REELRADIO - The Jeff March Collection - Jimmy Rabbit, KGBS-FM, Los Angeles, August 18, 1975

. . . You don't call the local grocery store, and say 'I'm sick and tired of looking at your lettuce' . . .

Confessions Of A Rabbitt Fan
by Jeff March

I was living in L.A. at the time I recorded this aircheck. I tuned in to Jimmy Rabbit's show regularly. I had previously gone through periods when I listened to country music (in the early '70s I had worked at three radio stations that played country music), but in the mid-'70s, when I was working in retail advertising, I listened primarily to pop music — that is, until Jimmy Rabbit went from KMET to KGBS. I checked out Jimmy's program, and I was hooked.

Jimmy Rabbit was primarily a top 40 and rock jock who went over to country music to stir things up a bit. The timing is significant; this occurred at the time that Linda Rondstadt, the Eagles, Pure Prairie League, Emmylou Harris, Poco, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, James Taylor, the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, Charlie Daniels and other performers were blurring the line between country and rock. Jimmy Rabbitt was right on top of that musical trend with his nightly program on KGBS.

After leaving his native Texas for KCBQ/San Diego in 1968, Jimmy Rabbitt began a colorful 10-year run on the air in Los Angles in 1969, beginning with KRLA, where he helped entrench that pop station's decidedly hip posture.

By 1972 he was at album rock FM station KMET, where his inclinations for country-flavored rock became apparent. After gigs at KROQ and KHJ, he had returned to KMET by the spring of 1975, but that summer his yearning for country music took him to KGBS-FM (97.1 FM) Los Angeles. The station simulcast with daytimer KGBS-AM (1020), which had a traditional country music format.

After the AM signoff each evening, Jimmy Rabbitt held forth in his loose, relaxed style with his brand of country, skillfully blending classic songs by legacy artists with progressive tracks by long-haired country rockers. The late night slot on the station had virtually no spots, which gave Rabbitt clear range to regale his listeners with tales and tunes. In this aircheck, a spot for a cheesy B-movie aired a couple of times, and after the tag listing the theaters, the entertainingly irreverent Rabbitt says, "It probably would be a lot easier if you just told 'em where it wudn't playing."

I recorded this program on my Teac open-reel tape deck beginning at 10:37 on this Tuesday evening, August 18, 1975, and let the tape roll through songs with only two song edits until just past midnight. By 1979, Jimmy Rabbitt left Los Angeles to settle in Colorado. By 1996, he had returned home to play country music in Tyler, Texas.