Born in Los Angeles and raised in the purple Southern California haze of the 60s and 70s, Jeff Young (hey, that's me!), was a kid with a dream: to spin records and sling sentences on L.A.’s airwaves. My holy grail? 93 KHJ—Boss Radio—where the slickest DJs in the game worked their magic. These vocal wizards darted through tight gaps between songs, charming the 18-34 crowd and beyond, all to keep them hooked through each precious quarter-hour. "Quarter hour maintenance" equaled ratings gold. If you could keep people listening for a few minutes across each quarter-hour, they counted as having listened a whole half-hour. In a world scrambling to earn tiny percentage point advantages over "the other guy", it mattered a lot.

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At 21, I broke into L.A. radio, but not at KHJ. Instead, landing at KFI, a 50,000-watt beast of a Clear Channel station with listeners from coast to coast and beyond. Not exactly the prize I was after (there was only one KHJ), but not bad. KFI had been a classic, old-school joint—think talk radio titans like Lohman and Barkley or Hilly Rose. Then, under PD John Rook, it flipped the script, morphing into Music Radio KFI. Little-by-little, it gained a whole new audience.

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Heard all over while on the air at KFI, I'd get calls from just plain folks and even old and potentially new bosses in far flung locales. It was fun, but I was fired from KFI in short order. Wait until you hear why, and what the boss said to me and my little sister as I was turning in my key.

 

Forced to move on, it wasn't long before I stepped into the wild, woolly world of radio management. I've had bosses tell me "Don't become a PD or GM. You'll hate it.  Just play the hits, take your check and go home. You'll be happier".  I did the boss thing anyway. Turns out they were onto something, but I got some good stories out of it all.​

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My last gig on a radio network heard worldwide, entailed interviewing a superstar one day and covering a national tragedy the next, without revealing where I was - all while trying to sound local. ​

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I was on the air during some of the biggest events in modern history, including Challenger, the SF quake in '89, Columbine, and 9/11. I've interviewed a wide variety of celebs & news makers: Taylor Swift (three times), Tony LaRussa, Jimmy Carter, Bill Cosby, David Duke, Timothy Leary, Jerry Springer, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Kristi Yamaguchi, Garth Brooks, Tyler Perry, Gretchen Wilson, Heidi Klum, Barbra Eden, Julie Andrews, Toby Keith, John Rich, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, John Leguizamo, Tom Selleck, Johnny Van Zandt, Vicki Lawrence, two Elmo's (the Xmas song singer & Sesame Street character), the Taco Bell Chihuahua, and many more.

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Along the way I encountered a truckload of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, Big Band music and country, too. I used to hate country music. I still dislike some, but I also love a lot of it. In all genres, I've found, it usually comes down to the song, not the artist.

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I thought I'd get into radio because A): I had a face for it, and B): I'd get to play a lot of the music I love. Day one of broadcasting school, the instructor told us two key things he thought we needed to be aware of. One: This is a job, not just a place to play your favorite music. Two: 60% of people in the biz are gay - (or did he say 90? lol). Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything? We'll find out! Was he right? Did it matter? Yes, and no. Not necessarily in that order.​​​​​​​

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I wasn't sure I would, but I'm having fun writing this book. Not everyone will be pleased with what's in it. That's show biz!​​​​​​