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?  

Here is a brief video of the Hakomori sisters, the Tokyo Happy Coats, on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966.  English was not their first language.

Insert from the Houston Chronicle, 4/8/1965, shortly after the program began airing.

Howard Kemper - KXYZ - 1940

Howard Kemper was an announcer on KXYZ in 1940.  He was also an amateur photographer.  Recently his son John discovered some old negatives and with the assistance of grandson Michael Kemper restored them and shared them with me. 

John Kemper supplied biographical and career information about his dad which I am copying here as submitted since it needs no editing.

"Howard, my dad, was from Abilene, Texas and his very early interest in radio inspired him to pursue radio broadcasting.  As there were no schools for this, he was self-taught mimicking other announcers and practicing before a mirror.  At age 17, after graduating from high school, he took his first job as an announcer with KLAH in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  A year later, he was hired as an announcer with KBST in Big Spring.  Later, he worked at KRBC in Abilene and in early 1940 KXYZ in Houston.  His time at KXYZ was brief as his young wife and new daughter had remained in Big Spring. The distance was a strain on family life and he eventually returned to KBST in Big Spring.

 

During his broadcasting career, Dad announced the news, sports, and weather, did much on location reporting, announced live dance band performances, hosted talent shows, and as "Uncle Gus" even read the funny papers to kids. He also interviewed many local celebrities and movie stars including Bill Elliott, Jeannie Porter, and Spanky MacFarland.  

 

He is probably best remembered for his "Man On the Street" or "Curbstone Reporter" program interviewing people of all walks. He also participated in the Texas 1943 War Bond Tour traveling with Wild Bill Elliott, Anne Jeffreys, Gale Storm, and Gaby Hayes. He was later recognized for his fine efforts and contribution to the tour's success by the State of Texas and Republic Pictures.

 

Eventually, Dad entered the life insurance business and enjoyed a successful career for a good many years."

So Howard Kemper's time in Houston radio was brief but these pictures are priceless.  Thanks again John and Michael.

Howard Kemper was from Abilene.  He wrote to his younger brother in college there about his job at KXYZ.

Howard Kemper reading the news and making an announcement.  KXYZ was an NBC Blue affiliate, perhaps explaining the pretty blue stationery.  Notice what appears to be a pass-through along the bottom of the window.  Perhaps the headphones were handed through?

Getting ready for that 15 minute news review at 2 am?   Looks like teletype machines didn't change much over the years.

An unidentified individual at a control board in a very tight space.  No microphone so is this an engineer?  Did engineers have to show up in suit and tie in those days?  I cannot tell if the second board looks out over another studio (or indeed, the one the man is sitting at).  Any information that anyone can supply, including the identity of this individual, will be appreciated.

There isn't much evidence of soundproofing in any of these pictures.

The next three pictures are of the equipment room.

Close-up of one the transmitter tubes from the preceding photo.

Up on the roof of the Gulf Building, tallest building in town at 37 stories.

Looking south along Main Street from the roof of the Gulf building.

Looking north from the Gulf Building roof along Main Street toward the bridge over Buffalo Bayou and out over the North side.  

The Gulf Building was completed in 1929 at 712 Main Street @ Rusk.  At 37 stories it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi at the time and the tallest building in Houston until 1963 when the Humble Oil and Refining Company/Exxon building was completed.  It is now known as the JP Morgan Chase Building.

The 18 story Rice Hotel was completed in 1913 at the corner of Main and Texas, 2 blocks north of Rusk, on the site of a former capitol of Texas.  It housed the studios of KTRH for many years and now houses the Rice Apartments.

KXYZ had been operating on the 1440 frequency with 250 watts of power since 1932 when the operations of KXYZ & KTLC were consolidated and KTLC ceased to operate.  By 1935, power increased to 1 kilowatt.  The transmitter had moved to the Chronicle building, Texas at Travis, in 1928 and in 1930 to the Gulf building.  The main studios moved from the Texas State Hotel on Fannin at Rusk to the Gulf Building in 1935.  Thus, the studios pictured above were still quite new.  Just when Harris County Broadcast Co. took over the station from William John Uhalt is missing in the FCC data I have located so far, but the company retained ownership of the station until December, 1948, when it was taken over by Glenn McCarthy’s Shamrock Broadcasting.  The Uhalt Electric Company had been the original licensee (call letters KTUE) on August 24, 1926.

As a result of the North American Radio Broadcast Agreement in March 1941, KXYZ moved to the 1470 frequency and a couple of years later to 1320, where it still operates.  In 1943, KXYZ was authorized to relocate its transmitter facilities to Deepwater, Texas, subsequently identified in FCC records as ‘southwest of the intersection of Route 225 and South Avenue, Pasadena, Texas” and again as 2800 Powers Drive, Pasadena.  This was the site of the joint KTRH/KPRC transmitter facility, originally the location of KTRH when it first moved to Houston from Austin.  KTRH was exiting the facility.  Completion of all the construction needed took a couple of years and KXYZ wound up on the 1320 frequency with 5 KW daytime, 1 KW nighttime power.

The former main transmitter at the Gulf Building was licensed as an auxiliary transmitter, limited to 1 KW power, and was activated for use during the construction delays.

KXYZ moved its operations (studios, offices) out of the Gulf Building to the 16th floor of the Fannin Bank Building at Holcombe and Main in October, 1963.  

The longtime transmitter location on Texas 225 southeast of Houston, used by several local operators since 1930, became too valuable for industrial purposes and was sold in the last few years.  KXYZ now transmits from a triplex set-up with sister stations KBME (790) and KPRC (950), all owned by IHeart media.

Paul Berlin - RIP

Longtime Houston radio and television personality Paul Berlin has passed at the age of 86.  He was a legend almost as soon as the first time he cracked a mic.

A Chronicle report.

Mike McGuff's tribute.

There will undoubtedly be many, many listeners and radio personalities weighing in with comments on both those sites.

Looking Back - a Slide Show

A Houston Chronicle slide show of lost FM formats, including some interesting photos and some historical facts, mostly of rather recent stations and not all of which are true.

Houston Crime Stoppers Building will Honor KTRK-TV Anchor Dave Ward - UPDATED

As reported today by the Chronicle, the long time anchor will be memorialized in brick and mortar.

Congratulations to Dave and thanks for your decades of service to the Houston community.

Mike McGuff's coverage.

Letters from our Listeners - KXYZ, 1930

I received these images from Christina Bowker. 

The letter, a song request, was postmarked in November, 1930, just months after KTUE became KXYZ.  Both stations operated from the basement of the Texas State Hotel.  Earl Flagg and Al Hendly had a program on KXYZ called Pals of the Air.  One of the announcers has written on the letter 'will play soon.'

My correspondent expressed surprise that a request would be sent by mail but I think this was very common in those days, perhaps more common than phoning in, although that would have been possible.  Radio stations did not have the capability at that time to put phone calls on the air I don't think.

Earl Lawrence Flagg, Christina's grandfather whom she never met as he died in 1955.  It was said that he could play any instrument he touched but his specialty was the electric guitar.  He also was a photographer, as is his granddaughter. 

I was also asked if any recordings might exist from that era.  I think that would be extremely unlikely.  The only means of recording in those days would have been electrical transcription.  I think very few individual stations had such capability and even if they did, it would be unlikely the disc, a large phonograph record, would have survived.

If Flagg continued in radio for some years, there may be a possibility of a recording of him from later.

My thanks to Christina for sharing this photo, one of only a few she has.  I mis-filed the letter in my word processor and am happy that I finally found it.

Phil Parr - R.I.P

Lufkin Daily News obituary.

Dave Westheimer writes:

"Phil Parr was at KTLW in Texas City from 1962 to 1970 and was bassist for Utah Carl during those same years. He moved to Lufkin in 1970 and worked at KSPL in Diboll. He also created and ran the Blind Handyman radio show on the ACB (American Council for the Blind) Radio network for years.

He may have been the last surviving member of Utah Carl's Gulf Coast Jamboree Boys. His predecessor on bass, Sam Reece, may still be living, but all the other 60s regulars are gone now."

Texas Country Reporter feature on The Blind Handyman.

Flickr photostream, posted by his wife, Luan, KTLW Once a Millenium Reunion, 2008.

Flickr photostream, posted by his wife, Luan, Blind Handyman Gathering, 2008.

My thanks to Dave for bringing this to my attention.

Milt Willis, 1929 - 2005

He was born Milton T. Willis in Houston; raised in Montrose, he graduated from Lamar High School, class of 1948, and went off to the Navy. While stationed in Hawaii he met and married his wife and they returned to Houston and raised a family of four children.  He was known to family and his closest friends as Milton but to hundreds of thousands of listeners over the years and most of the hundreds of other broadcasters he came in contact with, he was just Milt.

I have not been able to pin down when he first got into radio but for the most part he was associated with KTHT, KXYZ and KODA.  Except for a very brief stint in Rapid City, SD, he spent all his career in Houston radio and in addition to air work he did a lot of voice work for advertising agencies and film production companies.  I first have a record of him at KTHT, listed as program director, on a music survey in August, 1959.  He was also one of the deejays as were Jack London and Larry Kane.  He would have been in his late 20s by then and with a voice like his he had undoubtedly been receiving admonitions all his life that ‘you should be in radio,’ so undoubtedly he got his start some years earlier.  He would not likely have been a Program Director in his first job, either.  Good friend Gene Arnold remembers him at KTHT and says he had worked earlier at KXYZ where Gene had also worked although not at the same time.

Arnold remembers Milt did the morning show at KTHT and hated the shift.  One time when he was interviewing a new over-night talent for KTHT that Arnold had referred he told the man he’d have to be willing to hang around some mornings until 6:15 or 6:30 when Milt couldn’t make it on time, a condition the prospective hire was not happy about.  By 1960 he had found another solution to that problem; a KTHT survey published in June of that year shows him working a split shift - 8 to 10 am and 2 to 4 pm.

In the late 50s, KTHT went by the moniker Downbeat, using Ray Conniff’s ‘S Wonderful’ as an hourly ‘downbeat’ to the launch the programming.  The Chronicle had reported in June, 1958, that Robert D. Strauss’s Texas Radio had purchased KTHT from Roy Hofheinz and it appears to have been a  few months later when the Downbeat moniker began appearing in the listings.  Gene doesn’t know for sure but doesn’t think Milt was responsible for coming up with the programming. 

The station was sold again in 1961, the formal transfer of ownership to Winston-Salem Broadcasting occurring in March.  The incoming owners installed new programming they called Red Carpet Radio and GM Sam Bennett resigned.

Three months later, in early June, Public Radio Corp. of Houston took control of KXYZ-AM and FM from NAFI Corporation of Los Angeles.  Public Radio was composed of Lester Kamin of Houston, an advertising executive who had himself been a deejay in the 1940s, his brothers Max of Houston and Morris of Victoria.  They also owned stations in Tulsa and Kansas City.  They named Sam Bennett as new GM and Milt Willis as PD.  GM Cal Perley and PD Ken Collins were out and would later team up again at KFMK.  Collins told Houston Post columnist Bill Roberts he found out he was no longer PD of KXYZ when he read it in the newspaper.

During the early 1960s, KXYZ-AM and FM were outstanding radio stations.  In an era when the GM of another big Houston station described the city as just a big over-grown country town, KXYZ presented the city as sophisticated and cosmopolitan.  A big key to the imaging were the stagers which introduced musical segments with glowing audio pictures of the city.  I still think of the KXYZ of that era as one of the best sounding Houston radio stations of all time.  Gene Arnold doesn’t know much about the years Milt Willis was at KXYZ and does not know if he was responsible for the programming concept but his voice was ubiquitous on the station.

In April,1965, Billboard Magazine reported in a market spotlight on Houston radio that Milt was still PD of KXYZ but in January of the next year reported he had been upped to Operations Manager and a new programmer, Bob Winsett of San Francisco, was moving in.  By June of 1966 Milt moved over to KODA as PD; Don LeBlanc was upped to Operations at KODA and yet another new PD was named at KXYZ.

Milt continued as Program Director of KODA for some years.  Another Billboard Market profile in March of 1967 shows him still in the post but sometime between that time and the time I joined KODA in October, 1974, Milt accepted an offer from a station in Rapid City, South Dakota.  I remember him telling me the call letters and I remember they were just one letter different that KODA - I believe it was KOTA.  He realized almost immediately it was a mistake and he stayed a very short time.  He called GM Martin Griffin at KODA and asked to return, Griffin asked the staff and it was agreed they would welcome him back.  This may have been when he transitioned into sales.  By the time I got to KODA in ‘74 he was Sales Manager, having moved into that chair when Tom Hoyt was upped to General Manager not long before.

I worked as an announcer in the same building with Milt for four years until Tom Hoyt named me Operations Manager to replace the departing Jason Williams.  Just a few months later Hoyt left and Paul Taft promoted Milt to General Manager and then just a few months after that, Taft sold KODA-AM and FM to Westinghouse, Group W.  Milt and I worked together for the next three years to try to build KODA from an also-ran for years in the beautiful music war with Harte-Hanks’ KYND.  We talked everyday, went to lunch together often, but I wasn’t into radio history at that time and never asked about his career even though I had been aware of him since the 1950s.

We sometimes shared  bits of our personal lives, though.  I knew he collected movie theater lobby cards.  One Monday I remember him looking very bedraggled and I asked why.  It turned out he had spent the whole weekend on puddle-jumper flights to South Carolina and back to pick up some prized cards and he was beat.  He was as proud as a new Daddy of the cards he had scored, telling me all about them and their significance,  but he vowed never to do that again.  I also remember him sometimes beaming on a Monday morning after a weekend jaunt to the casinos in Louisiana where he apparently regularly did quite well.

Gene Arnold shared a passion for collecting movie lobby cards and got Milt into the hobby and they went to conventions together.  Gene says Milt liked to linger at the airport lounge and he warned him repeatedly he was going to miss a flight sooner or later but it was Arnold who almost missed a flight when he mistakenly boarded a flight to Seattle and didn't discover the mistake until the last minute. Gene says he and Milt also enjoyed betting against each other on college football games. 

Success in the Beautiful Music format on FM depended a lot on external advertising, chiefly on TV and billboards, to get the call letters across, since so much listening to that format was done at very low, background levels.  Harte-Hanks KYND had always had a much bigger advertising budget than KODA but when Westinghouse came to town, the tables were turned.   By the end of 1982, KODA's ratings success was so complete, Harte-Hanks pulled the plug on KYND and turned the frequency over to their wildly successful AM, KKBQ, the successor to KTHT and KULF on 790.

In February of 1983, just a little over a month after KYND called it quits, Milt was promoted to National Sales Manager of Group W’s Texas stations and he finish  his long career in Houston radio with Westinghouse.

Personal Postscript:  Milt lasted longer than I with Group W.  I clashed with the consultant Westinghouse assigned to their FM stations, all of which at that time were struggling except for KODA.  Finally I gave up and left.  The book that covered my last months as PD was the first one in KODA's history when it edged KYND but I was not there for the celebration.  I talked to Milt only once after leaving but some 20 years later, sometime in the first decade of this century, I was coming back from Austin on I-10 and decided to pull into the San Felipe de Austin State Historical site in Austin Co., the unofficial capital of Stephen F. Austin’s original colony.  I had known about the place since the 7th grade when every Texas school child took a Texas history course but I had never visited.  The town was an important commercial center before independence and  hosted several important meetings leading up to the Texas Revolution.  I walked around the grounds soaking up Texas history and as I stepped into a meeting hall, an audio track started playing.  It was Milt’s voice.  Son-of-a-gun, I thought, This guy is everywhere. I wonder how many other state historical sites have audio tracks voiced by Milt?

I am indebted to Laura Willis Hixon for the pictures above and to her and Gene Arnold for details of Milt’s life and career and their personal remembrances of him.

A Look Back at KLOL, 10 Years After

The Chronicle's Craig Hlavaty doing a little reminiscing, including an audio clip of a discussion with Outlaw Dave and pictures.

J. Kent Hackleman - KTRH Talk Show Host

J. Kent Hackleman was an early talk show host on KTRH.  His granddaughter has this site devoted to him, trying to raise money to digitize 300 audio tapes of his shows.  There are some pictures and a little bit of history.

Record Shops and Radio - 1940s-1960s

Here's an article from Houston History Magazine.  The Jive Hive was before my time but anyone who was around in the 60s through the 90s will remember The Record Rack on Shepherd at Alabama.

The article includes lots of quotes from Paul Berlin, who had a record store of his own, on the relation between record shops and radio.

For those interested in more recent history, here's an article from the Press in 2002 about the end of the Record Rack.

Early KTRH and KTLC Performers

I just stumbled on this source by accident.  Story Sloane writes a feature article for the emag Houston Lifestyles and Homes using photos from his great collection and a year ago published this one about early radio performers.

There was a Guy Savage who worked at KXYZ in the 1950s and later was sports director of Channel 13 in the 60s.  I have wondered before what the connection was to the earlier Guy Savage on KTRH; I don't see a physical resemblance.

The KTLC studios were in the old Houston Post building at Texas and Travis, catty-corner from the Chronicle.

There was a time in radio when not only were the announcers always live but all music had to be performed live also.

FOLLOWUP:  In addition to providing the ID in the comments, Dave Westheimer sent along this picture of Guy Savage (left) and Gus Mancuso (right), broadcast team of the Houston Buffs in the 1950s.  Dave says the square-cut, dimpled chin is the give-away.  Okay, so I never was very good at faces.  This is the same man who was the first morning man on KTRH and I can confirm that's the man I remember doing sports on KTRK-TV in the 60s.

Jackie McCauley - KLOL PD

I knew Jackie back in the 70s and knew she had been to Rice, but never knew of the historical significance of that as revealed by this post on the Rice History Corner blog.

Besides being PD of KLOL in the 70s (see the KLOL brochure here), then of KSAN-FM, San Francisco, she had an interview program, 'Shootin' the Breeze,' featuring interviews with leading Black music artists, produced and distributed by Westwood. 

Bill Young - RIP

As posted on Bill Young Productions -

a dominant force on the Houston radio scene for decades as talent, program director, production specialist and voice, passed early Sunday, June 1.

No obituary posted yet nor arrangements for a service.

I am in shock.

For those who do not know of Bill, I highly recommend his book.

UPDATE, ONE YEAR LATER:  BILL'S SON, SCOTT, HAS POSTED A TRIBUTE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE.  WELL WORTH WATCHING.

Also, see Scott's comment (# 14) here about his mom. 

Features on Baytown and Galveston Radio

Here are a couple of radio related features from Galveston-born writer Bill Cherry.

The first is about Baytown's DJ of the 1950s, Bill 'Rascal' McKaskill.  This article answers a question posed in a comment here on this blog several years ago about the use of 'Night Train' as a theme, an answer I should have had since I had corresponded with Rascal.

And a story about how George Roy Clough of KLUF invented call-in radio.  There are some problems with the dates in this story - the Moody's station (he's referring to KFUL) was off the air long before 1938 and Clough had also changed calls long before then.  There may be other issues but that's two I noticed.

Channel 39, KHTV, 1967-1985

From YouTube, a compilation of historic broadcast videos from KHTV, ca. 1967-85 (one segment is as late as 1992).

Houston Radio, Up Close, 2001

A special Doug Miller Channel 11, KHOU Up Close report on Houston Radio from 2001, posted on YouTube, with some well-known Houston personalities - most of whom are still around.  The story is old news to readers of this blog but it's a fascinating snapshot of history.