Alex N. "Sleepy" Stein was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 and radio station owner. When he acquired KNOB

KNOB (defunct)

KNOB , was a broadcast radio station on 97.9 MHz, licensed to Long Beach, California, with an effective radiated power of 79,000 watts.It went on the air in 1957 on 103.1 MHz at 320 watts...

 in Signal Hill, California

Signal Hill, California

Signal Hill is a small city in California located in the Greater Los Angeles area. Signal Hill, completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach, was incorporated on April 22, 1924, roughly three years after oil was discovered in Signal Hill. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

, he made it the world's first all-jazz radio station.

Stein lived in Miami and Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, graduating from the University of Havana

University of Havana

The University of Havana or UH is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest university in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas...

. He worked in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 for CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 radio in the 1940s, then as a disc jockey in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, where he acquired his nickname after replacing a DJ whose nickname was "Wide-Awake", and in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, where he was station manager and program manager at KARV.

Moving to Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, Stein became a disc jockey at KFOX

KFOX

KFOX may refer to:* KFOX-TV, a television station licensed to El Paso, Texas, United States* KFOX , a radio station licensed to Torrance, California, United States...

, often broadcasting from the Lighthouse Café

Lighthouse Café

The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the central West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s through the late 1970s....

 in Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach, California

Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,506 at the 2010 census, up from 18,566 at the 2000 census....

. In 1957, he bought KNOB

KNOB (defunct)

KNOB , was a broadcast radio station on 97.9 MHz, licensed to Long Beach, California, with an effective radiated power of 79,000 watts.It went on the air in 1957 on 103.1 MHz at 320 watts...

, where he instituted an all-jazz programming policy. The station became known as "The Jazz Knob". His staff included such announcers as Chuck Niles

Chuck Niles

Chuck Niles was a well-known jazz disc jockey who became the only jazz DJ to be on the Hollywood Walk of Fame....

 and Jim Gosa. After selling KNOB in 1966, Stein worked as a stock broker

Stock broker

A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...

. The Los Angeles Jazz Institute has a collection which "features large scrapbooks that document his career including detailed coverage of the birth and growth of KNOB. The collection also includes photographs and reel to reel tapes featuring air checks and on-air interviews."

External links

• Recalling The Jazz KNOB (Feb. 18, 2007), by Stephen C. Propes
  Steve Propes
  Steve Propes is a Long Beach, California record collector, disc jockey, and writer whose oldies/rhythm and blues radio show on KLON throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s had a large effect on the classic R&B revival of the time. He interviewed dozens of blues and R&B legends, from Joe...
  
  , from Long Beach History Blog (1900 to 2000)