Bryan Simmons was born in the San Francisco Bay Area but moved to Sacramento when very young. His life was forever changed when, at 15, his high school started a low power radio station.

Bryan said, "It was a chance to get involved in something I had always fantasized about, and we were very fortunate to have former LA radio talent Lloyd Shaffer as our instructor. He used to tell us stories about his start in radio and his days working at stations in Hollywood and New York City. It was a great way to get introduced to what radio was really like."

Halfway through his senior year in High School, Bryan and KROY alum Don Selasco talked their way into jobs at KROY answering the request lines doing passive research and whatever else they could for a t-shirt and a few albums here and there.

Eight months later there was a need for operators with FCC licenses (remember those?) to run the KROI-FM automation and Bryan got his first paying job in radio. Three months after that Bryan gave his audition tape to KROI PD Robert John by telling him that "some guy" dropped it off looking for a job.

The next day, John and Steve Rivers put him on the air there as Brian Mason. Another five months and Bryan was offered a weekend gig at KROY as Brian Davis. Four months after that he was doing overnights. Bryan says, "I ended my KROY career doing 10pm to 2am". Bryan would later work at AOR KZAP and Top 40 KXOA.

He moved to KOST in Los Angeles in 1982. Bryan was the number one afternoon AC talent in L.A. for more than a dozen of his first 19 years there and was rated number one 12+ in his time slot for more than three years straight in the early '90s. During the 80's and 90's, Radio & Records consistently named him to their national list of Top 25 P.M. Drive Time Dominators. Bryan was also the station's Signature Voice as well as the on-air granter of KOST's Christmas Wishes. With the exception of two and a half years at Coast 103's sister station K-BIG 104, he was at KOST until August of 2011.

Bryan says, "I was very lucky to be there for so long (29 years) in afternoon drive".

With the debut of his Collection on May 6, 2012, Bryan was on The Wave KTWV on Saturdays, noon to five, and fill-in, and Dial-Global Networks AC Pure Sundays and fill-in. Bryan said there are a lot of good people on the beach, but he hoped to shake off the sand.

And as of January 2017, Bryan has moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Program KMGA/99.5 - Magic FM.

WRKO Boston Composite, May 1975 (06:39)

. . . You Bet Your Bird! . . .

This is one of many acquisitions I made while working at KXOA. I have no idea who gave me the dub, and if they're out there, thank you! Listening to Dale Dorman always brings a smile to my face.

Also featured: Johnny Dark, Jack O'Brien, Harry Nelson, Mike Adams, J.J. Wright and Eric Chase.

KROY Sacramento Composite May 1978 (13:17)

For some reason the powers that be gave me the assignment of editing a station composite. I was pretty green at that point in my career, so this was a daunting task. I had heard a few composites before and tried to use them as a pattern. We used an Ampex reel to reel as our skimmer, so the quality was pretty good. Unfortunately some liked to open and close the mic quickly, leaving very little extra to work with.

Under the gun, I decided to do fast, super-tight edits. That was always a regret of mine, but this is still a nice snapshot of the end of our April/May ARB with a phantom contest and lots of energy that creamed the competition.

Featured: Tony Cox (production), Terry Nelson, Barry Fyffe, Tom Chase, Danny Wright, Kris Mitchell and Brian Davis (aka Bryan Simmons).

KXOA Sacramento Composite, Spring 1980 (06:34)

. . . Sacramento's motherlode of music and more . . .

KXOA was for many years, the main Hit Radio competition for KROY. Through most of the 70's it was known as KNDE, but at this point, KXOA-FM's Brown Broadcasting was the owner. They had bought it in 1978 and put the old call letters back in place. Brown tried two formats in as many years and after AOR and Pop Adult (AC), decided to give Top 40 a run with former KROY programmer Terry Nelson at the helm.

Yours truly produced this one for the sales department and I again was faced with a few jocks who would flick the mic on at the last second, so most of the editing is tighter than I would have liked. This format didn't last long as our corporate office in San Diego decided to go to an Oldies/CHR hybrid in September of that year, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. If only we had tried this on the FM dial... Featured: Terry Nelson, Jim Taylor, Brian Davis, C.J. Stone and Jeff Hunter.

KWST Los Angeles Format Change, June 30 - July 3, 1981 (21:12)

. . . All The Hits, All The Time . . .

My friend and former KROI music director Don Selasco was living in LA at the time and I asked if he would aircheck the impending format change at K-West. He was cool enough to record for a few days before it happened as well as a few days after the switch. He then shipped it up to me for editing.

You'll hear a few sets from the AOR staff and some promos for the new format too. Chuck Martin was the PD. He and the legendary Bobby "What a Guy" Ocean handle the imaging, with Bobby doing the format change.

You'll note a few seconds of dead air as the processing clicks over and Chuck Martin signs on with guns blazing on the first K-West CHR show. Also featured are Pat Garrett, Benny Martinez and London & Engleman.

Ken Levine, KFI Los Angeles, July 14, 1984 (01:01:14)

This Exhibit 'SCOPED (20:41)

. . . You will be quite the struttin' popinjay, walkin' along the beach with that thing smashed up against your face . . .

Radio is a pretty small world at times. You'll work for someone who will tell you stories of people they've worked with, only to find yourself in close proximity with the subject of those stories at a later date. It's hapened to me many times during my career and Ken Levine was one of those people.

Many will know his name from writing credits on Mash, Cheers and dozens of other great sitcoms, and as Beaver Cleaver on KIQQ, KYA, WDRQ and KTNQ, to name a few. An old roommate had worked with Ken at KERN, so I had heard a lot about him.

Well, one night at movie screening at 20th Century Fox, we finally met. Less than a year later, Ken was doing weekends at KFI and I took the opportunity to record an hour of one my favorite people.

Terry Steel, KWOD-FM Sacramento CA. December 27, 1985 (28:33)

This Exhibit 'SCOPED (05:28)

. . . inflaming your pleasure glands and boiling your body fluids with the HOT FM . . .

At this point in time, Sacramento's KWOD-FM/106 was doing a CHR format, and with Gerry Cagle at the helm, you knew that energy would be oozing from the speakers at a high rate.

Keeping that energy UP is Terry Steel, who I knew as Jeff Hunter when we worked at KXOA-AM together. Great jingles, imaging voiced by Bobby Ocean, and you can hear why KWOD was such a competitive station in 1985.