R.I.P. - TV News Pioneer Ray Miller

The Edward R. Murrow of Houston TV News. Born in Fort Worth and moved to Houston in 1939. He was not the city's first anchor, that was his boss at KPRC-AM, Pat Flaherty, but the KHOU video includes a brief kinescope clip of him anchoring an early newscast on 2.

He is perhaps best remembered for building the shop at KPRC that was one of the best local TV news shops anywhere and for creating and narrating The Eyes of Texas beginning in 1967.

Watching KPRC-TV news day after day, years on end, made me proud to be a broadcaster, a Houstonian and a Texan. The Eyes of Texas was simply one of the most fascinating TV programs ever owing in large measure to the writing (but also the subject matter!)

It would be interesting to compile a list of the broadcast journalists who came through that shop and went on to other things - Steve Smith, later long-time anchor of KHOU, Conservative commentator Cal Thomas, Thom Jarriel of ABC and many others. But I think also it should be noted the number of local TV journalists who migrated to KPRC - it was the place to be if you wanted to work for the best - among them Larry Rascoe, Ron Stone and Bob Nicholas, all of whom came over from 11. Ironic that Miller wound up working with 11 after he left 2.

I have been looking through a couple of his Eyes of Texas Travel Guides that I have and his Ray Miller's Houston - there's lots of good stuff in there I had forgotten about including great old photos and facts.

I have not been able to get the KPRC video to load so I haven't seen it.

KHOU Ray Miller video

KPRC story with video

Dizzy Lizzy - KYOK

I am grateful to Michael for sending me this picture showing Novella Smith who used the name Dizzy Lizzy on KYOK. I'm not sure of the date; KATL flipped to KYOK in late 1954 and the name Dizzy Lizzy may have been used by more than one person over the years.

Other names used by KYOK jocks included Groovy George, Razzle Dazzle and Hotsy Totsy. I probably listened to Novella as a kid but not much. I listened to KYOK a lot in the late 1950s but because of their highly directional signal and my location, I could only pick them up at night and I'm pretty sure she was on during the day.

Novella also was a disc jockey on KPRC, 950, in the 60s, doing a jazz show in the evening.  Her resume details even more of her accomplishments.

From the Friends of Novella blog, a picture of 'Bugaloo' George Frazier on KYOK, ca. 1970, and a story on how Dizzy Lizzy and Skipper Lee Frazier broke Roy Head's 'Treat Her Right' on KYOK in 1965.

The Ratings are in

For the Fall of 1945

I thought maybe the big numbers for KTRH and KXYZ in the mornings reflected, respectively, Arthur Godfrey, who had just gone national in April of 1945, and Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, which had been national (although maybe not in Houston all the time) since 1933. However, when I looked at the radio listings in my files closest to this date, in the Spring of 1947, I found the Breakfast Club on KXYZ at 9 am but Arthur Godfrey was on KTRH at 2 pm (30 minutes, with House Party - Art Linkletter? - at 3pm).

I have no idea what was responsible for the big numbers on KPRC in the afternoon.

I'm grateful to Chris Huff of the DFW Radio Archives for sharing this graphic.