Toby Me & the Wonderment of KNDE
Toby Me & the Wonderment of KNDE
Drake M. Davis
Professor Miriam Smith
BECA 200
17 September 2016
Toby Me and the Wonderment of KNDE
Searching through the Internet for information on my one-time mentor, Toby Browning, produced a plethora of information. Never heard of Toby? I’ve got news…we all have had Toby in our homes, cars, and devices over the years, unquestionably. Southern Californians are particularly well poised to take in Browning’s work as he is The Voice of CBS Television in Los Angeles and sister station KCAL.
The search for documentation of Toby’s career starts at none-other than our old alma mater, Rio Americano High School in Sacramento. Toby had been with a group of students who were at the time juniors and seniors when I came in as a freshman in the Fall of 1974; Browning and a core-group of four or five others were responsible for creation of our high school radio station under the guidance of legendary Teacher Charles Gebhardt who created the Radio & TV curriculum for Rio.
Here is a demo of Toby's work
Just a quick trip into the way-back machine to what was viewed as a rather amazing chapter is Sacramento radio history: Toby had earned himself a spot as a weekend air personality…at fifteen years old! A Sacramento Bee article published in 1975 coined the local phenom as "Wonder Boy" in a analogous reference to #1 [12+ ARB] competitor 1240 KROY; hence, Morning Man and Program Director, The Wonder Rabbit, was perceived by many to be a programing genius, KNDE almost always coming in second or even third--behind the legendary KFRC some ninety miles to the west--nipping at the proverbial rabbit's foot.
In addition to Toby landing the gig with an awesome set of pipes [as we used to call an exceptionally resonate voice...we also called headphones "cans" ...go-figure] at that age, Toby was soon to be doing transmitter maintenance using the skills he had applied being the chief architect over the construction of the school station, KRAT. Of course, I took full advantage of tagging along when invited to one or the other local Top-40 stations [around the time of my graduation, another student, Dean Compognus known as Dean Stevens and later Dean Christopher in the Honolulu market, let me hang-out answering phones at KROY, then located in Old Sac.]
While not a close friend--I found Toby to be a source of encouragement and information about the industry. Furthermore, development of my voice and delivery fell to this, my first--and for some time--voice coach. My rise to prominence--mirrored his in that I held the PD position as a junior, had taken-over hosting the morning announcements on the high school's PA system, and would also take to the airwaves professionally as a teenager. Admittedly, I was no match for his doing so several years in age earlier, fifteen rather than my doing so at the age of just becoming, nineteen.
Flash forward to 2015 and I was amazed to find that Tobias--the moniker used back in those “Rock Kandie” or 1470 KNDE years--had for years been voicing the image promos and nightly voice-over audio bill-boarding of the nightly local news content on my CBS TV affiliate in Portland, KOIN 6 News; matter of fact, I would walk around practicing or mimicking him as I went about my day:
"Now from Portland: Jeff Giannola…Kelly Day…This is KOIN 6 News at 11:00!"
Without reservation, I knew after some twenty-five years [Toby and another HS friend, and K-RAT colleague, did drop-in for a visit during my overnight gig in the mid-eighties at now defunct FM, KAER Sacramento, but it had been many years since] that it was time to reestablish contact with one of Rio's must illustrious alums. To illustrate, listen to the link below [if you have not already] establishing my continued respect and fascination with Mr. Browning’s work. Browning’s credits read like a “who’s who” of Fortune 500 Corporate America: Disney, Marriott, Chevron—in addition to his work within the largest TV and radio market at the CBS Network much of which is carried nationally, of course.
In some ways, it would seem we still remain polar-opposites in many respects. Astoundingly, he is a person of few words, at least on the phone or judging from email exchanges. Toby had been recently described on the high school alumni website as having been a shy and lanky young man; accurate if memory serves, yet confident and a bit of a legend be it on-campus or hopping onto a broadcasting tower behind the levee at KNDE for the purpose of changing an FAA mandated safety beacon. When I asked, “Where is your safety rope, Toby? Isn’t that dangerous?” He replied, “No, it is only thousands of Watts of RF…as long as you don’t touch the ground and the tower at the same time there is no chance of incineration.”
...and all set to a soundtrack of three second shotgun jingles, young and gorgeous groupies working the request-line, and Chicago’s Old Days…good times I remember, indeed.
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