KTRH schedule in 1983-84

[Mark Roberts]

While looking for something else, I came across this promotional item featuring the KTRH programming schedule - mostly talk with a couple of news blocks, just like our competition, KPRC. It was before KTRH went to all-news in the fall of 1984. I'm estimating it was from 1983 or earlier in 1984. We still had the news trucks when I was there the following year, though. The trucks were equipped with two-way radios, including a repeater for handheld units to be used away from the truck. All of them were replaced late in 1985 by compact cars equipped with cellphones, something rare in 1985. The cars also didn't have any indication that they were from a media outlet. It was kind of a pain using a cellphone to feed tape, but the quality was halfway decent even in those days.

 

[Astros2023]

While looking for something else, I came across this promotional item featuring the KTRH programming schedule - mostly talk with a couple of news blocks, just like our competition, KPRC. It was before KTRH went to all-news in the fall of 1984. I'm estimating it was from 1983 or earlier in 1984. We still had the news trucks when I was there the following year, though. The trucks were equipped with two-way radios, including a repeater for handheld units to be used away from the truck. All of them were replaced late in 1985 by compact cars equipped with cellphones, something rare in 1985. The cars also didn't have any indication that they were from a media outlet. It was kind of a pain using a cellphone to feed tape, but the quality was halfway decent even in those days.

View attachment 6628

Brings back memories of Jim Nantz and CBS news with Dan Rather

While looking for something else, I came across this promotional item featuring the KTRH programming schedule - mostly talk with a couple of news blocks, just like our competition, KPRC. It was before KTRH went to all-news in the fall of 1984. I'm estimating it was from 1983 or earlier in 1984. We still had the news trucks when I was there the following year, though. The trucks were equipped with two-way radios, including a repeater for handheld units to be used away from the truck. All of them were replaced late in 1985 by compact cars equipped with cellphones, something rare in 1985. The cars also didn't have any indication that they were from a media outlet. It was kind of a pain using a cellphone to feed tape, but the quality was halfway decent even in those days.

View attachment 6628

 

[Palpatine]

Back when KTRH had great content. Loved Sportsbeat in the evening drive.

 

[radiofan2023]

What was Maxine Live about?

 

[Mark Roberts]

What was Maxine Live about?

I can't say for sure, because this was before my time at KTRH and, by 1985, sports talk was in that time slot.

If I had to guess, it might have been a program with Houston Chronicle columnist Maxine Mesinger, whose Big City Beat society/gossip column was a fixture at the newspaper until she died. It was very reminiscent of some of the exuberance of Houston in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a fun read. She also did TV broadcasts from the University of Houston's KUHT in the 1950s; in the 1960s, she had a radio show, Maxine at the Shamrock, interviewing celebrities at the old Shamrock Hotel. Given the historical ties between the Chronicle and KTRH - even in the 1980s, those things still mattered in Houston - it wouldn't surprise me if she had a regular timeslot on the radio station. It's also the kind of show that the general manager by the time I was there, Michael Packer, would have hated because it would have conflicted with his fake blue-collar persona.