KJazz: Johnny Magnus show to replace Chuck Cecil’s ‘Swingin’ Years’

Well, that didn’t take long.

Barely 24 hours after confirming that longtime big band DJ Chuck Cecil and his “Swingin’ Years” radio show would be leaving KKJZ-FM (88.1), representatives for the Long Beach station have announced Cecil’s successor.

The new host, who begins Feb. 15 in the weekend time slots occupied for the last 12 years by Cecil’s long-running show, will be radio personality Johnny Magnus.

According to a statement issued by the station, Magnus will “take over the 6-10 a.m. slot on Saturday and Sunday mornings and will continue to bring you Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Count Basie and all the other great swing artists of the past.”

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The new show will be called “Swing Time.”

Cecil had informed the station earlier this month that he would cease producing his weekly broadcasts, which feature music, historical data and interviews from the classic big band era, as of Sunday, Feb. 9.

“It really hurts me to stop, but I feel I can’t continue and do justice to the musicians who made the music,” said Cecil, who also cited technical problems with the station as a reason to step down.

The venerable radio man, now 91, was featured in a recent Los Angeles Times profile. He has been on the air more or less continuously since getting his first radio job in 1947. His “Swingin’ Years,” originally created as Saturday morning filler for L.A. station KFI-AM (640), has been on the air locally since 1956, and was once syndicated worldwide.

Magnus, also a veteran local radio broadcaster, has been known variously over the years as “the host who loves you most” and, because for years he worked night shows, “the Prince of Darkness.” He has been heard locally on KMPC, KGIL, KRLA and many other stations.

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