This is the Way I Remember It  (Episode Three)

 

It's amazing how little we reveal about ourselves, even to good friends. I've recently had a couple of long talks with Bill Young, and have discovered more about him than I did during the three years we worked together in the 60s. 

Until I began to write on the web about my experiences, I was unaware that Kent Burkhart and I had the same feelings about becoming a radio DJ, or that we had the same early influences. Kent became a Paul Berlin fan even before I did, and visited the KNUZ studios in the old Scanlon Building on Main Street in downtown Houston.  By the time I became a radio junkie, I had to bus it to the Jewish Community Center at 4701 Caroline Street. KNUZ owner Dave Morris had purchased the Caroline Street studios, called Radio Ranch, around 1950.   

I began visiting KNUZ in 1951, about a year after Paul Berlin had arrived in Houston from WHBQ in Memphis and Al McKinley along with Webb Hunt had crossed the street to KNUZ from KATL. KATL later became KYOK Soul and Gospel. These were the good old days when disc jockeys were the teenagers' connection to the wonderful world of show biz, and the world of rock 'n' roll (or "rhythm and blues", the term back then for what we now know as "rock 'n' roll"). 

Then I got my big break.  During my senior year at Austin High, word was out that a Spanish-language station in Pasadena was looking for an English-speaking high school boy to team with the Morales sisters for a Saturday morning record-request program, to be called the "Teen  Canteen." So one Saturday, I boarded a bus and headed to Pasadena to audition for my shot at fame.   

The two Morales sisters were the cousins of the station's owner, Joe Morales. His office was next door to the studios in the family funeral parlor. The audition was simple: I went into the studio with the Morales sisters, and we talked to each other. The engineer spoke broken English, as did the sisters, but when I was finished he said, "You are as good as Arthur Godfrey." 

Either he had never heard Arthur Godfrey or he was trying to make a very nervous seventeen-year-old kid feel good. 

I said something lame to him about learning to speak Spanish, to which he replied, "People in Spain speak Spanish. I'm from Mexico and I speak Mexican." I think today that statement might be considered politically incorrect, especially if the words came from the mouth of an Anglo, but this was 1951. Things were very different then. 

About thirty minutes after the sisters and I finished our audition, Joe Morales, the owner, joined us in the control room and listened to the tape. I was hired, but to this day I feel the only reason I got the job was that I was the sole Anglo to show up for the audition. Sometimes it takes a bit of luck. Throughout my many years in radio, I continued to feel I was the luckiest guy in the world to have gone to Pasadena that day. 

And the show?  It ran thirty minutes on Saturday mornings at 10:00, and eventually was expanded to an hour.  On the air we read the wrestling results, because Paul Boshe's TV wrestling show was hot with teens. Although the program was supposedly devoted to record requests, listeners mailed us very few.  So we fabricated our requests and dedications, chatted about school, and talked about things that interested us. I'm sure we had almost no listeners other than a few friends, but we were in show biz, and it felt real good.   

Did I mention that we were the only English-language program on KLVL?   

I don't know where the Morales sisters are today, but bless them for wanting their cousin to give them an English-language radio show in 1951.   Next week I'd enjoy telling you how the combination of five dollars and a friend turned into a real full-time radio job.    

During the past week, we heard from Joe Ford (major DJ at KNUZ and KILT beginning in 1961, now semi-retired), Kent Burkhart (station owner, consultant and all around legendary radio figure), Jack Auldridge (AKA Jack Murray AKA Irving Harrigan now owner of KDCD), Chuck Chellman (Monument Records promotion man and terrific person, now in the travel business in Nashville), Bob Tomlinson (long out of radio, but with fond memories of the business), Jack Gale (radio man, author, record producer and owner of a great web site), Dave Jarrott (top-rated Austin morning-show star, now retired and doing theater work in Austin), and some other good people who took time out of their lives, to visit a slice of mine.   

Thanks for reading.