Report: Free FM Shows Darian The Door

Second-hand gossip from a reliable source let me know this morning that Darian O'Toole has been let go by FreeFM 106.9 (KIFR), where she has been midday talker since the station debuted late last October.

Turi Ryder, who had formerly worked at KPIX-FM and KFRC locally, has been brought in to fill the spot for the past week in Darian's absence. Initial reports on the air were that Darian was "under the weather."

Meanwhile, all references to Darian have been erased from Free FM's website, which now shows "Free FM Programming" in the 10 a.m. position.

UPDATE: I've had the opportunity to hear a recording of Darian's last show on FreeFM 106.9 — all twenty-five minutes of it — from February 24. It was truly and honestly embarrassing to listen to, and I'm surprised that no one stepped in to check on her earlier.

Radio Dots & Dashes — Rex MCNeill (ex-KATD and X-100) is back on San Francisco radio, doing traffic and fill-in shifts at Max FM 95.7. His first task: teaching Bobby Ocean how to make coffee in the Bonneville/SF break room ... Oh, did I forget to mention that Bobby Ocean is doing fill work at KOIT, and covered for vacationing PM Driver Laurie Sanders last week? Remember: you heard it here last...

Speaking of KATD/990, the venerable East Contra Costa County station — licensed to Pittsburg, with transmitter in lovely Collinsville — may be planning to boost its power from 5,000 watts to 10,000, and to aim its signal in a more Sacramento-ish direction; this according to a post in ba.broadcast. Since KATD's owner, Multicultural Broadcasting, also owns San Francisco's KIQI/1010 and duplicates programming on both stations, the move makes sense. Sort of. Doesn't it?...

And, to bring the whole thing full circle, both Rex MCNeill and Bobby Ocean worked at 990 AM in Pittsburg during their minor-league careers — Osh (as Radio Ray Farrell) back in the mid-1960s when the station was known as KKIS, and Tee Rex more recently in its KATD iteration...

Came across Buddy Hatton a few days ago. The popular former radio personality is now a filmmaker and resides with his wife and five children in Bali, where he heads Buddy Hatton Productions. Buddy hosted a show on the old KSAN/1450 as a teenager, then — as Clyde Hatton — was a DJ on the Bay Area's first Top 40 station, KOBY/1550, back in the late 1950s. After a highly successful run as a TV personality in Canada in the 1960s, he returned to San Francisco at KSFO, KNEW and Magic 61 (KFRC), while building his film company...

Bay Area sportscasting legend Lon Simmons was inducted into the Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in Burbank this past Saturday night (March 4), along with his lifelong friend, classmate and sidekick in the Giants broadcast booth, Bill Thompson. Simmons and Thompson were sports stars at the Southern California school, and were later reunited on KSFO, where Thompson shared the mike with Simmons and Russ Hodges. (You can hear the trio in action on the Bay Area Radio Museum website.) Simmons, 82, who is enjoying his retirement in Hawaii, came back to Burbank to receive the honor on behalf of himself and Thompson, who passed away in 2003.