Requiem for a Heavyweight
by David Benzion · 11/07/2007 7:00 amIt’s hard not to shake one’s head in slack-jawed astonishment at the state to which KPRC 950 (and KTRH 740) have fallen.
I’ll always have a soft spot for KPRC, as it was my first job in radio.
Actually, that’s not entirely true–my very first radio job was doing Metro traffic reports for both KPRC and KSEV from the Transco Tower on Saturday overnights, from 10 pm to 6 am Sunday.
I was really bad. I can clearly remember one of my first times on the air. After four minutes of weak, raspy, sweat-inducing “news and traffic” I flopped back in my chair and the phone rang.
This was like at 2:10 in the morning.
“Son,” said the twangy Texas voice on the other end of the line, “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“No,” I replied. He continued.
“Well, just so you know, it’s pronounced ‘San Fell-ee-pay’, not ‘San Phillip’. Good luck.”
Mind you, this was a private corporate line; the number this gentleman was calling wasn’t given out over the air. As far as the listeners knew, I was sitting in KPRC/KSEV’s studios on the Katy Freeway, not on the 40th floor of a skyscraper in the Galleria.
“Whatever,” I thought to myself. “What kind of a nut-job is listening to AM radio in the middle of the night anyway?”
I had just met my first Houston-area conservative talk-radio listener. 
————————-
Some other random observations and reflections from my early days in the radio “biz” (that’s professional-broadcaster talk for “radio business”).
First, I feel blessed to have experienced the last gasp (literally) of what I’m going to call the “Era of Smoke-Filled Newsrooms.”
The year was 1997, and in addition to my “real job” (at Starbucks) I was volunteering in the KPRC morning newsroom from 4-6 am, putting together tape for Brian Hill and Moss Thornton (awesome radio voices; classy people too). Doug Roach (still with KPRC, I believe?) was the “news director,” a job that involved bitterly tossing press releases on the floor and cursing. He excelled.
All three of these broadcast war-horses smoked liked they were going to die any minute, or were at least going to give it their best shot. The entire newsroom was covered in ash and filled with a blueish-gray cloud. The ceiling tiles were stained brown.
It was Hell on my eyes and sinuses, but makes a wonderful memory.
Until the late 1990’s, American newsrooms were traditionally bastions of tobacco, booze, cussing and other manly sins.
A mole inside the Chronicle once took me around 801 Texas Ave. If Ben Hecht or H.L. Mencken were to somehow rise from the grave and walk through those offices, I’m betting HR would call security, have them tased and removed from the building in under five minutes–and no one would so much as look up from their keyboard for fear of being next.
Paul Berlin was another chain-smoker of epic proportions. Watching him light, puff, flip records, tap his feet, sing out loud, offer raunchy banter in-between spots and “perform” live reads of commercials was a thing to behold.
————————-
My second observation is that my time in radio during the late 1990’s was the “Last Great Era of Hate Mail.”
Yes, the Internet existed back then, and we got plenty of spiteful emails.
But a lot of people still weren’t on-line (this was especially true of the older-demographic that prefers talk-radio), and most of our hate-mail arrived the old fashioned way, via United States Postal Service.
That was when hate mail was really hate mail, I tell ‘ya! You had to care enough to write out your spite by hand, put it in an envelope, lick and stick a stamp and send it! Not like today’s teeny-boppers, with their iRods and MyPlace pages, sending angry emails hither and yon. Back then, hate mail was a serious commitment of time and energy and thought; it meant you really hated someone, dammit!
I kid, but a very real truth became clear to me when I returned to talk-radio in 2005–people just don’t write traditional hate mail anymore. They send emails, or they blog.
But the day of an old-timey hand-written letter from a crank is dead.
————————-
Finally, I’ll end with this observation–at the end of his show yesterday, Dan Patrick reflected on all of the momentous changes that have occurred in the Houston talk-radio scene in the last seven years. The formatting changes. The programming revolutions. The ownership battles. The unpredictable ups and downs.
And most of all, Dan remarked on the astonishing series of inexplicable firings of top-tier talent that management at KPRC 950 has been responsible for over the years.
And I?
Well, I smiled.
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It is kind of sad when the best talk show hosts on houston radio are now on Sports talk shows. Maybe john Granato should take over 700, 740, and 950 am.
So you weren’t here when Paul Berlin owned “The Dome Shadows”…
AS A kid I listened to Paul Berlin on KNUZ when it was him vs The Weird Beard on KILT ( top40).
I grew up on talk radio on KPRC. Listened to Alvin Van Black in the afternoon and even called.
David, He was probably the one who called you on the corp line to correct your San Felipe, he knew Houston. Sad to see KPRC gone to talk radio BUT..
WHO CARES!!! We still have KSEV..who needs anything more !
And BTW: no one can touch sports talk radio today to those who remember John Brean and Jerry Tripiano. Talk about stale cigar smoke and great sports talk.
I remember, in the 90s, driving westbound on a Sunday afternoon when David Benzion sat in the first time for, I believe, Mike Richards. He started out reading various excerpts from news stories. He was talking way too fast and not pacing himself. They cut to commercial a number of times, but after about 20-25 minutes, there was a detectable desparation in his voice because no one was calling in. I didn’t have a cell phone at the time and felt sorry for him as I would have called in, if I could have. I think he got his first caller after about an hour. It wasn’t as bad as when Ed Brandon did a show for the early KSEV. Ed’s sister used to be the only caller he would get.
I was also listening that fateful day when Benzion uttered “Jesse Jackass”. It did strike me as over the line and I was shocked when it became an issue.
Dang I missed the ” perfect name for Jesse Jackson” Good for you David!
The worst part is, no-one ever remembers my “Al Barf-ton” comment, which frankly I thought was much more clever.
There is one particular show I did sitting in for Mike that still makes me shudder in shame.
I going to wait to see if anyone brings it up.
[*Shudder*]
One of the more difficult things for a radio rookie to do is a live 5 minute news cast. Which is why my colleagues picked the top of the hour news to perform “the initiation.”
The studios were in old building that used to be a private residence. During my 3 days on the 2-6 AM shift, the air staff had plenty of time to suggest that the studios were haunted by the mischievous but harmless ghost of a person who allegedly had died there.
The studio was nicely set up, with a large window looking over the parking lot, and another to the adjoining news room. The microphone was suspended by a regular floor stand, but inverted, with the heavy base in the attic.
On my 4th day on the air, during the 3AM rip & read, a couple of the staff hid in the parking lot to observe, while a third sneaked in the back door and quietly climbed into the attic…
There were no cellphone cameras back then, but I still have a recording of my shaking, nervous voice, trying to complete the news cast–While the microphone slowly and mysteriously rotated 360 degrees.
(Yes, my revenge was sweet!)
I thought we weren’t allowed to do that here…
/removing tongue from cheek
I have only had the honor of hearing Benzion on the Radio once, and that was on KSEV, covering for Dan, I think. No hall of shame moments that I can recall…
Radio Maxim indeed. Replacing Baker with W&J is a stupid move, IMO. Its their station, I guess…
I love it. Chris Baker is being panned in the comments section of the Chron article as a far right-wing hate-spewing hack. IMO, he came across as pretty centrist a lot of the time. I distinctly recall not agreeing with his positions some of the time because they were a touch liberal. Go figure.
I didn’t necessarily agree with him interrupting his callers when he didn’t agree with them, either, but hey, welcome to talk radio…
David,
I’m smiling too. Chris Baker is/was a short tempered right winger who’s schtick was never clever or funny and had become jaded in recent months. He is a right winger who got lucky with Ken Charles. He is an example of the direction talk radio has moved in the last seven years as evidenced by the skewed, nay, biased hosts including the now departed Chris Baker. He was what he referred to many of his left leaning callers as, and what you called Jesse.
Wow. Look at that. I mention people who characterize Baker as a right winger, and *poof*…
Occasionally during one’s lifetime, megashifts occur which open opportunities never before available and most likely never to be come available again in the forseeable future. In the radio business, this looks like one of those times. I’ve never been in the radio business, but for some reason, the big boys decided to lay down and open the door of opportunity to anyone who wants to open it. Get with it KSEV - go after the Mayor, the city council, Metro, the guverner, SJL - all of them. Now’s the time to strike hard. Who’s NO 1?
I’ve been listening to 1070am lately. I get better reception up here in Hooterville. I listen to Laura on 700 but after her, I can’t do the woman’s plumbing Dr, so I switch over to Gallagher and Prager or listen to classic rock.
David used to argue with me on the air constantly about Rabin - I had no Idea you were such a Rabin fan
David, isn’t it Moss ThorNton?
Yes; spelling error corrected.
Slip of the keyboard, I was writing this at midnight.
18
Ummm yeah me too………
I had forgotten about Alvin Van Black! Couldn’t stomach the guy. Didn’t he quit when some DJ up in Okla or Colo. or some place started getting death threats? I don’t believe I ever listened to Chris Baker, and I cannot stand the new morning 9-5-0 program. The guys are pretty much pigs. The disappearce of people like Jon Matthews (disgusting excuse for a human being) was no loss, either. My late hubby was a huge talk radio fan. I listen in to Pat Gray on occasion, and that’s about it for me. There’s too much politics on radio, and I get tired of listening to it. If it weren’t for Coast-to-Coast, I probably wouldn’t listen to the radio at all.
Chris Baker when he first started in town came in with a relative of my wife’s. he was a true liberal back then and changed over time. he could never hide it from me as i never listened to him very much.
#12, izzy,
Your comments on Baker being a Right wing extreemist just proves once again how far to the left you really are…
I miss Dr Demento….
22 bweldon
Don’t misquote me. I didn’t use the term right wing extremist to describe Baker. I would use that to describe Hannity, Levin, others.
Anyone ’round here who remembers the Gordon McClendon radio empire, with one of the stations being KILT 610, might enjoy this sampling of 79 radio stingers I have. If you don’t remember these, well then, you just can call yourself a Houstonian!
http://98.195.22.1/kilt07.mp3
http://98.195.22.1/kilt24.mp3
http://98.195.22.1/kilt33.mp3
http://98.195.22.1/kilt47.mp3
http://98.195.22.1/kilt66.mp3
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
KPRC sucks now. Mark Levin is the best they have on. Miller and Savage are just tolerable.
Houston radio, for the most part, is the pits.
I liked Chris, but ever since I got XM 2 years ago, I rarely listen to terrestrial. I pop to 700 or 740 is something local has caught my eye, but usually don’t put more that 10 minutes into it. I spun records late night at the radio station at my college. It was a blast, and since my shift started at 2am, it was almost tabula rasa!
I, too, remember thinking that the liberal nut job that had taken over the time slot on KPRC, formerly filled by one of my favorite talk-show Senators, was so left-leaning that he’d have to make himself into a pretzel to reach the microphone. Chris Baker initially struck me as a liberal nutcase, and later struck me as a liberal nutcase pretending to be a conservative nutcase. However, since that is my commute time, I may have to get some audio books - because I can’t stand Michael Berry, no matter which way he’s leaning at the moment.
I never liked Chris Baker’s bumper music either. Grand Funk Railroad still sucks….
Even Phil Hendrie’s show has gotten boring since he tried to make it big in TV. Instead of doing his characters, he gives his own commentary on stuff, as if we care what he thinks.
#25 FourAlarm
Gordon McClendon was at the top of his game in the 60s. He rarely gets credit for inventing the “Top Forty” format that was adopted across the nation.
A native Houstonian, I grew up in the 60s with KILT. It was a monster station in those days and absolutely dominated the airwaves in Houston.
The black girl, Bernice, who was our housekeeper in the 50s and early 60s introduced me to “Skipper Lee and the Golden Mike of KYOK”. I still love my soul and old-fashioned (real) R&B.
Does anybody remember the night time talk show host who followed Alvin Van Black ? His name was David Fowler and he was the first host to get me hooked on talk radio. That was in the Fairness Doctrine days and he couldn’t really say what he wanted, but you got the idea he was a libertarian conservative well before his time. He finally just quit in frustration.
No ones’ going to take a bite on the show that still makes me shudder?
Hmm… maybe everyone has forgotten? Or repressed the memory?
That would be wonderful news.
I’ll offer a hint– it had to do with a former U.S. President.
Tex, I remember David Fowler and his “stirring” rendition of Rose of San Antone. He left Houston for someplace in Florida because he said Houston talk was dead.
I liked Frank Haley, who in the early afternoon before Alvin talked late night stuff, like cattle mutilations, UFO’s and the like.
I agree with most of the rest of you. I remember Chris Baker at his start and he was very liberal, and discovered Houston was more conservative.
Pop quiz everyone. The night after KPRC dropped Laura Ingraham, who did they replace her with?
#33 DB
I must have missed that one. It doesn’t ring a bell.
Was it Calvin Coolidge or Martin Van Buren ?
Benzion did you impune the dignity of my favorite peaunt farmer?
35.
I think he got in trouble with FDR for mentioning his regard for Eleanor’s legs.
RickG, I think that explains his hatred for Hellary.
Four Alarm:
Chicken Man
Skipper Lee brought a Mountain of Soul to Houston, I would love to get a copy of that intro.
While we are reminiscing, I took the vow of never listening to KPRC again when everyone made the big swap over to KSEV at the ripe young age of…oh mid teens or something haha. I am here though to confess…I have been listening to KPRC recently…Please forgive me, it was only so I could hear Dave Ramsey!!! If KSEV would get him on there instead I wouldn’t HAVE to….
When I was in high school we had to write a paper on a political candidate. I did mine on Gordon McClendon when he ran for the Senate. Those were he good ole days of radio. — Anyone remember James Bond on KILT? Colonel St James was on KILT in the 60’s and that guy is still in Houston. Talk about staying power!
Them be the days. Surf contests held in Galveston at The Flagship hotel sponsored by C&W station KIKK - that was an odd mix.
Just Googled them…. They no longer play country music there? How long ago did that happen? (Man, where have I been?)
43.
Years, brother, years.
#42 bigmck
I remember James Bond, but had forgotten about Colonel St. James.
How about Jim Pruitt, aka Tony Raven, one half of Stevens and Pruitt? Started in Houston in 1968 (I think. It’s been so long..)and went to K101, Godknowswhereelse, and ended up on that FM talker (is it stil going?)
I remember him dangling from a Mustang over the Luke Johnson Ford parking lot for something like a week or so.
Boy those were the days, KRBE was actually on Kirby Drive, and was not afraid to play all of American Pie or In a Gadda Da Vida. Of course that was when the jocks got to relieve themselves.
46 - He’s still around, he’s just in the guns and ammo business now…
oops, Firewall blocked weapons sites. The Internet Nazis are after me now.
48 - LOL. He set up shop over there off Huffmeister near 290. He lives in Cypress, so he’s got a lot shorter commute than he used to. He’s usually in the shop - I’ve gone in a couple of times and ogled this nice pistol-grip shotgun and he was there both times…
48. Mikey51, I recall it being the early ’70s when Stevens & Pruett were one of the H&H teams at KILT. I forget where they went after that gig, but it had to be the late 80’s or early 90’s before they went to KLOL.
btw… CCC were idiots for destroying that legend, imho.
Talk Radio - “blah, blah, blurb, scream,”. Thanks, but I’ll skip it.
50 - They spent the intervening years at KEGL in Dallas. I lived there during the time…
#51 - Is that Liz Liz? The Liz we all know and love??
I love my IPOD. Talk Radio has become boorish and stale.
Long Live the Moody Blues!
Simple
#49 Wow jimb I always wondered if that was the Pruitt of Pruitt and Stevens! His shop is at the front of my subdivision.
#54 - Yep. He sometimes talked about living in Cypress and eating at El Charro on the radio. I drive past his house when I go to pick up my kids from school somtimes.
jimb
So Benzion slinked out of here thinking we forgot about his most embarassing show biz moment. We should demand a full accounting.
A couple years back, Benzion was filling in for Dan, and he had a liberal caller on named Kay, who was berating him for something or other.
After her call ended, David did the rest of the show as Kay, taking hilariously liberal stances on everything. When he gave out the call letters, it was “Kaaaay S-E-V.” All the callers even played along like it was a liberal talk show. That’s probably the funniest hour of radio I’ve ever heard.
Pay attention boys and girls… THAT’s how you get upgraded to “managing editor”
#57
I’m sorry I missed that one !
If Yall wanna liven things up here somebody get Mike Rosen syndicated in here from the F I F T Y T H O U S A N D W A T T BLOWTORCH of the Rocky Mtn west………850KOA!
bob42
CCC turned KLOL into a Tejano station……
Clear Channel has ruined every radio station I have heard them take control of…..
Humorous? Let the visiting public be a judge of that. I DARE you to post it as a PodCast. I’m sure Benzion kept it as an air check.
Oh wow! This is a nice little trip on the Houston Talk Radio Memory Lane!
Do any of you remember the liberal dude that Dan Patrick hired at one time? He left either KSEV or KPRC (when Dan owned both of them), to go to a FM talk radio station. That station eventually was bought out and I think it is now a spanish station of some sort…
I wonder what happened to him?
One show I like to listen to is the Hugh Hewitt show on AM 1070. I listen after Sen. Patrick is on (ahem). Hewitt has a remarkable mind and is a Constitutional law professor. (Even though the background suggests Liberal, he isn’t).
I’m sorry to see Chris Baker go from 2 shows to none in a couple of months. That doesn’t make sense (but then again, most of the radio business doesn’t make sense to me). For instance, why isn’t David Benzion on more often?
Anyway, I’m a talk radio person; I can’t stand the rest of the radio dial.
How about when Alvin Van Black quit radio and became Channel 13’s TV social reporter during the 10pm broadcast. He’d dress up in a tux and report from a couple of places. He close with “Alvin Van Black…. at Night!”
He died soon after.
Michael Medved is good from 2-5 on 1070. Hannity is an idiot on the radio, but good on TV.
Larry King is an idiot, BUT, when I was in college he had a show on from Midnight to 5am! Five Hours! They don’t go longer than 3 hours now.
That’s when he still chain-smoked.
Supposedly one time he had some guy call in who was robbing someone’s house and was trapped and was calling from an upstairs phone FROM the guys house.
Anyone have any idea at all what Chris Baker makes for his shows? I know he is friends with Larry the Cable Guy and he must regret he didn’t go that way because Larry made $20,000,000 last year from his movies and comedy.
Ree-C
You’re thinking of Roger Gray from the old KPRC. He left to do an FM talk station that didn’t succeed. I remember he moved to Dallas and got involved in the automotive review/critic business ???
#55 El Charo is good!
Pruitt saved my rear back in 1979 or 80. Hudson and Harrigan did a Halloween show at Town & Country and I worked for the sound company that was hired for that show. I left a little early to go to Steamboat Springs to see the Dead Boys {Fellow sound engineer was working that show}. I was supposed to take this hot blonde from Pasadena with me, but Pruitt had something she wanted more than me and the Dead Boys. When I got to Steamboat, my wife was sitting right in front of the sound board. I did not know she was coming… No way I could have explained a strange blonde with me… THANKS JIM!!!!
And here is what I think of Mancow {from a Bill Shatner paintball game in Joliet, IL}
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f96/mikesmith55/AddressingMancowsSUV-caughtinthe-1.jpg
In the morning, poor Roger Gray and some accountant talking about investing with Mike Richards, those two were out of their league and didn’t know it, then later Mike with his own afternoon show would get on a roll about money, get so hot smoke would come from the speakers; make you want to go ahead and work three or four more.
Thanks Texpat!
It was bugging me not to recall that name!!
It seems this business is brutal…
#69 Mike Smith
Damn, man, those are the kind of stories I don’t tell.
Wife and I went to a KLOL blood drive once in Willowbrook mall. Had the kids with us, and they were younger, so it when we both came up at the same time to get “bled”, we had to figure out how to keep an eye on them.
Outlaw Dave Locke Siebenhausen were DJ’ing from the mall, and Dave said “hell, we’ll watch the kids!”.
Needless to say, we took turns donating. Can’t imagine Locke watching kids.
Mike was a good friend of Ted Murray who ran Money mortgage and was a big advertiser on KSEV before that company got busted for all kinds of fraud. Makes me really wonder about the advertisers on KSEV.
Gaddy, you’ve been shopping that line for years. Don’t you have something fresh?
Gadboy: Tyranny
Tyranny!
David B. #33. Are you thinking perhaps of G. Gordon Liddy?
It seems that Baker and Hunt were doomed as Hunt’s TV shtick did not work on the radio, with Cris, the educated err intelligent, the independent thinkers, or the TV. Seems that Natalie who filed in for Hunt on occasion had the right idea… to have fun and be entertaining.
Cris was cool and fun. I am sorry they saw it fit to let him go. Other than being bored and no other station at a level to receive, I guess I will start back reading books! PS Michael Berry STINKS! It seems he flip flops his position just to irritate any unsuspecting accidental listeners (since I can’t imagine anyone masochistic enough to be a frequent listener). Please let Mr. Berry know that taking the irritating side of any argument works, and is just that, IRRITATING!
Just my 2 cents but to many people I have spoken with (I am a conservative that’s hangs out/with Starbucks Libs at Baybrook which means we have diverse views)it seems to be at least one/two opinions that are common among us “this group of listeners”!
Mancow is YANKEEVILLE 100%(and thats not good)
#65 I worked at nights a long time ago and remember well Larry King interviewing all kinds of authors and you could pretty much tell he never read their books, but he winged it very well. His sidekick and fill in host for when he was getting his heart overhauled was Jim Bohannon, who, is still on the radio.
My drive time is 4-5p, and although I love KSEV, sometimes the topic could get a little heavy, and it was nice to be able to flip over to KTRH and listen to Chris Baker. After all, his background is in comedy, so he wouldn’t take everything so seriously.