say I'm a newbie so I can't say anything but that's corny so so I'm listening to Chris and I'm listening to do that once in a while, but then he's got to play these bumpers, kst, and so I'm like, oh god, and I knew he was cringing. So I um was producing Jeff Metcalf show at one point. Oh yeah, okay, remember, jeff Metcalf, colonel Jeff.
Speaker 2:Metcalf's show at one point. Oh yeah, okay, remember Colonel Jeff Metcalf.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, oh yeah, oh yeah. Now I take Chris Collinsworth's attitude and one day I go into the studio and I'm running the board for Colonel Jeff Metcalf. Now, for those of you who don't know, and you can affirm this, you can attest to this Tony, a very serious man with a handlebar mustache.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Got the little glasses.
Speaker 1:He's very serious looking, very well-dressed very dapper wearing a vest, a red vest, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely One of a kind.
Speaker 1:And we've got these sort of what would you call them, tony, just a liner KSTE. You're listening to the big station KSTE, with nothing behind it. Yeah, image bumpers.
Speaker 2:Image bumpers yeah.
Speaker 1:So I get the idea. One time I buy the brand new Rolling Stones album Voodoo Lounge and I'm sitting there across the board from Jeff Metcalf. He's very serious.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to take.
Speaker 1:Chris Collins' attitude. I'm going to take a CD Instead of playing KST, this lame thing. I play Go For the Jugular, this song, and over the top I go. You're listening to the big station, you know talk 650. And I hit it before the post. Now this song's playing Jeff Metcalf. He hasn't hit the on-air button yet, he hasn't hit his mic on yet. He looks at me over these glasses, over that handlebar mustache. He says what is this? And I go it's the new Rolling Stones. He says to me Tony, you keep doing that shit, you keep doing that shit. From that point on Are you kidding?
Speaker 2:From that point, on, are you kidding?
Speaker 1:We used bumpers from that point on used bumpers from that point on music bumpers, and still do on my show, of course. Yeah, that's where it started, you know, and, and and the ratings went up, oh, and all of you went on.
Speaker 2:Y'all went on to do bigger and better things yeah and I'm sure those jingles are never used. Um, that was the most brilliant decision you could ever have made and I think I'm sure the audience loved it. I'm sure not one person said what happened to that needle.
Speaker 1:But I thank Chris Collins for that because that's my point. He inspired me and he still does. So I thought what we could do, tony, is listen to some audio and we can make comments. I said so, I want to give oh beautiful. Yeah, I want to give credit where credit is due. So this is from uh, heck, uh, which one do I want to do first? I'm kind of torn which one. I'm going to do this one first. So this is from. This is an interview that was done on sack tv news. Uh, it has killer b who you?
Speaker 2:mentioned earlier and okay, okay.
Speaker 1:And then um alex from sc, eric from um sack tv news. Uh, I don't alex cosper, alex Cosper who produced it?
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So you want to tell us about Alex or Killer B?
Speaker 2:Well, killer B, first of all, was with Chris Collins in the morning, so he was an instrumental player for years. He was with us me and Marcus Allen and Trejo yesterday at the bedside of Chris as he was taking his final breath. It was emotional but it was also touching because it was the same team, the same radio team, that years, decades ago, started all of this in Sacramento. And Alex Cosper worked over at Quad Radio and Alex is an amazing man. He knows a lot about music and he cares about broadcasting, so he does a lot of these little vignettes on radio people and he's probably the most knowledgeable, other than Joey Swinsky, of who is who in radio. And so, yeah, I can hardly wait to hear what you're going to play. I'm so glad you mentioned.
Speaker 1:Joe, I'm so glad you mentioned joey swinsky. Joey swinsky, shout out to joey this man knows sacramento radio. Like you said, tony, like no one else. Uh, joey, we love you man honest to god, pat.
Speaker 2:when I, when I have a question about my own career, when I can't remember where I was at what time, I call Joey, I go, joey, where was I? Well, tony, you were doing Mornings at KROI-FM and you had just come back from Chicago, and he knows everything about all of us. That's it. He knows everything about all of us. That's it.
Speaker 1:I'm getting Joey on my show to do that. I'm going to try to get him on my show tonight I I'm going to try to get him on my show tonight.
Speaker 2:I'm going to try to get him on my show tonight to do that alright.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of things that caught my attention, that I can talk about and things that I'm sure you can explain to me and to those of us listening here to Pat's Peeps number 284. So this is 13 years ago, 2012 oh okay.
Speaker 3:So, chris, in our last segment we left off where you were in 1992 at FM 102. I guess that's when things unraveled, yeah.
Speaker 5:I left November of 92. November 30th was my last day there. What happened was Brian White, brilliant programmer.
Speaker 1:You know, brian.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, brian, Brian and I worked. Yeah, brian Brian and I worked together in Chicago. He's the one who hired me at KFRC in San Francisco. He hired me at FM 102. Brian White is an amazing man and he's going to be listening to this show tonight.
Speaker 5:Worked for him at KFRC later, which was a great thrill for me, brian had done a great job, okay, I mean, I'd been basically forced by Jerry McKenna to take either the programming job or the OM job.
Speaker 1:Jerry McKenna.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, McKenna was our GM. Mckenna is now in Southern California, retired from radio. He was our general manager at KSFM and the sports station that I programmed, the SCORE 1380.
Speaker 1:Which that's a whole other story you and I can share, because I have a connection to that as well.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the first time I met you. That's right. You came in to audition for the morning show on the sports station. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you want to tell people how that went, since you were the one that was?
Speaker 2:looking down there, oh, it went beautiful in my eyes. And then I went in and I go yeah, we need to talk about Pat Walsh, and he goes. Well, you know not good, he goes, but we kind of need a name and I go like who? And he goes well, how about the dog? And I go the dog. So anyway, that's a whole different story.
Speaker 2:I could have been the man who discovered Pat Walsh and I wasn't able to because of the politics of radio and we all have to deal with that. Everyone knows that. But the thing that came out of that is you and me becoming friends and you know, lou Gazzicchi is the one who really hooked you and me up as friends and we've been family, you know, ever since.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm aware. I just went to your daughter's wedding and I've known her most of her life. We're going to talk about Lou coming up, but let's continue.
Speaker 5:Morning John.
Speaker 1:All right, buddy.
Speaker 5:And it was because we were transitioning. We brought in a new ownership group. Booth Broadcasting out of Detroit had been very successful. They didn't want to pay me $400,000 or $500,000 a year $400,000 or $150,000 base, I probably made $300,000 by last year, which is a lot of money.
Speaker 3:That's probably the highest in town.
Speaker 5:Well, it was then, but I mean in the 90s, then you know, all the guys made money. They made $500,000, $600,000 a year, but I was making $100,000 in 1985.
Speaker 1:So you know, there was a lot of money back then. Nobody money back then.
Speaker 2:Nobody was. You want to comment on that? That's a lot of money back then. Yeah, but you know what? He had a 40-50 share in the ratings. 50 out of 100 people listening to the radio in Sacramento listened to the Morning Zoo. 50 out of 100 people. That's 50%. If you are an advertiser and there's 40 radio stations in Sacramento, be on KSFM.
Speaker 1:You're right, brother, you got it right Tony. You all right, my friend.
Speaker 5:I helped Dave Williams and Joey get their first six-figure contracts there, which they rightfully earned Wow, and they were two of my mentors. I mean, I love Dave Williams, okay.
Speaker 1:Dave Williams, my turn. Dave Williams, oh yeah, dave Williams, oh yeah, dave Williams. I worked with Dave Williams on the morning show, dave and Amy on KFBK when I was the sports guy, worked with Dave and Amy for many, many years as the sports guy Both very good broadcasters.
Speaker 5:True, Very true, Probably the greatest news talk man I've ever heard.
Speaker 1:He's talking about Dave Williams and I'm happy he's working again and Dave Williams was a great news man, a great news talk kind of a guy.
Speaker 2:Dave and I go back to before I was in radio. I was a 13-year-old kid and Dave was on the radio at KOBO in Yuba City in what we call a fishbowl studio. You could look in from the shopping mall into the control room and see the jock on the air. I used to ride my bicycle over there and look at Dave Williams. I was his first groupie and I never, I never, thought that I would ever work with him. Two years later I was 14. He was 18. And, uh, we had just started radio. He went from global and Yuba city to KROI at Sacramento. Am is a music disc jockey and then he got into country music and then he got into news talk and became nationally known. I mean, we're in LA, he's in Dallas. He just retired from news talk radio in Dallas. Dave Williams is a is a real dude.
Speaker 1:No, he, he really was, a, he really is a great guy. Yeah, he is, you know. Uh, gosh, as you were just talking about that, oh God, I had a thought about that and it just completely escaped me when you started thinking about his country career as well. Oh, KRY, you know, KRY, from my perspective, heck, I'm a teenager. When you guys were slightly older than me by a few years and so I'm listening to K, you guys were slightly older than me by a few years, and so I'm listening to Karen. Why Now, think about me? Heck, I'm listening to Tony Cox and I'm listening to Dave Williams. Well, I ended up working with Dave Williams, becoming friends with Dave Williams and I become best friends with Tony Cox.
Speaker 1:So you guys and by God man, you guys inspired me for radio. Okay, here's some more.
Speaker 3:He was number one on KFBK for many years.
Speaker 5:He's a great broadcaster Dave Williams. He and I went to the same high school together Really. Highlands High, highlands High.
Speaker 3:And Bob Nathan, I got to work with as well.
Speaker 5:Bob was a brilliant broadcaster.
Speaker 1:He's talking about Bob Nathan, so Bob and Dave, dave and Bob in the mornings on KFBK, which is the station I work on. I also worked with Bob Nathan, as I mentioned earlier, when I came down from Chico and came to Sacramento to work with KSTE. I did that because I saw the TV commercial where it had the late great Rick Stewart Race and Ricky, who I miss so much.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, One of the deep voices, great broadcasters of radio, working with Bob Nathan, who was a brilliant guy, just like Chris is saying, just like killer B is saying there and Alex is saying did he have an ego? You're damn right, he did, but they did things differently. They didn't just present news and they weren't really talk. They were actually kind of breaking a format rule by commenting on stories.
Speaker 2:But people loved that, tony oh they do, because it's, like you said earlier, authentic and genuine and it's very rare to find broadcasters who can step out of their comfort zone on the radio and kind of challenge the format. If you don't live on the edge as a communicator, you're taking up way too much room.
Speaker 1:Here's one thing that I'll never forget about Bob Nathan, and Bob Nathan also inspired me. When I do my ads, tony, on radio, my live ads, I try to be as natural and as believable and as genuine as I can, because it's the only thing I can do, because I will not represent anyone that does not make me feel that way. Well, if you go back to Bob Nathan, he's one that really made sure that I did that. He had this thing he used to do Harold Ford ads. You remember Harold Ford?
Speaker 1:Oh sure sure He'd come on live and I'd watch him because I'd be producing the show running the board. He'd have the newspaper in his hand and I'm looking through the. There you go. Hi, Bob Nathan. He'd be so relaxed, like Dick Clark, super relaxed. Kick back, Look at the paper here. And I got the new big ads out here today. Look at this. It's a 92 toyota tercel. It was a good deal here. What was it? 59.95. He read the ads and you're like jeez, I'm sitting at the table with bob nathan. He's reading the ads, he's telling it's just, there was something about both isn't that?
Speaker 2:isn't that? That's the important thing. When you are a good communicator on a radio station, your listener feels like you are sitting with them at the dinner table or in the car or at a concert or looking to get a new car. You're like a friend if you're a good communicator and you can't fake that, because the voice is the speaker to the soul, just like the eyes are the window to a soul. And if you can go on the radio in a sterile environment with a studio which is all these lights and flashing knobs and dials and microphones and deep depths, if you can feel like a human being in that environment, it's magic because that's the only way you can be authentic. And that's what separates the rookies from the pros.
Speaker 2:And when you said ego, this business is an ego product. And you become a pro when you live by your ego and you think you're the greatest thing in the world and all of a sudden you get down to the wheel. You gotta live and die by your ego in this business and then you become humble, then you become a pro, then you don't worry about all the things that you hear. I know I've heard things about myself on the radio and I get. I get good and bad, and so, yeah, it's a, it's a special person who can go in and become someone's friend without ever being with those people.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm talking about A time.
Speaker 2:we're talking about a time before modern technology, um, where music and entertainment and news only came through one source live radio. Today, my toaster plays music. My refrigerator tells me what I need to buy. At the store, Everything plays music, but back in the day it was really an art and it was a lot more expensive.
Speaker 1:Well, let me just interject there. It's still an art, it is still something I strive for. Not everyone does, because everyone's bogged down in politics and divisiveness, but it is what I strive for on my show. Not to say that about myself, but the reason I do is because, again, going back to the people we're talking about, who had an influence on me and I'll even go further than that, and I always cite johnny carson as one of the great influences uh, dick clark as well. That's why I mentioned him. Johnny carson didn't matter what was going on in the world. We got to get back to this interview, but johnny, it didn't matter what was going on, tony, he came out with that monologue everything was okay. We're all in this together, don't worry, everything's fine, okay.
Speaker 1:Dick clark, to me, was the most cool under pressure guy I have ever seen on tv. Look at the 100,000 dollar pyramid, the 25,000, just the way he interacted on american bandstand, just like can I be more relaxed? The answer is no, I'm totally at ease in front of this camera. So, um, chris collinsworth, bob nathan, rick stewart, all of the people, you, you, tony, okay, have all had an influence on me. That's the only reason I bring up me is because you have to point out those influences and I am so lucky to have an audience and to have a show, but I I credit those people who taught me, who I learned from, who were my mentors. All right, here we go.
Speaker 5:So smart. Anyway, it's actually December 26th 1990, and Brian calls me and says I've been fired. Typical horse's ass. General manager Didn't like Brian because Brian, like me, didn't like brian, um, because brian, like me, didn't like the general manager and told him to butt out. Well, uh, with marty leaving, okay, and with booth coming in, they demanded they wanted to have, uh, someone else. So brian, unceremoniously, is fired. Everybody's like what's going on here. So the station was in flux for about three weeks, okay, um, chuck field was named a temporary PD. He was 19 years old, he still had pimples on his face.
Speaker 1:Remember Chuck Field.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he and I were very good friends. He just chimed in today after he heard about Chris's passing.
Speaker 5:Not his fault. So we went through we started hearing disturbing rumors about a guy that had been fired for some real problems in Washington coming in. So, lo and behold, the worst happens and one by one, everybody starts getting gassed. Kevin K goes, who is one of the great programming minds I've ever worked with okay, assisted Gillette and I for years. He's gone. Some dirtbag shows up, that's been out of work. That's a buddy of the new PD.
Speaker 5:Then Mike is finally forced out so you know, it started to go south and they tell me well, we don't like the money Mike's making, we're going to probably get rid of him, but we want you to stay. Well, I'd already had my contract done and I told him to get rid of Mike. You're putting the nail into my back. They got rid of Mike and that's when I went to war with the program director and I told them. I said it's either going to be him or me. All right, jerry Clifton was our consultant again and he had come in and said look at.
Speaker 1:Chris, you want to work anywhere? Oh, you got a thought about that, jerry Clifton, jerry.
Speaker 2:Clifton. Oh, do I have a story Feel like sharing? First time I ever heard from Jerry Clifton. I was working at AROI and I was hired by Steve Rivers to go to Philadelphia from Croy. I'd only been there a year and I go, yeah, philly, I'll go to Philly. And so I gave notice to Croy. I was sitting in my apartment in Sacramento playing guitar and the phone rings and I answer it and I hear this little squirrely voice going hey man, what are you doing? And I go. And I hear this little squirrely voice going hey man, what are you doing? And I go. Uh, I go, I'm, I'm, I, I. I said I'm playing a little guitar. He goes, how little is that guitar? I said who the F is that.
Speaker 2:What did he say about?
Speaker 1:the guitar. What'd he say about the guitar?
Speaker 2:I said I'm playing a little guitar. And he goes how little is it? Oh, okay, all right, guitar. And he goes. How little is it? Oh, okay, all right. And I go. Who is this dude? And he goes I'm jerry clifton. Uh, I'm working with steve rivers. Well, I understand that you're going to philadelphia. And I said, yes, he goes. How would you like the weather billy go to chicago? And I go wait a minute, who is this? He goes. I'm jerry clifton. I'm the national program director and I'm going to be the PD at WEFM in Chicago.
Speaker 2:It's an FM station that has been playing classical music for 40 years and we're going to take it over on February 11th and we're going to go rock and roll and we're going to take on WLS. And I said mark me down. So I called the moving company. I said, hey, don't take me to Philly, take me to Chicago. I landed in Chicago, it was 40 degrees below zero, it was 72 in San Francisco. No, and Jerry Clifton is there and he goes hey, man, we're going to get butt here in Chicago. Man, we're the first FM rock and roll station. Man, we're going to really. And we did. We took a butt in that market. We took over Chicago. It was one of the best things I ever did in my life. And Jerry Clifton was the program director and he went into consulting. And then all the controversy starts because he was an edge guy man, he took everything to the edge. He didn't do anything normal, the guy just was not from planet earth, but he was the number one consultant in america really yeah, a little little short little guy with long hair and, just you know, one of those kind of people so
Speaker 1:I love these stories.
Speaker 5:I can help you. But he said you know this place here it's sort of screwy. You know your GM you don't get along with. I said, yeah, I don't really want to move, though I've got everything going. I have a lot of play-by-play. I was doing for Davis which I had done for 10 years. I'd done soccer, basketball, now I was doing hockey and I Now I was doing hockey and I like my life here. Long story short. Then this loser Mancow, who's working at the teen station in San Francisco, who's famous for getting a haircut on the Bay Bridge and pissing people off. That was his big funny bit contribution to radio. It was supposed to be about Clinton, or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it wasn't funny.
Speaker 5:It wasn't funny and it didn't do anything but piss people off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something about Mancow.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Mancow caused the Oakland Bay Bridge to be shut down one day. He was a very controversial jock. Wow, I have not heard this. God, Alex Cosper. He conducted all these. He's still doing interviews with people. If you can find Alex Cosper online, listen to some of his programs. He's just an amazing reporter, I sure will.
Speaker 1:Alright, here we go.
Speaker 5:He starts announcing on his show that I'm going to be fired Now. Why? Anybody would care at 107 in San Francisco, who even I am, even though I'm sort of a Bay Area guy. People are calling me, telling me. So I let him know that if he ever mentioned my name again, they'd find bits and pieces of him swimming in the bay. So I stopped in front of them on it. They said no, no, no, it's all a lie. They bring me in after I get off the air.
Speaker 1:They say well, you know Again again, Chris Collins not holding back his true feelings right, he's not holding back.
Speaker 5:No, hell, no working out, so we're gonna let you go. So the program director is in there and I said well, first of all, you're not going to do anything. So I said you can either go out the fifth floor of the landmark building. So they threw him out and the gm and I then talked about it and I knew that they were in trouble because they kept offering me whatever I wanted. He said said how much vacation do you want?
Speaker 1:I said I don't know five months he goes. Okay, they wrote it down Five months five months vacation.
Speaker 5:That calls for a year's salary. We did that. So, now you have a year and a half salary, and then was there anything we missed. I said yeah, you missed another vacation.
Speaker 3:Okay, here you go.
Speaker 5:So I said to my wife I go look, I took the buyout, put it in the bank Then immediately within a week, Doc Fuller hired
Speaker 2:me to sign on KST as his 9 to noon talk show host. See, there we go. That's how that happened, right, doc, fuller, fuller. Broadcasting hires him, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's where he goes to KSTE, which is, like I say, where I met Chris. So 9 to noon, 9 to noon on the talk station.
Speaker 5:And I waited and I collected more and more information because there were a lot of pissed off people that I left KSFM in the morning. They had complaints nonstop. The program director tried to replace me. He lasted two mornings and I waited up until November 29th of 1993. And during a banker's meeting at FM 102, where all the financers of the radio companies were, I had the undersharp walk in with the summons that they were being sued. That's how I announced it.
Speaker 3:I made some of that stuff up, bitch real quick.
Speaker 5:It was all true.
Speaker 2:Oh man, reading about it, it was all true I I uh, uh, you just, I'm just emotional over that. I miss that man so much and hearing him talk like he always talks it really hits me. Man, it really. He hasn't been gone 20 hours yet and I'm just I know, I understand, I understand okay, he would want us to do this.
Speaker 1:You know that.
Speaker 5:Yes, oh, you know he would the b that was all true and in my, in my estimation, it was all true it was. It was a sealed agreement. As to how it ended up, so you know, I can't tell you what was settled upon, but I think both sides were happy. Now I can tell you this I was happy. I thought that their lawyer, who used to represent me to the Supreme Court he's a good guy, but I thought it was interesting. I thought he handled it well. You know, they tried to contend a couple of things and then, I think, one person spoke and that was the end of their contention. But the better part of it was, within a month of that, both people that were in charge were gone.
Speaker 5:So, if it wasn't settled right then I don't know why they left. You know, I mean in the end the general manager. I think he bounced between 15 different jobs after that. So you know, I mean in the end the general manager. I think he bounced between 15 different jobs after that. So you know, that should tell people.
Speaker 1:Probably stopped by our station for a minute. I wonder who that was.
Speaker 4:I wonder who that was man.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he paid us a visit. I have no idea what happened.
Speaker 5:The unfortunate thing is that over within a year period of time, the thing that Chris grew with.
Speaker 3:Mike Reynolds was destroyed, and then they were destroyed in the process as well.
Speaker 5:But the station lasted and that's what matters most to me, because in the end it's tried to be a lot of different things, but there was blood, sweat and tears in that format. People gave up their lives, gave up marriages, people worked their asses off here and you know, really, at the formation of it in 1980, everyone wanted one thing to be the best to be number one. And through that time, through a couple of bad years of Billy Manders, who I had the satisfaction of knowing, I got him fired.
Speaker 1:I got to know about Billy Manders. Who's Billy Manders?
Speaker 2:Well, billy Manders and I worked together in Los Angeles in 1976. He was my weekend job when I programmed the station in Southern California. He went on to become program director at KSFM. He has passed. He passed many years ago and he was one of those people like you and I know program director who's got the position of program director? And everybody says, how the hell did he become program director? And, with all due respect to Billy, he was an okay friend of mine but he just didn't understand how to manage people and he had no idea about radio. So you get somebody in that position and who knows why they get there. And Billy was a good man. I don't think he had any ill intention, but he just didn't know how to make good radio.
Speaker 5:In my opinion. I laughed at him as he was thrown out of the building. Through all of that, through the Ed Stoltz of the world, through everything.
Speaker 1:Ed Stoltz, oh, ed Stoltz.
Speaker 2:Uh-oh, okay. Well, and I'm not going to say anything about Ed, because he was you've seen WKRP. Yes, yes, he was the Mr Carlson, okay okay, of Sacramento Radio, except he was an engineering genius. He took quad radio to the first quadraphonic broadcast. He actually built a quadraphonic transmitter, quad radio in Sacramento and he would Ed Stoltz, the engineer and owner and general manager. His mom and dad bought him the radio station and he programmed it for many years and he would instantly turn up the modulation way beyond the FCC limits. So he would be every three months. The FCC would come into Sacramento and do a check and they would say hey, dude, we're going to find you like and grand, you're like a over maximum modulation and and he, he would go in. The story says he would go in and turn it down while they were in town and as soon as the FCC left he turned it back up again and they had the loudest, most incredible broadcast signal ever. Alex Cosper can tell you more about that, ed and I. Quad was the only radio station I did not work for. I was doing mornings at Croy. We were number one. We were beating Quad in the ratings.
Speaker 2:One day Ed calls me. He goes. I said I'd like to take you to lunch and see if you'd like to come over to work with me. That's exactly how he thought. I said hi, ed, he goes. Hey, I'd like to take you to lunch and see if you'd like to come over to work with me. That's exactly how he thought. I said well, you know, ed, I'm really happy here. Man, I don't want to go over there.
Speaker 2:Three days later and this is a true story three days later, one of the sales people came to me and goes hey, tony, what the hell did you say to Ed? I go, what do you mean? He goes. Oh, he's dissing you. He goes. Yeah, I offered Tony a career and he turned me down. I'm going to wait a minute. And she said yeah, ed says you owe him a favor. It pisses me off.
Speaker 2:I call Ed. I go hey, ed, can I come down and talk to you for a minute? So I go down to his office. I think he thinks I'm going to take the job. I walk in and Ed was a frustrated lawyer. He had every legal book in the world behind him. He loved lawsuits because he liked battling those things, even if he lost. His mom had enough money where he didn't care. So I'm sitting there talking to Ed and I said Ed, there's talk on the street about me owing you a favor. I don't recall you ever doing me a favor. And here's a quote. He goes Tony, I'm doing you a favor right now, just talking to you. And I said, well, nevermind, I got up.
Speaker 2:I got up and I walked out of the radio station. He and I still became casual friends we still. Well, never mind. I got up and I walked out of the radio station. He and I still became casual friends we still. I don't know where he is today. He was sued. I think he was running away from the FCC. He had violated every rule in the book. I don't know where he is right now and again, this is only hearsay. Ed and I were casual friends, but I just couldn't work for him.
Speaker 2:I didn't feel right and I don't want to diss anyone who did, because Quad was an amazing radio station back then. They they broke every rule in the format and, uh, you know it was pretty wild, but anyway, I didn't want to get out.
Speaker 1:No, I, tony, I I love these stories, I love radio stories. I don't know how much everyone else does, but I think they do, I do, I do. People love radio.
Speaker 2:They're listening, aren't. Do People love radio? They're listening, aren't they?
Speaker 1:Right, people love radio stories. I'm not the only one. There's a reason WKRP was so popular and one of my favorite shows, and I'm picturing you know, mr Carlson the whole time you're talking there. So here we go. We're almost done with this interview, and then I have one other thing.
Speaker 5:The one goal was never relinquish and that was to be the best. And then in 1992, they basically threw it all away. After they got rid of those guys, they came back, they brought in some burnouts that ran it and basically ran it to what it is today and you know it's good. It's still a pop station Some burnouts.
Speaker 1:I'm proud of the fact that, if it hadn't been for me or for guys like B or Gillette or Jeff Lucifer, that in K.
Speaker 2:Jeff Lucifer, jeff Lucifer, rick Gillette, who was an intern at KROI yeah, I know, but but Rick Gillette Gillette in particular, a programming genius. He started as a music intern at KROI in the late 70s when I was there, and then he went on to program some of the most amazing formats.
Speaker 1:How are you doing, Richard?
Speaker 2:Jeff Lucifer here.
Speaker 1:It's good to meet you it never would have been.
Speaker 5:It would have been something else right now. And you should feel the same way, because Quad never had a future as a top 40 station because we beat it. And, as I told you, we did Not as a top 40 station because we beat it.
Speaker 3:And, as I told you, we did. Not only did we beat it, we decapitated it. Of course we did. But then what did you do?
Speaker 5:Quad sold for $26 million. That's not going to happen as a top 40 station. Who was the guy that made it a progressive station? You did. It was the same thing. What did the zoo do for FM-102? What did my programming turn in 1987? I gave up my programming job to prove a point that we could take out our competitors by flanking them. I gave them this thing. I let them advance, they advanced, we flanked them and I decapitated them. Fm-102 lasts today, 32 years, because of that flank. If we hadn't done that, we would have been in oblivion. The morning show would have been a seven-show. The morning show the station would have been a three and it would be playing country music right now, or Christian or whatever else it would be doing.
Speaker 3:The history of sacramental radio can be researched at this table. We think.
Speaker 2:You know, it's all the.
Speaker 3:F and 1 and 2 stories. I could tell you all the quad stories and what was amazing is, you know, there were people that loved both stations of course there are that's the audience too.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they listen to them both. They don't. They never got caught up in it. I mean, that's right with the morning shows they did, because the morning show sort of set the vibe. But you know what it is, what it is, man. In the end we provided great radio. I mean, this was a great radio market. Are you kidding? Kidding me?
Speaker 2:There you go, and that's the soul and heart of Chris Collins. He cared more about the product. He cared more about his audience than he did about all the crap that went on behind the scenes. Yet he stood fast. He broke all the rules because he knew which rules to break. He laughed at people in their faces and then showed them why he was laughing at them, and it's very hard to find a person like that. So I'm a little emotional, right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can understand. I can understand. So am I, but you were closer to Chris and I'm sorry for your loss as friends and I certainly do understand the emotion. Let's bring you back out of that just for a moment, because I want to have a question for you. You mentioned this person earlier. I may get emotional now because I'm not going to. I've come to accept this, but this past year we both lost a very dear friend and one heck of a great guy and one talented funny dude, um, who ended up being a part of my show. The pat waltz show ended up being one of my guest hosts, so when I had nights off I'd bring in sweet lou gasecki now sweet lou, we knew him as sweet lou gallagher on my show. His name was lou gasecki. Uh, lou passed away, but how long has it been now?
Speaker 1:a year maybe a little over, yeah, almost two years, almost two years. God time flies, you know. And so so Lou Gallagher, or Sweet Lou, was such a witty guy. Wonderful, we love both of these guys, you know, and I knew Sweet Lou very, very well and we were very close friends and just a gentle guy. Just a gentle guy, yeah, okay, rooted for the Yankees. God bless him. But here he is. I'm looking at this thing. I found this video Tony KSFM, fm 102, morning Zoo. What it says is Chris Collins and Mike Reynolds, november 11, 1987. I don't know who Mike Reynolds is and Chris Collins, he was the newsman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was the news guy.
Speaker 1:Well, he's barely in this and I don't really see Chris Collins very much in this. What it doesn't say is that it's Lou Gusecki on KSFM, but it says DJ Chris Collins. It does not say this. It was November 11, 1987. It shows the radio studio.
Speaker 4:It's a hump day, Wednesday, actually is what it is. It's the Morning Zoo at Fresh Music FM 102. Coming up this morning We'll be taking your request to burn buns. It's just a little bit after 5 o'clock. Good morning, fresh hits, fm 102.
Speaker 1:Sacramento. Did you work on those jingles?
Speaker 2:I've never heard that jingle. I think that was about three months before I. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:This is sweet Lou working in the studio.
Speaker 1:He's in there working and I'm like going hey, Now there's the news guy. He walks by, but it's Lou Gusecki working at KSFM. Oh, there's the news guy. He walks by, but it's Lou Gusecki working at KSFM. Oh, there's the news guy again, I don't see anything with Chris in here, but here's Lou, and it's interesting to me. At two minutes, Tony, two minutes and 40 seconds into this video and I've been in a lot of radio studios something happens that I've never seen in radio before, at two minutes and 40 seconds, and I'm going to tell you what that is. Okay, okay. So I didn't edit this down, so let me fast forward to get to so we can find some more Lou here.
Speaker 2:I'm on the edge of my seat right here. I can't imagine what this is going to be. Good morning.
Speaker 1:I just missed Lou. I was trying to see him.
Speaker 4:FM 102, Captain Lou with the morning Zoo at 506. Foggy, very foggy.
Speaker 1:Captain Lou.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 4:Drive safely. Keep it here with the zoo.
Speaker 1:Good morning. Yeah, I don't know who said good morning. I don't know who said good morning. I don't know who that was. So he was captain lou. He's been sweet lou. Well, captain lou is how I. Is that how you know him?
Speaker 2:that's how I met him first. He was uh, he was part of the morning zoo. I think you're going back prior to 1987 am I right? Well, I got there in 88, early 88, and I don't remember any of that this is 87 FM 102, it's 510 now.
Speaker 4:Captain Lou with the Morning Zoo on a hump day, wednesday, coming up all morning listen to how his voice changed over the years too, just like mine did it's much higher back then, as well as their phone number. We call them, wake them out of a dead sleep and kind of give them a ration is basically what we do.
Speaker 1:There was Chris Collins in the background. Whoever, I don't know who that was, I'm calling right now, 766-8811 is the phone number, or 1-800-338-102.5. That'll get you through to the All right, he's going to get ready to go to a break. And we're at 227, Tony, and he's going to do something, and he's using cart machines and all that which we don't use anymore. But at 240, he's going to do something I've never seen in a radio studio.
Speaker 4:And if we don't answer the phone?
Speaker 1:So he goes into the song, he leans over to the right side of the board. What does he do? Picks up his smoke and smokes it yes, oh my God. Sets it back in the ashtray in the radio studio and then looks at the camera. How about that, tony?
Speaker 2:Okay, can I tell you a quick story about that? I wish you would, ashtray. There was a company called Pacific Recorders out of San Diego and they made all the mixing consoles for radio stations nationwide. Back then we could smoke on the air and they had built-in ashtrays in the right corner of the board with a nice little and we would go through a pack of cigarettes in a four-hour shift. We just let them burn like incense. We constantly smoked and when I first came on to KSFM I was doing 10 to noon followed the morning zoo and Captain Boo was part of the morning zoo.
Speaker 2:One day I quit smoking. I decided after 20 years to quit smoking and it was day three. The only thing I could think of was smoking and we had a brand new contest. We had a brand new contest that was really involved. It was called the initials game and we would spin an imaginary roulette wheel that had letters of the alphabet. We'd spin it twice. If it landed on the first letter of your first name, on the first spin you were halfway to winning $10,000. If we spun it again and it landed on the first letter of your last name and you were the 10th caller, you would win 10 grand.
Speaker 2:It was a simple contest, very hard to execute though. So I'm on the air, I'm doing the contest for the first time. I'm going oh my God, I got six cards here. I got to hit the wheel, I got to make it sound right. This is a hard contest for me to do and it took a lot of focus. So I'm live on the air and I'm going. Esfm, you know, two, five, tony Cox, time to play the initials game. If you have a first and last name, you can win $10,000. Let's spin that wheel and I hit the sound effect and went P. If P's the first letter of your first name, you're halfway to $10,000. We're going to spin it again and if it lands on the first letter of your second name, call immediately. And if you're the first of 10 callers with those initials, you win 10 grand.
Speaker 2:So by that time, by the time I explained it, my cigarette addiction was in the back of my head, saying smoke a cigarette, smoke a cigarette. And I'm on the air for 30 seconds talking and all I can think is damn, I want a cigarette. So, captain Wu, he's standing in the studio with me and I go okay, in the studio, on the air. I go okay, we're going to spin it again. Stand by to win 10 grand.
Speaker 2:In the studio with me is Captain Lou. Captain Lou's going to give me a hand spinning this roulette wheel. And I turned to him on the mic and I said Captain Lou, give that. And I said the word. I tried to say sucker, but it didn't come out as sucker. I said give that, give that effort. Another spin as clear as a bill on the radio. And so and so, captain lou, he hears that and he starts cracking up and falls on the floor laughing.
Speaker 2:I hit the sound effect of the roulette wheel w if your initials were pw and grab and lose on the floor laughing and the request lines. We had 15 request lines. They all went up. And I go to line one Hi, asfl, what's your name? Hey, man, do you know? You just said F on the radio. The first 10 calls were listeners going. Hey, you just said the F word on the radio. And you know, I thought Brian White was our program director. I thought I was going to get fired. Instead, the ratings went through the roof and that was Captain Luke. That was Captain Luke.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Instead, the ratings went through the roof. Seriously, they went through the roof.
Speaker 2:Man, I really thought I was going to get fired did they come and talk to you?
Speaker 1:did they say hey, tony, we heard what happened not a word, not a word, a word. No one it was. There was no such thing as a dump button. There's a. In radio we have this thing called a dump button. If someone curses or if you happen to inadvertently curse or something like that button, it's got a delay no, we don't have, so it just went out of wow wow oh yeah, it just, and I and I said it's so proud and so happy I can't believe.
Speaker 1:Every time I think back on us to go damn, oh, that is so good. Ah, tony, my friend man, I just learned so much today, so very much.
Speaker 2:You just tell a good story. Isn't it amazing how much we learn about our loved ones and friends after they're gone? Damn it.
Speaker 1:I know it really is. You know, as we finish things up here, I'm going to play a song like I'm going to go back to my inspiration. Chris Collins and he had that James Brown CD and I got deep into it and heard stuff that I really hadn't paid attention to before. You know, I feel good and all that. You know I knew James Brown before. You know I feel good and all that was. You know, I knew james brown, but I never gone as deep as I should. Thanks, chris, god bless you, man. Thank you, thank you, thank you amen, amen amen tony, love you brother.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man love you, patrick.
Speaker 4:Outro Music.
