Dan Odum influenced numerous future Bay Area broadcasters during his 25 years at the College of San Mateo, where he was hired in 1964 to manage the college’s radio station KCSM.
A San Diego native and graduate of San Diego State University. Odum had experience in acting, announcing and broadcast operations when he arrived in San Mateo. He taught his students the hard facts of live radio.
“The clock is next to God,” Odum recalled. “You meet the network on the hour, not 30 seconds after the hour. The disciplining was extremely important to me. It was mandatory, in my estimation, to put [students] on where the red light would come on and you point a finger and say, ‘You’re on the air,’ and have them know that there are people listening to them.”
Odum spent several years doing fill-in work at KKHI while also appearing on KCSM.
After his 1989 retirement, Odum launched his own video production business.