Bob Coburn, a Los Angeles radio personality who had also hosted the country's premiere rock and roll interview program, died Saturday. He was 68.
Coburn had worked at rock station "95.5 KLOS'' for decades, and most recently held the 9:30 a.m. to noon slot. But he had also worked at L.A. rock stations KPPC, KLSX, KCBS-FM, KZLA and the legendary 1970s rock giant, KMET.
The nationally-broadcast interview and music show, "Rockline,'' was fed from LA to stations in nearly every market in the nation in the '70s.
Coburn took the reins at "Rockline'' from its founder, B. Mitchell Reed, and hosted the show from 1981 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 2014, when it ended.
George Harrison, Keith Richards, Robert Plant and Paul McCartney were all hosted by Coburn, as well as the groups Black Sabbath, Rush, Def Leppard and others in the pantheon of rock fame.
"Van Halen in Atlanta in 1984 was outright insanity: strippers, Schlitz Malt Liquor, Jack Daniels and a few 'other' things,'' Coburn recalled in an interview with All Access in 2015.
The midmorning slot at "The Rock Of Southern California'' KLOS had been Coburn's gig for the new millenium, where he was playing new rock and the 30-or 40-year-old standards from the rock and roll FM era.
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"The old laid back So Cal stereotype is long gone,'' Coburn told All Access last year. "The tempo of the station simply matches the tempo of today's Los Angeles.''
Coburn was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and died Saturday, the station announced. No public services have been announced.
KLOS on Saturday played listener requests dedicated to Coburn.
