Program director and afternoon DJ Arch Yancey is on the air at Houston’s 1230 KNUZ when he gets a call from Memphis. The news isn’t good. Arch orders news reporter Jan Bellamy to go on the air, with the story. She refuses, saying that she needed confirmation. Arch looked at her and said, “I am confirmation!” Afterall, Arch knew the source personally. Bellamy still refused, so Yancey went on the air with the bulletin and read the story. She told Yancey that she would complain to news director Jack Piper. He told her, “Go ahead. I’m his boss.”
Meanwhile on 1010 KODA, the late Royce Edward Guinn, failed to put on a traffic report, opting to air the same breaking news. He would be fired next day for missing that traffic report.
That afternoon, Johnny Goyen called me and asked me what I would do at midnight on KNUZ. I gathered all of my albums and brought them to the station at 10PM. Johnny met me there. The idea was to transfer these albums to tape. There were no turntables in the controlroom. I was horrified to find only one 10” reel of tape in the production room. Johnny agreed to start recording albums to that one reel.
I got in the car and headed to 500 Lovett Blvd, the home of then Top-40, KILT. My fingers were crossed. How was I going to get in? As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw four people standing outside the door shooting the breeze. I approached them as they looked at me cautiously. I introduced myself to Beau Weaver and Shelia Mayhew. I don’t remember the others. I explained my plight of having no tape. They laughed at me at 1st. I suppose, they took pity on me, and ushered me into the dead tape room. It was downstairs. It was filled with out of date production tapes. The majority of the tapes were 5” reels. Those would not do me any good. However, I was able to find about four or five 7” reels, which would give me 30 minutes per tape. I thanked them over and over, as I jumped into my 1976 AMC Pacer and disappeared into the night. I got to KNUZ with minutes to spare. As I went on the air, Johnny Goyen went to the production room with the tapes, began erasing them and started recording. That night I alternated between carts of the music and the tapes, which included “live” bootlegs of concerts. I filled the entire 6 hours. No, I didn’t record it. I didn’t have any tape. Plus, there was no cassette recorder in the KNUZ controlroom. I credited Johnny, Beau, Shelia and KILT at the end of the broadcast!
Where were you and what were you doing, when you got the news on August 16th, 1977; the news that Elvis Presley had died?
Meanwhile on 1010 KODA, the late Royce Edward Guinn, failed to put on a traffic report, opting to air the same breaking news. He would be fired next day for missing that traffic report.
That afternoon, Johnny Goyen called me and asked me what I would do at midnight on KNUZ. I gathered all of my albums and brought them to the station at 10PM. Johnny met me there. The idea was to transfer these albums to tape. There were no turntables in the controlroom. I was horrified to find only one 10” reel of tape in the production room. Johnny agreed to start recording albums to that one reel.
I got in the car and headed to 500 Lovett Blvd, the home of then Top-40, KILT. My fingers were crossed. How was I going to get in? As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw four people standing outside the door shooting the breeze. I approached them as they looked at me cautiously. I introduced myself to Beau Weaver and Shelia Mayhew. I don’t remember the others. I explained my plight of having no tape. They laughed at me at 1st. I suppose, they took pity on me, and ushered me into the dead tape room. It was downstairs. It was filled with out of date production tapes. The majority of the tapes were 5” reels. Those would not do me any good. However, I was able to find about four or five 7” reels, which would give me 30 minutes per tape. I thanked them over and over, as I jumped into my 1976 AMC Pacer and disappeared into the night. I got to KNUZ with minutes to spare. As I went on the air, Johnny Goyen went to the production room with the tapes, began erasing them and started recording. That night I alternated between carts of the music and the tapes, which included “live” bootlegs of concerts. I filled the entire 6 hours. No, I didn’t record it. I didn’t have any tape. Plus, there was no cassette recorder in the KNUZ controlroom. I credited Johnny, Beau, Shelia and KILT at the end of the broadcast!
Where were you and what were you doing, when you got the news on August 16th, 1977; the news that Elvis Presley had died?
