LEE BABY SIMMS

A wonderful radio personality died last week. His name was Lee Baby Simms.

I never knew him.

I never met him.

I never had any personal contact with him.

He was one of the people who opened my eyes to the possibilities of radio.

When I was a teenager, I ran away from college and hitchhiked to Los Angeles.

I had no thought of entering radio. Radio was a place where I went to hear music.

For some reason, I always preferred the #2 station in the markets where I lived.

As a kid in Hartford, I listened to WDRC…which was popular, but not as popular as WPOP.

For me, WPOP was just too…I dunno, too formulaic, too packaged.

The jocks — at the time, I’m sure I called them “DJs” — at the Big D added more of their own personalities to the music the two stations had in common.

During my teenage years in South Florida, the big Top 40 station was WQAM. They were too teeny bopperish for my tastes (no offense, you Q alumni who are reading this).

WFUN had a much weaker signal — I could barely hear it — but more life, more fun, more genuine (vs. manufactured) energy in its programming and among its air talents.

When I arrived in Los Angeles, KHJ was king of the ratings.

KHJ embodied Boss Radio. They were exciting. They were bigger than life. Their lineup included some names who established their radio legends there.

The other big Top 40 station was KRLA.

Their format execution wasn’t as precise as KHJ’s carefully structured (and effective) presentation style.

KHJ’s jocks were…smooth. Polished. They’d step up to the plate and hit a home run each time due to their sheer, raw power. Much of that power came from the Boss Radio format.

The KRLA jocks? They seemed looser, with more of a “what the hell, let’s have fun” attitude.

They also knew KHJ was kicking their ass in the ratings. I suspect that being #2 freed them to be more of themselves.

KHJ was #1. King of the hill. Exciting, high energy. The Mecca for Top 40 DJs everywhere.

Naturally, I preferred KRLA.

KRLA’s evening jock was a guy named Lee Baby Simms.

I can’t tell you exactly what he did — not because it was indescribable but because it was so long ago and my brain’s hard drive is sputtering.

Stories, I remember he told stories. Stories that wound around and doubled back and couldn’t possibly fit any music radio format anywhere.

I think they were stories from his life. But…It was so long ago, and I had the chance to listen for only a brief time.

Here’s what I distinctly recall thinking when listening to Lee Baby Simms:

1. “Wow, this guy is unique.”

2. “I’ll bet he gets fired a lot.”

At the time, remember, I knew nothing about the radio biz. I didn’t know that everyone gets fired a lot.

But instinctively I figured that “the evening guy” was more dispensable than a daytime jock. I knew he must have a smaller audience and, probably, a smaller salary.

And what this guy was doing on the radio was so idiosyncratic that it must’ve been hard to find a program director (probably I didn’t know that term) who would put up with it long-term.

I was inspired.

I never heard Lee Baby Simms again after I left Los Angeles to start my own radio journey.

To this day, I’ve never forgotten the spine-tingling experience of tuning in night after night to listen to a talented radio personality — a jock, dammit — talk not about the record charts or even the songs he played but, instead, about the stories in his head that he wanted to share with me.