"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft." H.G. Wells

"It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date." George Bernard Shaw

"Never assume that habitual silence means ability in reserve." Geoffrey Madan

Today's image: Sienna 16 by Modetrend. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Where the hell is Bill Drake and Tom Donahue?

Radio programming ace and marketing maven Lee Arnold cares enough about the first tribe of wireless to ask that question. His suggestion...it's high time we revisit our so-called Halls of Fame. Lee's take is spot-on. Read his post here and another on the great Joe Kelly here. Bravos, Lee! Thank you. And please permit me to add: Where the hell is Chuck Blore, Bob Henabery, Rick Sklar, Bill Gavin, Ron Jacobs, Paul Drew, Kent Burkhart, Harvey Glascock, Scott Muni, Jack Thayer, Lucky Cordell, Jerry Boulding, Bill Kaland, Ted Atkins, Pat O'Day, James Gabbert, Rick Carroll, George Burns, Jim Schulke, Kevin Sweeney, Dick Rakovan, New RadioStar's Bob Hamilton, Jean Shepherd, Dick Harris, Larry Bentson, Bill Burton, George Wilson, Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg, John Rook, Al Heacock, Larry Glick, Al Benson, Jim Yergin, Ron Chapman, Jockey Jack Gibson and Dickie Rosenfeld. Don't get me started.

LATER: Dan Kelley, keeper of the flame for Classic Rock FM, joins the conversation adding Buzz Bennett, more here.

Michael Fischer: As serious a student of advertising (and popular culture) as I know, Michael offers up a recap of his latest trip to LA here. Kudos, Michael.

Tis the season: FriendFeed swag

Bonus: Veronica Belmont's Top 10 Up-and-Coming Web Applications. BrandDoozie (beta, natch, cool DIY marketing tool, check it out)

Congrats & cheers: Ali Partovi & team ilike OnHollywood overall winner. Other OnHollywood winners include, Bret Taylor and crew at FriendFeed [FD: N=1 most addictive, fav app of the moment], Loic Le Meur & company Seesmic. Nick Grouf & team Spot Runner. Ben Elowitz & WetPaint. Congrats to all [Complete list of winners]. The uber-cool Laurie Pracher named VP/Sales @ CBS Radio Sales, she was born to be great.

"This is Tom Donahue, general manager of station KSAN in San Francisco. If the disc jockey you're listening to at this moment has not played a rock n roll record in the past ten minutes, please send me his name and he will be fired."

Tom's "Fire the DJ" Legal ID

One of the dramatic differences in great radio stations is their attitude. There is a measure of delight and surprise in listening to a station that does not take itself too seriously. Great stations have a perpetual sense of good humor about themselves. The Tom Donahue Fire the DJ legal ID is a perfect practical example of this refreshing, playful and creative spirit at work. Another example, the famous sign-off of KSAN gnus guy Scoop Nisker..."If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."

Attitude!

This is not a life saving hospital, we're not looking for a cure for cancer, it's only a radio station. It's show business. On with the show.

It was Tom Donahue who wrote the seminal FM rock radio manifesto, the 1967 Rolling Stone piece "AM Radio Is Dead and Its Rotting Corpse Is Stinking Up the Airwaves." He wrote "The disc jockeys have become robots...performing their inanities at the direction of programmers who have succeeded in totally squeezing the human element out of their sound...They have succeeded in making everyone on the station staff sound the same - asinine. This is the much coveted 'station sound.'"

Back to our rock radio inquiry - more on KSFX thanks to Ron Fell. Tom Yee a former KSFX staffer shared this info with Rosie Lee Allen...

The KSFX PDs while Tom was there. John Catchings, Sean Conrad, Gloria Johnson and Jim Smith. The GMs during Tom's run were George Yahres, Don Platt and Ron Denman. Also, there was another GM between 1976 and 1983 but no one is able to remember his name.

Bonus: 1977 Pacific Bell Yellow Pages, San Francisco Radio Stations