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48-745: (Redirected from Alexander Bennett ) Alex or Alexander Bennett may refer to: Alex Bennett (broadcaster) (born 1939), American talk radio host Alex Bennett (footballer) (1881–1940), Scottish footballer Alex Bennett (Home and Away) , fictional character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away Alex Bennett (swimmer) (born 1977), English swimmer Alexander Bennett (dancer) (1929–2003), British ballet dancer and choreographer Alex Bennett (actor) in Zanna, Don't! Alex Bennett (sailor) ; see Transat Jacques Vabre [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

96-550: A dozen and a half AM, FM and TV stations at various times, experimenting with formats other than top 40 (including beautiful music and all-news). In the early 1960s Rick Sklar also developed the Top 40 format for radio station WABC in New York City which was then copied by stations in the eastern and mid-western United States such as WKBW and WLS . Bill Drake built upon the foundation established by Storz and McLendon to create

144-626: A live Internet TV network with Play Inc. called "PlayTV", and later a one-year stint as the host of a technology show on CNET Radio . Eventually he moved back to New York City where he hosted a weekday radio show on Sirius XM channel " SIRIUS Left " until June 28, 2013. He now hosts a live podcast GABNet.net Tues-Fri from 10:00 until midnight Eastern . Bennett was born on December 18, 1939, in San Francisco and attended Drake High School in San Anselmo, California . He adopted his on-air name as

192-400: A live house band. Bennett also produced a number of sold out live comedy shows. During the 1980s, Bennett was the original host of public television's "Comedy Tonight." In the 1990s won a local San Francisco Emmy Award for his work on "Log On TV" on KGO-TV 7. Bennett was fired after a few years at Live 105, but was back after nine months. During that time he moved to Miami and hosted

240-738: A modernized Rock 40 format, are similar in some ways to the Adult CHR and Mainstream CHR/Pop formats, but also incorporate modern rock / alternative / active rock and modern AC titles in an upbeat presentation. Examples include KSXY in Santa Rosa, California, WDJQ in Canton, Ohio, WIXX in Green Bay, Wisconsin, KKCK in Marshall, Minnesota, and WMOM in Ludington, Michigan. An early version of rock-leaning CHR

288-763: A more limited base of currents and recurrents from the mainstream, rhythmic and/or adult CHR formats with a broader playlist of gold from the 2000s and 2010s. Stations from this format may also be called rhythmic hot AC if their library is particularly rhythmic-leaning. Examples include WPOW and WFLC in Miami, WKFS in Cincinnati, Ohio, WBBM-FM in Chicago, WMOV in Hampton Roads and WKTU in New York City. Playing dance remixes of popular songs with perhaps some current hits from

336-1061: A pioneer of the AOR format, Rock 40 was "too wimpy for the real rockers and too hard for the mainstream people". Stations that previously broadcast the format include KEGL in Dallas, KQLZ (Pirate Radio) in Los Angeles, KRZR in Fresno, California, KXXR in Kansas City, and WMMS in Cleveland. Rock 40 stations eventually segued to CHR or an AOR spinoff format such as active rock or modern rock . There are also variations targeting minority ethnic groups, such as CHR/español ( Latin pop ), and CHR/Tejano ( Tex-Mex and Tejano ) which are commonly found in Arizona , Texas , California , and Mexico . In Greater China (People's Republic of China , Taiwan , and Hong Kong ), there

384-546: A regular staple, the shows in San Francisco featured local and national comedians in front of a live studio audience. Performers Bob Goldthwait , Whoopi Goldberg , Dana Carvey , Ray Romano , Margaret Cho and Jay Leno were among the guests on Bennett's program, which influenced the next generation of Bay Area comedians. Bennett also would do road shows such as "Breakfast with Bennett" and "Supper with Schwarzmann" which featured live stand-up comedy stars, musical acts and

432-858: A ship anchored off the coast of southern England in international waters. At that time there were no commercial radio stations in the UK , and BBC radio offered only sporadic top 40 programming. Other noteworthy North American top 40 stations that used the Drake approach included KFRC in San Francisco ; CKLW in Windsor, Ontario ; WRKO in Boston ; WHBQ in Memphis; WOLF in Syracuse, New York ; and WOR-FM in New York City . Most listeners identified Boss Radio with less talk, shorter jingles and more music. Mike Joseph's "hot hits" stations of

480-697: A substitute host for syndicated talk show host Lionel on several occasions. In 2008 Bennett was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame . On March 27, 2012, Alex married his longtime girlfriend Marjorie Miller (known as "Girlfriend" on his program). They currently reside in the Harlem district of New York City. Bennett was told in late June 2013 that his last show on SiriusXM would be Friday, June 28, 2013. In January 2014 Bennett started "GABNet" at gabnet.net which he calls "the first real innovation in phone-in talk radio since

528-452: A talk show on local AM talk station 610 WIOD . He considered that move a sour experience due to it being an AM station and with considerable restrictions on his freedom to talk. CBS Radio then bought KITS and paid off the remainder of Bennett's contract with WIOD Miami so he could return to Live 105 to again host mornings. Bennett remained at Live 105 until July 1997. CBS Radio had a desire to put its own syndicated Howard Stern Show on

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576-510: A tribute to his late father, Alexander Schwarzmann. During the 1960s, Bennett worked at several radio stations around the country, including KILT in Houston , where he used the on-air moniker James Bond and did his show using an English accent, and WLOL in Minneapolis before moving on to other large markets. In Chicago , he hosted a nightly music program on 560 WIND where his newscaster

624-644: A variation called " Boss Radio ". This format began in California in early 1961 at KSTN in Stockton, then expanded in 1962–63 to KYNO in Fresno, in 1964 to KGB in San Diego , and finally to KHJ in Los Angeles in May 1965; it was further adapted to stations across the western US. Boss Radio was later broadcast by American disc jockeys as a hybrid format on pirate radio station Swinging Radio England , broadcasting from on board

672-1909: A variety of genres of music, CHR/pop is the successor to the original concept of top 40 radio which originated in the 1950s. Examples of CHR/pop stations in the United States, Canada, and Brazil include WHTZ in New York (NY), KIIS-FM in Los Angeles (CA), KYLD and KMVQ-FM in San Francisco (CA), KHKS in Dallas (TX), KRBE in Houston (TX), CFBT-FM in Vancouver (BC), CKFM-FM and CKIS-FM in Toronto (ON), KSMG in San Antonio (TX), WIOQ in Philadelphia (PA), WPRO-FM in Providence (RI), WXKS-FM in Boston (MA), WIFC in Wausau (WI), WWPW and WWWQ in Atlanta (GA), WKSC-FM in Chicago (IL), WFLZ in Tampa / St. Petersburg (FL), WHYI-FM in Miami (FL), KLUC in Las Vegas (NV), WNCI in Columbus, Ohio (OH), WZPL (IN) in Indianapolis , KDWB in Minneapolis / St. Paul (MN), and Jovem Pan FM (with language) in Brazil . The stations generally gain large popularity with this format. These stations typically are hybrids of

720-552: Is Rock 40 , which was popular in the late 1980s. This format, developed by Joint Communications who service marked the name in 1987, is a young-male-targeted hybrid of CHR and album-oriented rock (AOR) that combines the formatics of the former with the music mix of the latter. After a short period of successful ratings, the Rock 40 format began to decline because it was too similar to conventional AOR yet lacked appeal among CHR fans who desired less emphasis on rock. According to Lee Abrams ,

768-506: Is also Mandopop and Cantopop which are the top 40 variants in that language. Credit for the format is widely given to Todd Storz , who was the director of radio station KOWH -AM in Omaha, Nebraska in 1951. At that time typical AM radio programming consisted largely of full-service " block programming ": pre-scheduled, sponsored programs of a wide variety, including radio dramas and variety shows. Local popular music hits, if they made it on

816-415: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Alex Bennett (broadcaster) In the 1980s and 1990s he moved back to his home town of San Francisco where this time the press dubbed him "The King of Comedy" for his influence on the local comedy scene first at KMEL , then on KQAK ("The Quake") and ultimately at Live 105 . He then went on to create

864-541: Is personally opposed to the death penalty. The prisoner, identified by the pseudonym Dean, reported on daily prison life in a series called "Dead Man Talking." Bennett also voiced the Starbase Commander character in the 1994 release of Star Control 2 by 3DO . Bennett briefly returned to radio in 2001 to host a technology-oriented midday talk show for CNET Radio at its San Francisco flagship station , 960 KNEW . Bennett's attempt to return to general AM talk radio

912-664: The New York Yankees . With baseball games running in Bennett's evening time slot, the station felt there was no place for him. The dismissal was protested by over a thousand people in front of the radio station. The story made headlines in the New York newspapers. It was featured in Variety with four articles on the same page, and Bennett was described in The New Yorker as "martyr of

960-417: The urban contemporary format; urban stations will often play R&B and soul songs that CHR/rhythmic stations will not, and CHR/rhythmic stations, despite playlists heavy with urban product, sometimes have white disc jockeys and will include EDM and rhythmic pop music that urban outlets will not play. WQHT in New York , and KPWR in Los Angeles are among the most successful CHR/rhythmic stations in

1008-490: The " Chicago Seven " trial. While at WPLJ as an early video pioneer (a lifelong hobby), Bennett created and produced Midnight Blue with Bruce David (who went on to be the editor for "Hustler Magazine"). The show was seen on a New York public-access cable TV channel. Susan Finesilver, whom Bennett married in November 1976, was a regular contributor, interviewer, and guest on the show. The couple divorced in 1992. Bennett

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1056-682: The CHR-pop format. The term contemporary hit radio was coined in the early 1980s by Radio & Records magazine to designate Top 40 stations which continued to play hits from all musical genres as pop music splintered into Adult contemporary , Urban contemporary , Contemporary Christian and other formats. The term "top 40" is also used to refer to the actual list of hit songs, and, by extension, to refer to pop music in general. The term has also been modified to describe top 50 ; top 30 ; top 20 ; top 10 ; hot 100 (each with its number of songs) and hot hits radio formats, but carrying more or less

1104-453: The God within you"). In 1969, Bennett flew to London to investigate the rumor of Paul McCartney's death . He later became friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono , who in 1970 heard Bennett introduce her debut album on the air by saying, "I think in 1980 music will probably sound like this." Lennon and Ono subsequently appeared on Bennett's show. In 1970, Bennett was fired when WMCA signed

1152-547: The Midwest and Great Plains, converted it to an all-hits format, and dubbed the result "top 40". Shortly thereafter WHB debuted the first "top 40 countdown", a reverse-order playing of the station's ranking of hit singles for that week. Within a few years, top 40 stations appeared all over the country to great success, spurred by the burgeoning popularity of rock and roll music, especially that of Elvis Presley . A 1950s employee at WHB, Ruth Meyer, went on to have tremendous success in

1200-1159: The U.S. and among the pioneers of the format. Bilingual Spanish CHRs (such as WPOW in Miami, KHHM in Shingle Springs, California, KKPS and KBFM in Brownsville, Texas, WKAQ and WXYX in San Juan, Puerto Rico, KBHH in Fresno, California, WRUM -HD2 in Orlando, Florida and KLLI (FM) in Los Angeles) combine current and recent mainstream and rhythmic CHR hits with recent Latin pop hits, targeting young Latina listeners. Similarly, bilingual French CHRs (such as CKOI-FM in Montreal) are common in some Canadian markets, and combine anglophone and French pop hits. Filipino-based CHR stations (such as DWFO , DWTM , DWRX , DWRT-FM , DWCZ , and DYIO ) are also common in major Philippine market areas, which feature current mainstream and rhythmic CHR hits with recent OPM and P-Pop hits. Gold-based CHRs combine

1248-552: The air at all, had to be worked in between these segments. Storz noted the great response certain songs got from the record-buying public and compared it to the way certain selections on jukeboxes were played over and over. He expanded his domain of radio stations, purchasing WTIX-AM in New Orleans , Louisiana, gradually converted his stations to an all-hits format, and pioneered the practice of surveying record stores to determine which singles were popular each week. Storz found that

1296-407: The contemporary hit radio (CHR/pop) and Hot AC formats. This format contains a strong focus on current charts, contemporary and recurrent hits as well as placing a minority of older, classic hits from the 2000s and early to mid 2010s onto the playlist. Adult CHR stations play pop-friendly rhythmic, dance and hip hop titles alongside standard mainstream pop and pop rock fare, and often shying away from

1344-526: The cultural revolution." Bennett and his wife-producer Ronni moved their show to New York FM station 95.5 WABC-FM (which soon became WPLJ ) with the station at first recruiting him for morning drive time . He later switched to a free-wheeling overnight show. By late 1971 the couple had split. Guests on Bennett's WPLJ show included rock stars such as John Lennon, comedians like George Carlin and left-wing , anti-war activists such as Timothy Leary , Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman who would call him from

1392-476: The dance charts. Pure dance-music radio stations (as opposed to CHR/rhythmic and rhythmic AC formats such as MOViN) are not very common but tend to have loyal audiences in the markets where they do exist. Examples include WPTY on Long Island, NY and KNHC in Seattle . This format is very popular on internet radio stations such as KVPN Digital Broadcasting (VPN Digital 1) Los Angeles . Stations with this format,

1440-494: The development in that same city of PAMS jingles. McLendon's successful Mighty 1190 KLIF in Dallas, along with his two other Texas Triangle stations, 610 KILT (AM) Houston and 550 KTSA San Antonio, which went top 40 during the mid to late 1950s, soon became perhaps the most imitated radio stations in America. With careful attention to programming, McLendon presented his stations as packages to advertisers and listeners alike. It

1488-565: The early growth of the World Wide Web . After leaving FM rock radio in the late 1990s, Bennett created an Internet Television show for Play TV. The show ended when the company went out of business. Bennett also developed an early website, The Surfing Monkey , along with Chuck Farnham, David Biedny and Jesse Montrose. It featured, among other things, a series of articles written by an inmate on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison . Bennett

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1536-424: The early to mid-60's as program director of New York's premiere top 40 station at that time, WMCA. Storz Broadcasting Company consisted of six AM radio stations, all featuring top 40 in the sixties. Although Todd Storz is regarded as the father of the top 100 format , Gordon McLendon of Dallas , Texas, is regarded as the person who took an idea and turned it into a mass media marketing success in combination with

1584-600: The format's invention," featuring group discussions with the listeners called "Citizen Panels." Contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR , contemporary hits , hit list , current hits , hit music , top 40 , or pop radio ) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts . There are several subcategories, dominantly focusing on rock , pop , or urban music . Used alone, CHR most often refers to

1632-539: The late 1970s and early 1980s attempted to revitalize the format by refocusing listeners' attention on current, active "box-office" music. Thus, hot hits stations played only current hit songs—no oldies unless they were on current chart albums—in a fast, furious and repetitive fashion, with fast-talking personalities and loud, pounding jingles. In 1977, WTIC-FM in Hartford, CT, dropped its long-running classical format for Joseph's format as "96 Tics" and immediately became one of

1680-765: The main offering." The adult CHR format is sometimes utilized by stations which are heritage Top 40/CHR outlets in their respective markets which have been in the format since the 1970s or 1980s or FM successors to former AM top 40s, with examples in the UK including the Hits Radio Network compiled of heritage radio stations including Clyde 1 in Glasgow and Radio City in Liverpool . Also known as CHR/rhythmic, rhythmic crossover, or CHR/urban. These stations focus on hip-hop and dance-pop . There are differences between CHR/rhythmic and

1728-558: The more people heard a given song on the radio or from the jukebox, the more likely they were to buy a copy; a conclusion not obvious in the industry at the time. In 1952 he purchased what was then WLAF-AM in Lafayette, Indiana and constructed WAZY-AM/FM which is still the longest running top 40 FM station in existence to this day. In 1954, Storz purchased WHB -AM, a high-powered station in Kansas City, Missouri , which could be heard throughout

1776-505: The most rhythmic CHR titles until they are established hits on the format. Examples in the U.S. include WIXX in Green Bay, WKRQ in Cincinnati and KZZO in Sacramento. United Kingdom (UK) media regulator Ofcom states: "where a format requires a contemporary and chart music service, the main diet must be of modern music, reflecting the charts of today and recent months. Older, classic tracks would not be out of place, but only as spice to

1824-504: The same meaning and having the same creative point of origin with Todd Storz as further refined by Gordon McLendon as well as Bill Drake . The format became especially popular in the mid-sixties as radio stations constrained disc jockeys to numbered play lists in the wake of the payola scandal. Also known as CHR/pop or teen CHR. Plays pop , and dance , and sometimes urban , alternative , rock , and country crossover as well. Often referred as " Top 40 "; in terms of incorporating

1872-406: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alex_Bennett&oldid=1084237500 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1920-530: The station's transition from its Top 40 "Good Guys" music format to the pioneering "Dial-Log" all-talk era. Bennett brought a progressive rock radio sensibility to the teenage-oriented station, still playing album cuts of music as his talk show evolved, and openly discussing topics ranging from his love life to his participation in various countercultural events, before giving his yogic sign-off " Namaste " (sometimes rendered in English as "the God within me sees

1968-587: The station. Until then, Stern was heard in the Bay Area on San Jose -based 98.5 KOME , but did not have a clear signal in all parts of San Francisco. Bennett was fired in the middle of a live show being broadcast from Walnut Creek, California and was subsequently replaced by Johnny Steele, who tanked the ratings of the show and was then replaced by Howard Stern the following year. Coincidentally, both Stern and Bennett would later be co-workers at SiriusXM satellite radio. A technology aficionado, Bennett took advantage of

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2016-563: The top radio stations in the market. The first Joseph station to use the term "hot hits" on the air was WFBL ("Fire 14", which played its top 14 hits in very tight rotation) in Syracuse, NY, in 1979. Then WCAU-FM in Philadelphia switched to hot hits as "98 Now" in the fall of 1981 and was instantly successful. Other major-market stations which adopted the hot hits format in the early 1980s included WBBM-FM Chicago , WHYT (now WDVD ) Detroit , WMAR-FM (now WWMX ) Baltimore , which we might add

2064-569: The world's oldest AOR disk jockey when she hosted a Sunday night countdown show on KMEL from 1982 to 1983. After Bennett's departure, Ruth continued at KMEL for a year. Ruth died in 2005 at the age of 100. The Alex Bennett Show left KMEL when he was offered a lucrative deal and unprecedented creative freedom at a competitor station. Bennett and Regelski signed to do the morning show on 98.9 KQAK "The Quake" (now KSOL ) where they remained for two years. Bennett left KQAK for modern rock outlet 105.3 KITS ("Live 105"), where he did two stints. As

2112-433: Was Don Cornelius (who later hosted television's Soul Train ). It was in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots that he became radicalized. In 1969 he was recruited by Top 40 station AM 570 WMCA in New York City , where he worked with Murray the K , Barry Gray (who became a mentor) and where one of his engineers was comedian Jimmie Walker . Bennett was an overnight talk show host during

2160-497: Was hampered by his outspoken left-leaning political views (though he temporarily hosted a morning show on KNEW when it changed its format to talk in 2003). Station managers mostly wanted to hire right-wing talk show hosts. In 2003, Bennett returned to New York. On April 19, 2004, he began hosting a show from 7am to 10am ET on Sirius Left (now known as "SiriusXM Progress"). On his weekday show, he talked about politics, entertainment, and personal interests. He has also served as

2208-421: Was let go from WPLJ in 1974. Afterward, Bennett continued to appear on New York broadcast outlets, including WMCA. Bennett was asked to do a tryout week at a radio station in his native San Francisco . With the tryout a success, he was signed to host a morning show for album-oriented rock (AOR) station 106.1 KMEL , teaming up with newsman Joe Regelski. While at KMEL, Bennett's mother, Ruth, achieved fame as

2256-470: Was not successful against market leader WBSB B104, KITS San Francisco, and WNVZ Norfolk . Don Pierson took the formats of Gordon McLendon, boss radio and PAMS jingles to the UK in the form of Wonderful Radio London , (a pirate radio ship) and subsequently revolutionized the popular music format. On 14 August 1967 The Marine Offences Act was introduced in the UK and the pirate stations were shut down. The British Broadcasting Corporation were chosen by

2304-540: Was the combination of top 40 and PAMS jingles which became the key to the success of the radio format itself. Not only were the same records played on different stations across America, but so were the same jingle music beds whose lyrics were resung repetitively for each station to create individual station identity. To this basic mix were added contests, games and disc jockey patter. Various groups (including Bartell Broadcasters ) emphasized local variations on their top 40 stations. Gordon McLendon would operate approximately

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