KRLA and the Beat history
KRLA personalities
KRLA specialties
Derek Taylor/Monterey Pop
KRLA wasn't just the premier Los Angeles radio station with a passion for publicizing The Beatles. They also had journalist Derek Taylor on hand as part of their media blitz.
As a personal assistant to Brian Epstein, Derek was on hand to witness the first flowering of Beatlemania in England and later in America. But Brian was not the easiest boss in the world and Derek left his job in late 1964.
KRLA was fortunate to pick him up in early 1965 as a consultant and editor to the KRLA Beat. He was also working as a publicist for The Byrds, Paul Revere & the Radiers, The Beach Boys, and the Mamas & the Papas. A busy life!
One of the ways KRLA kept ahead of its competition (read: KFWB) was via Derek, who maintained his association with the Beatles throughout the 1960s. Mysteriously KRLA kept debuting records by the Beatles, some recorded officially but not yet released, and some recorded from their BBC radio programs. You couldn't get much more exclusive than that, and it contributed to KRLA's burgeoning ratings. Do we have Derek Taylor to thank for this? Probably so.
If you're an avid reader of the KRLA Beat you'll notice lots of bylines by Derek in early newspaper issues of the Beat. His insights into the British Invasion and the continuing evolution of the Beatles was an invaluable part of the Beat's coverage. No other radio newspaper -- and there were a number of them -- had a correspondant with such knowledge or connections. There was a reason that the KRLA Beat was top of the heap, and Derek Taylor's contribution was one reason for it.
Derek was also a vital part of planning for the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, a three-day music extravaganza predating Woodstock. Working with John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, record producer Lou Adler, Derek planned the festival to showcase new talent such as Janis Joplin and Otis Redding, in addition to Eric Burdon, The Who, Ravi Shankar, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Laura Nyyro, the Jefferson Airplaine, and The Byrds, among others. D.A. Pennebaker's film of the event has become a landmark documentary about the event.
In 1967 Derek began a series of Sunday evening radio broadcasts on KRLA, some of which are collected on our Airchecks page. Freeform in style, the shows segued nicely into KRLA's showcase Sunday night show Radio Free Oz, which featured the Firesign Theatre live from venues such as the Magic Mushroom and the Ash Grove. KRLA embraced the counterculture atmosphere with open arms.
But burdened by unexpected U.S. tax liabilities (which Brian Wilson thoughtfully paid off for Derek), Taylor decided to return to the UK with his family, where he rejoined his compatriots at Apple Corps, managing day-to-day details of the Beatles' various businesses. His memoir, As Time Goes By, "was the first, and remains the sharpest, memoir written by one of the Beatles’ inner circle" as The Guardian so succinctly puts it.