KEYH was on Buffalo Speedway, just north of the SW Fwy outbound feeder in a building that's no longer there. It wasnext door that building with the golden dome.
You know if it weren't for this website, I would be able to forget some of the places I have worked.
In the summer of 76 I left KPRC radio to go to NBC in NY and work in that News and Information Service. A 24-7 all news radio network. It was a smooth running operation, and sounded great, but NBC didn't think it all the way through when they created it. It turned out that less than half the NBC radio affiliates wanted anything to do with it. So, NBC was forced to make it available to non-affiliates in the same markets as their affiliates. That meant NBC and NIS were in competition in many markets. Houston was one of those. KPRC radio didn't carry NIS, but KLYX FM did. Hooray for David Fowler and Hal Eisner.
As an editor and writer for NIS, I worked the phones for tape on breaking stories, and we had to deal with NIS affiliates only if there was one. So, if an interesting story broke in, Houston for example, I had to check the "Conflict" list to see who to call for help -- the NBC affiliate if it carried NIS, and if it didn't, the competing NIS affiliate.
Because of these and other problems, NBC never did figure out how to market the NIS, which meant it was doomed from the start. I got there in September of 76. The day after the 76 Presidential election in November the NBC suits came to the NIS newsroom and dropped the bomb on us. NIS would be cancelled in May of the following year. My wife and I had no wish to hang around NYC waiting to be unemployed, so I beat a hasty retreat back to Houston and quickly got a job at KTRH.
I worked there doing news and call-in shows till late 78, and finally quit because I got tired of working afternoons and nights. In late 78, David Fowler had left KLYX for KEYH, so I called him about a job and he hired me over the phone.
When I showed up at KEYH two weeks later, I learned that Fowler had quit and the station owner had no idea who I was. He brought me in anyway because they were so desperate for voices. KEYH was still speaking English then, all news all day, sunup to sundown. The owner was a Christian Scientist, and he wouldn't allow any stories about medicine, which meant no stories from the Medical Center. Really! We had some good people there. Steve Gilmartin did sports. The reporting staff included Pat Hernandez and Cindy Wright (now Cindy Gabriel). Pat and I are now back together again at KUHF.
Unfortunately, KEYH's daytime news programming Monday through Friday was making no money. NONE. They had a boiler room with about a dozen people calling local businesses selling public service type commercials for pennies. Stuff like "Billy Bob's Transmission Shop in Humble urges you to drive safely this weekend, and watch out for children."
But wait! On Saturdays and Sundays, they carried Spanish language programming that was making money hand over fist. It was paying all the station's bills, but just barely. Sometime in early 79, the owners snapped to how much more money they could make with Spanish programming 7 days a week instead of 2. The owner then gave the whole English speaking staff 30 days notice, and KEYH changed languages on April 1st of 1979.
You know if it weren't for this website, I would be able to forget some of the places I have worked.
In the summer of 76 I left KPRC radio to go to NBC in NY and work in that News and Information Service. A 24-7 all news radio network. It was a smooth running operation, and sounded great, but NBC didn't think it all the way through when they created it. It turned out that less than half the NBC radio affiliates wanted anything to do with it. So, NBC was forced to make it available to non-affiliates in the same markets as their affiliates. That meant NBC and NIS were in competition in many markets. Houston was one of those. KPRC radio didn't carry NIS, but KLYX FM did. Hooray for David Fowler and Hal Eisner.
As an editor and writer for NIS, I worked the phones for tape on breaking stories, and we had to deal with NIS affiliates only if there was one. So, if an interesting story broke in, Houston for example, I had to check the "Conflict" list to see who to call for help -- the NBC affiliate if it carried NIS, and if it didn't, the competing NIS affiliate.
Because of these and other problems, NBC never did figure out how to market the NIS, which meant it was doomed from the start. I got there in September of 76. The day after the 76 Presidential election in November the NBC suits came to the NIS newsroom and dropped the bomb on us. NIS would be cancelled in May of the following year. My wife and I had no wish to hang around NYC waiting to be unemployed, so I beat a hasty retreat back to Houston and quickly got a job at KTRH.
I worked there doing news and call-in shows till late 78, and finally quit because I got tired of working afternoons and nights. In late 78, David Fowler had left KLYX for KEYH, so I called him about a job and he hired me over the phone.
When I showed up at KEYH two weeks later, I learned that Fowler had quit and the station owner had no idea who I was. He brought me in anyway because they were so desperate for voices. KEYH was still speaking English then, all news all day, sunup to sundown. The owner was a Christian Scientist, and he wouldn't allow any stories about medicine, which meant no stories from the Medical Center. Really! We had some good people there. Steve Gilmartin did sports. The reporting staff included Pat Hernandez and Cindy Wright (now Cindy Gabriel). Pat and I are now back together again at KUHF.
Unfortunately, KEYH's daytime news programming Monday through Friday was making no money. NONE. They had a boiler room with about a dozen people calling local businesses selling public service type commercials for pennies. Stuff like "Billy Bob's Transmission Shop in Humble urges you to drive safely this weekend, and watch out for children."
But wait! On Saturdays and Sundays, they carried Spanish language programming that was making money hand over fist. It was paying all the station's bills, but just barely. Sometime in early 79, the owners snapped to how much more money they could make with Spanish programming 7 days a week instead of 2. The owner then gave the whole English speaking staff 30 days notice, and KEYH changed languages on April 1st of 1979.