Shotgun Tom Kelly after receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 (Bob Freeman photo).
‘Media Play News’ Parent Company Launches Book Publishing Division
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August 12, 2024
JCH Media Inc., Media Play News‘ parent company, is launching a boutique book publishing division focused on entertainment and media personality biographies, autobiographies and memoirs.
The first book, All I Wanna Do Is Play the Hits, written by legendary Top 40 deejay Shotgun Tom Kelly with veteran voice actor Neil Ross, is currently available at bookstores, including Barnes & Noble, in both paperback and hardcover. It also is available on Amazon in both MOD paperback and Kindle e-book editions.
Shotgun Tom Kelly, whose real name is Thomas J. Irwin, is considered one of the last big Top 40 deejays, an elite group that also includes Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie and The Real Don Steele. His radio career began in the late 1960s, when he was just 16, at San Diego middle-of-the-road radio station KPRI, and a short time later blossomed when he moved over to popular Top 40 radio stations KGB-AM and KCBQ-AM.
With the rise of FM radio in the 1970s, Kelly continued his reign on KFMB-FM (B-100) before moving to Los Angeles for a nearly three-decade run on KRTH-FM (K-EARTH 101), the powerful oldies station that kept the spirit of Top 40 radio alive well into the 2000s.
Kelly, who just turned 75, continues to be heard daily on SiriusXM, on the 60s Gold channel. All I Wanna Do Is Play the Hits chronicles both the highs of his career — which culminated with him being awarded a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame — and the lows of drug addiction and open-heart surgery.
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“When we started out, Top 40 radio ruled the air, from the East Coast to the West Coast,” Mike Love of the Beach Boys wrote on the back cover blurb. “The Beach Boys know full well the important role Top 40 deejays played in getting all our careers off the ground. Back then, radio was the only place you could hear new music, and deejays could make or break a new act. I will never forget the day we first heard ‘Surfin” on KFWB and KDAY, two of the biggest radio stations in Los Angeles, and how it made us feel, knowing that our music was now reaching thousands of listeners all over Southern California. Getting on the radio was everyone’s dream, because that was how you would sell records and concert tickets. We all had our favorite stations and our favorite deejays. One of our favorites, for decades, has been Shotgun Tom Kelly. And this book is an incredible ride through the life and times of a true rock ‘n’ roll radio legend.”