Alex Bennett airchecks received from
others
KILT,
Houston, July 9, 1966, James Bond
KILT,
Houston, February 13, 1967, Alex Bennett
KILT,
Houston, July 9, 1967, Alex Bennett
KILT,
Houston, 1967, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett airchecks
I recorded
Alex
Bennett: "The man you love to hate"
Please note that many of the program
nights are in two parts, each about one hour long. The shows actually lasted three hours, but I never recorded more than two of them. For some of the early broadcasts, I turned the tape over went to bed without hearing the second hour live. There are probably parts of some shows which I still haven't listened to carefully.
KILT,
Houston, February 17, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
February 17, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
KILT,
Houston, February 18, 1967- 1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
February 18, 1967- 2, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett's talk show career began
in Houston, and this was his first week doing all talk. His
ascendancy to the talk position followed a DJ stint as "James
Bond," a morning man slot which he had held at KILT since
1965.
The above items are Alex Bennett's
first Friday and Saturday night talk shows. On the first segment,
Bennett seems to achieve a record for the hanging up on the
maximum number of people in the shortest possible time.
"YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!" (Click.) I was just barely old enough to call
in myself, but you do hear me on two of my Alex Bennett airchecks.
Purportedly, the new morning drive
DJ was fired for refusing to run Bennett's flamboyant promos.
However, rumor had it that the dramatic on the air firing
of "Jay Edward Payne" was really a publicity stunt.
KILT,
Houston, March, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
March, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett interviews the Peace
Pilgrim. Exact date not recorded. Please write if you
know it. Peace Pilgrim
web site.
KILT,
Houston, April 12, 1967, Alex Bennett
An ordinary night on the Alex Bennett
show. The first caller is yours truly, the author of this
web page.
KILT,
Houston, April 21, 1967, Alex Bennett
A lively discussion of the motorcycle
gang lifestyle.
KILT,
Houston, April 26, 1967, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett interviews Timothy
Leary at Rice University.
The recording starts off with
about a quarter hour of DJ Jerry Thomas. Then, Alex Bennett
talk program begins. Bennett comments on the mounting drug
problem and introduces Leary recording made earlier the same
day.
KILT,
Houston, May 29, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
May 29, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett interviews the cast of
MacBird,
a play that satirized President Lyndon Johnson.
A traveling psychic comes to Houston
KILT,
Houston, May 30, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT,
Houston, May 30, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett interviews Dr. Gilbert
Holloway. The psychic reader predicts world events and performs
readings for listeners phoning the station.
Having not heard
this material in 35 years, it gave me an eerie feeling go
back and listen to the predictions and readings.
Some of his predictions were far fetched
and never happened. California and Florida didn't fall into
the ocean. Castro wasn't overthrown by a second invasion.
Yet a couple of his prophecies were
remarkably accurate: Robert Kennedy did have less of a political
future than Ted Kennedy (RFK was assassinated a year later.)
Also, ten months later, Lyndon Johnson announced that he would
not seek another term in 1968 -- an unlikely prediction in
1967.
Holloway also gives listeners individual
on the air readings. Most callers to the show give Holloway
credit for a high degree of accuracy. An exception is the
last caller on part one of this recording. That last caller
is none other than, yours truly, the author of this web page.
His reading of me was only about 30 per cent true.
His observation that I was interested
in media could be determined from my voice alone. However,
he overestimates my age at the time by about 14 years. I was
not a high powered deal maker driving around Southwest Houston
and hopping on airplanes. I was barely driving a car at all
at that point.
I had forgotten the fact that the
tape ran out in the middle of the conversation. It ends just
as the reading for me is getting really interesting.
I can flesh out the rest of the conversation
from memory: Alex Bennett asked me to give an accuracy rating.
I stated that it was only about 20 or 30 per cent.
However,
not wanting to be the spoiler, I tried to let Holloway off
the hook.
I mentioned the fact that I had gotten
a Holloway reading on another station the previous year and
the accuracy had been much higher. Surprisingly, Holloway
took this the wrong way and went off on a tangent. He remarked
that he did thousands of readings each year and couldn't be
expected to remember them all. That was true enough, but completely
beside the point.
After I got off the phone with Holloway,
I turned the tape over and recorded the second hour.
KILT,
Houston, June, 1967, Alex Bennett substitute
This is actually a mystery host substituting
for Alex Bennett. Probably recorded in early June.
Write to
me if you know the exact date for this show or the name of
the moderator. It was probably someone borrowed from KLIF
in Dallas. He manages to be the equal of Bennett in the attitude
department.
KILT,
Houston, September 11, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
September 11, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett conducts a live seance
with a real life medium. My feeling is that, if the woman
had really been psychic, she would have suddenly addressed
the audience and said: "Let me tell you what will happen
on this same day of the year in 2001 . . ."
"At an editorial meeting, we
remain repelled"
KILT, Houston, November 30, 1967-1, Alex Bennett
KILT, Houston,
November 30, 1967-2, Alex Bennett
By this date, Bennett was back on mornings,
his nighttime talk show canceled. Don't miss the Gordon McLendon editorial.
KILT,
Houston, December 2, 1967, Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett's last tango in Houston.
He dons the James Bond routine one more time.
Alex
Bennett's web site. The site has some interesting radio
history links of its own
Ronni Bennett's web site.
Ronni is Bennett's former wife and program producer.
Bennett's politics are well to the left, a fact which was
not always obvious while he was employed by the conservative
McLendon stations. One listener I knew stated that Bennett
was trying to look like "Mr. Solid Citizen."
His attitude toward Houston was also
ambivalent. On his last program, he expresses appreciation
for the success he had gained in Houston. One the other hand,
he was fond of calling Houston a "cultural sewer."
That was during a period when you could count two or more
Houston stations playing classical music.
Semi-technical dissertation: I
recorded all of my Alex Bennett items using a Wollensak reel
to reel recorder made by the 3M Company.
I recorded at 3.75
inches per second in quarter track mono. The tape was Scotch
1.5 mil Dynarange, 1200 feet, also made by 3M. It was a time
when Americans actually made things.
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