The Telescope

Issue Date: 2/22/10

College radio host still 'swingin' at 84

By Yvonne Lanot

Media Credit: Yvonne Lanot

It's 7 a.m. on a Saturday and while most are still asleep, there is one man starting his radio show, putting on records from an era once called the "Greatest Generation."

Doug Best, 84, has been on the air for more than 50 years.

Benny Goodman, Louie Armstrong and Patti Page are just a few Swing and Jazz artists Best plays on his "Doug Best Swings" morning show on Palomar's KKSM AM 1320 radio station.
Not only does Best play these artists, he also interviewed them when he started working as a radio DJ.

"After World War II, the big bands were coming into San Diego on a regular basis," Best said. "It was really a thrill to go and talk to these people because I was able to say 'Gee, I talked to Harry James and Patti Page' and then go back to the station and be one of the first people to report, on air, about them and become the 'Hero of the Week.'"

But before Best became a DJ, he wasn't sure what type of career he wanted.

"I struggled in school," he said. "So, as soon as I hit my 18th birthday I enlisted into the Royal Canadian Air Force, instead of college."

It was while he was in the Air Force that Best realized he had a radio voice.

"While flying as a gunner, we would have to check in with London and our base. The crew elected me as the spokesman for the air," Best said. "This was the first inkling that I had that my voice came over well over a microphone."

After the Air Force, Best moved to San Diego to try out a career in radio.

"When I hit San Diego, a friend of mine said 'Why don't you go to the KSDO station and do an audition,'" Best said. "So I took the audition, but the guy didn't seem impressed, so I didn't get the job."

But Best didn't gave up. He later tried out for another DJ spot on KSDO and that was when his radio career started.

"I eventually got a part-time weekend job on the KSDO radio station," Best said. "It was a music-format station, but I also had the opportunity to go down to the ball park for the San Diego Padres and do the PA [public announcement] work and that was a big ego trip."

Sharon Prince, an assistant for Best's Saturday show, remembers hearing and enjoying Best when she was 18.

"I remember Doug having a booth in Escondido and me watching him through the radio station window with a lot of other people around me," Prince said. "I grew up listening to this music and I now love working with Doug."

Decades later, Best is still on the air.
"There is magic in the music," Best said. "So anytime you crack that microphone (on), it becomes a passion. I've never grown tired of it."

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