Posted on 09/25/2004 8:42:34 PM PDT by foolscap
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Bill Ballance, a radio personality whose bold 1970s talk show tackled relationships and sex and helped pave the way for today's shock jocks, has died at age 85.
Ballance died at home Thursday, according to his son, Jim. He had been in failing health since undergoing quadruple bypass surgery and suffering a stroke in June 2002.
Ballance's "Feminine Forum" became one of the most popular radio shows in Los Angeles within a year of its 1971 debut on KGBS-AM.
Racy and confessional, the show drew many listeners, both male and female, with topics such as "Where did his love go and how did you know it was gone?" and "Are you a red-hot mama?"
"Feminine Forum" provoked anger among women's rights activists, who accused him of exploiting callers. But Ballance dismissed them, and the program was syndicated around the country.
The show inspired legions of imitators.
"The 'Feminine Forum' was really the forerunner to radio's Tom Leykis and Howard Stern," said Don Barrett, executive editor of LARadio.com. "He had a little sexual content in there. Nobody did that on L.A. radio prior to Bill, but he did it in a very tasteful way."
In the late 1990s, Ballance caused another stir when he sold nude photographs of radio therapist Laura Schlessinger to a company that posted the photos on the Internet.
Barrett said he took the pictures without coercing her during a 1970s affair when Schlessinger was married. He said she lied about the relationship.
Schlessinger, who had been a regular on Ballance's show, was outraged. But in 1998, a judge ruled the images could continue to be posted on a Web site.
After KGBS dropped "Feminine Forum" in 1973, Ballance hosted the milder "Bill Ballance Show." He worked for KABC and KFMB in San Diego before retiring from radio in 1993.
Born in Peoria, Ill., Ballance studied journalism at the University of Illinois and served in the Marines. He had stints on radio stations in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
From what I understand of him, he was a loathsome man.
I remember him as a top 40's DJ on KFWB (Channel 98!) in the late 50's. I think he was suspended for awhile for a tasteless joke (comparing women to a frying pan...you had to get them both hot before putting the meat in) but he was a real hit with the 14 year old males of the time.
There was an imitator during the same time period. I believe it was 'Doctor' Don Rose out of Sacratomatoe. Then again, it was possibly some other radio personality who got women callers to discuss the titillating aspect of feathers during love-making, etc.
It was a truely bizarre time in the cultural history of the country.
I think you have the full measure of the man.
I had completely forgotten about Bill. RIP
Yes, I remember listening to him on KFWB in the early 60's. Didn't he have a tagline in from of his name, like the "mighty" Bill Ballance or something like it?
I remember the name from the 60s. Wasn't he a top 40's DJ on KRLA in Los Angeles in the about 1962 to 1964.
Didn't he also write liner notes, under his own name and with attribution, for some rock groups' albums?
What he did to Dr. Laura was inexcusable and what the Judge did to her was worse.
I thought so, too (grew up on KRLA in the 60s as late as I could stay awake: Dick Biondi, Emperor Hudson, Wolfman, Dr. Demento) - but not according to this website.
Anyone here remember Joe Pine? Not exactly a shock jock, although he had "shocking guests" like Anton Levay and Valerie Solanas (if anyone else knows who those people are).
Anton Levay = Church of Satan?
Dr. Don Rose -- who was at his apex as the reigning morning voice on KFRC back in the glory days of Top 40 radio -- was not a "shock jock." He was the prototypical wacky guy in the morning with corny jokes galore, horns, bells, and sound effects. Outside of occasional off-color one-liners, he didn't say anything that would have people picketing the station.
Rose was lighthearted and silly on the radio, but in reality, he had a very tough existence. This is what I remember about Dr. Don: In a full-body cast after a skiing accident, he still did he show lying flat on his back. He traveled to Lourdes hoping for a miracle to heal a problem with one of his legs, and a few years after it seemed to get better, it was amputated. Shortly after returning to the morning drive wars at K101 in San Francisco, he actually had a heart attack on the air. He is retired and living in the East Bay. He is quoted as once saying, “Smile even though it kills you, and you’ll die with a silly grin on your face.”
I believe the personality you are thinking of is Don Chamberlain, who did a mid-afternoon sex talk show on the short-lived KGO-FM 103.7 (talk radio in stereo!), which usurped the space left by KSFX-FM.
KSFX was a clone of KSAN, the original "free form" album oriented rock station. Chamberlain's co-host was Rosie Allen (nee Rosie Lee Allen), who previously served as the newsreader/foil for the funniest radio guy I have ever heard, KSFX's Stephen Capen. Nowadays, Capen does serious yet frivolous news schtuff for public radio.
This I know: I saw liner notes written by Bill Ballance on the comedy LPs from the racy duo Hudson & Landry. He was on KGBS, not KRLA. At least not at the height of his career.
In the interval between the Vanity Fair hit piece in which Ballance turned on Dr. Laura and the revelation and publishing of the nude photos he took of her, I visited a radio talk newsgroup to find out more about Ballance. One of the posters mentioned that a rare Ballance-authored book had photos that were credited to Laura Schlessinger. This eventually led to one of the participants stating that in a private conversation with him, Ballance told him that Laura -- then in her 20's -- had told Ballance that she didn't want to live past the age of forty.
That was then. This is now. Laura is a different person than she was when she was Ballance's paramour.
Great website! I had completely forgotten about B. Mitchell Reed - the Beemer!
"Joe Pine - a one-legged Marine who asked for no quarter and gave none!"
Ah, KSAN, those were the days.
You're right, it wasn't Don Rose.
It would've been ca. 1972 and the name of the show was 'California Girl' and the host used the Beach Boys song as the bumper music for the show.
It was considered very risque at the time, and was one of the earliest talk show formats I can recall.
It was on a Bay Area station.
Grew up watching Joe Pyne every Saturday night with my aunt - helped make me the knuckle-dragging right-wing extremist I am today! :)
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