{"id":17892,"date":"2015-02-02T00:13:34","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T08:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=17892"},"modified":"2015-02-02T00:19:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T08:19:49","slug":"lee-baby-simms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/lee-baby-simms\/","title":{"rendered":"LEE BABY SIMMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A wonderful radio personality died last week. His name was Lee Baby Simms<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never knew him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never met him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never had any personal contact with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was one of the people who opened my eyes to the possibilities of radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a teenager, I ran away from college and hitchhiked to Los Angeles. <\/span><\/p>\n

I had no thought of entering radio. Radio was a place where I went to hear music.<\/span><\/p>\n

For some reason, I always preferred the #2 station in the markets where I lived.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a kid in Hartford, I listened to WDRC\u2026which was popular, but not as popular as WPOP.<\/span><\/p>\n

For me, WPOP was just too\u2026I dunno, too formulaic, too packaged. <\/span><\/p>\n

The jocks \u2014 at the time, I’m sure I called them “DJs” \u2014 at the Big D added more of their own personalities to the music the two stations had in common.<\/span><\/p>\n

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). <\/span><\/p>\n

WFUN had a much weaker signal \u2014 I could barely hear it \u2014 but more life, more fun, more genuine (vs. manufactured) energy in its programming and among its air talents.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I arrived in Los Angeles, KHJ was king of the ratings. <\/span><\/p>\n

KHJ embodied Boss Radio. They were exciting. They were bigger than life. Their lineup included some names who established their radio legends there.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other big Top 40 station was KRLA. <\/span><\/p>\n

Their format execution wasn’t as precise as KHJ\u2019s carefully structured (and effective) presentation style.<\/span><\/p>\n

KHJ\u2019s jocks were\u2026smooth. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The KRLA jocks? They seemed looser, with more of a “what the hell, let’s have fun” attitude. <\/span><\/p>\n

They also knew KHJ was kicking their ass in the ratings. I suspect that being #2 freed them to be more of themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

KHJ was #1. King of the hill. Exciting, high energy. The Mecca for Top 40 DJs everywhere. <\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, I preferred KRLA.<\/span><\/p>\n

KRLA’s evening jock was a guy named Lee Baby Simms.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t tell you exactly what he did \u2014 not because it was indescribable but because it was so long ago and my brain’s hard drive is sputtering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stories, I remember he told stories. Stories that wound around and doubled back and couldn’t possibly fit any music radio format anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think they were stories from his life. But\u2026It was so long ago, and I had the chance to listen for only a brief time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s what I distinctly recall thinking when listening to Lee Baby Simms:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. “Wow, this guy is unique.”<\/span><\/p>\n

2. “I’ll bet he gets fired a lot.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, remember, I knew nothing about the radio biz. I didn’t know that everyone<\/em> gets fired a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was inspired.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never heard Lee Baby Simms again after I left Los Angeles to start my own radio journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this day, I’ve never forgotten the spine-tingling experience of tuning in night after night to listen to a talented radio personality \u2014 a jock, dammit \u2014 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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"\nLEE BABY SIMMS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A wonderful radio personality died last week. His name was Lee Baby Simms. 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