Bio of Greg Mitchell
Greg Mitchell (George Junak) today
Greg Mitchell (George
Junak) spent parts of 1976 and 1976, working weekends and 6pm to midnight. Prior to that, Greg was at KDES in
Greg’s education was at
When he left KFXM, Greg
with to KSOM in
He is currently the owner
of the California Aircheck
website.
My KFXM Stories
“Bob West and I both
did weekends at KDES/Palm Springs in 1974; Bob left and went to KFXM.
One Sunday on my way home from KDES to the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles
where I was going to Cal State Northridge during the week, I heard Bob on the
air at KFXM and pulled off I-10 to use a pay phone to call him and say hi. Bob
told me that KFXM PD Ted Brown was really in need of a weekend jock so I sent
Ted a tape and was hired on the phone before the next weekend.
“That first weekend I
worked midnight-3AM on Sunday morning, drove to Palm Springs to do 6AM-3PM
(6-10AM was running public service tapes; 10-3 on air) then returned to KFXM to
do 4-7PM. It didn't quite work out as it took longer than 60 minutes to drive
from
“Getting fired the second
time (or maybe it was the third) from KFXM was the only time I had a new job
before I was out of the building. I was hanging out with the ladies in the traffic
department while my final check was being cut by the bookkeeper. Before I was
out the door, Bob West called from KSOM to offer me 6-10PM. He had heard I was
getting canned that day and had cut the evening & overnight shifts to 4
hours to make room for me. I gave him an immediate ‘yes’ and started the next
night at KSOM.
"Unfortunately, KSOM threw
all of its power south from Ontario into mostly unpopulated areas so it had no
chance of being a success; during the day it covered Ontario, parts of
Riverside and Corona; at night pretty much just Ontario and Corona. By years
end they had decided to flip it to Spanish after softening it to a Hot AC from
Top 40.
"Howard Tullis seemed to
think that those KFXM DJs would run up his phone bill and use up all his copy
paper. When the office closed each evening, the phones all over the building
would be turned off. The only outgoing line was in the KDUO studio. While I did
not run up Howard's bill, I quickly figured out how to dial out on those old
rotary phones (the hotline phone in the studio would only receive calls - I
think the rotary dial was taken off the phone) - you could tap out the number
you wanted to call (kind of like a telegraph) using the plastic buttons on the
top that the hand-piece sat on. Worked like a charm in a pinch.
“And the copy machine? It was turned off and locked each night but a letter opener could be slid down to pop the on-off switch buried inside the copier, should a late night copy ever be needed. Sorry Howard…
“If someone like Ted Brown
needed to call Howard Tullis at his