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On the Meeting of a Legend

Let's not forget about Dick Eason of KQUE fame. Eason had a great voice. On Friday afternoons after completing his news shift, he would go into the news restroom and turn on the water in the sink and let it run all weekend. It was his way of getting back at "Uncle Dave," who promised the world and gave nothing. Dave dangled the carrot and then snatch it away before you could grab it.

Milton knew how to use that sick time and I didn't blame him for what we were being paid. BUT, you could tolerate it because it took a lot for them to fire you. As Bobby Langum would say, you could stay at KNUZ/KQUE for a very, long, long, long, long, (over on back) long time.

You could make up for it though. Joe Ford, for example, used to say on the air on his morning drive show, "Hi to everybody in the service department at River Oaks Chrysler Plymouth." When he got off at 10, he would go by and get his car washed free everyday. He found ways to incorporate these folks into his comedy routine. Nobody was the wiser. He would do the same for "Reeg's Exxon" and get a tank of gas, go into the backroom and drink beer for free. Reeg's was a combination fillin' station and icehouse.

You just had to know how to supplement the income with some side action.
 
I too would love to help with the next round of Reunion planning...so count me in Rowdy... As for Paul Berlin... I have enjoyed hearing him on with Michael Berry in the 7-8pm hours a couple of times in the past several days. Its something when you can get me to sit in my car at my home in the evening listening to the radio instead of going inside and shutting off the world for another day. Thats what has happened to me the two times I have heard Berlin on the air telling stories...its hard for me to turn it off and go on about my business. Finally as many of you have done... I can honestly say I worked with Paul at one point... I did traffic for him for about a year during the final years of KQUE...before the big switch.
 
Ahhhh, reminds me that I have several airchecks of KBME of Paul....Listening to the podcast leads me to think we really NEED to flip 790 to real oldies...
 
First, I can't believe The Colonel had never met Paul Berlin before, who knew!

Second, I owe my career to Paul, because he took a chance on me, way too many years ago. In fact he had to hire me twice. First time, his weekend guy was leaving, and he said I had the job, only to call me a few days later to tell me the guy wasn't leaving afterall. Then he called me again three months later, and the rest is history.

His rules to me were...
1. Be entertaining.
2. If you can't be entertaining, be informative.
3. If you can't be informative, give the time and the call letters!

Production, the man was amazing. I remember one day he comes in and says he needs to cut a spot, steps up to the mike and says, "We're gonna do this one time, and one time only", and the proceeded to knock out a perfect spot that was exactly 60 seconds long.

I am honored to be part of his broadcasting tree.
 
OK, I’ll throw in mine. I was at KQUE with Walter and the gang from 1974-1977. It was everything the others have said. The old house creaked; the equipment was Jurassic, the management was cheap, and we all had to punch a time clock like we worked at Ford. My two most indelible memories of Paul and Arch were these.

Arch was going to play one of his periodic country music gigs at some dive in Pasadena or somewhere, and was heading out the door after his afternoon shift. I was in the front, preparing to do evenings, when he stopped, put down the guitar case, pulled a .38 out of his hip pocket, flipped open the cylinder to check, closed it and put it back. “Just getting ready for tonight,” he told me. The receptionist Karen Johnston and I exchanged looks and wondered where the hell he was playing that the band had to be armed.

And on my last evening at KQUE before taking over the late night hosting job at Channel 26, everyone from the office stopped by to say goodbye. Vesta, Arch, Paul, Walt of course, Buddy Covington, even Clyde. Our format rotated songs from different decades, and was adhered to religiously. I played two 60’s songs I liked in a row around 10pm. I immediately got a call from Berlin, reaming me for breaking format. “I don’t care if you’re going to do TV, you don’t screw with the format just ‘cause it’s your last night.”

There were a few expletives thrown in as well, so though the parting was testy, that 3 years was a graduate course in the business. Hope he is well.

I feel privileged to have worked with the last of a generation of broadcasters like Nahas, Gottlieb, Berlin and Yancy. Yeah and Graves was a basket case of psychosis.

And let me know about another reunion. I'll stay longer this time.
 
Rog I will never forget your line from the web hunt days( God rest his soul) back in the day we played whole sides of albums(you know VINYL) one of those was "VICTORY AT SEA" to which Rog dedicates to those "who remember world war 2 and MISS IT!. One of your best lines ever. But do you remember seeing Arch on Channel 13 early morning news being booked into jail for shooting out some guys tires on 610 who was driving his car with his ex-wlfe in it? Arch may kill me for that one.
 
Apparently Paul, Dave and anybody else in management must have mellowed considerably by the time I started doing nights at KQUE around 1984. If there was a format to be broken I was never told of it. There were thousands of carts with one song each in tall racks behind you in the control room and you played them. That's all I knew to do.
In nearly 14 years of working there from 9 to midnight, I got one criticism from Paul Berlin. He heard me going on way too long about how the lyrics to "The Girl from Ipanema" were ungrammatical and told me just to play the music not go on about it it. Good advice and I needed it. The only time Dave Morris was on me was not directly from him, (I'm not sure to this day that he knew who I was), but filtered through Ken Grant. Anne Murray was scheduled to perform at the rodeo, still in the Dome at the time. I joked that the place was so big that Anne could send in her cousin to lip synch the songs while Anne was onstage at Caesar's Palace and no one would ever know.
Wrong thing to joke about. Dave was deeply involved in the rodeo and got calls from a bunch of his buddies apparently infuriated about my remarks (as if if anybody could have taken them seriously) how they had just put up these big screens and on and on. Ken passed on their displeasure. I got the message.
I loved the freedom to play (almost) anything and say anything. It was a trip.
 
Walter. Of course I remember the great KNUZ shootout. I also remember we all were amazed at Arch's marksmanship considering the state he was probably in. No doubt, the future, former Mrs. Kingfish, as he referred to her, remembers it, too. I also remember that Arch drove a Volvo back then, and we all kicked around ideas for a personal testimonial he could do for the local dealer. Something about it being a really stable gun platform when it really counts. Sorry Arch, it was a memorable time and we are all richer for having worked with you.

Now, about hair implants and why they are no longer on the market...
 
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