KNUS FM Almost Goes Up In Flames

My first year in radio at KNUS FM was a learning experience to say the least.

It was full of adventures and some misadventures too.

In the KNUS FM original broom closet size control room we had

turntables on counter tops with no supports on the sides under them. 

One was to the left, one to the right, and the DJ sat between them.

They were just fastened to the wall on the back. So, needing space, 

we kept the trash can under the right turntable. 

While I was doing the news on the all night shift,

I had a lit cigarette that I put on the the side of the ash tray that 

was next to the right side turntable while I did the 

news. While I changed out the news introduction 

cartridge for the cartridge with the commercial on it. 

I guess the vibration of that or some kind of 

motion caused the lit cigarette to fall into the trash can that was 

full of paper below.

The next thing was the dreaded smell of smoke in the studio 

coming from the trash can. And, then a full blown blaze was going in seconds. 

What the hell to do then?

I started a record. Arthur Brown's "Fire" which was big at the time 

would have been a good one.

Remember the lyrics? 

"I am the god of hell fire and I bring you:

Fire, I'll take you to burn.
Fire, I'll take you to learn.
I'll see you burn!
You fought hard and you saved and learned,
but all of it's going to burn.
Fire, to end all you've become.

I'll feel you burn!"

That just about said it all.

I pulled the can out as it blazed away under the turntable. 

I was afraid that I was burning the turntable motor or wiring. 

If I did that or burned anything, then I was dead meat. And, God forbid 

that I burn down the whole building. 

Gordon McLendon would not be pleased.

So, I stuck my foot into the blazing can and stomped. 

Thank God, I was wearing boots and not 

the usual thong sandals. Of course, burning ashes blew out of the

hard sided can and flew everywhere in the air, covering everything.

And, I do mean everything. I sheepishly opened the control room door 

and looked outside to see if anyone had seen my misdeed. No one there, 

and happily for me, no fire department either

This happened during the first newscast of the night, so I had all

night to clean up the mess and get rid of the smell. The Custodian 

had left his supply closet unlocked, so, there were a lot of cleaning

supplies and air freshener liquids and sprays.  The all night jock on KLIF 

smelled that something had happened and came over across the twenty or 

so feet that separated our studios, but didn't say a word to anyone.

Mike" Murphy in the Morning" Erickson Remembers Some Rock Stars and Others Who Visited KNUS-FM

"You asked about any rock stars at the station – we had plenty, and other stars too, like John Wayne (in Dallas for the premiere of True Grit at one of Gordon’s theaters), Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (plugging Easy Rider), William Shatner (plugging his stupid Star Trek poetry album) and Andy Williams (don’t know why he was there – was a friend of Ken Dowe). 


As for music guys, we had Joe Walsh and the James Gang, who left little “James Gang  Rides Again” stickers all over the building. Donovan came by for a short interview one day, as did one of my favorites, Tiny Tim! He spent an hour in the small KNUS studio with me, talking about Miss Vicki and his album and he was just a fruity as his television persona on Laugh-In. 


Jose Feliciano did a LIVE concert from the talk show room and Elton John was going to do one for us, LIVE, but we couldn’t get a grand piano in the building (his requirement). He did a live concert from a New York radio station the next year and released it on an album. Three Dog Night were there twice, Neil Diamond came by and signed one of his albums for me (still have it) and Steve Miller. I’m sure there were others, but that was quite awhile ago and hard to remember them all. It was great fun."


Thanks Mike. I don't know how a grand piano could have come into the Triangle Square Studios without taking out a window in the KLIF studio and using a crane.  Did anyone ask Gordon? It was zany enough that Gordon McLendon might have gone for it. He could have invited Liberace
to play along. He probably knew him too. 

GORDON McLENDON *

Gordon McLendon is considered the creator of format radio and one of the most innovative programmers in the medium’s history.

McLendon was born on June 8, 1921, in Paris, Texas and purchased station KNET/Palestine in 1946. The following year, McLendon moved to Dallas and launched KLIF. Unable to afford live baseball broadcasts, McLendon adopted an on-air personality known as “The Old Scotchman” and aired re-creations of games with the help of sound effects and wire service reports. These re-creations were later heard on over 400 stations via he short-lived Liberty Broadcasting System.

In the early 1950s, McLendon made KLIF one of America’s first “Top 40” stations. The polished format, along with fast-paced news and “personality” disc jockeys, quickly made KLIF Dallas’ top-rated station. McLendon maintained KLIF’s high profile by spending thousands of dollars every month on headline-grabbing stunts and contests.

KLIF’s success led McLendon to explore other radio formats. In 1959, he created the “beautiful music” format for KABL/San Francisco. In the early 1960s, he started the first “all-news” radio station at WNUS/Chicago. One of WNUS’ reporters was future CNN anchor Bernard Shaw.

Gordon McLendon died on September 14, 1986.

Gordon McLendon was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.

* From The Radio Hall Of Fame Biography Website


John Wayne was there about a month after I started. 






Steve Miller Band



Tiny Tim
    ...with Miss Vicki




The Shatner  " Transformed Man" album from 1968 was really bizarre. The original series was still on the air when this came out. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds was tortured; however, he did go where no man had gone before.





 I remember the James Gang Rides Again stickers... 
      


...and the Feliciano broadcast.






And, Peter Fonda with Dennis Hopper, here with a soon to be well known friend they met along the way.

If any other KNUS-FM staffers from the "Old Daze" have any other memories they would like to share, please leave a comment. 
Thanks to Tim Spencer for checking in. 

Almost A Bad Mistake...From KNUS' Mike "Murphy" Erickson

Thanks to Mike "Murphy" Erickson for this blog entry. 


"The KNUS studio originally was in the same building, same floor, as KLIF, at Triangle Point, downtown Dallas. There was a production studio in between the KLIF control room and the KNUS control room, with big glass windows on both sides, so that anyone in the Production room could look into each control room. This is where station tours usually ended up, so that they could see the operation of both stations. One day, I looked up from my control board, into the production room, to see the most beautiful redhead I’d ever seen. I figured she had never met a big radio star like myself before, so I would give her a break and let her go out with me. I walked out of the studio, into the hallway, and opened the door to the Production room, when I came face to face with Roger Smith. I recognized him right away from one of my favorite TV shows 77 Sunset Strip. I paused there for a moment, only to realize that the redhead was his wife. I was going to try to “pick up” Ann Margret. I turned and went back into the KNUS studio and thanked heaven for Roger Smith. Getting laughed at by a pretty girl is bad, but if that girl is Ann Margret, well, it wouldn’t have been a high point in my day...."


Yeah Mike...you and the redheads. I believe that I worked part time when this happened. Nobody came to the station during the all night shift to see a part time DJ like me. Jesse Jackson did stick his head in the studio one day after the studio was moved to the other side of the building  where it overlooked the parking lot. Do you remember any rock stars that came to KNUS while you were there? Jim

Mike "Murphy"Erickson Remembers When The KNUS Staff Got The "Word" From McLendon

"I recently caught up with my long time friend and former roommate Mike Erickson, AKA "Murphy" from the early daze of KNUS FM. And what daze they were. We reminisced about lots of KNUS lore and urban legends from there and KLIF, The Mighty Eleven Ninety. Mike promised to send me some guest blogs about his memories of KNUS, KLIF, and The Man" Gordon McLendon. So, here goes. 

See if you remember this.

After a couple of years on the air, many of the staff (all of us actually) were getting a little disgruntled about shifts and pay, etc. Rumors of mass walkouts were being whispered about. When KNUS was still at Triangle Point, downtown, the building was shared with McLendon’s National Production. This was a company, co-owned by Pierre Salinger and Gordon McLendon. They mass-produced educational audio tapes. We all walked by the big glass window looking into this business everyday as we walked into the KLIF/KNUS studios. When Gordon got wind of this, he came up with the kind of a plan that only HE could come up with. For 2-3 weeks, equipment started showing up in the window of National Production. Each day it got bigger and bigger, with patch panels, reel-to-reel rack mounted tape decks and cables everywhere. Each day brought more of the design into focus. Most of us had never seen an automated radio station setup, but we knew what it looked like, and it looked just like THIS. Was Gordon planning to fully automate KNUS and fire us all?? First we all shook it off – then we panicked – then we shut the hell up. Magically, after a few weeks, the equipment “disappeared.” I didn’t find out until years later that this was the plan all along, just to put us in our place. It did and once again, the genius of Gordon McLendon reared it’s brilliant head.

Erickson – A.K.A. Mike Murphy" 

Thanks, Mike. 

And, I remember Gordon's edict that everyone had to wear coats and ties while on the air. Most of us didn't even own so much as a tie. So, we all came up with sport coats and ties from a Goodwill store or similar thrift shop, and wore them over our cutoffs and blue jeans. That policy went away. I believe Gordon got a kick out of our response. 

Yes, MIke. And I remember how Gordon had a telephone number that he could use to call to listen to every one of his AM and FM radio stations. This was back in the Dark Ages days before there was an Internet for radio stations to stream on. He could monitor everything going out on the air from anywhere in the world. The McLendon radio lore was that he would sometimes call a radio station hotline at one of the stations he owned out of the blue, without even listening to what was being broadcast and ask the unsuspecting DJ, "Why did you do what you did just a minute ago?" 

The hapless McLendon DJ answering the question sometimes wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about, and didn't dare ask what he meant, but would sometimes confess to something that Gordon had no clue about. What fun!

You and I both had our first radio jobs in Dallas, then about the 10th or so  largest radio market in the country, thanks to McLendon. No one ever told us that we were supposed to start at some podunk small market radio station in the middle of a cow pasture somewhere and work our way up to the big time.

I can't ever complain about the way I was  treated by the McLendon family while I worked for them. They were fine people. And, it was the best boot camp for anyone who was just getting into radio. 

If you are a former KNUS or KLIF staffer who would like to do a guest blog too, please contact me by leaving a comment. I'll get right back to you. 

KLOL NEWS IN THE EARLY DAZE

In the day at KLOL, when album rock was king, we had the support of an excellent news department too.

Originally brought into being by the first News Director, Jim Hilty (me), who went on to be KLOL Music Director and later Program Director, KLOL continued to develop into a solid news operation.

Bob Wright came on board from KENR as News Director shortly after our move to Lovett Boulevard. He later hired Brian Hill as a solid asset to the news team.

The news department accessed the national wire services over at sister station, news/talk KTRH. It was up to the KLOL newspeople to dig up the dirt on the local Houston scene. And, they did a great job.

The newsroom had a main office right in the center of the KLOL complex. The news studio was a mirror image of the KLOL production studio with state of the art equipment, and Ampex tape recording machines that used big 12 inch diameter recording tape reels. The Ampex machines were about the size of today's typical washing machine, but state of the art then too.

All of the studios had two microphones for a stereo effect, and two microphone controls. Each had to be turned on or off to operate the two microphones.
The news studio control room had stereo mikes too, and these led to trouble for Brian Hill on at least one occasion.

When you hear a newsmaker's voice on the news reports, these are called "Actualities" in the business. At that time, they were recorded on tape cartridges that looked somewhat like a car's eight track tape. They were placed in a slot in a tape player, and started when a button was pressed at the appropriate moment by the newsman. The cartridges were "cued up" to the right moment for a beginning word of a sentence of a newsmaker to be heard. The tape player could have room for three or four separate individual "cued up" cartridges. All slots were usually full during a newscast.

A KLOL news story may have sounded something like this...Hypothetically speaking....
"And the mayor denied making improper advances to his intern. The mayor had this to say today at his press conference"....(Enter the Mayor's voice as an "actuality" played at that moment on tape on the air)..."I did not have sexual relations with that woman......Ms. Brewsky."

Typically, a newsman's mike is turned off during the playing of an "actuality" to let the newsperson take a breath, collect thoughts, clear the throat, or cough if needed. Its a small break in the newscast for the newscaster that the listeners aren't aware of.

Brian Hill had both microphones on when he did one particular newscast during the midday program. He was reading his news copy, started an "actuality," and turned off only one mike. The "actuality" stopped dead suddenly while the newsmaker being quoted spoke. Nothing could be heard but the dreaded "Dead Air."

Brian had forgotten to turn off both mikes. He had just turned one off, so one was still live, and everything he said would be heard on the air. I heard over the air the word "SH*T live from the newsroom. Always the consummate professional, Brian continued with the story, ad libbing the rest of the newsmaker's recorded comments and story.
I was comfortable that he heard what he said over the air, knew of his goof, was suitably embarrassed, and would turn off both mikes next time.

He continued with another story, and another "actuality" malfunctioned when he pushed the button. The cartridge misfired. It played nothing when Brian pushed the button. I heard softly, but unmistakeably the words, "SON OF A BIT*H" over the air. At that point, I knew that Brian had still left a mike on and didn't know it. He turned on a mike, ad libbed about what the newsmaker was supposed to be heard saying, and continued reading his news copy.

I got up from the KLOL broadcast console then to go tell Brian that a mike was left on. Brian had tried to play another actuality for the same story while I was getting up and heading to the news department. It misfired and didn't work either. There was a serious problem with the cartridge playing machine.

I heard Brian say on the air, "G*D DAM**T...YOU MOTHERFU**ER." The one unknown mike was still on. He was live on the air. Brian continued his newscast, ad libbing around the missing parts of the story, and acting like nothing happened after, to his horror, I had motioned with a pointed finger to the open mike switch. He turned beet red, but carried on like the pro he was and got out of the newscast by giving the weather forecast.

When a mistake is made on the air, whether it is a misspoken word or sentence, or something like this, the best tactic is to say nothing about it. Don't draw attention to your faux pas. Just act like nothing happened. This isn't always possible though. Sometimes you burst out in laughter because of what you said. I have laughed till tears came over some things that I accidentally said or heard someone else say. You laugh so hard you can't say anything else.
But, most people will not even notice, or maybe think in the back of their mind, "Did I really hear that?"

Brian said three of the seven deadly words you can't say on radio and one other doubtful expression for the FCC, all of South Texas, and the rest of the world to hear in less than 20 seconds. Brian's goof was the brunt of jokes around KLOL, but nothing major ever came of it.

I always liked to intro Brian with the line that I stole somewhere, " Now, here's Brian Hill with the news. When news breaks, Brian fixes it." (Chevy Chase?)

There was no turnover in the news department, but there was a need for a part time news person in a position that would lead to a replacement for me when I went back to an on the air DJ shift. We received lots of aircheck tapes from would be KLOL news hounds.

One of those was from an experienced newscaster named Linda. Linda was out of work after accidentally sending a confidential and unflattering letter to a co worker about her boss. The problem was that the letter was accidentally went on to the radio station subscription wire service news wire at the company she worked for. She was responsible for everything that went to the radio and TV stations. She simply pushed the wrong button. Instead of it being a closed communication to a co worker, the embarassing letter went to every radio and TV station that subscribed to the news wire service.

Jerry Lee was the KLOL station manager. He had worked his way up the ranks of the sales department to the management position and made hiring decisions for department heads, such as the news director. Although she was an excellent newscaster, Jerry did not hire this lady who applied. She didn't do badly though in her career though.
She was Linda Ellerbee, who was hired soon after the newswire service fiasco by one on the alphabet networks as a national TV news correspondent and went on to a prominent career.

By the way, as far as I know, KLOL news was the only radio news department to have its own T Shirt, which is pictured at the top of this blog.

MY KLIF 1190 AND KLOL FM PRESS PASSES

Here is my KLIF 1190 AM press pass issued by the Dallas Police Department in 1969 and signed by Charles Batchelor, who was Assistant Dallas Police Chief when JFK was shot in 1963, and my KLOL FM (K101)press pass signed by the Harris County Sheriff's Department's Sheriff Jack Heard in Houston in 1973. Jack Heard was the only person to ever serve as the City of Houston's Police Chief and Harris County Sheriff. These passes were necessary to enter press conferences and to cross police lines into crime scenes and other ordinarily restricted areas.

TRIUMVRAT VINTAGE ROCK T SHIRT

I don't know a lot about his group except that that they were European and they sounded Emerson, Lake and Palmerish.
I do like the mouse and the egg artwork though.
"Illusions on a Double Dimple" was the only Triumvrat LP that I recall receiving while at KLOL.
Ed Beauchamp really liked this album. It got a good amount of airplay at KLOL.

RINGO STARR VINTAGE ROCK T SHIRT

Here is a medium size Ringo Starr Vintage rock T shirt. I believe that this came out to promote Ringo's "RINGO" Album. I have two of these.

"Ringo" was the only solo album on which all of the ex Beatles performed. He got a little help from his friends John , George, and Paul. Although they were never in the studio at the same time, the mark and sound of the Beatles is present throughout the album. That is especially true of the unmistakable guitar work of George Harrison, particularly on "Photograph" and "It Don't Come Easy."

"Ringo" was released on November 2, 1973 in the USA and on November 9 in Great Britain. It stayed on the charts for thirty-seven weeks. It was in the top ten for eight weeks and at its peak was number two at Billboard Magazine.It reached number one on Cashbox and Record World.

Ringo sang "Photograph," a song co-written by George Harrison and performed by both on the Ringo LP at the "Concert for George" on November 29, 2002, at the Royal Albert Hall, London on the first anniversary of Harrison's death.

The lyrics of the song hauntingly brought back memories of George.
"Ev'ry time I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go.
But all I've got is a photograph,
And I realise you're not coming back anymore.
[...]
I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
I want you here to have and hold,
As the years go by and we grow old and grey."

See Ringo in his latest incarnation on the "Storytellers" series on VH1 Classic.
He has many stories about the day.

GEORGE HARRISON VINTAGE ROCK T SHIRTS

Some of my favorite record company vintage T shirt artwork can be found on T shirts from George Harrison's Dark Horse record label, which was first distributed by A & M Records. These T shirts had George Harrison's Dark Horse logo on the front and an interesting logo on the back.

The inspiration for the Dark Horse logo came from a label on a tin box Harrison saw on one of his many trips to India.

Harrison had recorded for the Parlophone and Apple labels under a contract terminated in 1976. All his subsequent recordings were released through Dark Horse. This started with Thirty Three & 1/3 in 1976 and ending with the posthumous release of Brainwashed in 2002. Harrison's Dark Horse back catalogue was remastered and reissued in a box-set during 2004. These, and releases of other artists, have been distributed in turn by three record companies:

A&M Records (1974-1976)
Warner Bros. Records (1976-1992)
Parlophone (starting 2002)

The logo features the seven-headed horse Uchchaisravas, a common figure in Indian art and mythology. Harrison was the proverbial dark horse in going for a solo career after having been overshadowed among The Beatles by Lennon and McCartney, despite his creating several of the band's more popular later songs (such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something"), and being the first ex-Beatle with a number-one ranked solo album (All Things Must Pass in 1970).

I am fortunate enough to have four of these vintage rock T shirts and am happy to show them to you.

PINK FLOYD "WISH YOU WERE HERE" VINTAGE T SHIRT

Here is my vintage Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" Rock T Shirt. The album was released Released September 15, 1975 and was an immediate KLOL favorite.

The album was recorded between January–July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. My favorite cut on the album was the tribute to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

My "Dark Side of the Moon" T shirt (not pictured nor in existence anymore)finally wore out from wear. Thank God for the record company T shirts we got at KLOL. KLOL airstaff used to joke that they eliminated our clothing expenses because they were the only shirts we ever wore with our blue jeans.

BOB DYLAN ROLLING THUNDER REVUE VINTAGE ROCK SHIRT

I started to title this blog the "Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue Concert Vintage
T Shirt."
But, the fact is that it isn't a T shirt.
This vintage rock promotional shirt was actually printed by the promoters on an insulated long underwear top. Dylan's promoters spent more than the average amount of money on printing these promotional shirts because of the type of garment it is.
This long sleeve top has three buttons on the front at the center top. Printed on the right side is "Hard Rain" "Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Take a look at the back for the concert line up of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bob Neuwirth, and Dylan's good friend and mentor Jack Eliott.
This concert tour was in late 1975 and 1976. I originally had two of these shirts, but one got a couple of small rust stain spots on the front many years ago. I can't believe now that I actually used the other slightly spotted shirt to wax my car and then threw it away.

ZZ TOP VINTAGE ROCK T SHIRTS ACQUIRED AT KLOL FM

Working at an album rock station was heaven. Meeting rock stars, playing their records, talking to the town on 100,000 watts, and getting paid for it too. There were also the front row concert tickets and other great things.
I have paid for the front row tickets over the years with some hearing loss, but I wouldn't give back a minute of the fun. Every one from the day will recall that it wasn't a good concert unless you came out with your ears ringing and it sounding like someone had stuffed your ears with cotton when you talked.
One of the big benefits of working at KLOL was the promotional T shirts that record promoters gave to the staff. 1969 to 1979 were the golden years of vintage rock T shirts, and I own some true classics.
I am posting pictures of some of the really great recording artist promotional T shirts that I got while at KLOL.
Some of my vintage T shirts, such as the original Grateful Dead Skull and Roses, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, and ELO's ElDorado were worn until they became see through shirts and fell apart. Others have weathered the years in fine fashion.
ZZ Top is at the top of my favorite vintage rock t shirt list.
ZZ Top was without a doubt the greatest hometown Houston band. ZZ Top really broke out of Houston when they opened for the Rolling Stones in Hawaii. We always were big fans of the home town boys, and KLOL airplay showed that fact.
I remember the excited call that I got from Billy Gibbons when he told me about their big break.
I will be adding more T Shirts as time permits.