KNUS FM- Mike Selden and Paxton Mills

Paxton Mills was the evening DJ at KLIF when he also took the title of Program Director of KNUS after Jimmy Rabbit left.He didn't have much program to direct because the format was freeform radio. He made sure that everyone had a third class FCC license, adhered to the McLendon phlosophy and policies, and followed the FCC rules. He did make the personnel decisions though.

Pax had gone to Thomas Jefferson, the same high school I went to, but was a year or two behind me and Mike Erickson, another KNUS DJ. Mike went on to work as P.D. of an Oklahoma Station, and is now at the NBC TV affilliate in Wichita, Kansas working in computer technology. Pax was engaged to Leslie, a pretty and very wealthy oil field drilling supply heiress Dallas Debutante. They eventually married and divorced.

Pax loved the name "Paxton." He thought that he had the exclusive Dallas franchise on the name and was distressed to learn that someone who was named "Paxton" Moore was an instructor at El Centro College in Dallas. He believed he stole the name from him. If he were still around today, I would tell him to Google "Paxton."

The only other funny quirk that Pax had was the pronunciation of Des Moines. It always came out "Dez Moynes." He really got kidded about the continual mispronunciation. He never got it right.

I had tried to get hired on at KNUS for some time, and fortunately for me, Pax hired me for weekends and then the regular all night shift. I had gotten a taste of radio by screening calls for Robert Knowlton's late night talk show on KLIF. At least I had a prior paying job in radio before going on the air.

Pax eventually lost his job at KLIF, and it took a while for him to find another, but he went on to success in Denver.

Mike Selden was a new hire at KLIF. He had been working at KFJZ AM, the popular top 40 station in Fort Worth. He told me that he had realized his dream by getting his job at the "The Big Klifford", which he affectionately called KLIF both on and off the radio. He was appointed program director at KNUS in addition to his KLIF responsibilities. Mike worked a two hour shift from noon to two at KNUS just for fun. I followed his shift.
Mike was one of the most down to earth people that I ever met in my radio career. He was a brilliant ad libber both in person and off the air. He was the life of the party in the daily coffee room sessions on the 2nd floor of the McLendon Building where DJs informally met to bounce snappy one liners off of each other. You were bound to be left in stitches as the DJs all tried to top each other's jokes.

For a while, I went with the girl who was a granddaughter of the man who invented the potato chip, and whose grandfather's last name is found on one certain consumer item (not potato chips by the way) found to this day in just about every American kitchen. Mike called her "The Potato Chip Queen." She, Mike, his wife and I ran around together a lot.
I was saddened to learn that both Paxton Mills and Mike Selden have passed away.