Boss Radio

Boss Radio was the name of two radio programming formats, both launched in the early 1960s: One in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom. Although the names were the same, the formats were quite different.

The word "boss" was early 1960's American slang for "cool".

Boss Radio in the United States

Although developed earlier at other stations, the U.S. "Boss Radio" format is most closely associated with KHJ, at 930 kHz AM.

KHJ, one of the first radio stations in Los Angeles, had gone on the air in 1922 and in later years was owned by RKO, a major U.S. corporation that produced movies, television and radio programming over its own stations. In the 1940s and 1950s, KHJ broadcast a mix of drama, mystery, soap operas, news, and music, both live and recorded. In the early 1960s the format was adult contemporary music. The audience ratings were dominated by KFWB, KRLA, KABC and KMPC, and KHJ lagged far behind the other stations.

Block programming gave way to Top 40 radio during the 1950s. Stations played from 40 to 75 current records each week. Disc jockeys were talkative and the jingles were often a full minute in length. Two California radio programming pioneers, Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, modified the Top 40 formula to include a smaller number of records, heavier rotation of the biggest hits, very short jingles and less talk. The new sound would come to be known as "Boss Radio." KHJ promotion director Clancy Imuslind originated the phrase. The word "boss" had come to mean something hip, new, exciting and the top of its class. Drake had tested some of the format elements in 1961 and 1962 while he served as program director and morning man at San Francisco's KYA, a station that promoted itself at the time as "The Boss of the Bay." At about the same time, competitor station KEWB promoted itself via its station ID jingles as "Boss Radio".