Re: [IRCA] St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame Inductions

Bob Foxworth wrote: "I recall that Dan Ingram and perhaps as well Bob Dayton did so, also. I'd think that time served at WABC would outpoint WIL by at least something!"

If memory serves (and John Tudenham can confirm or deny this memory), Bob Dayton served some time at KIXZ-940, Amarillo, in the 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift I was later to occupy as "Johnny Callan." KIXZ management hired a lot of transients from Amarillo Air Force Base, and got some good on-air talent therefrom. The young airman who held down that timeslot until his transfer opened up the job for me (as I was a daytime student at West Texas State) was "Frantic Frank" somebody. (Tudy will remember Frantic Frank's surname, as well.)

Edd Routt, one of the classic Top 40 station execs, was GM at KIXZ for a while when I was there ... and in 1962, when I worked for the Social Security Administration, Routt was manager at KNOE-1390, and I did some weekend jock work there.

But Bob was right about the lure of KBOX-1480 and WIL-1430 as "target stations" for Top 40 jocks in smaller markets. Each of the major markets, it seemed, had two competing Top 40 stations, (smaller markets, too.) In Amarillo, KIXZ-940 and KFDA-1440 competed (KIXZ won.) In Dallas, KBOX was the alternative to Gordon McLendon's KLIF-1190, and it was easier to get a job at KBOX that at KLIF. Gary Mack (MacDougald, if I recall correctly; who was opposite me on KFDA .. but sacrificed the last our as he signed off at midnight and I went to 1) moved from KFDA to KBOX. In the late '50s and early '60s, Dallas and Fort Worth were considered to be separate markets, and it was KFJZ-1270 and KXOL-1360 who battled for the Top 40 audience in Fort Worth. In St. Louis, WIL's rival was KXOK-630, and if I remember correctly, KIXZ, KXOK, KFJZ, KLIF and KILT drew the top ratings. (In Houston, the rival Top 40 station was the daytimer in Pasadena on 650. (Call has momentarily skidded to the unreachable rear of my mind. Ah, back it comes. KIKK.)

Music changed, getting too wild for my taste, so (after the brief encounter in Monroe when I learned I was no bureaucrat) I switched to news. I worked on the news side at a couple of decent Top 40 stations ... KFJZ in 1963 and KILT-610, McLendon's Houston outlet. Too wild, I say ... Lordy, the Beatles, Elvis and those rockers that hurt my ears sound soft and sweet in comparison to today's ... well, I suppose it's music.

Can you imagine, in this day where news and music have completely divorced, the Top 40 stations running news staffs of half a dozen, sending out mobile units for on-scene reports, and punctuating the music programming with a full five-minute newscast and two minutes of headlines each hour?

Oh, the mesmerizing memories.

John Callarman, Krum TX