By now, you've likely read an appreciation somewhere of Cecil Heftel, the Hawaiian congressman and broadcaster associated with the big splash, promotionally active debuts of WKTQ (13Q) Pittsburgh, WHYI (Y100) Miami, and WLUP Chicago in the ‘70s. We wanted to give a few of the prominent programmers (and one industry observer) who remember Heftel a chance to share their memories with Radio-Info.com readers.

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Cecil Heftel believed in radio as an engaging, entertaining medium. Though he owned at least two [Easy Listening] stations – KEZK/St. Louis and WSHH/Pittsburgh – he loved show biz stations like Y100, 13Q and KGMB Honolulu. [Morning man] “Aku” in Honolulu was famously paid and made a lot of bonus money.

It was particularly exciting to work for him twice – first at Y100 and 13Q, then 20 years later at KLVE [Los Angeles] and [his] Spanish stations. The languages were different, the research a bit more advanced in 1994, but the underlying philosophies were exactly the same.

We talked several times a week, especially during the KLVE days. The sales staff hated the 1994 format “adjustments,” thought the station was too slow and boring and kept insisting the clients would all cancel. Uh…they did not. Cec wasn’t interested in sales people programming the radio stations. When the No. 1 ratings for KLVE came in January 1995, Cec called me up and didn’t say a word. He just laughed and laughed and laughed. Unforgettable.

But he could be brutal. Once when a manager and PD who were producing lame results rushed to meet Cec and glad-hand him at the airport, he glared at them and said, “You’ve ruined my radio stations.” And there’s the door.

Contrary to some stories, Cecil was very engaged on the income side of his stations, but he believed [that] programming and promotion came first. The best sales strategy was to win the ratings. He also believed in a firm hold on the commercial load, part of a strategy to get good rates. In those days Y100 was eight minutes/12 units an hour. The [Easy Listening] stations ran six.

He also believed in “music, mornings and money”. Y-100’s $50,000 cash call – given away twice – was pure Heftel. 13Q had done it first, though for $25,000. He stayed in touch with the program directors, calling whenever he felt like it – 3:00 AM, 4:30 AM. “Hi, what’s going on?” He wanted to talk about the stations, and to gossip. But the stations and what they were doing promotionally came first.

About his beloved son Richard, who managed the LA stations: “Richard’s the cheapest person I know, which is why he’s a great manager!” Richard, one of the world’s genuinely nice people, would grin and agree.

Work hard, play hard. Inspirational – unless you were in the doghouse, then completely intimidating. It was a great professional experience working for Cecil Heftel, but it was also a great personal experience. He gave us “balls” … and he wanted ‘em up in the air at all times.

One other favorite Cec line: I once asked him what it was like being in Congress. “It’s like a radio station with 535 program directors. And all of them on the take.” — Bill Tanner

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We didn’t see Mr. Heftel that often in Chicago but it wasn’t uncommon to get a note from him congratulating us on something we'd done. He particularly loved [WLUP’s] “Disco Demolition” promotion and followed up with a great note after our station crushed the competition. He was always a generous and supportive owner, even when we were pushing it outside everyone’s comfort zone and everyone loved him for that. — Dave Logan, KKSF (the Band) San Francisco

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I certainly would say that nobody shook Pittsburgh up the way Heftel did. The on-air product was formidable enough in itself; [PD] Buzz Bennett was starting from zero here, unlike at KCBQ San Diego or the other stations he'd been involved with up to that point.

Most of it had been done before — the Q format was perfected in San Diego, the frequency-callsign mashup had been used to a minor degree at Bartell’s WMYQ/Miami, “Don’t Say Hello” was used at KCBQ while Bennett was still at KGB. (I do think 13Q was first to use the logo exclusively, though, and am pretty sure it was first to go entirely wihout jingles.)

But by putting all of this together in a market where none of this had been done before — and where the long-dominant top 40, KQV, had actually been softening toward what we now would call Hot AC over the previous year — it struck like a bomb.

“Don’t Say Hello” was a brilliant launch strategy, as it put listeners and even non-listeners to work promoting the station among friends by word of mouth. And once people tuned in, the music (with its outlandish oldies, well-chosen album cuts, etc.), a phenomenal air staff and a low spot load policy held a lot of them.

But even before March 1973, Heftel was making noise. He tried to hire KDKA’s top-rated AM driver, Jack Bogut, away (and, according to rumor, was planning a KDKA-style MOR format originally, though that may have been diversionary chatter). His reputation as a flamboyant broadcaster with deep pockets preceded him and got a lot of mainstream press attention from the time the sale was announced.

13Q didn’t maintain its initial ratings dominance as other stations maneuvered to peel off demos and the initial contest jackpots diminished. But consider what happened to the rest of the market in the wake of 13Q and, for that matter, Heftel’s WSHH: Within a year, not only had News/Talk WJAS and automated-oldies WJAS-FM become top-40 13Q and beautiful-music WSHH respectively, but WTAE went from very upper-demo MOR to oldies-heavy AC with Drake formatics; WWSW-FM from simulcast MOR and easy listening to top 40 WPEZ; WYDD from easy-listening jazz to AOR; WIXZ from oldies-heavy CHR to easy listening, then Country; and KQV first became 14K, then Joey Reynolds' laboratory and ultimately all-news.

We’re used to thinking these days of stations making strategic format changes as the natural order of things, but Pittsburgh radio had been extremely stable for a very long time prior to this. Some of these changes would have happened anyway, but it’s easy to perceive 13Q as being the catalyst.

Was Heftel a visionary? Just an opportunist? Doesn’t matter. He was an agent of profound change in a fairly conservative market, and a harbinger of future trends. And that’s without taking into consideration everything that preceded or followed Pittsburgh. — W.T. Koltek, Canton, Ohio

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Hit Parade Radio’s John Rook published his own thoughts on Heftel and Y100 here.