Hal Bates And Famous People: June 2015

Thursday, June 18, 2015

TO HAL BATES FROM DICK WHITTINGTON

11 October 1968

Sweet Dick Whittington (born 1934) is a long-time disc jockey in Los Angeles,who has also appeared as an actor in movies and on television.

Prior to his arrival in Southern California, Whittington was a popular radio personality in the San Francisco Bay area at Oakland's KROW (960 AM), where he hosted the "Night Watchman" overnight program, and, later, a weekday afternoon show, from 1955 to 1958. In the fall of 1958, he moved to KSFO (560 AM) in San Francisco, as host of the 9 p.m. to midnight program. He began his stint in Los Angeles at KABC 790 AM, doing a one-hour talk show weekdays and a 3-hour Sunday talk show from 1965-1969. In 1969, he moved to KGIL.

His greatest fame in the Los Angeles market was in the morning drive time slot at KGIL AM 1260 in the "Sin Fernando Valley". For a brief time, he left KGIL to do the evening drive time slot at KFI AM 640. He also was briefly heard in the late 1980s on KIEV (870 AM) and, for a few months in 1989, was back at KABC AM. (see list below). According to the entry in www.laradio.com, he has retired and is writing a novel.

Many people regard his broadcast style as being ahead of its time. Rather than the "happy morning to you" type of radio personality, he often spoke on the air about things that bothered him and foreshadowed the Howard Stern era of speaking your mind. At stations where he was still spinning records, he would many times interrupt a song midway through saying, "I like it up to that point, then I get bored."

He was an ensemble member of the top-rated TV series "Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In" during the 1968-69 season.

One of Whittington's notable film roles was as the disc jockey in the TV movie Duel, Steven Spielberg's directorial debut. He can also be seen briefly as a ring announcer in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull.

He now lives in the San Luis Obispo area and is the image voice for radio station KKJL-AM (adult standards).

Friday, June 12, 2015

HAL BATES AT THE HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Letter and photograph by Ralph Portner, Vice President and General Manager, The Hollywood Palladium, 11 August 1972. This was to congratulate Hal on becoming editor of the Hollywood Reporter.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

HAL BATES ENJOYING COMPANY AT FLINT'S WHILE DRINKING PRUNE JUICE

The first photo ran earlier in this blog, but here are the two in sequence, before and after.

This should be circa 1967.

Help appreciated for any identification of the location. This "Flint's" appears to be a health food store (?).

The logo on the ladies' hats is "FF," perhaps "Flint's Foods?"