This is the Way I Remember It  (Episode Five)

I listen to fellow broadcasters remembering events and they refer to things as having happened in "1950-something" or "60-something." That's the way many of us in radio remember things: we didn't all stay planted in one location, and the years tend to run together in our memories.

Jack Auldridge, a/k/a Jack Murray, alerted me to the fact that he replaced Ron Chapman at KLIF as Irving Harrigan in "1960-something." He referred to the great River Race (http://www.historyofklif.com/pgone.html), which helped me find the year in my memory: 1964.  Or was it 1966?  If I can't associate an event with a particular time, perhaps the memory of a song will bring the date into better focus.  The point is, the dates I refer to in future episodes may be off just a bit. 

I do know for a fact that 1952 was the year of my first radio job at KBST in Big Spring, Texas. Two of us were hired within a few days of each other; neither of us had any previous on-air experience. Bob Cole was the other person who walked into KBST at the same time as me. Bob weighed about 250 pounds, and stood about six feet tall. Both of us practically lived at the radio station and wanted to be on the air as often as we could. KBST was an ABC affiliate and mostly we'd read a live commercial between network programs, and do the station IDs between shows.

In those days very few stations used many recorded commercials; almost all were live. A few regional and national items were played from acetate discs, but almost all the local commercials were live.

Every so often we would be able to fill a fifteen minute segment with music. Some of the music shows were pre-packaged programs from a company called Thesaurus. The records were 16 inches in diameter.  You put the needle down on the inside grooves, and the tone arm traveled out to the edge as the program moved on.  The words which connected the music were scripted for the local guy to read. It was fun to try to ad-lib without being detected by the boss, although I'm sure he knew. 

Chuck Dunaway at KBST, Big Spring, Texas 1952

Every so often the station would have so many commercials to broadcast that we would play contemporary music rather than the Thesaurus programming. We had so many commercials that we'd read two of 'em, play half-a-record, pot down the music, read two more spots, then finish the tune and read two more!  That's how we filled the fifteen minutes between network shows when the commercial load was heavy.

One of my biggest thrills at KBST was doing the intro to Paul Harvey's noontime broadcast from Chicago. He sounds exactly the same today.
-----
Time on the air was precious, and we wanted experience. Sometimes Bob Cole would want to be on the air when I was scheduled, or we'd be scheduled at the same time. Based on his size and my lack of it (5' 6" and 145 pounds at the time), he won most of the battles. One time we even came to blows.  Naturally, I lost. I remember figuring out that practicing after sign off at midnight was much safer. I spent most of that night under a piano in the big studio, crying.  I was only 17, and pretty fragile. 

We were all excited to discover that a man with big-time experience was coming to work at KBST. His name was Johnny Kunsak, and every word he uttered was gospel to Bob and I.  Johnny came to Big Spring after working in Los Angeles. Being young and inexperienced, we didn't ask why he made that move.  We just accepted the fact he left LA for a tiny town in Texas. 

Johnny had a deep, mellow voice, and I wanted to have one, too. I asked Johnny what I needed to do to get that big voice.  He said I needed to smoke "Kool" cigarettes, and I obediently adopted the habit.

A little age would have given my voice the maturity I sought, but rather than wait, Johnny said "Smoke!", and smoke I did. I smoked for over 43 years and have the scarred lungs to show for it. I've not smoked in six years, but I will always remember Johnny Kunsak for his bad advice when I was a kid.

-------
I have no regrets about my early, nomadic days in radio because I had the opportunity to gain new experiences, to be nervous with a new-and-different control board, and to learn.

Six months after arriving in Big Spring, I received a call from KTLW in Texas City. They had an opening for a disc jockey, and I was offered the job, earning $60 a week. I had no car, but I did have a new suit, so I caught a bus to Texas City.

KTLW was an independent station: no network affiliation to get in the way of being able to play music and become a real disc jockey. At age 18, I was headed for my next big break in radio, close to family and close to Houston. Things were getting better already, and beginning to move very fast.

-------

Second generation broadcaster Josh Holstead, aka Rowdy Yates of KILT, is reading the pages that recount events during the time his dad was a top newsman in Texas radio. Burt Sherwood (former WMCA, New York) is waiting for the WABC phase of my career, about 8 years after the Texas City experience.

Thank you for reading.

Chuck Dunaway