KHOU Announces Their New Studio Location

From Mike McGuff - near the intersection of Westheimer and Chimney Rock, in the Galleria area.

KLEF-FM Tribute Page

Bill Thompson, a KLEF fan, has created a tribute page.  The program guides are searchable and the New York Times article is priceless.

Great work, Bill, and thanks for sharing it.

KHOU to Pull up Anchor on Allen Parkway - UPDATED

According to Swamplot, the decision has been made not to rebuild the station's facilities on Allen Parkway, which took on 5 feet of water during Hurricane Harvey.

KHOU has been broadcasting from the studios at 1945 Allen Parkway since April, 1960, after spending the first 7 years of its existence as a Galveston station.

Update 12/23/2017 - The station continues to operate out of the facilities of Houston Public Media on the University of Houston campus while it searches for a new permanent location.  A satellite studio will be opened on Avenida Houston which will originate live programming throughout the week.

Paul Berlin - RIP

Longtime Houston radio and television personality Paul Berlin has passed at the age of 86.  He was a legend almost as soon as the first time he cracked a mic.

A Chronicle report.

Mike McGuff's tribute.

There will undoubtedly be many, many listeners and radio personalities weighing in with comments on both those sites.

Archived Photos of KPRC-TV (Post Oak Road Studios)

These photos (published in the Chronicle) show the facility on Post Oak Rd., about where the Williams Waterwall is now, when the building was new.  One shot of the radio studio is included.  Though the photos are dated 1954 the station moved into the facility in March, 1953, and the open house was held that month.

The feature was occasioned by an article showing an artists rendering of the newest facility, being built in the parking lot of the present building at 8181 Southwest Freeway.

An earlier KPRC-TV gallery on this blog.

A KNUZ-TV Gallery

Mark Whitehead of KWHI and KTTX, Brenham, has sent along these pictures of KNUZ-TV, taken in 1953 by his dad, Tom Whitehead, Jr.  Mark's mom, Bonnie Whitehead, is shown in a couple of the photos.  His uncle, Bailey A. Swenson, designed the studios.

Obviously this was a very new facility at the time.  I believe the orientation would be such that Cullen Blvd. was to the right of the picture.

Bonnie Whitehead, Mark's mom, in the lobby.

Checking out one of the DuMont cameras.  Behind Bonnie are the collapsible bleachers that were used for live audience shows.

Mark believes this is Bailey Swenson, his uncle and the architect who designed the studios.

I will appreciate any engineers who can offer some comments on the equipment.

See the KNUZ-TV Station Profile here.

Much thanks to Mark for sharing these photos.  He has promised to forward some more about his family's radio stations in the near future and I'm really looking forward to that.

A Look At A New Station - Easy Country KKBQ-FM, 1991

From the About Town column, December, 1991, Houston Metropolitan Magazine

Looking Back - a Slide Show

A Houston Chronicle slide show of lost FM formats, including some interesting photos and some historical facts, mostly of rather recent stations and not all of which are true.

Houston Crime Stoppers Building will Honor KTRK-TV Anchor Dave Ward - UPDATED

As reported today by the Chronicle, the long time anchor will be memorialized in brick and mortar.

Congratulations to Dave and thanks for your decades of service to the Houston community.

Mike McGuff's coverage.

KULF Production Studio, ca. late 1970s

Phil Konstantin sent along this picture taken in the KULF Production Studio in the late 1970s (later than 1976).  That's Phil on the left and the man beside him is Stan Barber from KTRU.

At the time the KULF studios were located in the Central National Bank building.  The air studio was right next door.

This picture shows the production of a Public Affairs program called Overview for the Jaycees.  The program aired on both KULF and sister station KYND.  Phil also later produced Dan Lucas' evening talk show.  He works in San Diego TV now.

Sam Putney, Dan Ammerman, Jim Young, Bill Leslie and Galen Grimes are some of the people from the KULF Newsroom at that time.  Kay (no last name on-air) Henderson worked on the ground and Dave Hale worked in the air doing traffic reports.  Jim Tate, Gary Ryder, Vashti Henderson, Joe Bauer, Roger St. John and Nick Rice were some of the other people he remembers working with there in that time frame.  He and Bauer also did some things together in San Diego.

My thanks to Phil for sending this picture and his recollections along to share on the blog.