R & B Chronicles

Joe Collins spent his childhood in San Luis Obispo, “glued” to the radio. He started with the local stations then gravitated towards the distant stations that would come in from the bigger citites outside the market (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno.)

The “magic” that would come from the speakers would carry young Joe off to a “wonderland of images and visions”. Around the age of 9 (1955) something huge happened. Joe heard his first Little Richard record. Up until that time, Elvis and Pat Boone had played on TV that year, but Little Richard took the music from black and white to technicolor and 3-D.

Joe began to build his own personal record collection (he only had a 78rpm record player). He started buying 78’, first “Tutti-Frutti” by Little Richard, “Honky Tonk” by Bill Doggett, “So Long” by Fats Domino, and “Short Fat Fanny” by Larry Williams. Joe added to his collection, at least a record a week, and continued his hobby of a record a week thru Jr. High and High School.

Fast forward to Christmas vacation 1962, Joe’s driving home from a “Battle of the Surf Bands” at the Pismo Beach Vets Hall. He was usually tuned to 50,000 watt, KRLA in Pasadena, but as fate would have it, they were playing a tune that Joe didn’t like, (it stunk), so he switched his radio in his customized 1954 Ford Crestline Victoria to KFWB channel 98 from Los Angeles and heard for the very first time, Bobby Dale.....and realizad oh-oh! I don’t think were in Kansas anymore.

It was at that moment Joe realizad that he needed to be on the radio...with his own show. Within the next 6 months, Joe quit the high school swim team, continued to work on adding to his record collection, and by January 1964, he started his professional career with his own show on KSLY in San Luis. From there, his career has taken him to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pórtland Oregon, Santa Barbara, and Fresno, and for the 42 years he’s been in broadcasting, Joe has continued to add his R&B collection as well as to his audio archives of disc jockeys, station jingles, and classic radio commercials from the 50’s and 60’s.

Joe produces “The Rythm and Blues Chronicles” out of his own studio in Fresno, pulling from a record and cd collection that numbers over 20,000. “The Rythm and Blues Chronicles” is not only fun and entertaining it’s also a history of the soundtrack of our lives.  One entertaining feature is Joe’s use of the “way back tuner”. For Christmas Joe’s wife Adele, found this unique piece in an antique store. The “way back tuner” diales into a certain year and frequency, and out comes a radio personality or radio jingle or comercial that was popular that year. We invite you to listen to “The Rythm and Blues Chronicles”  with Joe Collins, every Sunday afternoon on Oldies 97.5 KABX.