A couple of weeks ago, JR Gonzales published this article on his Bayou City History blog about the crash of the KODABIRD. There's only one picture but there are excerpts from the newspaper coverage of the day and more background on the individuals involved.
J.R. Gonzales' Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle has another radio related post this week with a picture of a couple of paper boys and 7 radio commercials for the Chronicle, believed to date from the late 1960s. He's asked if anybody can identify the announcer. I wasn't around Houston much in that era and there were many voices on the radio I wasn't familiar with. I've entered a guess, anyway.
Give 'em a listen and see if you can help, or just give 'em a listen.
By far the most read post on this blog on a continuing, daily, weekly and monthly basis, is this post on the Larry Kane Show. It has accumulated almost 2 and a half times more viewings than any other post and also has accumulated the most comments.
Perhaps because of the recent passing of Dick Clark, to whom Kane was often compared, J. R. Gonzales' has posted this week about Kane in his Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle with a couple of pictures from the Chronicle files and some excerpts from interviews. Of course, of great interest will be all the comments.
It should be noted the station in El Campo that Kane started out at was KULP.
For everything on this blog about Kane, click on the label below.
I have mentioned before on this blog that there are two people I've learned about in researching this blog that I most would like to have known or worked for, Will Horwitz and Roy Hofheinz. This week, in celebration of the 100th birthday of Hofheinz, J. R. Gonzales' Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle has posted an essay with pictures about the Judge. Though one of the pictures dates back to the 1940s, there's not one mention in the text, pictures or comments about his broadcasting career; still it's an important look at his accomplishments.
For more on Hofheinz on this blog, click on the label below. For more on his broadcast operations, click on KTHT or KTHT-FM.
Liberty Hall was a short-lived but very popular music venue in the 1970s in Houston, located about where Toyota Center is now. It hosted blues and rock acts and outlaw country. J.R. Gonzales' Bayou City History Blog in the Chronicle has done a post about an appearance by Waylon Jennings there in 1975 with a few great pictures and reader comments.
The article references another post about Liberty Hall last year in the Houston Press.
And here is a lengthy discussion thread from several years ago on HAIF.
J.R. Gonzales' blog, Bayou City History, has just published a series of photos from the Post archives of the KPRC-TV studio facility on Post Oak Road, which they occupied from 1953 to 1972. More are to come.
Enjoy.
J.R. Gonzales' Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle has posted a story about a big promotional event staged by KILT in the Astrodome in 1969 between Roy Hofheinz, owner of the Astros, and Mayor Louie Welch, a foot race to promote physical fitness and the KILT Jog Corps.
The Great Indoor Contest
It's a great little story about an event I never had heard of with pictures of Hudson and Harrigan and probably some other KILT staffers of that day.
The Bayou City History Blogger, J.R. Gonzales, has continued to post excerpts from the Marvin Zindler tapes but not all of them have been in The Roving Mike series. Recently J.R. posted what I guessed were excerpts from the production music library at KATL and just yesterday revealed excerpts from a live country music show that ran on KTRH with Western Swing musician Bennie Lueders, whom Gonzales tracked down and interviewed in Bastrop.
J.R. is hoping to be able to make more of the Lueders recordings available; if anyone can advise or help him, please contact him on his blog, by making a comment or emailing him from the link on the sidebar.
Thanks once again to J.R. for publishing these excerpts and stories and giving us a fascinating glimpse into what radio sounded like in Houston in the early 1950s.
There were probably live country music shows on every station in town in those days and besides that, on local television in the early days. One of these days, I'm planning a piece on my memories of Houston television's country music shows like Utah Carl and Curly Fox and Miss Texas Ruby and others.
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!
J.R. Gonzales' Bayou City History Blog at the Chronicle continues to fascinate and every now and then he does a feature related to radio or television in Houston.
Check out his posts on the following:
Long-time Houston radio and TV personality and wrestling promoter Paul Boesch.
Cadet Don of KTRK-TV.
Kitirk, Channel 13's mascot.
Early Houston radio pioneer Will Horwitz of WEAY and XED.
JR touted a TV show that covered early TV in Houston. The show has come and gone but there are pictures in JR's article.
Early photos of KPRC-TV on Post Oak Road from the Houston Post archives.
The Marvin Zindler tapes - from when Marvin was a reporter for KATL.
More Marvin Zindler tapes.
A KILT Footrace.
