Remembering Sam Riddle
• Sam Riddle, one of the original “Boss Jocks” on the legendary KHJ/Los Angeles, who later went on to produce Star Search and host and produce many other television shows, died Monday at his home in Palm Desert, CA at the age of 85, as reported by Deadline. Riddle’s family said he had been battling Lewy body dementia.
Riddle was one of KHJ’s original Boss Jocks during the mid-’60s and went on to host local TV shows including Hollywood A Go Go, 9th Street West, Boss City and Sounds of Now. He also co-hosted Get It Together with Mama Cass the turn of the 1970s. The 2021 HBO documentary Tina also includes Riddle announcing the first big TV appearance of Ike & Tina Turner.
Born in 1937 in Fort Worth, TX, Riddle served in the Air Force reserves during the Vietnam War. He got his radio start at KCLE/Cleburne, TX and worked in Arizona and San Diego before landing at KRLA/Los Angeles in 1960 — the same year a young Steve Resnik and his family relocated to L.A. from Chicago. “I was amazed at how many great DJs were on radio in L.A.,” Resnik recalls. “Sam was on KRLA from 1960-63, KFWB in ’64 and ’65, and on KHJ 9-midnight from ’65 to ’70. He later left KHJ and returned in ’74. That year Billboard named him the ‘Top Evening DJ’ in the country.”
By the mid-’70s, Riddle had left radio and focused on producing for television. He worked on the series Almost Anything Goes and Hollywood Teen and was the announcer for The Wizard of Odds before joining Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon. Riddle produced the show from its 1983 launch until 1994. He would go on to serve in producer or EP roles for TV specials and such syndicated series as Triple Threat, Out of the Blue, House of Pop and Destination Stardom.
Resnik continues, “I was a young guy just getting started in the music business in the early ’70s when I met Sam at KHJ. He was a wonderful mentor to me and we became friends. He asked me to co-produce and direct a documentary and history of KHJ after he filmed the ‘Silver Anniversary Celebration’ of Boss Radio in 1990. And, at his invitation, I was a judge on Star Search during ten of the eleven years that the show taped in both Los Angeles and Orlando. I treasure the good times I shared with him. He will be missed.”
Riddle is survived by his wife of 54 years, Adrienne; children Scott and Courtney; and two grandchildren.
