Richards and Allyn subsequently moved on to WCPO (Color Radio) in Cincinnati that seemed to Gary as the ‘prequel’ to the television show WKRP in Cincinnati. From there, the team went to KIMN in Denver. When Richards was offered a job at KCBQ in San Diego, he would accept the position only if his friend Gary Allyn came along in the deal. After hearing an aircheck of Allyn, Station owner Lee Bartell consented to the arrangement.

Part 2: Onward to KCBQ 1965

Stan Richards and Gary Allyn arrived at KCBQ as part of a youth movement to stem the rising popularity of rival KGB’s Boss Radio phenomena. Despite his 10 years of experience in radio, Allyn looked like a college student, but performed as a seasoned professional. Almost immediately, he questioned management over silly contests that produced cheap gifts to winning listeners, or air personality restrictions that impeded their job to function on the air. Allyn seemed to gain credibility with the owner when he raised such concerns.

In the meantime, poor management was causing KCBQ to implode due to poor programming decisions and high staff turnover. One of the early staff departures was Stan Richards who left for medical reasons. Gary Allyn was a rare bright spot for KCBQ in 1965 as he developed a loyal audience. He created the “Worlds Tallest Midget” fan club where members would receive an official ID card and a signed photograph of Gary Allyn, paid for from his own salary because the station would not fund such an extravagance. Management also had a problem with this promotion. Short-statured Lee Bartell took offense to the term. So the concept was re-cast as “Leader of the Little People” instead.

Gary got a call from the station owner of KONO in Spring 1966 offering him the position of program director if he would return. After what must have been agonizing nano-seconds, he accepted the offer and left for San Antonio.

Part 3: Allyn Time begins at KCBQ

Gary lined up a job at KDAY in Los Angeles and merely stopped by the station to visit with Mike Scott on the way to Los Angeles. By this time, KCBQ had relocated its studio to the location of its transmitter in Santee, CA. The facility was far more advanced than the old downtown digs. During that fateful meeting, Mike Scott offered him the afternoon shift at the same pay he would have received at KDAY. Fortunes continued to turn as Mike Scott, a brilliant program director, left KCBQ in early 1969, and Gary Allyn became the program director. Now it was his turn to shine.

The programming at KCBQ had vastly improved in 1968 and was now on the cutting edge of Top 40 radio. The move to Santee to a more modern facility produced a better sound than the antiquated studio at 7^th and Ash could produce. A slot was created at night to play progressive, non-chart, music selections as well as current hits. The operating budget for contests was expanded to produce gifts that listeners would actually want, rather than the cheap trade-outs offered under the previous management. Even a Sunday night talk show found a loyal audience. This is what Gary Allyn inherited when he took the reigns as program director in January 1969.

Top 40 radio was constantly changing in 1969. One could not just stand pat with the successful efforts of 1968 to stay competitive. While Allyn usually had control over personnel decisions, occasionally, the upper management would hire someone and tell Allyn they were on their way to San Diego to be on the air. Sometimes, he was ‘presented’ with air personalities that, more often than not, proved unfit for the San Diego market. Those that did well in the market tended to be his hires. His staff of 1969 included Robert L. Collins, Neilson Ross,  veteran Scotty Day, Lenny Mitchell, China Smith, and Thom Devine.  Lee ‘Babi’ Simms, who was fired repeatedly for on-air dramatic statements, and Happy Hare Martin, who produced large advertising revenues during his show, returned after working in other states.

By now, listeners wanted cash for winning contests. He created a cash jackpot, using random jackpot increases that required constant listening to win. He kept raising jackpots until rival KGB created the double-cash jackpot to counter KCBQ’s insurgencies into their market share. The KCBQ ownership once again impeded market performance by restricting cash jackpots in favor of producing larger cash annual bonuses for management staff.

Faced with limited funding for contests, Allyn went back to innovative music programming to keep pace with KGB. He created the long-play format where album cuts would be mixed with current hits in the rotation. But ownership had concluded that the best way to beat the competition was to hire the competition. They started with KGB program director Buzz Bennett, who proceeded to fire all the KCBQ staff, or encourage them to leave, and replace them with former KGB staff. What KCBQ ownership did not know, until the Winter ratings book was released, was that the album format had caught on and KCBQ actually beat KGB in the ratings.

Allyn moved on to other local stations. Capitalizing on the success of KCBQ’s Long Plan format, Gary and Neil Ross aired San Diego’s first Classic Rock Album station XHIS and XHERS in 1971. He programmed KDEO in 1973 and moved over to program KSEA-FM, San Diego’s first FM Top 40 station in San Diego, in 1974. He left radio after that to pursue a host of other ventures. He was one of only a few who influenced Top 40 radio in San Diego for years to come. If there was a Radio Hall of Fame in San Diego, he should be an early inductee.