Bill "Rascal" McCaskill

[Bill Cherry]

If you were around in the '50s, you know that a DJ at a teeny station in Baytown, then known as KREL-AM, started an evening program called "Night Train." It was the first station and the first program to bring "race" music to white a white audience, and the teens went wild.

The mail-in requests were about 50,000 a year. Kids wanting to dedicate the latest record by Ruth Brown, Wee Willie Wayne, Johnny Ace, Chuck Berry, etc. to their sweetheart.

And the host of that program was Rascal McCaskill with his wife, Blond Top, as his side kick.

Rascal and Jerry (Blond Top) have been marred for more than 50 years, their son Billy is a career military officer, and Rascal reached 80 this past Monday, April 2, 2008. They live in Victoria where Rascal owns and operates a Putt Putt golf course.

Old friend can contact Rascal at [email protected]

 

[hrhwebmaster]

Hi Bill, thanks for the info. I remember reading about that somewhere before - 'The Three R's: Rhythm, Records and Requests,' was that the show? Do you have any other specifics about when it came on, etc?

The Podnah, KILT's Dickie Rosenfeld, got his start in radio on KREL playing hillbilly music as Cowboy Dickie; that was only briefly in the late 40s. I imagine the r&b stuff came in the early to mid 50s?

 

[jd]

The Podnah, KILT's Dickie Rosenfeld, got his start in radio on KREL playing hillbilly music as Cowboy Dickie; that was only briefly in the late 40s. I imagine the r&b stuff came in the early to mid 50s?

Now we are talking about 1360 AM, not 650, which started out in Baytown as KRCT, right? I saw a listing for a daily late night show on KWBA 1360 called the "K-Bay Caravan," circa 1958. I got the impression it featured rock 'n roll along with some R&B.

 

[hrhwebmaster]

Yes, KREL was/were (?) the original calls on 1360, in use up until the late 50s. KREL, then KWBA, then KBUK, then KWWJ, I think, but there are others here on R-I who know the more recent history of Houston radio better than me.

 

[Bill Cherry]

You're right. It's now KWWJ and it's a black gospel station. But it's still in the same location KREL was (Decker Drive in Baytown near the railroad tracks) when McCaskill and Dick Mahan were running back to back R&B shows there.

And interestingly another famous Houston disc jockey, Skipper Lee Frazier, has an hour long gospel program that he sends over telephone lines to KWWJ from the funeral home he and his son own called Eternal Rest on Wayside near 610.