Mark Blinoff, 70; Ex-KMPC Executive, Schoolteacher
Mark Blinoff, 70, an award-winning program director for KMPC-AM radio during the 1970s who became an elementary school educator after leaving the broadcast business in 1989, died May 19 of lung cancer at his La Crescenta home.
Blinoff became assistant program director at KMPC in 1968 and program director in 1972. He initiated format changes to appeal to a younger audience, playing less Sinatra and more Beatles, and brought in new personalities to give the station a more contemporary face.
Billboard magazine named him program director of the year in 1978, but KMPC management did not agree with the direction he set for the station and fired him in 1979.
After leaving KMPC, Blinoff went to Merv Griffin Productions as vice president and general manager.
In 1981 he became president of Firebird Communications and co-owned KWIP Radio in Salem, Ore., with radio personality Roger Carroll. They sold the station in 1989.
In 1991, Blinoff joined the Alhambra Unified School District as a teacher. He also handled public information for the district for five years.
His last assignment was teaching third grade at Garfield Elementary School in Alhambra.
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