Charles Nethery

Some punchlines just write themselves and some blog posts do too. I received the following communication from Tim Campbell with attached photo concerning his grandfather, one of the early announcers on KXYZ.

"I really love your site.

My grandfather, Charles Nethery, worked at KXYZ in the 1930's.

He was on of the regular announcers, etc. He left KXYZ somewhere in the late to mid 40's with T. Frank Smith, Sr. to start a radio station in Corpus Christi -- KRIS AM. This later developed into KRIS TV in 1956.

Frank Smith worked at KXYZ in upper management.

He stayed with KRIS & Frank Smith Sr until he retired in 1977. He was VP Programming, news anchor, editorial commentary, etc. He did it all.

He died five years ago --- lived a long healthy life to 93 years old.

I am sending this pic that I found and keep in my office -- he is probably in his late 20's. I figure it was early in KXYZ -- early 30's???

My brother has a box of pics /clips from KXYZ early days in the Texas Hotel and later in Gulf Building.

One story was -- my grandfather tied himself to a pole on top of the Gulf Building to provide "live" coverage of a hurricane.

If I get more-- I will share."

Thanks, Tim. We'll be looking forward to hearing from you again with more pictures or more stories.

Solved Mysteries - The KLEE-TV Reception Hoax

Most people probably never would have heard of Houston's short-lived first television station were it not for a widespread story of its signal mysteriously being received in England, three years after it had ceased operations (call letters changed to KPRC-TV).

The hoax took years to unravel and not until after it had appeared in the pages of Reader's Digest and become widely known. Even today, long after it has been debunked, the story continues to raise its head from time to time.

Snopes has a full explanation.

Marvin Zindler on KATL

JR Gonzales of the Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle has notified me he's come across some audio tapes of an old Marvin Zindler crime reporting series on KATL in the early 1950s called The Roving Mike. There will be several installments throughout the month. Here's a link that will take you to a file with all the posts.

Check it out. It's going to be a fun month!