The Unofficial Duke&Banner Autobiography

Perhaps I’m painting the 50’s a little too rosy. In the early part of the decade, the Fine Republican Senator Joe McCarthy ruined quite a few careers, as detailed on another page in this here website. In 1959, a young bearded man named Fidel Castro siezed power in Cuba and tried to aim missles at us, and some of us were foolhardedly enough to think that ducking under a desk was going to protect us from a Russian Nucular attack. It was also the year that we added 2 states into the union, Alaska and Hawaii, and Ford introduced the Edsel, which ran very well on the new Ethyl gasoline, priced at 27 cents per gallon.

In 1954, Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren dealt a blow to Southern Christians by forcing them to treat “Negro” people as equals. "Oh my God, we can't do that!" They all crowed as they quoted Bible Scriptures that proved it was OK for them to channel all Blacks into lower-achieving schools, and treat them like 2nd-class citizens. Jeez, seems like Sonoma County Board Of Supes are treating Forestville citizens the same way! Too many Rock Trucks? Don't worry, you'll get used to it!! But the Supremes said it was time to integrate Southern schools, and integrate they did.

This of course, set off a firestorm of protests by Whites all around the country. By the early 60's, the "Campaign To Regain Religious Values" was in full swing, even in Beautiful Downtown Duarte. A large van with the words “Impeach Earl Warren” would be parked in different locations, gathering signatures. Considering that Warren had been a 3 term California Governor before he got the Supremes nomination, it must have hurt. But there wasn't enough Right-Wingnut Christians to impeach him.

And while we all grew up watching perfect all-white families like "Ozzie & Harriet" and "Father Knows Best", mine was far from norm. I tried to remove myself from the live drama of my Pa physically beating up my Ma. But that would have a lasting effect, I discovered. It made me a little twisted. It made me what I am today, and I hope you’re satisfied…(apologies to Frank Sinatra.)

Though we had enough money to eat, getting by wasn’t easy. I learned to fix things because there wasn’t much money to buy anything. A $100 jalopy was my mode of transportation.

Bob had similar problems. Both his folks died when he turned 22, forcing the poor boy to be vertical at such an early age. My Dad died as I turned 16. But before he died, our family did something that I consider fate. We moved to the Totally Backward Southern California town of Duarte, famous for The City Of Hope Cancer Research Center and nothing else. The Public School district was a shambles. But, it was there that I met Bob.

I should say that the Andres Duarte Elementary School was light-years better than the High School, or at least my teacher was. When my Mom discovered that I was playing “hooky” so I could mess around with old non-working radios, she called my teach, who volunteered to pay for a subscription to an electronics magazine. I felt like I was being treated special. No other kid had a subscription. I quit playing hooky.

Mr. Rother, or "Gerhardt" as his teaching associates called him, also had a dark side. Displayed proudly in a prominent corner of his desk stood a paperback copy of Adolph Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Although I was just a kid, I knew that Hitler was not exactly Betty Crocker. When I quizzed the teach about it, he shrugged it off, telling me that everybody had “some” good in them. Sure teach, anything you say.

I did end up paying back the school district. On the last day of school, the kids all brought in their records. A neighboring classroom discovered they had a damaged phonograph, and the teacher next door brought it in for me to look at during recess. A quick diagnosis uncovered a crunched in wooden support for the tone arm. So here’s the situation:

I have no tools...no repair parts...no wood. I have 15 minutes bring it back to life.

I suppose it was something out of a "McGiver" episode. Every classroom had lots of blunt-tipped scissors. I grabbed a few and started to bridge the hole in the board. It took 6 pair before the tone arm was level. By the time Mr. Rother walked in and surveyed the situation, I was cranking up the Bass control to hear the full fidelity of “Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You.” The phonograph was working fine. A big smile appeared as he put his arm on my shoulder: “You got some German in you.” I got an “A” for the semester. Rother gave me a good grade for my "German Tendencies." Yes, I had a good time, or, as Hitler would say: "It Was A Gas!"

I should also say that the imprompto repair jelled into an outdoor event during lunch break. As I opened my lunch bag, out came AD's two most interesting students, phonograph in tow. Lorna and Dorna---twin Black girls with boisterous behavior who make their own party wherever they go. Picture ugly---no, they were worse. I want to state here, that I am not predjudiced in any way. And they certainly attracted a crowd as they cranked up the volume as loud as it could go, to the tune of "I Know, You Don't Love Me No Mo." Then they started to dance. But...let's put it this way: I hope they learned how to pull out transmissions.

And so, there was Graduation Day. The entire school had to line up in the yard. I was standing in the middle of the 500 or so students, observing the usual shenanigans. In the back, a few Hispanic kids were playing with a sprinkler, wondering if they could spray someone. They found a nearby, sort of aloof person not paying attention. Later on, I would discover his name was Bob. And so much for his graduation ceremonies. Bob stormed home as the first drops hit. Jeez...even then he was Hydrophobic!

Yes, there’s no doubt that I was kinked. While the other kids were playing sports, I was tinkering with stuff. But Bob was kinked even more. Little did I know that it would be a lifelong friendship.

By 1960, KFWB at 980 on your AM radio dial had a competitor. KRLA at 1110 was an upstart. KRLA started in 1942 as country station KPAS. The principal DJ was none other than soon-to-be-car dealer Cal Worthington. When that bombed 3 years later, KPAS became KXLA and played fine Classical Music from only the finest of 78 RPM records.

The Eleven-Ten Corporation managed KRLA. They were a seedy lot. The 10 Kilowatt transmitter was now almost 20 years old. (That's 100 in human years) The original engineer, who supervised the custom design was dead. The new KRLA had a “pirate” radio station feel to it. They wanted to be the loudest station on the dial. Frequently the elderly transmitter would die in the middle of an extra-loud record. How long it stayed off the air depended on how many tubes imploded from the numerous bouts of over modulation the poor thing had to endure from the studio, which was based in a Beautiful Downtown Pasadena hotel.

Cal Worthington went on to become one of the most interesting car dealers in So Cal, if not the world. Originally from Oklahoma, his dog "Spot" changed from commercial to commercial. Spot was an elephant, a hippopotamus, a tiger, a kangaroo, a cow, a horse, a lion, an ostrich...but oddly enough, never a dog. While he rode the elephant and hippopotamus, the shots of him playing with the lion and tiger was pricless. With the lion, a very sheepish-looking Cal takes his cowboy hat off and sticks his head in the animal's mouth. With the tiger, he's laying down on the pavement, stroking the underbelly of the creature. The lion shows his appreciation by yawning, and rolls over on his back. A paw brushes right by Cal's face, and hooks into his trademark cowboy hat, yanking it off Cal's head. Cal is now in his 70's, and still sells cars on KCRA-3, Sacramento.

When people ask me: Where Were You In 62? I tell them that is the year that Bob and I entered The Prestigious Campus of Duarte High School. The school that taught me how to be a criminal!

	The Unofficial Duarte High School Fight Song: Go Duarte, On Duarte, Fight Us Tooth And Nail With Our Wonderful System, You're Gonna Fail Go Duarte, On Duarte, We Have Our Mis-sion To Get You In, A Wonderful Marvelous Pri-son Copyright 1962, Bro Duke. Any appearance of affiliation with ASCAP is purely co-incidental
		The players (left-front: Mr. Wilkinson Attendance Supervisor) (left-rear Mr. White, Asst. Principal) (right-front, Dr. McGrew, Principal Cheeze) (Notice how close in proximity he is to the School Nurse, Ms. Anderson!)

I had some knowledge of electronics and wanted to learn more. “You can’t have that in your freshman year!” yelled Mr. White, the Vice Principal. (I was never able to talk to Dr. McGrew, the full-fledged and Official Principal. Being a doctor, he was probably too busy comparing notes with: The Official School Nurse, Ms. Anderson.) And me, being a meek battle-scarred kid, stayed submissive and waited.

Aahhh! But tucked away in a dusty bookshelf in the rear confinements of the Duarte High School library was an electronics book. I brought it home. Nowhere in that book does it tell you how to build a transmitter, let alone one for the AM broadcast band. After all, that would be leading kids to crime! We can't have that! That would be giving free speech to the wrong class of citizens! But I managed to piece some information together. I cannibalized parts from an old radio, and had results within a week. Oh, Goody! I had Ritchie Valens broadcasting half way down the block on an unused AM channel.

The situation at DHS grew even worse. In my sophomore year, there was no electronics class at all. I became a little more upset. What really got me was English. Didn’t I get that subject 8 years in a row already?! I think my major complaints about continuing English class can be summed up in three categories.

Bro Duke's Top 3 Reasons Why He Hates English Class:

OK class...SNAP QUIZ: Name all of the modifying adverbs in the above sentences?

Getting back to radio, in 1963, it was pretty much official: FM was dead. Many stations we’re just turning the transmitter off, or donating it to anybody who would take it. A Spanish language concern with a popular AM station donated their FM transmitter and license to Pasadena City College. KWKW-FM became KPCS, all 300 watts of it. Reached all the way to Duarte, 10 miles as the crow flies.

In fact, just after my Dad died in 1965, I woke up and discovered there were no radio stations in the entire Los Angeles area that played my kind of music. When I called many of my local stations, if they said anything at all, they all said the same thing: “Nobody listens to that stuff, it’s too old!”

By then, rock stations had either donated, sold, or discarded their 50’s records into the back street dumpster. I happened to be at KRLA one afternoon about that time when a request came in to hear “Donna” by Ritchie Valens. The DJ thanked the caller, hung up and started laughing like a hyena: “Ritchie Valens? Please…this is a Rock Station!” The secretary laughed along with him. Just like a robot.

KRLA was giving KFWB a run for the money, but the FCC was moving-in for the kill. KRLA management had a “Solid Gold” Cadillac (well, it was painted gold) and used it to drive kids who were just drafted to the downtown LA induction center, on their way to Viet Nam. Many a kid never made it back and neither did KRLA management. The Feds didn't ask them why they were playing so many small-label records, but they did shut them down for running numerous phony contests, after repeated warnings. Payola? What Payola?

The FCC handed they keys over to the LA Public Broadcasting Station KCET-TV and the UCLA broadcasting department while they searched for new owners. The new operation was called Oak Knoll Broadcasters, and the idea was not to make waves or improvements to any of the equipment. It was supposed to be a quick few months, but Oak Knoll carried on for about 5 years while the FCC dragged its feet. And yes, the UCLA archives didn’t touch the 50’s either!

To remedy the situation, I decided to soup-up my transmitter. I took apart an old TV set and found even more parts that I could use! Did it work? Hey, look…even McGiver ain’t perfect! But Ritchie Valens and Paul Anka, along with other tunes that “no one wanted to hear” were now being heard all the way to the end of the block! Wow! Power!!!

Two ideas immediately surfaced:

1) Should I Make it more powerful?

2) Am I going to prison?

CHAPTER 3 NEXT WEEK
KRLA Bumpersticker courtesy geocities.com/hollywood 77Sunset Strip photo courtesy TV Party.com Felix Chervrolet Card courtesy Felix Chevrolet