Staff
KFXM-AM/KDUO-FM Studios at 666 Fairway Drive in San Bernardino
In October of 1963, the newly built Holiday Inn and the KFXM/KDUO studios became the home for all of the various employees working at numerous studios and offices in San Bernardino and Riverside.
Prior to moving to the Holiday Inn location, KFXM had sales offices at the California Hotel at 5th and E street in downtown San Bernardino. The broadcast studios were located in the transmitter building in a former cow pasture. The field later became a 9-hole executive golf course.
KDUO had sales offices at the Mission Inn in Riverside and the broadcast studios were originally located on 8th street (now University Avenue) and Lemon Street in Riverside. The new studios and offices put everybody under one roof.
Over the years, hundreds of people worked as DJs, advertising sales executives, bookkeepers, traffic managers and management.
This satellite view provided, by Jon Badeaux, is the former Holiday Inn and KFXM/KDUO studios at 666 Fairway Drive in San Bernardino. Vic Moreno mentioned that the security guard had allowed him to take a tour of the former studios. You’ll notice that a great deal has changed at the facility. See where the Olympic sized swimming pool and grass around it has been replaced by a much smaller pool and a lot of concrete. The new owners of the “Budget Motel” also apparently added several palm trees within the complex.
This is the KFXM studio located at the Holiday Inn site. Note the 45 RPM records stacked on top of the cart machines. The turntables were gear driven and their tone arms were balanced with pennies.
The newsroom had a United Press teletype machine and reel-to-reel tape machines to record reports from the phone. On the desk to the right is the microphone used for KDUO news. Quite literally, the newsman would do the KFXM news at five minutes before the hour (“News Alive at 55”) then spin around in the chair and do the KDUO news at the top of the hour. (Photos courtesy of Vic Moreno.)
This was the basic floor plan and layout of the KFXM/KDUO studio and offices. Few things changed over the years; new equipment, furnishings and other improvements. The original sales personnel were; Bill Bellman, John Barton, Helen Jones and Al Barnett. These people were legends in the advertising game in the Inland Empire as KFXM was the main station in town with an audience that was into second and third generation listeners.
Helen Jones was a neighbor of Bob Bunnell. One day, Bunnell approached Helen about going to work in radio advertising sales at KFXM. That was in 1964 and a time when there were literally no women working in the male-dominated advertising sales profession.
Helen literally cut her teeth at KFXM and one of her mentors was the infamous Bill Bellman. (See Helen Jones bio for interesting stories!)
In 1972-73, the studios and offices underwent a major remodel with all new equipment and furnishings. In the middle of the building was the “snake pit” where the advertising salespeople had their desk, typewriter and phone. The sales room was remodeled and had dividers with paneling installed that was shoulder high and still did not provide much privacy. Prior to the remodel, the sales room was wide-open, no dividers or anything and there was no such thing as privacy.