McInnes jazzes up his radio career

By: RANDY DOTINGA - For the North County Times | Wednesday, October 4, 2006 1:00 PM PDT ∞

During his lengthy tenure at classic rock station KGB, Jim McInnes was a disc jockey's disc jockey ---- a guitar-playing, skirt-chasing smartass.

Nowadays, San Diegans are hearing a quieter side of McInnes. Several times a week, he pops up on KSDS/Jazz 88, one the classiest stations on the dial and about as far away from Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan as you can get without recruiting someone named Ludwig or Amadeus.

"A couple people have called up and said, 'You sound really happy,' " McInnes said. "Of course I'm happy. I love being on the radio."

Rock 'n' roll, of course, is his specialty and no wonder ---- McInnes was at KGB for almost 29 years.

During that time, he made a name for himself as a bit of a troublemaker, such as when he referred to the Jack in the Box as "Gag in the Bag." That landed him a meeting with management, which

explained that any cut in the fast-food chain's advertising budget for KGB would come out of his salary.

Then there was the time he was working the 7 p.m. to midnight shift and put a 14-minute Lynyrd Skynrd song on the record player so he could go outside and "snog" with his girlfriend. He ended up locking himself out, leaving the record to "click-click-click" until the disc jockey doing the next shift came in.

"The funny thing was that I never heard a word about it from the boss and I worked there for another 24 years!"

The KGB stint ended in 2002 when the station decided to not renew his contract. McInnes got a gig at another classic rock station, KPLN/The Planet, but then that station switched to a talk format last year and McInnes was once again out of a job. But it didn't take long for him to find work at KSDS, which is based at San Diego City College and plays traditional jazz.

"At first, people were skeptical: Here's this guy who's been playing rock for years. Does he know anything about jazz?" McInnes said. "Yeah, I did know something about jazz."

Indeed, he grew up in the Chicago area listening to his parents play jazz on the record player. And he also heard jazz on the radio too: Back in the 1960s, Top 40 stations played tunes by the likes of Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis along with the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

At KSDS, "I'm on call, like a pinch hitter. I'm the new guy and I don't get a regular shift," he said. "Basically, I'm starting over. I hate to use the cliche that I'm reinventing myself, but that's what I'm doing."

To make matters challenging, working at KSDS is hardly as lucrative as a disc jockey job in commercial radio. And KSDS hardly has the huge listenership of KGB; while its signal reaches much of the county, many San Diegans don't know it exists. But for McInnes, a married man in his 50s, the new job at KSDS isn't all that different from work he's done in the past.

Unlike just about every other radio station, KSDS allows its disc jockeys to choose the music they play.

"That's the kind of radio I started in, free-form FM," McInnes recalled. "We played some 10,000 to 12,000 titles at KGB in the early to mid 1970s: Jocks could pull their own shows with some discipline."

Nowadays, radio playlists are set in stone and DJs typically don't have much leeway to fool around with them. And the playlists themselves aren't very big: According to McInnes, KGB plays only about 500 songs.

Compare that with KSDS, which boasts a whopping 17,000 CDs and 7,000 vinyl albums in its collection, all available to appear on shows.

"In this case, we're looking at 140,000 songs, versus 500," McInnes said with a laugh. "It certainly does broaden your palate."

In between spinning tunes from the jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and swing genres, McInnes still lets a bit of himself go out over the airwaves.

"It's about the music more than it is about the personality, but I find it impossible to just sit and recite titles and players," he said. "Inevitably, I bring my personality to what I'm doing. I think people like that. I haven't had anybody complain."

For now, the 50something McInnes is happy to keep working at KSDS, playing in his band (The Modern Rhythm Band) and living in San Diego with his wife. But he wouldn't mind another crack at commercial radio, even with the tiny playlists and limited freedom.

"I love the concept of radio and the potential of radio," he said. "Honestly, I feel incomplete without being on the radio in one way, shape or form."

Objects in mirror and Randy Dotinga are closer than they appear. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.

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