Lessons from Houston Radio Legends

NPR’s Garrison Keillor used to open his weekly “Prairie Home Companion” monologue by reporting, “it’s been a quiet week at Lake Wobegon.” For Houston Radio fans and professionals, it’s been several weeks of woe as we’ve had to say goodbye to familiar and beloved voices.

Paul Berlin (Photo: HouChron)

Paul Berlin was the voice many Houstonian’s listened to for decades on KBME, KNUZ and KQUE. His popular mix of Big Band and pop music standards from the 50’s thru the 70’s stood the test of time, while other Radio stations' formats seemed to change on a predictably regular basis. Rebroadcasts of The Paul Berlin Show on KSEV outlasted their originator, and are still aired each Saturday night. 

Paul Berlin was 86 when he passed away in June. He was married to his wife, “Nezzie,” for 53-years until her death. Berlin’s Radio career spanned six decades.

Randy Schell (Photo: FaceBook)

Earlier this weekend we were stunned to learn long time Houston voice actor and Radio production wizard, Randy Schell, had been killed in a skydiving accident. He collided with another jumper after his parachute had deployed, but his canopy collapsed and he plunged to his death near Pearland, Texas. 

Most people knew Randy as the voice behind AMC’s “The Walking Dead” series, and was also the voice of national brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Geico Insurance. I knew him as the loving husband of longtime Radio maven, Donna McCoy.  

Mstt Patrick (Photo:Facebook)

Not 30-hours later came news of the passing of KTRH Morning Show host Matt Patrick, who had earlier this week told his audience that he was discontinuing treatment for cancer. Described as a “morning Radio staple” for decades in the Akron, OH market, Patrick had hosted news-talk shows in Houston for iHeart Radio since 2011, capping a 40-year run in Radio.
He was 58.

There are lessons we can draw from the lives of these men who left their indelible marks on this market and our hearts. Each of them had discovered he secret of dying happy—doing what they loved, and deriving great satisfaction from performing a job well done. Each of them developed lasting, personal relationships—not only with their spouses, but with their audiences. They loved Houston Radio listeners, even as they were loved. And each of us, like each of them, will one day also make a final passage from this life to the next.

So it has been a sad several weeks for the Houston chapter of Lake Woebegon, “where all the women are good-looking, all the men are strong, the children-are all above-average…” and the Radio industry is morning three of its favorite sons.

A public memorial service for Paul Berlin is planned for  10:30am July 25 at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main St., in Houston, Texas. Funeral arrangements for Randy Schell and Matt Patrick had not been announced at this writing.

May God bless each of these families as they mourn the passing of their loved ones and celebrate their lives well-lived.

Not Every Story Makes it Into the News

Not all life-and-death stories we see in the newsroom are about people, and not all of the stories we become aware of are reported. This is one of them.

One of our anchors,  Lana Hughes, was visiting Houston's BARC this Summer to update the registrations for her adopted cats, when a man named Tyler approached her about getting a newborn kitten adopted out...the kitten he was holding in his hands. He was essentially turning the cat in.

A bundle of promise
in a cardboard box

The weeks-old kitten had yet to open its eyes. Chances of an adoption would be two-fold: Slim and none. Lana made a split-second decision that would impact the lives of a dozen people in the following weeks. She took the kitten home.

Newborns aren't supposed to be away from their mothers. We don't know the circumstances that delivered the kitten to us, but Lana became the kitten's surrogate mother, administering feedings and cleanings around the clock during the first few weeks of life.

The animal was so tiny, we couldn't even determine its gender at first. I dubbed it "Kitty Couric." Not long after, it was apparent we'd need to alter that title, and Lana and her producer, Matt Greenwood, proclaimed his name to be "Lil'-T," after the stranger who wanted to donate the cat to BARC.

In reality, it was Lil'-T who had US
eating from her hand...er, paw!

The news business is a 24-hour animal.
You have to continually feed the news machine with fresh content, around the clock. How ironic it was, then, that the feeding cycles for Lil-T would inter mesh, and the Newsroom became a bit of a nursery, with feedings upon arrival, just before news time, once during the morning block, and once more before Lana could leave for the day. We all became adoptive Aunts and Uncles for Lil-T.

Takes a lickin' and keeps on...uh, lickin

"T" was a tiger in the making.
He could down a dropper-ful of food in no time, a pace he maintained as he graduated to more substantial quantities of food. He learned to search ravenously for his dropper tip while it was being prepared. He would steady the bottle nipple with one paw slung sideways on the bottle top as he guzzled his breakfasts. And he would complain mightily as Lana and her Aunt Martha Martinez administered ritual cleanings with a moistened paper towel. Well, it was better than licking his face.

Lil'-T became the Newsroom mascot, albeit a surreptitious one: According to the employee manual, animals were not allowed on the floor of the Radio suite. So we kept Lil'-T on the Q-T. He would briefly 'mew' in his cardboard carton, but generally burrowed under a plush towel and snoozed the hours away in the Newsroom between feedings.

A firm grip on reality--and his bottle

Lil'-T matriculated to being a stay-at-home cat after a couple of months, and Lana was able to leave him at home in the mornings. The newsroom lost just a little of the morning buzz when it was no longer necessary to time our work load to his feeding cycle. As Lana noted, like most animals, Lil'-T brought out the best in all of us as we watched him flourish and grow.

Today Lil'-T is a cocky cat with a bit of an attitude and a nose for trouble--or is that just news--probably because he was rubbing shoulders (and ears) with some of the greats in Houston Radio. Lana has added to his name--the T is now short for Taz...as in a certain Tasmanian cartoon character.

Lil' T at 2-1/2 Months
Photo Credit: Lana Hughes

On the Beach...On the Prowl

A roomful of promise: The News92FM Newsroom near completion, July 2012

Wednesday, October 8, 2014.
They'd called a staff meeting for 9 o'clock.
I had a phone interview scheduled for 9:30a.
How long would this take, I asked my boss.
Not long, he assured me.
Some Corporate VP's boss was coming in for a rah-rah session for all the stations, I was told.
If I needed to duck out, it would be okay.
None of us were prepared for what followed.

Our Assignments Editor was barking out stories to editors and anchors as our General Manager, the VP of Programming, and The Big VP of Radio walked into the newsroom. One of them said, "Let's cut this short--we have something to tell you." The usual buzz of the Newsroom fell silent. Our GM spoke next.
"I was going to read you something I'd prepared," he started off. Uh-oh, here it comes, I thought. "...but I'm just going to speak from the heart," he said. And he did.

With tears in his eyes he told the assembled staff that our time had run out, the ratings weren't where they needed to be to generate sufficient cash flow, and the company was pulling the plug. After 35-months, News92FM was destined for the dustbin of Houston Radio history.

Initial reactions varied from instant tears to abject shock.
For me, the numbness still hasn't worn off.
This was our baby.

News92FM Anchor Patrick Osborn
was the original morning block technical
producer.

47 broadcast journalists, producers, engineers and reporters had been assembled under the dark of night to launch Houston's first, real all-news operation in decades. The last hold-out station calling itself "news" had abdicated the throne years ago, adding political talk shows between drive time news blocks, and then eventually abandoning any pretense of providing genuine news, traffic and weather for a hungry metropolis.

We were the best and brightest in the business, and in some cases, the oldest. It didn't matter--we had a Purpose, once again; we were all 20-somethings anew, chomping at the bit to tell the stories of "the day-to-day adventures of the Human Race," as one news consultant was quoted.

(I have stolen that phrase, fair and square, as I re-market myself for a new position.)

There are lots of reasons News92FM could not continue.
There are many more for why it should have--but they're all moot now. The brilliant marketing, the amazing zeal of the staff, and the very real, daily production of quality news  (other news outlets were beginning to take our lead on stories) could not overcome the physics of a less-than optimal signal, or the economics of marketing a very expensive operation to a still skeptical advertising base.

I am deeply saddened we're no longer on the air, but I'm not overwhelmed with grief. Honestly, it's kind of nice not to have to get up at 2am everyday. But I am immensely proud of what we were able to accomplish in a very short time.
No other staff of broadcast professionals could have pulled off some of the minor miracles we did--we literally pooled our experiences to make this station great. It was a once-in-a-lifetime blend of the best of what we were...and are.

So to all of my colleagues at News92FM, I salute you.
It was the best of times...

Closing day for News92 FM: October 8, 2014

Pet Peeve: E-mail "Me-too's"

The Boss sends out a congratulatory e-mail.
A much-loved employee leaves, and the office is notified by e-mail.
The office will close early on Friday, you learn, in an e-mail.

In each instance, your first response is probably to toggle up a reply, and blast your assent, best wishes, or elation to the rest of the office, because you, too, agree and fully support the original message.

The problem is, when you do--and what's the point, if you're not selecting "Reply All?"--along with the rest of your colleagues, you create a nuclear fission-like situation for your company e-mail server, impacting everyone else on the original sending of that message that's moved you so.

For many people, myself included, web-access to the company e-mail system is a wonderful option that is thwarted only by an inbox that is too clogged with messages to accept or send anymore volume. You may have seen that little, yellow notice up in the corner--"Your e-mail box is at 999.99;mb capacity.  At 1000mb you will not be able to send or receive messages."

Bummer.
One of my most pleasurable pastimes at work is clearing the unnecessary electronic flotsam and jetsam from my e-mail inbox and trash can. 
Not.

The other, minor irritant, for those of us who also receive office e-mail on our personal smartphone out of necessity, is the constant notification that yet another "Me, too!" message just landed in our inbox.

So the next time the Boss sends a note remarking how the sales team has hit their goals for the month, and it's only the 15th--Huzzah! Just send him a note back thanking him for the acknowledgement.

The next time someone grabs the brass ring and gets a bump up the ladder, send them a personal note--you can e-mail it--expressing your appreciation of their accomplishment.

The next time the office is notified Friday will feature an early afternoon--just relish it to yourself, along with the knowledge you can leave and not worry about coming back on Monday to a constipated-mail box, too obstructed by unnecessary messages to function.

Radio Gypsies

People come and go at Radio stations. That’s just the nature of the business. We’re known as Radio Gypsies, mostly, and it’s rare to work at a place more than just a few years. I have been fortunate to work at one place for as long as ten years, but if I counted all the stations I ever worked at, the average stint has been about 2-1/2 years.

At my most-recent posting, News 92 Fm, we’ve already had three people exit since the station launched, less than a year ago. That's no big deal; it's not uncommon, and it doesn't necessarily make us a "revolving door." The most-recent to leave was the station wit, according to our News Director, which leaves us all wondering if we’ll be truly witless with the exit of Laurie Kendrick.

News92FM Class Clown Laurie Kendrick

Laurie was a spark plug, a powerhouse, a word wizard…and if we’d ever gone to school together, she would have most assuredly been the class clown. Laurie could take a mundane story, and with a few deft edits and some natural sound, turn it into an award-winning masterpiece. She could also tackle a topic no one else dared touch—like the recent inclusion of the “F-bomb” in the dictionary—and handle it with aplomb.

I remember the first time this air staff ever met as a group, at a mixer in a near-town loft, and Laurie came up to me to introduce her self. It was like we’d been old friends forever, even though we’d never worked together before. That was--and is--the beauty of this particular project, seeded from the beginning with a crew of seasoned veterans. We didn’t even consider that this venture wouldn’t work—we just set our minds to get it done.

Laurie exuded enthusiasm for the project from day-one, despite working in what some would consider untenable conditions: workstations for five, packed into a converted mailroom with limited space and even less air conditioning. Even on a “bad” morning, Laurie could break the thickness with a quip, a crack, or a punchline that would immediately break the tension.

She didn’t want us to make a big deal about her leaving—moving to take care of her aging mother in another city. But it is. She’s a saint for choosing to give up a sure thing here in return for the chance to enjoy time with her mom while she can. 

Either way she’s a saint. 

St. Laurie the Sarcastic. 

I’m going to miss her around here.