[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 11, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
HOUSTON RADIO PIONEER DAVE MORRIS PROFILED IN HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARTICLE

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                            HON. JACK FIELDS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 11, 1994

  Mr. FIELDS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, 74-year-old Dave Morris was the 
subject of an interesting--and highly entertaining--article in the 
Sunday, May 8, edition of the Houston Chronicle which highlighted his 
long and distinguished career in radio broadcasting.
  I appreciate this opportunity to bring this article--which was 
written by Steven Long of the Chronicle staff--to the attention of my 
colleagues.
  As the ranking Republican member of the House Telecommunications and 
Finance Subcommittee, it has been my privilege to learn about, and help 
shape, the future course of the Nation's telecommunications 
infrastructure. Many of the changes that you, my colleagues, and I will 
see in the years ahead are truly mind-boggling.
  And as a native Texan, I have seen first-hand the transformation of 
Houston from a once-sleepy Gulf Coast town into the Nation's fourth-
largest metropolitan area. That transformation, too, has been truly 
mind-boggling.
  Dave Morris--general manager and co-owner of radio station KNUZ (1230 
AM) since 1948--has had a hand in transforming both the radio industry 
and the city of Houston during the past 46 years. And, just as 
important, at least according to the Houston Chronicle article that I 
would like to reprint in today's Congressional Record, he's had a heck 
of a lot of fun in the process.
  At the risk of ``dating'' myself, I have to confess that in my 
younger, wilder years, I regularly turned my old transistor radio in to 
KNUZ to hear the newest rock-and-roll songs. Until reading Steven 
Long's article profiling Dave Morris, I didn't have any idea who was 
responsible for the music I enjoyed as a teenager. But as a result if 
this wonderful article in the Houston Chronicle, I now know that Dave 
Morris is the man to whom I--and tens of thousands of other Houston-
area residents who enjoyed, and who continue to enjoy the music and 
entertainment provided over KNUZ--should say, ``Thank you.''
  Houstonians past and present, young and old, owe Dave Morris a great 
deal for the role he has played in transforming the broadcasting 
industry, and the Houston metropolitan area during the past 46 years. I 
am pleased to have this opportunity to express my own appreciation 
publicly; to wish Dave Morris many, many more years of success in the 
broadcasting industry; and to send my very best wishes to everyone at 
radio station KNUZ, and its FM affiliate, KQUE, which is also owned and 
managed by Dave Morris.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend the following Houston Chronicle article to the 
attention of my colleagues, and I appreciate this opportunity to 
include it in the Record.

               [From the Houston Chronicle, May 8, 1994]

                     Radio Icon Morris Propels KNUZ

                            (By Steven Long)

       Dave Morris, 74, has been around commercial broadcasting 
     for a substantial chunk of radio's 74-year history.
       He's been a major player on the Houston radio scene for 
     almost five decades as owner and general manager of radio 
     station KNUZ, 1230 AM. His radio career, however, got its 
     start when Lyndon B. Johnson hired him to sell advertising 
     for Austin's KTBC in 1945.
       Postwar America was going into a protracted boom, and a 
     young man home from the war could rise rapidly. Morris didn't 
     stay long in Austin, though. Nor in Shreveport, which was 
     where he went next.
       Houston, he'd heard, was the place to be.
       In February 1948, he and four partners obtained a broadcast 
     license and put radio station KNUZ on the air.
       At the time, there were only eight radio stations in 
     Houston. Today there are 50, including Morris' FM station, 
     KQUE, KNUZ was tiny, with a signal of only 250 watts at the 
     time. (By contrast, Houston powerhouse station KTRH today is 
     a booming 50,000 watts.)
       Despite its name, KNUZ was never an all-news station until 
     the past year. ``We called it KNUZ, because two of the 
     partners were newsmen,'' Morris said.
       For most of the station's long history, the format wasn't 
     news but hit music, Top-40 music, a format he says he created 
     in the early '50s with two other broadcasters, the late Todd 
     Storz of Omaha and Gordon McLendon of Dallas. The three had 
     formed an association of independent radio station owners.
       ``Todd Storz was at drive-in restaurant and noticed that 
     they were playing the same songs over and over on the 
     jukebox,'' Morris said. ``He came back to us and told us 
     about it at a meeting, and we decided that it was a good idea 
     to rotate the records.''
       The Top 40 format is a combination of glib fast-talking 
     disc jockeys, time and temperature--and the same songs played 
     again and again.
       For decades, McLendon's KILT 610-AM, and Morris' KNUZ-AM 
     waged a fierce ratings battle for Houston's rock music 
     listeners. The battle ended when KILT changed its format to 
     country music in the early 1980s.
       Three of the disc jockeys who worked for Morris at KNUZ in 
     1950 still work for him--Paul Berlin, Ken Grant and Webb 
     Hunt. Another jock, the late Biff Collie, rounded out the on-
     air staff of the station then.
       Later, in the mid-1950s, Larry Kane, another Houston rock 
     radio legend, joined the station. He propelled his success 
     there into a long running Saturday television dance program 
     on Channel 13 call ``The Larry Kane Show.''
       But the most famous of the station's radio personalities 
     was also one of its first. Texas humorist Cactus Pryor was 
     the station's original program director. In fact, Pryor 
     signed the radio station on the air that first day in 1948.
       At the time, the station didn't have any commercials, but 
     the humorist took care of that quickly.
       ``His daddy owned several theaters,'' Morris laughs. ``He 
     did a commercial for Austin's Cactus Theater, 168 miles to 
     the west.''
       Morris says Pryor and other announcers would do anything to 
     get attention to the little station.
       ``Cactus wrote a soap opera titled `The Love Life of Madame 
     Swordfish,'' he said, ``He would write it, then go out and 
     get somebody to read the script, anybody.
       ``Sometimes, as they were reading, he would set the script 
     on fire and they would have to read faster and faster,'' 
     Morris remembers.
       Then there was the first Chevrolet Corvette ever seen in 
     Houston. It was a prize in a KNUZ contest. The sports car was 
     won by an 84-year-old woman. Morris offered to drive her home 
     in the car, but the elderly matron would have none of that.
       Instead, she recalls, ``She got in and burned rubber all 
     the way down Blodgett Street.''
       Morris also has a lot of memories of the entertainers and 
     rock shows of those early days in Houston pop radio, days 
     when the station would rent the old City Auditorium downtown 
     each Saturday night.
       ``Elvis would play the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport one 
     week, then play our thing the next week,'' Morris said. 
     ``Then he would play the Magnolia Gardens on Sunday.''
       Going rate in the early '50s for a budding superstar? How 
     about $175 for Elvis and a three-piece band.
       Morris also recalls station promotions that backfired.
       Like the time in 1949 when a Houston restaurant was 
     involved in a local scandal for selling horse meat in its 
     hamburgers.
       ``We got representatives from the Houston Chronicle, 
     Houston Post and Houston Press to do a blind tasting of horse 
     meat and beef,'' he said. ``Would you believe, all three 
     voted the horse meat the better of the two?''

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