Les Crane - Radio

Radio

He began his radio career in 1958 at KONO in San Antonio and later worked at WPEN in Philadelphia. In 1961, he became a popular and controversial host for the radio powerhouse KGO (AM) in San Francisco. With KGO's strong evening signal reaching as far north as Seattle, Washington, he attracted a regional audience far outside the San Francisco area. A pioneer in the development of the radio talk show, Crane delighted and irritated callers and listeners with his forthright style and unwillingness to suffer fools quietly, often hanging up on callers in contravention of the polite ethos of the times.

A late-night program airing weekdays from 11pm to 2am, Crane at the hungry i (1962–63) found Crane interacting with owner and impresario Enrico Banducci and interviewing such talents as Barbra Streisand and Professor Irwin Corey. Crane's style was rapid-fire and contentious, arguing with Banducci or Corey about politics or how the club was run. The call-in number, EXbrook 7-2860, was frequently repeated on air, along with the fact that Crane was only 27 years old.

Les Crane and John Barrett, the general manager of KRLA, were the original people "responsible for creating the Top 40 (list of the most requested pop songs)," said Casey Kasem in a 1990 interview.