The Frank Casanova Interview
Casanova in his youth in Fort Alley Brigade.
I’m a Baby Boomer… Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. It was like right out of “American Graffiti”… and even earlier “Leave It To Beaver” or “Father Knows Best”. Those were all in black & white, so you know I’ve been around for a while. Growing up in the 50’s was a magical time… Especially in a place like Tucson, which was on the way to nowhere, so it was a tad bit isolated, yet was a booming city in those days. Next door lived a hip young couple. She was Miss Arizona and he was a star radio DJ for the number one station (KTKT). I don’t think you could call the format Rock & Roll just yet. In those days, radio people were absolute celebrities. Luckily he would let me go with him to the station for his Saturday shift. I was absolutely enamored with the facility and the process.
The very first voice heard over KTKT was Bob Matteson circa: 1949.
I got to see behind the scenes of the biggest show in town. I then made my own crystal set radio (no battery required) so I could listen to the radio late at night while falling asleep in bed. That’s when I discovered Wolfman Jack coming out that powerhouse Mexican radio station (even though his studio was in LA)… Kinda like the scenes in American Graffiti. Later I made my own small low power radio transmitter from a mail order kit and created my own radio station in my close closet… Insisting my mom listen to my show while she did her house work. Unfortunately for her, I had only three records, which I played over and over. Obviously, this introduced me to popular music. I became a big fan. I vowed I would never have a job where music would not be a part of it in some way. I never became a musician… Although I tried. Mom made me take piano lessons. Sadly, my teacher insisted on my playing some unknown simple children’s compositions… Real boring. Too bad he didn’t bring in some current songs that had just as simple arrangements. I might have stuck with it. Tried drums…Don’t think I was very good at keeping a beat. Even guitar was not a motivator for me.
American Graffiti circa: 1973.
But music put me in another world, as it did for most of my compatriots. And then came The Beatles. I was very lucky coming from an upper middle class family of the day in the Go-Go 60’s. I really wanted for nothing, but sadly, I must say neither my father or mother appreciated the arts. They might vaguely support me, but I can’t say they cheered me on either. I think they just didn’t really comprehend what I was doing… What I was in to. Later I fell in love the camera. I remember a margarine company would put cut out TV cameras on their packaging. I would construct the little cardboard cameras and play that I was doing a remote broadcast of a passing parade with my Hot Wheels cars. I was infatuated with The Camera. Mom was a frustrated actress. Western movies were big in the 50s. Tucson had a big Western Town set on the outskirts of town, called Old Tucson that was in constant use for movies and TV shows. Mom wanted to see the stars up close and in action, so we would regularly go out there, to stand for hours with other movie fans, to watch John Wayne, Randolf Scott, Audie Murphy, and Tyrone Power in action. I was absolutely mesmerized by the movie making process… And I thought “Hey, I could do that”. I paid attention how movies were put together… The camera composition, movement, lighting, editing, sound effects, etc… The story telling with those pictures. For me, it was better than writing novels.
A shot of Frank at his very first radio job circa: 1966.
Fred Casanova.
My two younger brothers also became fascinated in what I was doing and wanted to join in. Brother Fred was always my right-hand guy. Even to this day, he is the Apple Guru who edits all my stuff. One of my first movies was a half hour long Western in regular 8mm (Super 8 hadn’t been invented yet). It took us all of the summer of 1960 to make “Gunfight At Red River”. We turned the garage into our soundstage for the saloon scenes. Our primary concern for the footage was… Is it in focus and the exposure correct? If yes, then it goes in the movie. Since no one knew anybody with horses, we did a lot of running in the desert. To simulate gun shots, we had a crew person stand just outside of the frame and hurl a handful of flour to simulate the gun blast. Mom couldn’t figure out why she kept running out of flour so quickly that summer. The next year, we made an hour long detective movie… Again, in 8mm. Lots of guys with guns again.
The 2nd Camera Casanova ever used in his filmmaking career circa: 1961.
The guy on the right is Bill Conroy, who later became a top broadcast engineer for CBS in LA and was the Chief Engineer for The Golden Girls, and currently, Big Brother. On the left is Ken Etheridge who is an architect and novelist. The guys had just finished their first of two features in regular 8mm, "Gunfight at Red River" and "Diamond's Invincibles". They were about to start their first 16mm movie, "The Final Ingredient" circa: 1962.
This is the 55th Anniversary when Casanova took a boat ride down Tucson's Santa Cruz river. The Police & Fire Dept. decided to pull him out!
We got away with so much in the simple times of 60s Tucson. Today, you couldn’t shoot most of that movie on the downtown streets without a ton of permits, etc.etc. We just did it and no one blinked an eye. Later I’ve gone on to produce more than 25 more short movies and two full length features. I’ve owned a large sound stage in Sacramento for over 20 years. However… I never wanted to move to Los Angeles… Which I’m sure cut off the top of my movie making career. After graduating from high school (1965), I won a disc jockey competition by a small 100watt rock station in Tucson (KOLD). Within a few weeks, they offered me a job to be a late evening DJ. That was my first break into the business. The station’s format was extremely loose. You could play your own records if you wanted. That made me begin researching what was out there, what sounds were coming up. It was a real Free Form AM radio.
The first ever 'underground' or free-form FM radio station program - San Francisco, Feb. circa: 1967.
We had a real following with the Tucson teens. That brought me to the attention of the two big rock stations battling for ratings in Tucson. The underdog station (KIKX) soon hired me for weekends. I became more popular. That’s when the Big Dog (KTKT) came knock on the door. They were transitioning from their 1950s format to a Top-40 Boss Radio format that was in vogue. Their old DJs weren’t cutting it with the kids. They needed people who could talk to the teen market. They paid me top dollar for the audience I could bring to them. So at 21, I became a Top Dog in the music scene in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve always had the late evening shifts. That’s where my people were. In the late 60s, I saw the shift in the music scene. Top-40 relied on records that were maybe no more than two minutes long. FM was starting to appear on the horizon. FM was not big yet since few car radios had FM receivers. But I could see that longer cuts on albums were becoming very popular. Albums would NEVER be played in the Top-40 format. So I convinced management to let me take the last hour of my show (11pm to Midnight) and do an exclusive album rock program. I called it “Threshold”… Because it was on the threshold of a new wave of music… Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, The Doors, etc.
Photo of Frank at the KTKT console circa: 1969.
Frank MC’s concert with The People. (One Hit Wonders), and Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Ponys circa: 1968.
I was a student at the University of Arizona during this time, and I enjoyed a bit of celebrityhood on campus. DJ’s were still “stars” back then. At the U of A is where I met Sid Dawson in one of my classes. He knew who I was in town and so he pitched me on this band he had put together with a lot of neighborhood guys. They didn’t have a name yet, but he want me to take a listen and suggest any ideas on how they could break out from a very crowded market for bands in Tucson. There were lots of them… Some very very good, the Llewelan Bros. The Grodes, etc., and attracted sizable followings, resulting in lots of paying gigs. It was a good time for bands. I decided to produce a couple “Battle of the Bands” events since I could get the station to be the sponsor. The group then decided to call themselves the “Frozen Sun”.
Honestly, I didn’t care much for the name… But guess what… Frozen Sun won most of those battle of the bands… Gee, I guess it is all who ya know!! I had always loved the San Francisco Bay Area. We vacationed there many times as a kid. Then San Francisco became this hotbed of underground music… Peaking with the Summer of Love in 1967. Tucson began to follow suit. Tucson join in the Surfing craze in the early 60s… Even though it was a long way to any water. The Beach Boys were big. Then came the Beatles. Then came San Francisco. Tucson soon had it’s hippy scene. We were listening to the Greatful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Tower of Power, Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Byrds, etc.
Frozen Sun began to find their form. Sid Dawson was very much influenced by R&B. Ron Ryan looked and sounded like he could play with Jimi Hendrix. They had a different sound than the typical Tucson band. I was intrigued by them. That’s when I decided to produce their recordings. I’m a marketing guy. I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I would analyze records to see if I could determine why something would hit and why something would bomb. Also during this time, I own a Hip shop just off campus… OK OK, some called it a “Head Shop” because we did sell some Roach Clips. But is was mostly SF posters from the Fillmore and Winterland shows, etc. Lots and Lots of poster and photo prints. Since I was a psychology major, the store as called “The Id”. That spring of 1969, I thought the best way for Frozen Sun to break out from the crowd would be to make a record and get some airplay, which would make them one of the top Tucson bands. But that could be expensive… And I was the only one who had the where-with-all to make that happen.
Circa: 1968.
Frank with his brother Fred and their father enjoying a round of golf circa: 1969 or 1970.
I wasn’t sure this band was going to last that long anyway, so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money here. However we did have resources others didn’t enjoy. Obviously I could just about guarantee we would get the record played on the air. (Did I mention it’s a “who ya know” thing?). Now, how can we get the recording done cheaply? Since my late night shift ended at midnight, I was well aware it was usually just me and the Midnight to Six DJ in the station at that hour… And there was all this great recording equipment just sitting doing nothing. What if….? The band unloaded their equipment and set up in the quite large lobby of the radio station. One of the more hip station engineers agreed to stay late and put together the mic set-up and broadcast mixer. We recorded it all on a classic huge Ampex. 351 2-track recorder. The A side was “Got To Get Away”. That’s all the band had. We had nothing for the B side. So I suggested they just jam awhile and we’ll record it for the flip side. That became “Jamm, Part 1”… Because that’s what it was. By 1:30am, we were all done.
I created “Capt. Zoomar Records”. Zoomar was actually the name of a popular photography zoom lens at that time. My wife was from Phoenix and she knew of a Phoenix kid’s TV show character with that name of Captain Zoomar. I loved it. Since nobody had trademarked the name back then, I used it for my label. The record received rave reviews in Tucson. Frozen Sun was now the premier band in southern Arizona. Encouraged by that success… and lots more bookings. I suggested they come up with another song that we would record in an actual recording studio. No other Tucson band had the resources I provided Frozen Sun. We were on a roll. That summer of 1969, we went into Copper State Recording studio and recorded “Electric Soul”, their most well received record.
Since radio was then transitioning from Top-40 to Album orient cuts, I knew we had to provide both products. The Doors had released “Light My Fire” with a short 2 minute cut on the A side, however the B side had their 7 minute Long Version. We decided to do the same thing. Our A side of “Electric Soul” was the short 2 minute version allowing us to get into Top-40 formats, but the B side had the 7 minute version for our hip audience… And some FM stations. “Electric Soul’ became a regional hit. I went on the road visiting other radio stations to get them to include in on their air-play list. We sent copies to other labels hoping perhaps someone would pick it up for national distribution.
Near the end of summer, I decided my future did not lay in Tucson, Arizona. I felt I had outgrown it. I decided to pack up everything and along with my wife Cindy, we would move to San Francisco. We packed it all in a Camero with a U-Haul trailer and headed out at the end of August. Cosmically and spiritually, as we were driving down the highway leaving Tucson at midnight (in order to beat the summer heat), we were listening to KTKT. “Electric Soul” came on the air. The song ended just as we got to the end of the station’s signal… And it all just faded away. The band didn’t know what to do either. They broke up soon thereafter.
I heard that Hector and Lee also moved to San Francisco, but Sid and Ron were tied to Tucson. That’s the last I had ever heard of any of them. After moving to San Francisco in 1969, I soon found out the Bay Area radio market was swimming with talented on-air people from all over the country. Everyone wanted to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. Full time jobs were hard to come by. I did land a temporary gig at the iconic Oakland soul rocker KDIA…. In the News dept. I did the daily news segments for this iconic station from 6am until noon. I was one of only 3 white boys in the whole station. Sly Stone was a DJ there, but I never got to meet him. (He worked in the afternoons).
Frank and Cindy circa: 1969.
My biggest concern at the time was a high tide. The station was located right at the waters edge next to the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge. When the tide got high, sea water would inundate the station, soaking all the carpeting… Which provided an excellent ground. If your feet were in the water when you opened the mic, and your lips were too close to the mic… You would get an arcing spark across your upper lip… A sting that might have you say some cursing words at the wrong moment with an open mic. After that, I decided to go into television. Down the Bay, the San Jose TV station KNTV was looking for a studio director. I got the job since I could also double as the station’s announcer. Left broadcasting in 1975 and moved to Sacramento since my wife Cindy became an attorney and was recruited by the State of California.
We couldn’t pass up the deal. I then worked numerous industries, but the best was when I became the Advertising Director for a Trade College. I made all their radio & TV commercials… And made them lots of money. That allowed me to go into the video production business, eventually owning a large sound stage and video production studio known as The Studio Center. I ran that for the next 20 years. Through those door came many celebs such as Sally Struthers, Alfonse Ribiero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Durant, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, The Back Street Boys, etc… It was a busy time. I decided to close it up just as the Pandemic hit and knocked the struts out from under studio production. Today, I’m kinda semi-retired, but seem to be busier than ever. Just yesterday another producer called and asked if I’d be interested in making a short movie. Wow… The temptations are still there.
Dakota Brown
