KFRC's Frank Terry Passes Away

The following is excerpted from an unpublished interview of Frank Terry (conducted by Kevin Gershan and Ken Levine), sent out Ron Jacobs following Frank's death:

Q: What was your given name?

FT: My given name was TERRENCE FRANCIS CRILLY. (spells it)

Q: When and why did you change it?

FT: Yeah, it was a commercial thing. TERRENCE FRANCIS CRILLY didn’t really make it on the radio very well or as a show biz name, so my dad’s first name was FRANK and mine was TERRY so that’s how I got FRANK TERRY.

Q: Where were you born?

FT: Rapid City, South Dakota was where I was born. I’m sorry, I’m not answering that—Where was I born? Rapid City, South Dakota.

Q: When did you move to Riverside-San Bernardino?

FT: When did I move to Riverside-San Bernardino? I moved there when I was about 4 years old. Who’s asking these questions? What kind of dumb-a** questions are these? Geez! (laughing)

Q: How old were you when you first got interested in radio?

FT: When I first got interested in radio I was probably about 8 years old. My father was a sales manager at a radio station in San Bernardino, KFXM. And he was kind of at that time TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD’s manager. TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD worked at this radio station and played these hillbilly songs and they did a big show, the SATURDAY NIGHT JAMBOREE kind of thing and he danced around like a (static) TENNESSEE ERNIE did.

And my dad used to take me down to the radio station to hang out down there when TENNESSEE ERNIE was doing his show and TENNESSEE ERNIE and I became kind of friends. And then he of course hooked up later in Los Angeles here with CLIFFY STONE and his career just took off.

But ever since that experience I kinda had a... it was just kinda interesting... an interest in radio and radio stations were very interesting to me, unique. All the equipment and the kind of people that hung out there.

When I was about 12, 13 years old, I thought it might be a wonderful way to meet good looking women, girls. And when I was in high school I actually got my first job.

Q: And you were also interested in playing the drums. When did you take up the drums?

FT: I started playing the drums when I was really a little guy. I had sort of a natural ability and then I got some formal lessons and then kinda went from there. I never learned how to read music; I played by ear, but I was playing drums in local bands around San Bernardino and Riverside when I was 12 years old. Played in different bands right up through high school.

Then I went in the Navy after high school and in the Navy I started screwing around with it some and I still play occasionally. Once in a while.

Q: Did you have anyone that you though influenced your style at that point?

FT: There were so many great drummers. Early on the guys like GENE KRUPA and LOUIS BELSON and BUDDY RICH and then SHELLY MANN. I actually took one lesson from SHELLY MANN one time, yeah. And he was just a champion of mine but here again, like radio, there are so many great drummers you know. I like them all, they were all great.

Q: Was there a moment that you can remember that maybe you said “This is what I want to do”?

FT: Probably when I was in college. I got out of the Navy, I went to SAN BERNARDINO VALLEY COLLEGE. And if I may digress, just tell you a story that you might find kind of humorous.

When I was in high school, ST. BERNADINE’S HIGH SCHOOL in San Bernardino, as a senior, I got a job on weekends — actually it wasn’t a job, it was — the guy at KCSB ... named FRED DiANGELO ... he was the nicest guy in the world — he let me hang out at the radio station whenever I wanted to and all I had to do was every night take the trash out and dump it and on weekends I mowed the lawn, they had a little lawn there. And for that he let me hang out there.

And I started hanging out, you know, I would just sit around and watch the guys work and I’d read the teletype machine and I’d just ... you know, kinda make a nuisance of myself. And one day — unfortunately I can’t remember this fella’s name, he was a real old guy — he says, “How would you like to read the news on the radio?” And I said, “Yeah! I’ll do it!” So, scared to death, I did it and botched it up really bad, made a total mess out of it.

And then old FRED had an idea. ELVIS PRESLEY was hitting; it was like 1956. ELVIS PRESLEY hit the world like a, oh, the biggest thing ever. So he says “How would you like to do an ELVIS hour every Saturday night? ’Cause you’re a high school teenager guy and you can do it,” so I did. I went in for an hour on Saturday nights and I played ELVIS records. And I think I got two bucks for that, whatever ... two bucks for the whole show but I had to fill out my W-2 form and all that.

And so I did this and then I graduated from high school and joined the Navy, just before I turned 18 because if I didn’t get in the Navy then I was going to be drafted by the Army. So I joined the Navy and I went off and did three years in the Navy and came back. Got out of the Navy in June and was going to go to SAN BERNARDINO VALLEY COLLEGE but I couldn’t start classes until September.

So I got a job with the railroad, I was working on the railroad, the SANTA FE RAILROAD in San Bernardino, and I’m working on the railroad there and — as a telegrapher, because I knew Morse Code, that’s what I did in the Navy. But I get to go to this agent station in Fontana by Kaiser Steel there. Guy says well, here’s your desk. I sit down at the desk there — the whole 10 yards. I’m sitting there, nothing’s happening, I ask the guy “When am I going to start talking to some trains?” He said, “Oh, we don’t do that any more.” He says, “We don’t use Morse Code,” he says, “the only reason we hired you is because the union has a thing where we have to have so many qualified telegraphers on our payroll.”

So I worked for the railroad for four months as a token telegrapher. And basically what I did was ride around the caboose of a train with these guys playing cards and drinking beer. And we’d go up to Blythe and up to, you know, Arizona sometimes and up to Bakersfield and Victorville.

And then I got into college. I quit the railroad and I went to school and about this time finally—I’m sitting at home living with my folks—the phone rings and it’s a guy named CLARE WEEDENOUR who’s an old friend of RON’s from way back then, who’s running this station KCSB that I worked at before I went in the Navy. And he says, “I’ve been trying to find you everywhere. I found you through the railroad!” You know, somehow. And he says, “You gotta come down here, I need to talk to you.”

So I went, oh boy, some guy of a radio station’s calling me! I went down there, found out that there was a law that if you had a job before you went in the military you had to get that same job back when you got out. So he was forced to hire me! And he did and I don’t know, I was doing nights or something and I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, I.. you know, had no idea but I kinda self taught myself how to run the board and you know, you pulled your own—you could bring records from home then if you wanted to and play whatever you wanted to. And I got going there and that kind of got the San Bernardino thing going.

But then, to your original question, I’m sorry.. I realized that radio was for me when I was screwing up in college and losing interest in that and realized I wasn’t going to make any more money doing anything else you know, or life wasn’t going to be any better for me in any other profession I could ever become qualified for other than the radio. And it was kind of exciting back there, it was a lot of fun.

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