This one will be of interest to a lot of you but especially to those who grew up in the Los Angeles area in the sixties and seventies. One of the top local disc jockeys from that era was The Real Don Steele, who was heard on KHJ Boss Radio. He was quite popular and an awful lot of other radio personalities — in L.A. and around the world — wound up imitating The Real Don Steele.
He had a fun, energetic sound and as you can see in today's presentation, was wildly enthusiastic about absolutely everything. Every L.A. kid of my era knew that sound and also his catch-phrase. Throughout his radio shows, he'd often play a short clip of a female voice yelling, "Tina Delgado is alive, alive!" Who was Ms. Delgado and why was it so significant that she was alive? Mr. Steele never said, and you got the idea that even he didn't know; that it was just a stunt to get people curious.
Off and on, he also hosted various TV shows, mainly of the "dance party" variety. This is an episode of The Real Don Steele Show that aired on May 11, 1974. It starts with a commercial that includes a then-unknown-but-soon-to-be-famous Farrah Fawcett and then the show runs about a half hour over the four parts posted here. You will enjoy the musical acts of the day, lip-syncing to their hits. You will enjoy the teenagers dancing to the records. You will enjoy Mr. Steele's energy. And you will really enjoy some of the commercials.
One other thing: I'm assuming they taped in the KHJ studio, which was about the size of a three-car garage — one of those facilities that was erected in a building that was designed to do radio…and without a live audience. I know this show looks real cheap but considering what they had to work with, the producers and director worked miracles.
