Al Anthony (born Almondo Antonio Vincenzo Fiori) is a former Los Angeles radio personality. Anthony was most well known as a disc jockey for KAFY 550 AM in Bakersfield, California during the 1950s and later at KFXM 590 AM in San Bernardino, California during the 1960s, where he was also the station's Director of Operations. In 1958 and 1959, Anthony was the top rated DJ in the United States.[1]
Contents |
Anthony is a Korean War veteran, having served as an aircraft technician in the United States Air Force. In 1949, he was on board a Boeing B-50 Superfortress named Lucky Lady II for a non-stop, around-the-world flight that was the first such trip for that aircraft model.[2]
After his military service, Anthony graduated from Los Angeles State College, where he majored in television and radio broadcasting. He later attended Ogden's Radio Operational Engineering School and earned a Lifetime FCC 1st Class License.
Anthony's first radio jobs were part-time work for KBLA 1580 AM in Santa Monica, California and KSPA 1510 AM in Santa Paula. In 1956, Anthony was hired as a full-time personality at KSLR in Oceanside.[2]
On October 25, 1968, Anthony was the Director of Operations at KFXM, Tiger Radio 590, when an AFTRA strike resulted in a walkout of the radio station's on-air staff, including Jim Conniff (son of big band leader Ray Conniff), Charlie Walters, Brad Edwards, Don McCoy (AKA "The Magical Mystery Man"), Jonny Bruce and Craig Denny -- along with the announcing staff over at sister station KDUO-FM. Anthony and other members of the station's management and sales staff immediately took over disc jockeying duties, adopting the mysterious personas of The Jones Boys. Al Anthony went by the alias, Casey Jones, while the other fill-in DJs were similarly referred to as "John Paul Jones" (AKA Dan Daly), "Davy Jones" (AKA Danny Dare), "Lonesome Jones" (AKA Gary Evans), "Tom Jones" (AKA Dave McKay), "Unsinkable Jones" (AKA Bob b. Blue), "Just Plain Jones" (AKA Kim Terry) and "Anonymous Jones" (AKA Al Barnett). There was also a "Pappy Jones", a KFXM/KDUO-FM station engineer. This strategy not only allowed the station to survive the walkout, but resulted in an increase in ratings due to the mystery surrounding the "new" DJs. On July 4, 1969, the true air staff identities of The Jones Boys was finally publicly revealed in a new Tiger Tune Sheet weekly survey format published on that date. Also, the status of the AFTRA strike grievances remained indeterminate at that time. [3] (4)
4. Archives of Tiger Mags, Tune Sheets, newspaper articles, interviews, diary notes, station documents, and personal knowledge/recollections by Ben e. McCoy.