Wow. Just wow.
I was the big-shot program director there for a year in the mid-90s. My GM was Hal Kemp, of KTRH '70s fame. We ran it like a major market station. You could walk into the lobby and see the big open space where people used to line up folding chairs and watch bands, it was that big. Legend was Hank Williams played there once in the early '50s.
By the time I worked there a local rancher whose wife had all the money was the owner, looking to sell the station, so he brought in some so-called big names, like Bobby Jones (a local Polka bandleader) and Kemp was supposed to be a big name from Houston. They called me because good ol' Robert B. McIntire and Jim Corolla at FM 100 gave me a recommendation.
We had a top-notch sales staff who had to drive 60 miles to reach the outskirts of our listening area, which was our sales base (places where you could get Houston and Austin radio, but they used to show up in droves for KIOX in places like Hallettsville and closer in, Wharton because we sounded local!).
I kept the AM going with farm reports at 6 in the morning -- and then ran to the FM control room to comment on the two computer-generated songs I had kicked off -- then again ran down the hall to read more of the farm reports (which I had arranged just before going on the air on the FM).
During that time I met the most wonderful woman in Bay City. We got married and now have 3 children. I suspect a lot of people's lives were changed by that old 1946(?) building that was just demolished because Liberman considered it an obstruction to profits.
My wife, BTW, was a friend of the family of the real, legendary Bay City radio station -- one of the Sandlin family's daughters went to high school together.
Bobby Jones supposedly committed suicide a couple of years ago, but the DPS says they have proof that he's still alive. And some in the Czech community in Bay City claim they have relatives who have seen him Czechoslavakia performing his music. A true legend.
One of my best friends, Rev. John Alliniece of Van Vleck, used to do a Sunday gospel show before Gospel went mainstream in Houston. He's one of the best.
Now it's all gone. But my children are thriving. Rev. John is getting over the damage to his home from Ike
KIOX is dead. But the possibilities live on.
