The WFUN Good Guys - 22 Original Winners (1964)

Interview with Bill Deane (James Madison Bey) conducted January-February, 2009

DJs pictured: Dick Starr (diving mask), Al Dunaway (with red ball), Jim Howell (on pink raft), James Madison Bey (almost submerged), Bill Holley (on blue raft), and Greg Warren (in the middle).

In 1963 Bill Deane was working a jock shift at WFUN, the number one station in Miami, when all hell was about to break loose. “Station owner Robert Rousaville let the great creator Bud Connell go because Gary Stevens and Frank Ward were making such a political mess to gain control of the station,” Deane said.

“Frank's aim to take over the Connell post had failed though he remained as PD before Bill Holley. I was the last of the seven originals to leave. Art Sully, who had never run a top 40 operation, came in from Atlanta and immediately lost the number one rating to WQAM.”

Deane then got a gig in Ft. Lauderdale radio, and on Channel 10 in Miami – when he got a call to come back to WFUN.

“Sully rehired me on the condition I change my name. He said, ‘We don't want anyone to think we are trying to return to the original (Connell) WFUN programming’.” I was beginning to get into news in a big way and chose my father's name, Russ Deane, which was OK'd by Sully, when I did the news. I then came up with Jay Madison Bey when I DJ.'ed. I thought it would be memorable when the survey people called.”

In an effort to regain the ratings it once had, WFUN jocks took part in numerous promotional events – including appearing on the album cover, WFUN Good Guys 22 Original Winners (Roulette 25273).

“We did lots of promotions, and this was just another. We did the watermelon seed spitting contest at a super market, the miniature golf appearances, DJ’ed stock car races, and this album was just another of the many, many appearances,” Deane said.

Shot in a backyard pool, in a residential area, near the station, the idea for the cover shoot possibly came from PD Holley or Dick Starr. “Holley came from KBOX, in Dallas, but seems like this is the perfect Miami idea and not something he would have carried from Texas,” Deane said.

Absent from the photo shoot was morning jock, Jack Perrington. “I think he was still at the station – could it be that Holley and Starr wanted him out of the picture as he was much older than the rest of us?”

Deane left WFUN in 1965, when he took a job at WBBF, in Rochester, New York. “I was hired by one of the most dedicated broadcasters ever, Bob Kieve, to head his nine-person news staff. In Miami, I never attended a city council or school board meeting. I didn’t have to as there was some crazy story by-the-hour. When I went to Rochester I knew if I wanted to cover local news I’d have to go and get it. I did with Kieve's support and thanks to his instruction and backing.” Kieve is now running all-news KLIV, in San Jose.

After working in Rochester, Deane went on to KBTR, Denver, and KYW, Philadelphia, before working as an editor at ABC News and an assignment editor at CBS News.

“I retired a couple of years back and busier than ever,” he said. Among the project he’s working on is a book on the CIA. “It's been a tough but good and rewarding life.”

The voice of My Home Town - Terry Jenkins

For as long as Marie Therese Leahy could remember, she was always performing.

“I first sang at the Capitol Theatre, in Austin, on the kiddie show,” she said. “If you were asked to perform, you got in free to the movie that day, and got two passes for later in the week. America was in the middle of a depression so I went to the kiddie show every Saturday and got on, and got my tickets.”

By 1941, she would find herself entertaining on another stage – in front of the troops, at one of the several bases around Austin. “Mr. John Peninger, who was a friend of my dad’s, was head of the USO in Austin and asked if I could be on the USO shows - I was only 14 at the time,” she said. Terry, as she was starting to be called at the time, would find herself singing before thousands of soldiers at Camp Swift in Bastrop, or at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin. “I would perform on a flat bed truck, driven out into a field, and there would be five thousand young men waiting to be entertained.” She would later be crowned Queen of Melody of Camp Swift. “What a treat that was, but I well chaperoned as my dad was quite strict.”

After she graduated high school, in 1945, she continued to perform with the 8th Service Command Band, while continuing her education at SMU, in Dallas. “I was a student at SMU, and a producer heard me sing, and that’s how I got on the radio, on WFAA,” she said. The program, called Dream Nocturne, was a popular nighttime feature, showcasing local vocalists. Within two months, she was promoted to the morning show at the station, The Early Birds. “It was much like the Breakfast Club in Chicago,” she said. “All of Texas and the surrounding states listened. Dale Evans go her start there, and the Cass County Boys. We had a full orchestra, and depending on how many sponsors, sometimes we had a really big orchestra.”

Going from a late night to an early morning show wouldn’t be the only change she would experience during that time. “The announcers couldn’t pronounce my last name, Leahy, even though there was a famous coach at Notre Dame [Frank Leahy] and a former admiral in the Navy [William Leahy].” So they gave her a new name—Terry Lea.

Photo from the WFAA Early Birds 25th anniversary program.
Courtesy of Terry Jenkins.

After her stint with WFAA, she would lend her voice on commercial jingles, working with Tom Merriman and the Liberty Broadcasting Network, and later James Earl “Pop” Sellers (who founded the first independent recording studio in the Southwest) before “settling down, getting married, and having children,” but she would soon return to radio—singing a different tune.

In the mid 1950s her old friend, Bill Meeks, contacted her. The two had known each other when Meeks played in the Early Bird Orchestra during their time together on WFAA. He was starting up a new company, the PAMS Advertising Agency, and was looking for singers to perform spots for advertisers.


“I kept very busy doing commercials,” she said. “I have no idea how many I did, probably 12,000. One day I cut 54 jingles in one day. I would cut the jingles and go home and take care of my family.” She is featured, most prominently on PAMS jingles packages Series 8 (1958) and 10 (1959).

While the concept of using catchy tunes to promote a product was nothing new, the idea of using a full length song to promote a radio station was. In 1960, Meeks came up with the idea of creating a standard 1:30 music bed, entitled “My Home Town” (in the "Sound of the City" - Series 16 jingle package). The song bed, written by Euel Box, was pitched to radio stations from Abilene to Winston-Salem. Localized lyrics would be penned by the jocks, or other staffers, which would then be performed by Jenkins, for the custom jingle. However, more often than not, the amateur songwriters would cram as many words as they could into the canned music bed. To make the recording session more interesting, due to the two-track recording system, Jenkins would have to sing not only the lead straight through, but also the harmony, in one take. “I couldn't make any mistakes," she said. "But when you have a natural gift, given by God, you just do it,” she said.

It's estimated that there are over 100 different versions of "My Home Town."

Listen to a sample of this record here .

“That was the genius of Bill Meeks – he was a very talented young man,” she said. “He was always looking for new ideas.”

On at least one “My Home Town” recording (WTAW in College Station), PAMS singer Claire Stewart is credited as the singer. “I knew Claire from WFAA,” Jenkins said. “She was this darling blonde, very saucy singer. I was more Dinah Shore, while she was more Peggy Lee.” However, a comparison of the vocals reveals that Jenkins is actually the singer.

Listen to a sample of this record here .

While Terry was consistently the main singer on these records, her name credit on the singles is anything but. Variations on her name have included “Terry Lea," "Terry Lee,” “Terry Lea Jenkins," and "Terry Lee Jenkins."

“I’m not sure how that happened,” she admitted. “I think someone might have just made a typo from the Lea to Lee. I never asked for my married name to be on them.”

Terry Jenkins would stay with PAMS for several years, “I just got older and my children got older,” she said. “I just quit and PAMS was going down at the time, and it was just time to leave.” PAMS would to cease operations in 1978. Meeks would pass away in 1999, at the age of 78.

Now 80, Jenkins has stayed in Dallas where she and her (now late) husband Jim raised four children. She is active in her church, but refrains from the hymns. “Old singers never die they just fade away.”

Photo of Terry Jenkins and the author taken
January 19, 2009, in Austin.

Memories of KFJZ (1974)

It's amazing what you find when you clean out boxes you haven't gone through in decades. While not vinyl related, allow me the first post of the new year to share a fond personal radio memory of my past.


In 1974 I was 13-years old, living in Fort Worth, dreaming of marrying Rod Stewart. Every night I would go to bed with a transistor radio under my pillow, listening to John Records Landecker's "Boogie Check" on a weak signal all the way from WLS-AM in Chicago—what seemed like a world away.

While my William Monnig Middle School friends wanted to become teachers or actresses, I wanted to be in radio.

My favorite local radio station was KFJZ-AM. My best friend Tracey and I were dedicated listeners. We knew every song on the weekly hit list, and probably attempted to win every single call-in contest they ran. On one particular afternoon, after hearing the seemingly constant sound of a busy signal, I was "lucky caller number five," and picked up The Sweet’s Desolation Boulevard album. I’ll never forget it when Christopher Haze, the 3-6:00 p.m. jock, told me to stand by, because he was actually putting me on the radio. I nearly froze when he asked me what my favorite station was – but there I said it, in my best Metroplex twang, for all of Dallas/Fort Worth to hear – “K-F-J-Z!”


Everyone at Monnig religiously listened to Mark Stevens. He had the coveted 6-10 p.m., shift, and was considered Fort Worth radio royalty. His daughter, Kimmie, was in my class, and by default, was easily the coolest girl in school, due to the parental celebrity factor.

The Mark Stevens show featured sidekick favorite, Biff Burns. In between Chicago, Paul McCartney and Grand Funk, the two would banter back and forth - Mark playing the straight man, to Biff’s bumbling goof, with the perfect punch line at the end of every bit.

(Recording made by holding my Sears portable recorder
condenser mic, up to my transistor radio)

After Mark Stevens wrapped up, L. (Larry) Shannon would take over the airwaves. Call it junior high naiveté, but it never dawned on me, until probably 20 years later, that Biff Burns was actually Shannon. I guess that was the wonderful thing about radio back then.

One night I called Larry Shannon to request a song (probably “Life is a Rock”). He said he would play it, and then, instead of hanging up, he asked what my name was and where I went to school. I told him, and then he literally opened the door – he asked what I wanted to be when I got out of school. You know that scene in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie’s mom asks him what he wants for Christmas? Yeah, it was like that – a golden opportunity. I told him I wanted to be in radio.

“Hang on a second, let me get into this next record,” he said.

For the next 30 minutes, through segued songs, weather forecasts, and commercial breaks, we talked about radio. The conversation, in between the “stay in school” message, hit the highs and the lows of life as a disc jockey. “You’re going to have to work a lot of overnight shifts in this business, but it’s worth it to get your foot in the door,” he said. I absorbed every sentence. I would call him again, a couple of months later, to tell him that I was moving to Oklahoma, and that I wouldn’t forget him taking the time to talk to me that night.

Five years later I got my first gig – changing out reel-to-reel tapes at a “beautiful music” station, in Pueblo, Colorado. Yes, it was the overnight shift – but I had my foot in the door.

Sun Country Harvest – KBIM (1989)

Interview with Bob Miner conducted December, 2008.


Side One:
Hagerman My Island - Sam Dunnahoo
Fill My Soul with your Magic - Annie Johnson
You Made Me Love You - Paul H. Byron
Southwest Friends Old and New - Robert Miner
Roswell Incident Rap - Russ Burch

Side Two:
I’ve Got New Mexico on My Mind - Jere Lowe
Llano Estacado - Kim Blakely and Timberline
Willie Lee - Frances Davis, Gary Beevers and Tom Cox
Pickin’ (On New Mexico) - Charles Davis
Juanita from Bonita - Nowlin Tubbs
Southwestern Light - Maureen T. McGinn

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: OK, let’s get this out of the way - technically this is a television station release. I tend to have blinders on when it comes to these albums. If it has “K” or “W” call letters on them, I buy them. Also, yes this is my second blog entry, about a New Mexico album, in three months. I send out dozens of e-mails, to the jocks and artists who appear on these comps, and then I wait…and wait. Thankfully I received a reply from a jazz musician out of Albuquerque, who appears on one of my newest acquisitions, KBIM - Sun Country Harvest.)

In the late 1980s, saxophonist Bob Miner was playing in the local Roswell-Carlsbad area band, Cielo. He was finding steady work playing weddings and special events at churches and at Lucy’s in Carlsbad, and out in Artesia. “When in Rome, play Roman polkas and cumbias,” he admitted. “I had a delightful time, made some life-long friendships and expanded my musical background.”

However, Miner loved playing jazz. Unfortunately the chances of being “the next Charlie Parker of Roswell," a town built around little green men and space ships, were slim. “We don't live in an artisan's society in this day and age, so making a living as a musician is more-often-than-not a losing proposition,” he said. “I was one of two jazz guys there.”

It just so happened that local television station KBIM was looking for hometown bands and performers to appear on an album compilation. Miner saw an opportunity—both personally and professionally. "The proceeds were donated to the Cancer Foundation and at the time my Mom had cancer, and subsequently passed away from it. So it was kind of a way to channel my enjoyment of playing toward a good cause—with a personal twist.”

He decided to enter “Southwest Friends Old and New.”

“It was just a recent composition. I thought it came out pretty good, so I entered it."



Southwest Friends, Old and New - Robert Miner and Charles Davis

While the entry stood out as the only jazz performance on the record, the album did not receive any support from local radio. “I did get a spot or two on TV commercials promoting the sale of the album for charity,” he admitted. “I got my 15 minutes of fame on the local TV channel, and I have the album framed on my wall as its my first published work.”

Miner would soon leave southern New Mexico for El Paso, and then, in 1993, find a more appropriate place for his craft, the big city of Albuquerque. “There is much more opportunity here for jazz,” he said. “I did a solo gig for a few years while weaving my way into the fabric of the local music scene.” It was at one of his shows that he would meet guitarist, Ben Martinez. The two were sidemen on a gig, when Martinez approached Miner to join a band he was putting together, the Ben Martinez Project.

BMP, with its traditional jazz, funk, modern jazz, Latin, rumba, urban and polyrhythmic jazz sound, would go on to win four New Mexico Music Award honors, and just returned from playing the Texas Jazz Festival—the band’s thirteenth appearance at the annual event. Miner still performs in the band, and is currently working on his first solo release.

KXXK "The Groovy One" (1968-1971)

Interview with Dick Roth conducted November, 2008


One of things I've enjoyed about this blog (and my accompanying Web site, radiouseonly.com), is meeting so many people who used to work in radio, and were a part of these recordings. What's been equally exciting is meeting so many people who have helped me locate some wonderful hidden gems.

Case in point: Last month the local Austin paper did a nice feature on my Web site. As a result I received a wonderful e-mail from a gentleman who asked if I would be willing to give a good home to some radio records he had.

He's a local salon owner, who had a long time client named Don Selden. Don was a professional percussionist by trade who, along with performing with the Dallas Symphony and local jazz bands, would often work on radio station jingle recordings in Dallas. What this wonderful, generous gentleman had to give me were three 10" records, containing over 40 different jingles for Dalllas radio station KXXK - featuring his friend Don Selden.



Sample of KXXK jingle (circa 1968-1971)

According to Mike Shannon's wonderful tribute site to Dallas/Fort Worth Radio:

KXXK, Dallas. Call letters established 5/25/1968. Format: Adult Contemporary (fashioned after WPIX-FM in New York, according to Jack Darden; a "watered-down KIXL, with light pop hits," according to Art Riley.) Owner: Dawson Communications Inc. (purchased 4/4/1968.) Notables: Roy (Royce) Applegate aka Jimmy Kemper (later a character actor,) Joe McChesney (PD; known better as "J. Morgan Van Buren" on KBOX in the mid-1960s,) Jack Darden (5/1968-11/1969,) Marshall Martin, Lee Bales , Charlie Whitaker (OM,) Dick Roth aka Dick Marshall, David Hultsman, Art Riley, Irene Runnels , Lynn Christian (SM.) Remained located at Suite 257B in Exchange Park, and upgraded power to 60,300 watts "circular polarization," as the station called it. Transmitter was in the basement with the studios, and the tower was mounted to the building's roof...despite being dangerously close to Love Field flight patterns!


"The KXXK disk you are referring to is very clear in my mind as I had a slight hand in it at the time," said former station disc jockey Dick Roth (aka Dick Marshall). "In late 1968, Gordon McLendon of McLendon Broadcasting had brought me back to Dallas from KABL AM/FM in San Francisco, CA where I had been working weekends as a newsman, DJ, and automation/control room engineer. I had just gotten out of the service and worked at KLIF/KNUS through the summer of 1969 when McLendon wanted me to go down to KTSA/KTFM in San Antonio to help set up their Shaffer Automation system. I was to work on the air, and be the assistant Chief Engineer for Coleman Barber who was the current CE. The problem was that the job didn't start until January of 1970. So Lenny Henderson (cousin Lenny), who was working the night shift at KXXK and I literally swaped shifts at the end of the summer. He came to KLIF, and I went to KXXK."

At that time, KXXK was owned by Dawson Communication and was being managed by Moe Gardner, engineered by Lee Bales (a McLendon alum), and programmed by Joe McChesney (from WRR and another McLendon alum). "Because I sang for one of the PAMS of Dallas 'Jingle Groups' once or twice a month, and Joe valued my opinion, on my second day of work, Joe, Lee and David Beckham, (one of the stations 'board ops'), called me into the production room to listen to those jingles, and let me hear the new campaign and direction the station was going to take. We listened to the entire package and collectively decided which jingles to recomend to Moe Gardner as the start-up rotation."

Janie Fricke and I both sang for PAMS and TM, together and at different times during the sixties and seventies, however I didn't have anything to do with the production of these jingles. The lead female voice on these jingles sounds like Peggy Lauren who was one of the other people that sang in our circle. There were several, (interchangable) groups singing in those days and you couldn't always get them all together at one time so there were often 'subs' in each group at any given session."

Roth left the station in early January, 1970. In 1971, KXXK became KOAX - a beautiful music station. The successful format would last until 1985. The station then went through numerous format changes, and is known today as KLLI "Live 105.3."

Home Grown - K98 KHFI (1980)

Interview with Jimmi Lederer conducted October, 2008.


Side One:
Find a Man - Judy Price
American Hang-Up - Shammy
My Best Friend - John Treanor and Andy Murphy
Always a Dancer - Wommack Brothers Band
The Dillo Shall Rise Again - John Reed and Friends
Jenny, Jenny - Bill Gossett

Side Two:
Just Look, Don't Touch - Mother of Pearl
Mamie Mama - Too Smooth
Seasons of Plenty - Lynn Boehmer
Since I Found a New Love - Cobras
The Lord Pulled Up Behind Me When I Had Cheatin' on My Mind - Miles Lefler

Jimmi Lederer needed a new band. After a few years of playing throughout Texas, in different groups (including Zilker Sunday), he decided to put an advertisement up in a local Austin music store, looking for a new gig - when Kevin Wommack called him up. "I think it was the summer of 1979. They were looking for someone to replace their recently departed female vocalist," he said.

Kevin and his brother Keith had formed the aptly-named Wommack Brothers Band, playing gigs at the famed Armadillo World Headquarters, opening for acts including Elvis Costello, The Runaways, Journey, and Edgar Winter. "In fact, they opened for national acts so many times, some people referred to them as The Warmup Brothers."

The new line-up, with Lederer, toured extensively in East Texas, Louisiana, and an occasional trip to Memphis. "We played four or five nights a week, four hours a night - we played more on the road than we did in Austin, as the money was better." Locally, the band picked up gigs at Liberty Lunch, Steamboat, and The Back Room. "We made a living without needing a day job, but Austin was a much cheaper place in which to live then."

In 1980, Austin Top 40 station, KHFI (known as "K98") decided to put together its own version of the successful KGB-San Diego Homegrown records, featuring local bands. The band decided to submit a Lederer-penned tune, "Always a Dancer."

"I had been writing songs and playing with a friend, Kim Hayley, for a few years. When I joined The Wommack Brothers Band, Kim was playing bass with The Stephen Doster Band, and I used to hang out and sit in with them a lot. "Always a Dancer" was written on the road with guitarist, Joe Forlini, just a few weeks after I became a member of the Wommack Brothers Band. The lyrics came from my personal experience - observations of the girls who become followers of bands. In this case, I am referring mainly to strippers, who, while having a legitimate interest in the music, really didn't have much of a clue as to who the boys in the bands really were; thus the line, "She's in love with your guitar."



Always a Dancer - Wommack Brothers Band

Kevin Wommack- Bass
Keith Wommack-Guitar
Joe Forlini-Guitar
Jan Grimm-Drums, Background Vocals
Jim Lederer-Lead & Background Vocals

After the release of the album, the band decided to capitalize on the exposure, and started to submit tapes to major record labels. "In 1981, we pressed, released and distributed a 4-song EP on Twin Song Records, which got a little airplay locally on KLBJ-FM, and a few other small East Texas stations," Lederer said. "One song, "Runaway Heart", was listed in the December 19, 1981 issue of Billboard as a "Recommended" Top Single Pick. Others on the list that week were Genesis, The Jacksons, Diana Ross, and Peter Cetera." Unfortunately, with no national distribution, the song never charted. "We joined the ranks of the 'almost famous'."

The Wommack Brothers Band would go on to break-up the following year when Keith Wommack decided to quit music to become a Christian Science practitioner. "We played one of our last gigs in Grambling, Louisiana - ironically, the club burned down that same night," Lederer said. "I have been in and out of the music business since then - mostly out. The last commercial release on my part was a cassette of ten songs by a band called B-Sharp, released in 1992." Lederer is currently a socialworker for Child Protective Services.

Poemas De Luz y Sombra - KLOS (1962)

Interview with Mike Langner conducted August, 2008



In the late 1950's through the mid 1960's, Albuquerque radio station KQUE dominated the airwaves. In spite of the enormous popularity of Al "Pal Al" Tafoya, and his program "Night Train," rival station KLOS couldn't compete. In 1960, looking to carve out its own niche, Tafoya (who was also the station's program director) switched formats from pop rock to Spanish language.

"In 1962, in an effort to promote the format, and generate income, he (Tafoya) decided to produce an album of Spanish language poetry, read by station's afternoon announcer, Jesus Buenrostro," said Mike Langner who, at 19-years-old, served as "the kid who maintained the equipment," in his first radio job. The recitals were recorded in the station's makeshift production studio, located on the third floor of the Loft Building. The session took two evenings to finish.

Featuring the poetry of Lautaro Vergara, Carlos Rivas Larrauri, and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Beunrostro's words were accompanied by local guitarist, Vincente Saucedo.



Telon - Jesus Buenrostro (Vincente Saucedo on guitar)

"The albums were sold over the air and at Spanish language record stores," Langner said.

However, unable compete in the market, the station went bankrupt, and off the air the following year.

Mike Langner went on to have a successful radio career in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe market (KGGM, KVSM and KDEF). Later he would spend several years as a volunteer at the classical music format KHFM - and go on to be the station's general manager.

Alfonso 'Pal Al' Tafoya went on to radio station KAFE, as program director. He later left New Mexico to pursue a career in California radio. He has since passed away (date unknown).

"Jesus Buenrostro, when the station went dark, he disappeared." said Langner.

Guitarist Vincente Saucedo continue to play at his own local bar and restaurant, Vicente’s Dining Rooms (located in the Old Town Plaza), and went on to record an album, Vincente Plays. A stroke in 1996 left him unable to play again. He passed away in 2002.