LAKE COUNTY — Disk jockey Bill Moen, today the host of KXBX”s “Moen in the Morning,” was recently inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in recognition of his 33 years at KABL in San Francisco. The Berkeley event honored Moen and other DJ greats such as Frank Dill, Al Hart and Ken Ackerman. An audience of 125 well-wishers and radio personalities came to see the first class of 2006, which celebrated 37 legendary disc jockeys.
Moen retired from KABL in San Francisco in 1993. He and his wife Vivienne bought a house in Lake County in the same year and decided to move there permanently from Marin, where they had lived for more than 30 years. Lakeport radio station KXBX immediately plucked him out of retirement. “They told me, ”Say what you want to say, play what you want to play.” So I said well that”s fine with me and went to work. It”s coming up on 13 years now,” said Moen.
Moen brings to mind a Sean Connery-type with a nice smile, blue eyes, and mellifluous deep voice, sans the Scottish accent, of course. He says he first considered a career in radio as a kid growing up listening to disc jockeys.
“I remember in school, they took us on a field trip to a radio station in Minneapolis, where I grew up. I guess we were in about the 5th or 6th grade, and I thought, ”Boy, this is great!”” Moen said.
Right out of high school Moen went into the army for 33 months during the Korean War, and then was a bank teller for four years where he met his wife of 52 years, who worked in the collection department of the bank. During that time, Moen went to broadcasting school at night for a couple of years, both in Minneapolis while he worked at the bank, and then in Hollywood, where he graduated.
Moen landed his first job at KFGO in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1954. He quit that job to go to KDAL in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1955.
“Radio guys are known as vagabonds, because you can”t get anywhere when you”re young in the business unless you go to another station,” said Moen.
From his second job Moen went to WDSM in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1956, two years later he was off to KILT in Houston, Texas, where Moen would become a top-40 disc jockey.
“My boss in Houston bought a radio station in San Francisco, and I said I wanted to go, this was in January 1960. So I transferred to San Francisco, and did the morning show on KABL, which is no longer around, but was a very popular radio station for many years,” said Moen.
“At my first job I was there for 10 months when I went to my boss to ask for a raise and he said no. I was 25 years-old and I said ”Well, I can”t sit here in a dead-end job anymore.” Everybody in radio does that, you go ask for a raise, they say no, and then you move to another station where they”ll pay you more. It keeps going until you feel that you”re making enough money,” said Moen, who didn t enjoy all the moving.
To be a disc jockey, Moen said, “You have to be a little nuts to start with.” He paused and added with a chuckle, “and maybe not like to work.” Moen says that in the old days they had what was called ”the announcer voice,” but that that is no longer required.
“Now you have guys ”talking like this,”” he mimicked in a high, affected voice. “And nobody cares — who cares what Howard Stern or any of these guys sound like,” said Moen.
Moen says disc jockeys often have names they are known by, catchy monikers they use to sign off.
“There was one guy who was known as The Lobster on his station and everywhere he went he had to put on this stupid lobster suit and paint his face red. Any appearance he made, that”s what he had to do, so I thought to myself, boy am I lucky I didn”t have to do anything like that,” said Moen, smiling. “They all had names in San Francisco. Gene Nelson called himself The Emperor, Frank Dill of KNBR called himself The Morning Mayor, and of course there were others. I just called myself The Top Jock, with my tongue firmly in my cheek,” said Moen.
But he emphasized that you couldn”t make it in the business unless you were yourself. “I”ve always said when you get into radio you are who you are and if you pretend you”re somebody else you sound phony and it doesn t go over. Whether there are 10 people or 10,000 you”re just yourself, you say ”Good Morning, how the hell are ya? And let”s get started.” And if they like it, you can stick around, if they don”t you”re insulted and you go into another business,” said the new hall of famer.
Moen said all of the disk jockeys in the Bay Area knew each other pretty well. “We”d see each other at golf tournaments and charity events, meetings of one kind or another, but none of us were close friends, we were competitors more than anything else. We were all against each other, but we didn”t care, and didn”t worry about it. Of course our bosses did, they”d say ”Hey, did you know Jim Lange”s ratings are coming up? You better get movin”!” and of course I”d congratulate Jim, or he”d congratulate me and it didn”t make any difference,” said Moen.
The man enjoys all kinds of music from Mozart — a personal favorite — to country and jazz. He says most DJs enjoy playing a variety of tunes. And the format for a typical disk jockey includes the occasional interview with musicians and other personalities.
For the job, Moen has been rising in the middle of the night for more than 50 years, and doesn”t mind a bit. “I enjoy it. I”m a late night person. I never go to bed before 11, and then I”m up at 5:30 a.m. — sometimes I nap in the afternoon.” Moen says each morning he wings it on the show. “When I get here in the morning I read the Record-Bee, the Press Democrat and the Chronicle just to see if there”s something I can talk about, and that”s it. Sometimes I collect stuff off the Internet, you know, jokes or funny sayings or something that I could use on the show, but that”s not preparation, that”s more stealing than anything else,” said Moen.
Moen said that most of the people who were inducted to the Hall of Fame were old-timers like Jim Lange, Don Sherwood, and Don Rose, who have passed away.
“All of a sudden — I guess when you reach a certain age and you ve been around for a number of years — they start giving you awards. Those of us who are still around, went there to accept it, stole a bow, and snuck out of there before they took it back,” said Moen modestly.
