The story of Houston broadcasters and broadcast stations of years gone by.
Monday, August 9, 2010
KLOL - 1974
The KTRH brochure published here and here included these pages on sister station KLOL-FM. The brochure makes reference to KLOL approaching its fourth year; the station launched in August, 1970.
Those pictured on the top on the gazebo are from left to right: Bo Brody-sales, Jim Pruett, Chapman Mott (Skythoughts), Jerry Lee- Station Manager, Steve Nagle Middle row: Unidentified female News reporter, Jim Hilty Bottom row: Kathy Johnson- receptionist, Arnette Lamb- a soon to be a famous Harlequin Romance writer, Jackie McCauley, and a Receptionist whose first name is Elise
The name was Beauchamp and that's his profile in the left panel of the second picture above, as already identified.
Ed was a very well regarded talent. He knew the music as well as anyone I ever knew, with the possible exception of one other, and that was essential to success in that format. He also became a budding concert promoter and worked in other markets before meeting an untimely death in the mid 80s. I did not hear about it for years afterward.
I know lots of people from that era remember Ed. I hope we'll hear from some of them in reply.
If I remember correctly, Ed wasn't in the gazebo picture because he was on the air at the time. Ed was one of the kindest, most decent people I ever had the pleasure of knowing. I moved back to Dallas in the mid 80's & saw Jim Pruett there when he worked at KEGL. He told me that Ed had been employed there in production at the time he passed away.
I remember Ed Beauchamp very fondly. Helluva nice guy, very knowledgeable of music. Did some time at KILT FM when I was there. At the time, we were still jockeying discs, but the high rotation hits were put on carts which didn't wear out like vinyl. "Black Betty" was a huge hit for Ram Jam in 1977. At one point, the three minute version was replaced by a cart with what I think must have been a 6 or 7 minute extended version of the song. Ed had terrible handwriting, (even wore than mine!) and his penciled scrawl on the cart label said it all, "wretched excess". That two word phrase has been part of my vocabulary ever since. :-)
I remember being in the studio with Ed at KAUM, or maybe in a music meeting where we were listening to new music to decide what to put on the air, and Ed muttered something under his breath about the guitarist's, um, talent. Priceless. We had to play it - sales were good, the music press loved the band (at least publicly), listeners called in for it. Crap. For those who've never worked in the business, if you want to get paid in radio and your station owner wants a return on his/her investment, you play what the audience thinks is great, not what you think is great much less what you like.
I am the “unidentified female news reporter “ in the KLOL publicity brochure. My name was Kris Van Cleave (no relation to the make CBS news reporter). I worked at KTRH writing news copy while I went to school at Houston Baptist University. When I graduated, KLOL News Director Bob Wright hired me to do news at KLOL.
I later married a news anchor I met at KTRH, Bob Wieland, and we recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.
Those pictured on the top on the gazebo are from left to right: Bo Brody-sales, Jim Pruett, Chapman Mott (Skythoughts), Jerry Lee- Station Manager, Steve Nagle
ReplyDeleteMiddle row: Unidentified female News reporter, Jim Hilty
Bottom row: Kathy Johnson- receptionist, Arnette Lamb- a soon to be a famous Harlequin Romance writer, Jackie McCauley,
and a Receptionist whose first name is Elise
On the black and white pictures shown below:
ReplyDeleteTop row- Ed Beauchamp, Jackie McCauley, Steve Nagle
Botttom row-
Jim Pruett, Jim Hilty, Jay Thomas
wow didn't know Jim Pruitt had been there before
ReplyDeleteAir name was Tony Raven, I believe.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember Ed Meechum? Circa ~ 1975
ReplyDeleteThe name was Beauchamp and that's his profile in the left panel of the second picture above, as already identified.
ReplyDeleteEd was a very well regarded talent. He knew the music as well as anyone I ever knew, with the possible exception of one other, and that was essential to success in that format. He also became a budding concert promoter and worked in other markets before meeting an untimely death in the mid 80s. I did not hear about it for years afterward.
I know lots of people from that era remember Ed. I hope we'll hear from some of them in reply.
If I remember correctly, Ed wasn't in the gazebo picture because he was on the air at the time.
ReplyDeleteEd was one of the kindest, most decent people I ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I moved back to Dallas in the mid 80's & saw Jim Pruett there when he worked at KEGL. He told me that Ed had been employed there in production at the time he passed away.
I remember Ed Beauchamp very fondly. Helluva nice guy, very knowledgeable of music. Did some time at KILT FM when I was there. At the time, we were still jockeying discs, but the high rotation hits were put on carts which didn't wear out like vinyl. "Black Betty" was a huge hit for Ram Jam in 1977. At one point, the three minute version was replaced by a cart with what I think must have been a 6 or 7 minute extended version of the song. Ed had terrible handwriting, (even wore than mine!) and his penciled scrawl on the cart label said it all, "wretched excess". That two word phrase has been part of my vocabulary ever since. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lee.
ReplyDeleteI remember being in the studio with Ed at KAUM, or maybe in a music meeting where we were listening to new music to decide what to put on the air, and Ed muttered something under his breath about the guitarist's, um, talent. Priceless. We had to play it - sales were good, the music press loved the band (at least publicly), listeners called in for it. Crap. For those who've never worked in the business, if you want to get paid in radio and your station owner wants a return on his/her investment, you play what the audience thinks is great, not what you think is great much less what you like.
I am the “unidentified female news reporter “ in the KLOL publicity brochure. My name was Kris Van Cleave (no relation to the make CBS news reporter). I worked at KTRH writing news copy while I went to school at Houston Baptist University. When I graduated, KLOL News Director Bob Wright hired me to do news at KLOL.
ReplyDeleteI later married a news anchor I met at KTRH, Bob Wieland, and we recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.
Thanks, Kris, (and Bob, too) for checking in. And congratulations to the two of you.
ReplyDelete