Hi Ya!

I appreciate your posting the airchecks from KILT from 1968. I don't actually remember the particular show with the guest DJ but it might be interesting to note that, that's how I got the gig at KILT! "The University of Houston Show." I was on for 8 weeks after which I got a call from Bill Young asking if I'd like to work there on weekends!

That was a huge break in that I'd been laughed out of the building at KNUZ where I'd applied a few weeks earlier. Eventually I wound up on the 10 PM to 2 AM shift.

I'm still playing many of the same songs included on the aircheck. Only then, they were "new." I have been with ABC Radio for over 20 years - same time - 2 PM - 7 PM Central and am the webmaster of our format web site.

http://oldiesradioonline.com (SOON TO BE CHANGED TO CLASSIC HITS RADIO ONLINE).

If you type in "listen" in the search box on the web site, you can listen any day 2 to 7 - Monday through Friday. You can also check out the Ron Foster bio if it's of interest.

Again, thank you for posting the airchecks. If you would like more, please let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

Sure, you can quote all or any of this.

Yo Bro, Ron

These airchecks also feature John T. Jaksha (John Jackshaw). Jackshaw appears as the guest DJ from the University of Houston. It was probably the first time he was ever on the air.

These airchecks were the only reel to reel recordings that I made at 1.875 inches per second. I used a Norwegian made Tandberg, a machine designed to work well at its slowest speed.

Since I had to drive Jackshaw to the station, I started the recording just before we headed to KILT. The long recording time was enough to capture the entire show without changing tapes.

Besides being new to the airwaves, John Jackshaw was already legally blind and had to write everything out in big letters. He later became a full time broadcaster and worked in the Houston area at a station featuring Christian programming.

He is best known today for his comedy acts. Jackshaw's shows are aimed at audiences in the Christian community and at anyone seeking family friendly entertainment.

John Jackshaw's web site.

In the recording for December 22, Jackshaw includes a Christmas greeting to James Lovell, an astronaut then aboard the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. Later, while orbiting the moon, the Apollo 8 crew would broadcast a famous Christmas greeting of its own.

Revised April 11, 2008

"And even then, your journey will be just beginning"

KILT, Houston, August 4, 1968, Ron Foster

OR click here to go directly to the Ron Foster newscast

This short item was preserved only by chance. I appear to have been testing my Tandberg tape recorder, a very temperamental machine.

Since I did not make note of the date, I have established it by comparing the material to information on the Internet. A news item on the recording indicates that it was made on the Sunday prior to the Miami convention which nominated Richard Nixon as president. The recording also mentions a York, Pennsylvania, riot from that weekend and a Jimi Hendrix concert scheduled for that night.

The commercials and promos are especially interesting on this recording.

Added October 6, 2007 . . .

KNUZ, Houston, July 7, 1966, Joe Ford.

KNUZ, Houston, June 16, 1965, Buddy MacGregor

Thanks to Vicki Ayo for sending these KNUZ recordings. These two items help fill a significant gap in my collection.

My original collection has a great big lack of unscoped recordings of well known DJ's. If fact, I only kept only about ten seconds of KNUZ material -- a news intro from 1964.

I didn't remember anything about P.J. Proby, but the singer and his mom are prominent on the MacGregor aircheck. The Official P.J. Proby web site.

The same KNUZ recording was also my first exposure to that Garner State Park anthem since 1965. Some songs stay with you even if you never hear them again.

That second KNUZ aircheck shows Buddy MacGregor pitted against KILT's Russ Knight in the battle of the nighttime top 40 jocks.

Somebody please send me some Russ Knight (Weird Beard) airchecks.

I almost kept a great Russ Knight aircheck of my own. Have you heard my recording of the KILT newscast from 12:00 A.M., January 1, 1965? I also recorded Russ Knight's New Year's Eve show immediately before the newscast.

That recording had some very exciting examples of the Weird Beard "pretending" to be drunk. Unfortunately (with the immense maturity which I possessed at that age), I decided that the recording was stupid and lacked the historical value of the newscast. And so I erased over it. And so it goes.

But wait . . . Take a look at the aircheck below.

KILT, Houston, June 14, 1965, Russ Knight

Actually, I do have this Russ Knight aircheck. Unfortunately, I can't claim that I recorded it myself. I traded one of my original tapes for this material several years ago, and I am only now getting around to listing it.

I generally avoid posting items which have come from another web site. Nonetheless, this recording captures the essential style of the Weird Beard and KILT in general.

I believe that I was listening at the time of this recording. During that particular month, I was tuned to KILT much more than usual. I also remember hearing Russ Knight make that remark about WXYZ in Detroit. So, unless he made the WXYZ remark on more than one occasion, I had to have been listening on the night of June 14.

For more about Buddy MacGregor and the KILT Vs KNUZ saga, please see the Jim Wood aircheck further down this column.

Added October 20, 2006 . . .

Jim Wood addresses The Boobies

KILT, Houston, 1964, Jim Wood

In 1964, if you weren't watching the Boob Tube, you were probably listening to Jim Wood address his Boobies on KILT. The notorious B-I-G Jim Wood was Houston's first shock jock and KILT's main night DJ of the early sixties. Marv Miller, a former engineer at KILT, sent this recording.

According to Miller, Wood "was always doing things that would raise the wrath of management. They let him get away with a lot of things that others couldn't because his ratings were #1." He was eventually replaced by Russ Knight sometime in mid or late 1964.

Although Wood was noted for his risqué patter, the only specific instance I can remember was when a young female listener wrote or phoned to ask if he was married. He suddenly changed his voice to a more intimate tone and said, "No I'm not, baby, but if I was, would it make a difference?"

It was remarks of a different kind that lead to Wood's departure from KILT. According to Marv Miller, Wood did "a thing where he would 'Hurl an Invective.' " He would start by asking listeners "in a hushed tone" to turn their radios up full blast and open their windows. He would then say something provocative.

According to Miller, in the case leading to his firing, Wood exclaimed, "THIS IS THE POLICE. THE BOMB SQUAD NEEDS YOU TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING." Marv Miller recalls that "Several buildings were evacuated including a church where services were going on. They let him back on the air but told him he was on probation."

It was the beginning of the end for Jim Wood at KILT. Even back then, the Powers That Be had short fuses when people joked about bombs or shouted "fire" in a public theater.

No, Wood didn't shout fire in a theater. However, in an earlier "invective, " he did ask listeners to play their radios in theater lobbies. Then, Wood yelled "This movie stinks! This movie is terrible! We want our money back! Kill the manager!" This is described by Jim Wood listener Chuck Tiller, who became a DJ himself and was working at KHJZ-FM in Houston.

Tiller also describes an antic in which Wood would"ask the listeners to turn up the radio and shine a spotlight on the neighbor's house. Jim would then say, 'Come out! Come out with your hands up! This is the police! The house is surrounded!' "

Miller and Tiller agree that the final incident was one which pitted Jim Wood against KILT's arch rival KNUZ. It was 1964, the peak of Beatlemania, and each of the two top 40 stations claimed to have the inside track with the Fab Four. I distinctly remember a jingle on the Jim Wood show which went

KILT is your station
For Beatle celebrations

The melody was the same as

Close your eyes and I'll kiss you,
Tomorrow I'll miss you

from the Beatle song All My Loving. KILT, a station which was already number one in Houston, was tying its very identity to the Beatles. That tells us something about the fierceness of the competition with KNUZ as each vied to cash in on Beatlemania. It was within that atmosphere that Jim Wood ventured a stunt too far.

Sometime in 1964, Buddy MacGregor had left KTRH (where he had been the token male presence on the "Woman's World" talk show) to join KNUZ in its battle with KILT. As its nighttime response to Jim Wood, MacGregor broadcast an "interview" with the Beatles. The recording wasn't quite what it seemed, and that lead to a quick challenge from Jim Wood. Chuck Tiller explains it like this:

Buddy had one of those open-ended interviews where you stick your own voice in asking John, Paul, George and Ringo a set of prepared questions. Jim went nuts about it, recorded it off the air from KNUZ and put his voice in. He told his listening audience that it wasn't a real interview and explained how it was done and he could do the same. Dave Morris, GM for KNUZ/KQUE was enraged, but happy at the same time. Happy, because he could now get rid of his 7-Midnight obstacle. Uncle Dave demanded that KILT fire him.

Chuck Tiller reports that he learned these details from the late Thom Beck who had been News Editor at KILT and later a roommate of Jim Wood in California. Tiller had also been a Jim Wood listener:

At the time, I was 13. I hated KNUZ for what they did. My 13 year old mind sorted it out that way. Little did I know that would wind up working on both KNUZ and KILT in my then future.

Marvin Miller believes that KILT "would have stood up" for Jim Wood had it not been for the recent bomb joke. He was already on probation. After the KNUZ incident, Jim Wood was gone. Miller concludes his remembrance like this

Of all the people I worked with at KTHT, KRBE, and KILT, Jim Wood was the best and most entertaining of all. He was one of a kind and will always be missed by those who remember him.

Jim Wood continues to be influential as well a memorable. Chuck Tiller states:

Just a few weeks ago, while on KHJZ, I was doing a quick weather forecast and said, "it's a pair of 7s, that's good enough to open the poker game, it's 77 degrees at Smooth Jazz, 95.7 The Wave." As I listened to the Jim Wood aircheck, I fell out as I heard Jim mention basically the same thing. Somewhere inside of me is a part of Jim Wood, uptown, downtown and all around town, Jim Wood calls.

According to Rock Radio Heaven, Jim Wood died in 1990 at the age of 58 when he choked to death from a cough drop while being hospitalized. Wood, long a heavy smoker, was suffering from emphysema.

This is the first public exposure for this aircheck. A studio recording for job search purposes, it may be tamer than the Jim Wood you remember.

Thanks to Marv Miller for donating this material. Thanks also to Bob Edwards of ProSound Studio and K-HITS for converting the open reel tape to digital form.

A night in the life of KILT

KILT, Houston, March 25, 1980-1, Captain Jack

A Night in the Life of KILT-2, Captain Jack
A Night in the Life of KILT-3, Beau Weaver
A Night in the Life of KILT-4, Beau Weaver
A Night in the Life of KILT-5, Beau Weaver

The first two segments feature DJ Captain Jack, and the last three are the Beau Weaver Talk Program. This was originally one long continuous recording on a 10.5 inch reel of .5 mil tape.

These airchecks show a legendary top 40 station in its twilight phase. By 1980, the days for AM top 40 in Houston were numbered. For KILT, the McLendon era glory days of the 1950's and 1960's were long gone. KILT-AM was losing ground to FM and was clearly in a state of decline. The KILT call letters would survive the new decade, but not as a top 40 contender.

Nonetheless, the KILT of 1980 still held a loyal following. Many people had grown up listening to KILT, and it seemed to satisfy a more mature audience than an FM top 40 monolith like KRBE.

Also, their strong signal kept KILT popular with people in outlying areas. Personally, I spent much of the late 70's in Bay City, 80 miles southwest of Houston. FM reception there was so poor than many people didn't even bother with it in their cars. For me, KILT was the radio voice from home.

I was back in Houston at the time of this recording. Going over the material, it almost sounds like The Captain knew someone was recording the night for posterity. Notice the "gospel" sing-a-long (in which "AM" replaces "Amen"), the references to KILT's wide listening area, and songs that rhapsodize about radio.

By the way, the Beau Weaver incursion into talk radio held the same slot, 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM, which Alex Bennett had filled thirteen years earlier.

This recording was preserved by sheer chance. It was made long after I had lost interest in making new air checks to keep. As it happened, my last reel to reel machine was stolen in a burglary. I had no way to record over this tape, so I kept it. When I heard it again after 23 years, it had acquired new value.

Although the date of these recordings was not cataloged, I determined it by researching the presidential primary story mentioned on the newscast. The recording begins on March 25 and ends shortly after midnight, March 26.

But why don't you have—?

I received this question from Las Vegas: "I was wondering— why haven't you put up any airchecks of Steve Lundy or Hudson & Harrigan...?"

The thoughts below will be somewhat redundant of ideas elsewhere on this page. I am trying to be redundant.

One thing to bear in mind is that my page is just a small site. In fact, I hope to keep holding it down to only one web page.

It began as just a place to list my own airchecks. I started to accept outside airchecks only because my own collection was too heavily weighted with Alex Bennett talk shows and obscure DJ's.

During the 60's, I made no systematic effort to document all of the different formats and big name jocks. I either recorded something or I didn't. Looking at the material I ended up with, it almost seems like the more obscure the DJ the more likely I was to make a recording.

So, to answer that question, the reason that I don't have any Steve Lundy or Hudson and Harrigan is because I never recorded any. (When the first Harrigan joined the late Mac Hudson in 1968, I never dreamed the names would still be a major franchise 40 years later.)

I am fairly certain that there is at least one Steve Lundy promo embedded among my Alex Bennett recordings. It was probably recorded shortly before the auto accident which disrupted his career.

I have to make sure that this radio page doesn't take up too much of my time. The truth is that I don't try very hard to get new material. It just comes to me when it does.

As a rule, I avoid the following kinds of materials:

1. Heavily scoped airchecks which are mainly time and temperature announcements. A recording should reveal the personality of the DJ, not just the ability to conform to a Bill Drake format.

I ask myself, "Is this something that would interest someone who listens to radio but never worked in radio?" So far, my readers have exercised good sense in what they send me, and I haven't turned anything down.

2. Recordings from other web sites which have already been heavily circulated among Salty Old Radio Dogs. As I write this, it has been a couple of years since I have even heard an aircheck on another web site.

I am not going to go to other sites to make wholesale downloads of airchecks just so I can say I have everything. I have no desire to be an aircheck warehouse or a clearinghouse for all DJ recordings.

3. At this time, I have no plans to include any photos or scans from outside sources. Send such material if you would like me to see them, but please understand that they would probably only be used for off line reference purposes.

I definitely don't want to put up DJ head shots or scans of top 40 lists. Items like that would clash with the existing look and style of this page.

I think that aiming for quality rather than quantity has paid off. Without too much effort I have uncovered . . .

1. A rare Jim Wood studio air check

2. An exclusive recording of the KILT coverage of the Kennedy assassination.

3. A KILT interview with Mick Jagger in connection with the 1966 Rolling Stones Houston concert.

4. Two unscoped KNUZ airchecks.

5. An extensive collection of KULF material from 1972 and 1973.

I hope to eventually post something for the DJ's requested by the Las Vegas writer. It is just a question of when and how to do it.

— G.M.

A typical starry night in Galveston. June, 1982. The lifeguard stations with thatched roofs were gutted by Hurricane Alicia in 1983. This photo was taken in moonlight.