KILT Staff DIrectory

I have been corresponding with John Hill, CSRTE, an engineer at KILT from 1960 to 1964, who has been filling me in on a lot of facts and data from that era. He lost almost all his family, musical career and radio memorabilia thanks to tropical storm Claudette in 1979 and only a few pieces survive, among them a staff directory. I have organized it by department instead of alphabetically and added a few facts on some of the personalities I have from my own research.


Beverly Bales - Secretary to GM
Sabra Hall - General office
Dino Thompson - Receptionist

Bruno Leonardt - Sales Manager
Paul Fielding, Dickie Rosenfeld, Charlie Trub and Ted Van Brunt - Sales
Sue Reid - Sales Secretary
Sandra Arnold - Traffic
Barbara Van Horn - Continuity

Glenn Cook - Chief Engineer
John Hill - Recording Engineer
Tim Milton Kingston - Transmitter Engineer
Frank J Maher - Transmitter Superintendent

Rob McLeod - Program Director
Chuck Benson - Assistant to the PD
Gene Kelly, Dick Lahm, Bob Presley, Bill Slater, John Trotter - Disc Jockeys
Milton Allen (Graves) - Weekend Disc Jockey

Cecil Tuck - News Director, Program Manager
Thom Beck - News Editor
Dick Dobbin, Rick Eiser, Gary Fuller - Newsmen

Reed Robinson, Larry Thomas - Porters

Missing from the list was Bill Weaver, General Manager.

Also missing were two other transmitter engineers, Bryan Burne and Sam Warren, working at the transmitter on West Rd., west of the Dallas highway (US 75/I-45).

As John remembers it at the time of this list, the air shifts were: Gene Kelly, Midnight to 6 A. M.; Chuck Benson 6-9 AM; Rob McLeod 9-12 Noon; Bob Presley from 12 Noon-3 P. M. (with his KILT Pool & Patio show); Bill Slater 3-6 P. M.; "Honest John" Trotter 6 PM.-Midnight.

I had in my notes from the Chronicle that Trotter had been brought in to do mornings in January, 1961, replacing Joel A. Spivak, I believe, but was demoted to the 6 to Midnight shift as a way of suggesting it was time for him to leave. He did shortly thereafter for KEWB in Oakland, CA. In 1965 he was one of the original group of Western Gentlemen who brought country music radio to WJJD, Chicago and later he worked at KBOX, Dallas. He died in Abilene in 1976 and was inducted into the Country Radio Broadcasters DJ and Radio Hall of Fame in 1996.

Bob Presley went on to a long career in Houston radio at KPRC and KILT.

Bill Weaver left KILT to work for Cap Cities Broadcasting in 1966; he had married his secretary. He touched base with John in Nashville in 1982 at which time he was Executive Vice President at WWCO, a 24 hour station in Waterbury, CT. He died in retirement in San Antonio in February, 2008.

Both Bob Presley and Bill Weaver were inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2003.

Milton Allen (Graves) left for WNOE, New Orleans, one of McLendon's wife's stations; Chuck Benson left for WGR in Buffalo, NY, followed by Bill Slater. John left shortly thereafter, too. After WGR, Bill Slater went to KFWB, Los Angeles (64-65), KRLA (64-67), and KPPC (69-70) according to a Los Angeles radio website. He died in 2002 at age 67 and there were probably some other radio gigs. I have not had any luck finding more information about the other personalities and will appreciate hearing from anyone who can fill in the details of their careers.

See also the Hooper Ratings for the Houston market from this era, courtesy of John. There will be more posts on the blog soon based on the communications I'm having with John.

Updated 7/29/11.

Hooper Ratings - December, 1961 - January, 1962

The Ratings are in!

KNUZ was still doing quite well vs. KILT with it's 250 watts; second place ain't bad. Note only two FMs showed up.

Thanks to John B. Hill, an engineer at KILT from 1960-1964, for sharing these. John has shared some other memorabilia from that era and filled in some facts and anecdotes about the McLendon operation, both AM and FM. See the KILT Staff Directory from this era here; there more published on this blog in the near future.

Joel A. Spivak, RIP

I'm a little late with this but just recently came across the news myself.

The Washington Post obituary.

This is not a name familiar to many today, probably, but if you were around Houston radio in the late 50s early 60s, especially if you were a teen and listened to KILT, you'll remember Joel. I remember him doing evenings on KILT; he was my favorite jock of all the voices brought to town by Gordon McLendon when he purchased KLBS. Later he did mornings before being demoted again to evenings and then leaving town. I believe he left once in the late 50s to join Eliot Field at KFWB in Los Angeles from what I've read. He was low key, funny, weird, sardonic, in an era before boss jocks. There's one anecdote in the obit about his career in Houston and I'll have a few more in an upcoming article from a former co-worker. I remember the time he joined the Salt Grass Trail Ride, broadcasting his show each evening from along the trail, one night from the studios of KWHI, Brenham, after it had signed off. I lived to hear his faux commercials, especially a running series about Polly Pelham Pizza - "look for it wrapped in old newspaper in the freezer section of a grocery near me."

ETA:  Here is another obituary and resume from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, which Spivak worked for in his final years.  The link includes not only more detail on Spivak's antics in Houston but also an embedded link to an extended excerpt from Marc Fisher's Something in the Air:  Radio,  Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation with much about the launch of Top 40 radio, Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon.  The excerpt is worth reading even if it didn't mention Spivak or KILT.