Terry Moss was an unpretentious, supremely talented, highly creative radio personality and production wizard. He had cool, fun ideas and brought them to life — among them, the Cheap Radio Thrills series that still is used by radio stations around the world. (I’ve heard CRT cuts on the programs of virtually every “big name” in North America, regardless of format.)
Terry was a friend, inspiration, cohort and pal. He died 14 years ago. Saturday, October 25, is his birthday. For the rest of this week, I’m going to tell you about Terry Moss.
Everyone I’ve ever met who worked with Terry as a disc jockey says he was the most prepared jock they’d ever seen — and the most relaxed behind a microphone. He never had to try to be a radio personality; he just sat down, opened the mic, and made his listeners feel at home as a host welcomes guests to his party.
People who knew him as a production guy don’t talk about his editing skills. They say, “When he was in the production room, he was so creative — Well, it was amazing.”
Terry founded L.A. Air Force (which now is part of my company), and he was Editor and then Publisher of a show prep service I founded, Galaxy.
His sense of fun caused the Federal Communications Commission to make a new rule against — well, basically, a rule against having fun on the radio. (I’ll tell you that story — complete with audio — on Saturday.)
His sense of conscience almost got him court martialed while broadcasting for Armed Forces Radio & Television in the Panama Canal Zone.
Terry Moss played the last Top 40 record on KHJ/Los Angeles, and he was one of a handful of air talents chosen to figure out how to deliver a personality-oriented music program via satellite to stations across the country.
Between now and Saturday, I’ll share with you some of Terry’s advice to jocks, taken from a panel session I produced & moderated at an NAB convention in 1985. You might be bored, you might be interested; I don’t know. But this is one of radio’s all-time shining stars, talking directly to you, trying to help if he can. That’s what Terry Moss always did.
Yeah, the rest of us on the panel thought he was talking about the power of “the tease,” too. But that’s not it. Because Terry chose not to reveal his secret immediately, I’ll honor his wish and wait until tomorrow to share it with you.
I remember visiting the new, eerily quiet Hollywood studios of Transtar. It was a radical new idea: providing 24-hour live, “local-sounding” music programming to radio stations all across the U.S. Transtar became Unistar, which ultimately was purchased by Westwood One.
Here’s Terry Moss, explaining a concept that now is familiar to everyone in radio but at the time was brand-new and unfamiliar to most of the industry.
Tomorrow: Terry reveals his secret show prep method. Plus the story of how he almost spent a couple of years in the brig — because he had something to say that he was willing to risk his freedom for.
