I won't bore you with the story of my success in the wonderful world of radio.  Suffice it to say, from San Luis Obispo through Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and Duarte, over a ten year period, I finally made it to KMET in Los Angeles.  In 1978, the "legend" of Paraquat Kelley was born.  Lord knows, I tried to do my father's name proud via the radio.  The only difference was, back in the day, he was dubbed "Southern California's most respected sports authority."  I jokingly referred to myself as: "Southern California's most least respected journalist."  It worked for me. 

Perhaps at another time, I will regale you with some of the inside stories of KMET: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.  All of which may have contributed to the disease of which I'm going to talk to you about.  I worked at KMET for over decade.

After the Mighty Met (KMET) I was like an addict "chasing the dragon" attempting to achieve the same high I'd acquired at KMET at other radio stations.  I worked for KMPC FM and did mornings in New York City at WNEW FM.  Neither of the stations came close to recreating the high I felt working at KMET.

While at WNEW, we lived in beautiful Stamford, Connecticut, in a six bedroom house on three-and-a-half acres, situated in the woods on a golf course.  My wife Melody, two dogs, a cat and I shared paradise.  The late great Benny Goodman lived in this house!

I spent plenty of days in the woods fishing at the nearby pond with my three dogs.  Never did catch anything of note; or so I thought.

I'd never been so unhappy in my work.  After spending three years in Connecticut, Melody and I were both relieved and glad to get back home to Southern California.

We had gone to New York hoping to continue the magic of KMET.  It never happened.  I have my theory about why The Paraquat Kelley Show in NYC failed, but that's another story.

People often ask me, what was it like working at KMET?  It was as great as it sounded, that’s the truth.  Imagine having a place to go to work that was more fun than anything else you could choose to do.  That was KMET.  It was a party 24/7.  It was the only job/place where the employees chose to hang out after they got off work. It was the spirit, party atmosphere and music that made it that way.

The program director, Sam Bellamy was as big a fan of the music and personalities as the listener. She loved the station and the way sounded.  She acted as an important buffer between us and management.  She was very skillful at that task.  She was a huge reason KMET became the most recognized rock and roll station in the world.

The air staff really pulled for one another.  There was a true camaraderie shared by all.   There was a purity of purpose at KMET.  We all lived what you heard on the air.  It was not phony.

Could it be duplicated? Never say never; Paraquat Kelley