Everyone who’s lived in Los Angeles for the last 40 years knows the name Ted Ziegenbusch. He’s a radio institution.

You mean Jim Bismarck turned down San Bernardino only to rock Eugene, Oregon?? That was not a great career move.

during my tenure, we had the K/MEN “Fumble Foot Five”
basketball team. even though i was a totally inept
player (hence my nickname as “Bumbling Ben e.”),
i had memorable times competing with the various
junior and high school faculties we played against. what did
cause consternation for us was when SOME schools pulled
in their own ringers which made for some really tough games.

BTW, a lesser remembered factoid similarly related:

in 1971, i was the ringside announcer for KFXM Radio
when we played BASKETBALL against the Los Angeles Rams
FOOTBALL team. now our side had some very decent, seasoned
players — all DJ’s/staff announcers. a serious problem arose when
the KFXM Tigers began beating the L.A. Rams score-wise which did
NOT sit well with those professional jocks! all of a sudden, their pride
hurt, those brutes began putting our side through some tough football
maneuvers, meaning the Rams treated our guys on the court like it was
a regular football game. the Rams repeatedly, and intentionally,
went out of their way to injure the KFXM team members by trying to knock
them out of the game. however, to their credit, the Tigers just hung in
there and poured on their own skillful play by nearly defeating the Rams
in the final score (i forget what it was but it WAS close).

as for me, there i was, suddenly confronted with my football heroes,
having to announce the game. with no prior instructions
from KF’s programming department, i winged it by adopting a Howard Cosell
persona-like style. my inside remarks about various Rams team members
nearly got me seriously injured when Isiah Robert almost grabbed me by
the throat and was gonna waste me, only to be saved at the last minute by
fellow teammate Ramon Gabriel, who quickly talked Robertson out of his
rage at me; however, he DID muss me up some. needless to say, afterward
i toned down the Cosell-like commentaries about the Rams and just stuck
to the actual play-by-play action. t’was safer!

oh yes, that game was a March Of Dimes charity event that was held at the Pomona City College auditorium. somewhere in my vast archives, i still have a flyer for that game featuring the KFXM Tigers team members pictures which i also photographed.

I can honestly say that I’ve never had more fun than during the six months that I was a KMEN gopher. I played on the KMEN softball team along with Scoot, Bruce Chandler, Dave Sebastian, Bill McKinney, Doug DeRoo, Dusty Morgan, Steve Carey, etc. All great guys.

Scoot offered me a weekend shift on the air at one point but I knew that I was a terrible DJ and didn’t want to embarrass myself publicly. He was really shocked that I declined.

that aside, i am glad to know that your tenure at KMEN probably enriched your early adult life or, if anything else, provided you with some grand memories working there at the legendary radio station.

I worked at KMEN as a gopher between graduation from college and my first job in advertising. It was at the tail end of the Scooter Seagraves era, so we must have just missed each other.

true. i came in with when the station (under new ownership) was rebranded as “K*M*E*N — The Rock of the Inland Empire” under Buddy Scott’s programming. promotions were my bag back then.

Thanks, Ben. We’ve never met, but if I’m not mistaken you worked at KMEN after Huck left the station. Correct?