Harold “Happy Hare” Martin

Perspective

P.T. Barnum had nothing on Harold “Happy Hare” Martin, the legendary San Diego deejay who died January 5 at the age of 81. An audacious self-promoter until the very end, Martin spent much of his twilight years blogging and e-mailing remembrances of his glory days, as well as broadcasting opinions about a wide range of contemporary issues, from oil prices to mad cow disease. It was a 21st-century way to hog the spotlight the way he once did on the radio, when he was the king of the local airwaves, the zany morning man for pioneering top-40 station KCBQ.

Happy Hare certainly had lots of stories to share, and he wasn’t shy about sharing them. He was like an aging rock star playing the oldies circuit, reliving his past not on the concert stage but through direct contact with anyone who would listen. I remember interviewing him for a column 20 years ago, after which he would call me up every day with more tales to tell. The problem was, they were all so darn interesting I found myself continually revising my column, right up to deadline — heck, past deadline.

One of my favorites was the time he persuaded Richie Valens to play a free concert at Clairemont High School in late 1958, just before the pioneering rocker hit it big with “La Bamba” and “Donna.” All it took was a phone call, Martin told me in 1989. “The day he arrived in San Diego, I went to the airport, and here was this heavyset kid with a guitar strung around his neck, carrying a little amplifier,” Martin recalled.

At the school, the principal said the auditorium floor was wet, and he asked Valens if he could play outside in the schoolyard. “Richie said, ‘Yeah, that’s okay,’ asked for an extension cord and proceeded to play an hour-long set on that red, hard-baked clay, just by himself, in front of 2,000 kids — and let me tell you, he really tore ’em up.”

A short time later, Valens died in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.

Born and raised in Galveston, Texas, Martin shot to local prominence in late 1954, when he was hired at KCBQ shortly before the station went rock ’n’ roll and became one of the first top-40 stations in the country. He touched down with a folksy tone and a sappy nickname; his listeners loved him. For seven years he woke up the city with his zany stunts and impersonations. He was the grand marshal at many a parade, riding Silver, his Arabian horse. He emceed San Diego concerts by a succession of big stars, including Elvis Presley. In 1958, he ran a tongue-in-cheek campaign for mayor, dropping out when it appeared he might actually win.

Martin left San Diego in 1962 for Cleveland and then Detroit, returning to “the Q” in March 1969. By then, the station had dropped to No. 5 in the market; three months after his return, it was back at No. 1. But by 1972, music and radio had both experienced a sea change, and the airwaves no longer welcomed old-school jocks. Martin was unceremoniously fired and subsequently moved into advertising, selling time on local radio stations, including KCBQ, for 20 years.

But he always managed to resurface on the air, most recently on KPOP, where he hosted the morning drive show from 2002 to 2004. Just last year he hosted a weekly radio show at signonsandiego.com, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Web site.

Martin ultimately died of liver cancer, a tortuous end for a man who once marched through Death Valley, scaled the 10,000-foot-high Picacho del Diablo mountain in Baja California and swam across San Diego in more than 200 pools, all to raise money for the fight against muscular dystrophy at the urging of his friend Jerry Lewis.

Happy Hare, after all, was the original Energizer Bunny. He was always on — even long after the radio had been turned off.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »