Monday, July 25, 2011

My first REAL Program Director ...

... is being inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. That would be Bruce Miller Earle.

My first commercial radio gig was as a part-timer at KLEN/AM1050/Killeen when I was at Ft. Hood TX. Ran the Sunday morning religious shows on the AM and made sure the pre-taped FM stayed on the air with some modulation from 6AM to its 10PM signoff, which made for a long day, especially late in the year, when the daytime AM signed off.

I moved on from there to do 6PM-12M at KTEM/AM1400/Temple after a few months, hired by Bruce Miller Earle.

BME was a few years younger than me and already a mover and shaker. I learned a lot about jocking and production from Bruce, who had seen radio service in the D/FW market.

BME was the first guy I knew who had a phone in his car (a "Tie-Yota"); he and I had a lengthy conversation one night following my show with "Freaky" Freddy Hendrickson who was on the air at KOMA/Oklahoma City.

BME went on to engineer border stations, including XEROK, the 500kw Mexican powerhouse once programmed by another of my former PD's, John Long.  He's spent the years since then consulting TX and Mexican stations.