You Could Live At KLOL's Former Address!

[DToTheJ]

About twenty condominiums at 510 Lovett in Montrose are being auctioned off next month.

510 Lovett, of course, was once home to the old "Rock 101"/KLOL for many years... but the tower still remains. A sweet deal if you're a Houston radio geek. ;D

More info:
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/business/101116-condos-auctioned-at-former-klol-fm-building

 

[mrbeasley]

But, now they have windows that let lots of light in from the outside. And, designer lighting inside. That would be terribly hard on the dilated pupils. Besides, they probably took down the wall full of pictures of naked, teeny-bopper groupies that were in the on-air studio. Naw. It just wouldn't be the same.

 

[streetbeat]

I've seen a lot of news stories about the "former KLOL" building and none of them mention it was also the former KTRH building. A lot of solid radio reporters bounced around those hallways over the years. The KLOL craziness used to bleed over at times to the more sedate KTRH newsroom down the hall. Ask anyone who worked news overnight and you'll hear the stories about KLOL groupies wandering the hallways. One anchor walked in on some extracurricular "programming" one night in the bathroom. He simply walked by the amorous pair, did his business, washed his hands and left while the "stop set" continued uninterrupted on the bathroom counter. Good times.

 

[FilioScotia]

Streetbeat is right on. Speaking as someone who used to work in that building, the Fox story would have been a lot more accurate if it had noted that KLOL wasn't the only occupant of 510 Lovett - or Fort Rusk, as we called it, when it was owned by the local Rusk Corporation. KLOL only took up about one third of it. KTRH AM took up the other two thirds.

Most of the building was made up of the huge KTRH newsroom, several broadcasting studios, several more production rooms, and offices for the various KTRH departments and personalities.

People who don't know this wouldn't know it from the Fox story because KTRH is never even mentioned. And BTW, it was a one-story building when the radio stations were there. The current 2nd and 3rd floors have been added since they moved out.

 

[Henry McClurg]

Yes, and the old Rock N Roll KILT-AM was in the building next door. While Pacifica's KPFT
was across the street one block east (and still is). Lovett Blvd. was known as Radio Row. After KILT moved out, the gay media moved into that building. TWT entertainment magazine and the Montrose Voice newspaper.

 

[OldChicago]

Streetbeat is right on. Speaking as someone who used to work in that building, the Fox story would have been a lot more accurate if it had noted that KLOL wasn't the only occupant of 510 Lovett - or Fort Rusk, as we called it, when it was owned by the local Rusk Corporation. KLOL only took up about one third of it. KTRH AM took up the other two thirds.

This brings to mind a question I have always had about KTRH. What was the "Rusk Corporation"? What other stations did they own other than KTRH/KLOL?

OldChicago

 

[FilioScotia]

Houston billionaire Jesse Jones put KTRH on the air in the 1930s, and it was part of his communications empire that included the Houston Chronicle. Jesse died in the 1950s, but his Houston Chronicle Publishing Company continued ownership of KTRH and later KLOL FM. In 1965, Jones' nephew John T. Jones Jr, bought the stations from the Chronicle, and the story is told that they named the new company "Rusk Corp" because it sounded good. And it was, and still is,the street where the Houston Chronicle can be found. Jones's son John T. "Jay" Jones III sold the stations to Jacor Corp after his father died in the 1990s. Jacor was later "assimilated" by Clear Channel. Resistance to Clear Channel was futile.

Here's a link to that whole story on the Houston Radio History website.

http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2010/08/jesse-jones-houston-radio-pioneer.html

 

[hrhwebmaster]

I always thought the name Rusk came from the downtown street which happens to be the street which intersects with Main where Jesse's most notable contribution to the Houston skyline stands, the Gulf Building (original and long-time name, I forget what it's called now), which I thought also might be where his offices were located. Turns out I was almost right.... from my history:

"In a history published in 1990 for the 60th Anniversary of KTRH John T. Jones explained the origin of the name of the Rusk Corporation. He said they were casting about for a name that wasn't used and decided to name it after a Houston street. They began at Buffalo Bayou and started ticking off the street names until they got to Rusk, which happened to be the street their offices were located on."

The Chron is at 801 Texas at Travis. KTRH was in the Rice Hotel, Texas at Main.

So far as I know, Rusk never owned any other stations although in the 20s and 30s, Jones/Rice Hotel owned KGDR, San Antonio, which they moved to Austin to become KUT so they could hightail it with a 1000 watt transmitter and move KUT to Houston to become KTRH.

A question: I was only in Ft. Rusk once so am not too familiar with the building but I was told once the KLOL operations were actually across the street in an old mansion. Eh?

 

[stan]

And when the Rusk corporation owned KTRH / KLOL was about the last time that these stations were relevant. :

 

[FilioScotia]

KLOL was always in the same building with KTRH. Sometime around 1990, it was clear that the administrative staff at both stations had outgrown space available for them at Fort Rusk. The building took up that entire piece of property at 510 Lovett and expanding it vertically wasn't financially feasible at the time.

So, Rusk Corp bought the two story house directly across Lovett from the station and converted it into office space for the sales staff and others at both stations. I recall it had a very nice conference room that could accomodate fairly large meetings. Air people from both radio stations often held staff meetings there.