Friday, September 30, 2011

Weaver Morrow - RIP

I am very shocked and saddened to report the passing of Weaver Morrow, longtime Houston radio man. I first met Weaver in the first week of September, 1970, during the first days of KAUM. He was a Houston Radio Legend from the first moment he cracked the mic; his humor turned the market upside down and was a huge part of the success of KAUM - and we were the most successful of the ABC-FMs, at least at first. Radio people came from all over to hear what we were doing that had vaulted us from something like 27th to 7th in the ratings in one rating period. The ABC execs in NY suggested moving him to afternoons, when more of our audience would likely be awake; they listened regularly and so did the other ABC-FM PDs. Everyone loved him. I was so disappointed when he first left the market and glad when he returned. He had long stints at KRBE-FM and KODA-FM.

Chronicle obituary and services

4 comments:

Cindy P. S. said...

Hey, Bruce. Who exactly are you? I ask because. I was engaging in nostalgia surfing about KAUM and came across this link. Did you work at KAUM in the 70s? I worked there in Traffic from around 72 to 75, when Weaver, Jewel McGowan, and others we there, then later with a new crop after a new GM. Just curious. Most folks don't remember the station.

Bruce said...

I was there from 70-73 along with Weaver, Ed Beauchamp, Cy Statum, Mike Shugart, Jewel, plus Randy Covington, Dave Lamble, Carole Kneeland and Thomas Wright in the news department. I was both a jock and program director during the heady days of our first big success.

Bob Israel said...

Bruce,

I don’t recall you but I have forgotten a lot of folks from my days at KAUM.

I was hired by Bruce Snyder (I think that was his name) in August, 1974. Weaver Morrow was our morning man, Ron Seldon did mid-mornings (9am-noon), I eventually did noon-3pm (after about six months doing all-nights), I have forgotten our afternoon drive guy’s name, Jewel McGowan did 6pm-9pm, Jim Conlee handled 9pm-1am, and John Allen Weitz (?) did all-nights. Mike McCormick, formerly of WLS, became our GM. Various other folks came and went (Blake Lawrence, Gary ?, others.) Michael Quiseng Jones (later Michael Qseng at KQMQ/Honolulu) was our Music Director...and a dear friend. We were on the 17th floor of the Fannin Bank Building...across the street from the awesome Shamrock Hilton. Our sister station, KXYZ-AM (also an ABC O&O) was upstairs on the 19th or 20th floor doing news/talk. Bucky ? was our chief engineer, Bebra ?, Lissa Richmond, and several other great friends worked in Traffic & Marketing. Thankfully I have forgotten every Sales person’s name. We went from Progressive Underground when I was hired to Top 40, R&B/Disco (the first all disco radio station in the country), back to Top 40, and when I quit in June, 1977, they were getting ready to change again. I stayed in touch with Michael Jones for years after, and occasionally checked in with Jim Conlee (who went on to be a producer at TM Productions in Dallas before getting back into radio in LA), and Blake Lawrence (the last time I spoke with Blake was to make sure he was OK after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake...he was jocking there at the time.). I occasionally called myself Bob St. Bob when on-air, which was a direct snipe at my KILT-AM competition John St. John. I later used Bob St. Bob as my persona when I did in-store VO’s for Nordstrom-Brass Plum in Seattle.

If you want to hear more (this is most of it...but I do have some interesting stories) let me know how to reach you.

All the best,

Bob Israel
KAUM-FM 1974-1977

Bruce said...

Bob,

Thanks a lot for this - brings back a lot of memories but also points out a lot of blanks in my knowledge of what happened at KAUM after I left. I left in September'73 so I was long gone by the time you got there. I burned my bridges when I left a place back then and never have been back in that building and very seldom ever listened to the station. I particularly did not want to know what happened to the programming. I do remember that later in the decade, if the subject of KAUM came up, my comment was that they had joined the Format of the Month Club and I hadn't listened recently and didn't know what they were doing. I learned a lot working for ABC and have forever been appreciative of the opportunity but they did have their conceits and blind spots.

My email is on the About Me page. I presume you're offering stories about KAUM, Houston radio or maybe some co-workers here?