How KTRH Talked Its Way to Greater Success

This is a brochure produced by KTRH promoting their News-talk format and it's another item shared by Charlie Pena. The brochure was apparently produced ca, 1973 - it makes reference in the text to having been doing the format for 11 years and from another source I know KTRH launched news-talk in 1962. The station flipped to an all news format in July, 1974.

The copy is too large to scan as a whole so I have broken it down into sections which are arranged below in the order they appeared; the brochure was 3 columns wide with text at the top and photos below; it probably had at least some color but the copy is only black and white. Only a couple of comments are necessary for explanation below.



This photo is not tagged but I believe it is another photo of Jack Ford who also appears in another photo below. Corrections are welcome.






















One photo from the brochure was clipped and showed only half the face of weekend news editor Carl Cramer so I have not used it.

Another thanks to Charlie Pena for sharing this material.

See the rest of this brochure published here and here.

Marty Ambrose - Rest in Peace

I was sad today to learn of the passing of Marty Ambrose, long time traffic announcer in Houston, who succumbed to the ravages of Lou Gehrig's disease. If at any time in the last 30-odd years you've ever been stuck in Houston traffic and turned on the radio to find out what the problem was and how to get around it, then you've heard Marty. His calm and reassuring delivery probably did as much to ease the pain of the situation as any information he had to pass along.

He was there at the beginning of traffic reporting in Houston and I met him back in the 70s when I was at KODA. I seldom actually worked with him on the air as I seldom worked in drive-time shifts but I know he was as nice a guy as you could ever want to meet and a total professional.

My condolences to his family and to the greater Houston radio family on the loss of a great one.

Here's a recent interview Channel 13 did with Marty.

And the Chronicle published a nice tribute to Marty on July 4th.