I am passionate about radio and have been since an early age.
I was given an old tube radio with broken shell, placed in a shoebox with cut-outs for dial and tuning and volume knobs. I was 4 according to my Dad.
My Dad has a recording of the two of us singing a couple of songs. Between the songs, I chime in with “It’s exactly 12 midnight. I’m Paul Harvey, Good Day.” I don’t remember that but I have heard the old reel to reel recording.
On a rainy day in first grade I’d be announcing records to a pencil pretending to be on the radio.
I knew what every station on the dial was doing by about 4th grade and had begun keeping track of the top 40 about this time.
After Christmas in 6th grade I started a part 15 station in the garage. I was excited when I introduced a second record player and could segue songs. I collected soft drink bottles I’d cash in to buy the latest top 40 hits.
The part 15 station remained operational until I got my first radio job. In fact, in the final years I had a true control board and was getting record service from the record companies via the back door as I was in management at a record store, so the reps brought an extra for me. I ran some commercials for giveaways and I actually had a few listeners...maybe 5.
My first time on a station was a Dallas station, 90.9 KCHU. A community access radio station, they’d let me hang out. One night this guy asks if I want to be on the air. Then he said to pick some music because I’d be on in ten minutes. I grabbed the stack of albums in my car given me by record reps that day at the record store.
I was terrified. I back announced my first set in a sweat and feeling my teeth were chattering from anxiety and played a promo before going back to music. About this time people began entering the room and sitting in chairs opposite the on air console. This made me more nervous. Adding to my feeling, I knew the faces yet I knew I had never met these people before. It felt like The Twilight Zone.
At the end of the set that concluded with a remake of a reggae song, Pressure Drop, by Robert Palmer (before anybody knew who that was), the lady in the group says “How’s that record doing in Dallas?”. Flustered, I turn on everybody’s microphone and say “Who are you people?” All introduce themselves. Two are members of the music group Manhattan Transfer (the lady). One is a news anchor for KTVT TV 11 and the other guy is the Music Editor at the Dallas Morning News, a column I used to read. That’s why I knew the faces! (remember I worked in a record store then)
I admit it’s my first time on the air. I get gracious “you can’t tell” and such. The lady says she had lunch with Robert Palmer last week and he’s hoping this is the record that becomes a hit for him (it would be about 3 years or so before that happened). About 10 minutes later the guy that put me on the air comes in, thanks me and explains the person that was to meet Manhattan Transfer at Love Field bailed out on him so he had to run over and get them.
A week later I was volunteering Midnight to 3am Thursday morning at KCHU.
I wanted to be on a station with a format. I had always liked small market radio and I thought KSEO AM & FM in Durant, Oklahoma was great. I visited and met Bill Coxsey, the Program Director. On my second visit he put me on the air. It was rough but by the end of my hour I was feeling fairly comfortable. Still I was so bad when I hear the cassette I cringe. This would have been about May or June 1978.
A friend from high school and I set out on a vacation going from the Big Bend to South Padre from Dallas. There was not much radio we liked. Most stations were either country or Spanish language. When we found a top 40, we were happy.
We had left Del Rio and around Eagle Pass heard a top 40 with the worst sounding DJ I had ever heard on the radio. I told my friend I had to visit and that even though I had zero experience I was surely good enough to do the morning show here. We visited and talked to the GM for an hour or two. I asked if I could send a recording of my part 15 station so he could give me pointers about getting a job. I had recently passed my 3rd Class License test.
I was about to head out the door to a special showing of Grease, the movie, to get us record store product buyer to buy a bunch of the soundtracks when the phone rang. It was Ed Quinn, the GM in Eagle Pass. He says, ‘one question: what will it take to get you to come to work for me?”. I started two weeks later, mid-July 1978.
I really cannot say for sure if Ed believed my pirate radio station as actually a Dallas station but my first three days he took me around town to introduce me to business owners that bought ads on the station saying he persuaded me to leave Dallas radio for KINL, Eagle Pass, Texas. I would think he knew I was way too amateur sounding to be a real Dallas station. That part 15 was "Double K, Double Music" and "Your Kind Of Radio Station". My boss liked that so, KINL became "Your Kind Of Radio Station".
There’s a start for you. If you want I can do the next installment.
I was given an old tube radio with broken shell, placed in a shoebox with cut-outs for dial and tuning and volume knobs. I was 4 according to my Dad.
My Dad has a recording of the two of us singing a couple of songs. Between the songs, I chime in with “It’s exactly 12 midnight. I’m Paul Harvey, Good Day.” I don’t remember that but I have heard the old reel to reel recording.
On a rainy day in first grade I’d be announcing records to a pencil pretending to be on the radio.
I knew what every station on the dial was doing by about 4th grade and had begun keeping track of the top 40 about this time.
After Christmas in 6th grade I started a part 15 station in the garage. I was excited when I introduced a second record player and could segue songs. I collected soft drink bottles I’d cash in to buy the latest top 40 hits.
The part 15 station remained operational until I got my first radio job. In fact, in the final years I had a true control board and was getting record service from the record companies via the back door as I was in management at a record store, so the reps brought an extra for me. I ran some commercials for giveaways and I actually had a few listeners...maybe 5.
My first time on a station was a Dallas station, 90.9 KCHU. A community access radio station, they’d let me hang out. One night this guy asks if I want to be on the air. Then he said to pick some music because I’d be on in ten minutes. I grabbed the stack of albums in my car given me by record reps that day at the record store.
I was terrified. I back announced my first set in a sweat and feeling my teeth were chattering from anxiety and played a promo before going back to music. About this time people began entering the room and sitting in chairs opposite the on air console. This made me more nervous. Adding to my feeling, I knew the faces yet I knew I had never met these people before. It felt like The Twilight Zone.
At the end of the set that concluded with a remake of a reggae song, Pressure Drop, by Robert Palmer (before anybody knew who that was), the lady in the group says “How’s that record doing in Dallas?”. Flustered, I turn on everybody’s microphone and say “Who are you people?” All introduce themselves. Two are members of the music group Manhattan Transfer (the lady). One is a news anchor for KTVT TV 11 and the other guy is the Music Editor at the Dallas Morning News, a column I used to read. That’s why I knew the faces! (remember I worked in a record store then)
I admit it’s my first time on the air. I get gracious “you can’t tell” and such. The lady says she had lunch with Robert Palmer last week and he’s hoping this is the record that becomes a hit for him (it would be about 3 years or so before that happened). About 10 minutes later the guy that put me on the air comes in, thanks me and explains the person that was to meet Manhattan Transfer at Love Field bailed out on him so he had to run over and get them.
A week later I was volunteering Midnight to 3am Thursday morning at KCHU.
I wanted to be on a station with a format. I had always liked small market radio and I thought KSEO AM & FM in Durant, Oklahoma was great. I visited and met Bill Coxsey, the Program Director. On my second visit he put me on the air. It was rough but by the end of my hour I was feeling fairly comfortable. Still I was so bad when I hear the cassette I cringe. This would have been about May or June 1978.
A friend from high school and I set out on a vacation going from the Big Bend to South Padre from Dallas. There was not much radio we liked. Most stations were either country or Spanish language. When we found a top 40, we were happy.
We had left Del Rio and around Eagle Pass heard a top 40 with the worst sounding DJ I had ever heard on the radio. I told my friend I had to visit and that even though I had zero experience I was surely good enough to do the morning show here. We visited and talked to the GM for an hour or two. I asked if I could send a recording of my part 15 station so he could give me pointers about getting a job. I had recently passed my 3rd Class License test.
I was about to head out the door to a special showing of Grease, the movie, to get us record store product buyer to buy a bunch of the soundtracks when the phone rang. It was Ed Quinn, the GM in Eagle Pass. He says, ‘one question: what will it take to get you to come to work for me?”. I started two weeks later, mid-July 1978.
I really cannot say for sure if Ed believed my pirate radio station as actually a Dallas station but my first three days he took me around town to introduce me to business owners that bought ads on the station saying he persuaded me to leave Dallas radio for KINL, Eagle Pass, Texas. I would think he knew I was way too amateur sounding to be a real Dallas station. That part 15 was "Double K, Double Music" and "Your Kind Of Radio Station". My boss liked that so, KINL became "Your Kind Of Radio Station".
There’s a start for you. If you want I can do the next installment.
