Wonderful World of the Cork - KHUL-FM, 1965
A researcher has contacted me for help in finding information on this program which aired on KHUL-FM in 1965 for about 6 months, apparently. The Cork referred to in the title is Glenn McCarthy's Cork Club which was situated on the top (or top two) floors of the Central National Bank at 2100 Travis. I believe KTHT/KULF later occupied part of this space?
Here is McCarthy, The King of Wildcatters, famous as the inspiration for the character Jet Rink in the movie Giant, using radio to promote his club. Two and a half decades earlier it was Saturday Night at the Shamrock from McCarthy's Shamrock Hotel on his radio stations (KXYZ-AM-FM) and the ABC radio network.
This program was broadcast six nights a week from 6 pm to Midnight. Tom Overton, who was the operations director of KHUL-FM at the time, was the host of the show which actually was broadcast from a shuttered fur salon next door to the club. I have suggested to the researcher that 'live' probably only meant they were sending drop-ins back to the studio but I don't know.
The researcher is particularly interested in the appearance of the Tokyo Happy Coats, five sisters from Tokyo who had become well known from entertaining US troops overseas in the late 50s and early 60s and were touring the US club circuit for about 7 years. They had appeared once at the club on an emergency fill-in basis and were invited back for a stand which aired from August 26 to September 8, 1965, and were probably featured in some way on the KHUL-FM program during that time.
Does anyone have any information, perhaps memories of attending or listening, or are there any air checks? Who was Tom Overton and is he still alive? Is there anybody still alive who worked at KHUL-FM at that time?
Insert from the Houston Chronicle, 4/8/1965, shortly after the program began airing.
