As my brief "career" in the oil bidness comes to a close, I've been thinking about the many years I spent "in radio."
WRIT-Milwaukee, WI. My best friend and I stopped by the nearby "Top 40" Radio Station one afternoon. It was 1956 and we were heading off to high school. Turns out they needed some help with their record library. Stations were changing from block programming to using disc jockeys with several hour shifts which called for a lot more music product. WRIT had been airing 78 rpm records but were in the process of switching to 45's. They needed us to catalog the new and dispose of the old. Actually Bunkie, my pal, decided early on that she was heading for a nursing career and took a job at a hospital. I stayed at WRIT. It was first owned by a big time Texas Top Forty pioneer named Gordon McLendon. He had staffed it with several Dallas area djs, sales people (ok, Salesmen) and even engineers. It was a hot new new station. However, Wisconsin was union territory, unlike Texas, and the Old Scotchman found unions to be a bit of a bummer. However, the Manager, Bill Weaver and the Program Director, Gene Edwards, turned out to recur in my life. McLendon sold WRIT quite soon to some Chicago guys (they knew about unions) and the first group of radio pals was gone. It was an interesting few years. One of the deejays started a "dance party" style TV show on which I helped and appeared. One of the newsmen went on to some TV fame of his own, Tom Snyder, by name. I'd planned a career in journalism with college to provide it.
But first, the McLendon gang had put a station on the air in Houston.
KILT-Houston, TX. Bill Weaver was the manager, Gene Edwards, the Program Director. I had spent many nights babysitting the Edwards' first child Jeri Lynn, and formed a very solid friendship with Gene and wife Joanie. So they invited me to come to Houston for the summer, live with them and help with Jeri and new born son Howard, and work part time at KILT, new Top 40 Station in town, downtown in the Milby Hotel, across the street from the Rice. My parents allowed me to take off for Texas two days after graduating from high school, for the summer. I loved the job and the town and the people. Can you believe that Houston had a population of 400,000 in 1958? Found out about Radio/TV school at the U of H, applied for and received a scholarship and in the fall moved into the "girls" dorm on Cullen. Reknown tho' it was the Radio/TV Department was staffed by a bunch of guys whose jobs in radio were in another time, block programming, network superiority, etc. Not to sound bragadocious, but I helped them when it came to modern day programming. I also met a guy, he was a senior, worked as a cameraman and announcer at Ch. 13, on Cullen Blvd. Marriage, end of college, have babies, be a Navy wife up East, etc.
But when his career brought him back to Houston, I went back to work at KILT. Now on Lovett Blvd, still some of the same folks and still successful.
KPRC-Houston, TX. Finding myself a single mom with three small kids to support and looking for a step up from Continuity Director at KILT, I was hired as station secretary at KPRC, on Post Oak, in the same building with KPRC-TV. A very nice gig until I married one Paul Williams, ex "The Wild Child" and now a salesman at KNUZ/KQUE. A new program director at KPRC thought I could not be trusted with secret KPRC programming (already quite far behind in the ratings) and had me demoted to Traffic Assistant. Fortunately they also carried the Astros who were looking for a production coordinator and there I went.
Asides, after these past fourteen months at a multi-national corporation where most of what the employees think about is maximizing retirement pensions, it occurs to me that while I changed jobs frequently, back and forth between advertising and radio, I never ever considered that I was making no plans for "retirement." I was trying really hard to support my family. So, when folks are complimenting themselves on all the grand "Choices" they have made, I'm not.
But wait, more radio. After Astros, birth of daughter, divorce and other career sidesteps, I found myself back in "Radio" as station secretary to the one and only B. Thomas Hoyt at KODA, Am&Fm, owned by Paul Taft Sr., on San Felipe in Houston. Good run there, good friends, including Mr. Hoyt and Ed & Pam Shane, Bill Powell, Jason Williams, Bruce Breeding and more. Many of whom are now my FB friends.
And then:
KNUZ-KQUE, Houston. After some advertising jobs I went onto the Sales Staff at KNUZ/KQUE. Paul had been gone for several years to other Houston stations and while he and I didn't do a great job at marriage we managed a long and happy divorce and lots of mutual involvement in radio and advertising until his untimely death in 2009. I moved up from Sales, to National Sales Manager and even General Sales Manager. It was a lot of work, not a lot of money and, did I fail to mention, I hated "sales." I have great personal sales resistance, virtually no negotiation skills and think everything should have a printed price and sell for it. Obviously not where I could stay forever, although I did last eight years.
The rest of my job time in Houston was in advertising and marketing, for the Chevy First Team and eventually many years at Timmers Chevrolet which became Monument Chevrolet. I loved writing, producing, directing and even placing our ads and it was a good place to be. I didn't make a lot of money but once again I made really good friends with whom I'm still in touch and some commercials at South Coast that are among my proudest accomplishments.
So, except for a brief stint at KGRT in Las Cruces during the year I lived there to take care of my brother, I've been out of radio for a long long time and while I liked the work and loved the people, I didn't get a pension. However, I had the joy of seeing Paul inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, posthumously, unfortunately. I've seen many other radio friends equally honored and will be heading to Galveston in November to sit with my "daughter-in-law" Bonny (also many years in radio), to see our old pal Walter Hammock be inducted as well. At that same event one of the salesmen from way back in KILT days will be going in too.
Radio today bears very little resemblance to the creative, fun-filled life we all knew back in those days. Now a few mega companies own most of the stations, programming is awful and bottom line is everything. My memories are of clever, creative and fun folks "putting on a show" everyday for hours at a time.
