KHJ was only a month out from adopting a new format, switching from MOR to Top 40 (Boss 30, actually) on May 3. They would be number 1 within 90 days, but right then they were the new kids on the block, and Bob Eubanks (yes, The Newlywed Game guy) at KRLA had the Beatles sewed up. KHJ needed somebody.
Sonny and Cher were really “who?” at that point. They had a minor hit with Baby Don’t Go, but they weren’t far removed from performing as Caesar and Cleo. The KHJ powers that be, Ron Jacobs, consultant Bill Drake, and music director Betty Brenneman agreed to put I Got You, Babe on the air, and had ringers (small pun intended) standing by to call the station and say how much they loved the song. It aired, and the ringers couldn’t get through because the listeners really did flood the switchboard. A hit was born, and a symbiotic relationship between artists and radio station was formed. Jacobs later said that Sonny and Cher were “living” at 5515 Melrose in the early days of Boss Radio.
That said, there is no way Jacobs agreed to play the song hourly. KHJ was rigidly formatted, and no station in 1965 would play a song hourly — least of all 93/KHJ. Nobody was playing songs that often until the early 70s, and even then the number one song would air about every 70 minutes, not every hour.
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