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    the glory days of KLOL

    New film relives the glory days of Houston's legendary Rock 101 KLOL

    Ken Hoffman
    Dec 13, 2019 | 1:33 pm

    I remember calling a friend and saying, “You’re not going to like this: KLOL has switched formats. It’s a Spanish pop station now.”

    He said, “They can’t do that! KLOL is my station!”

    Really? I asked, “When was the last time you actually listened to KLOL?”

    He said, “Let me think, wow, it’s probably been a few years.”

    That’s a big reason that KLOL-FM, one of Houston’s iconic radio stations, rocked ‘n’ rolled for the last time one night in November 2004. The next morning, the station was playing Latin pop music, with a new brand, Mega 101, and tagline, “Latino and Proud.”

    The end came swiftly for KLOL, without warning to its listeners. That’s radio, the way it’s done. One day, loyal KLOL listeners were rocking out to Sammy Hagar, 24 hours later they were changing buttons on their car radio.

    Web designer and media blogger Mike McGuff is nearing completion of a documentary about the rise, crazy popularity, and fall of KLOL. Former station manager Pat Fant and air personality Dayna Steele are executive producers.

    McGuff will enter the documentary in film festivals, then release it to theaters in 2020.

    Here’s my KLOL story. In 1989, wild and wooly talk show host Morton Downey Jr. came to Houston for a TV convention and did one of his shows here. He invited KLOL’s morning shock jocks Mark Stevens and Jim Pruett — and me — on the show to discuss the state of radio and how it was breaking all the rules of public decency, or some nonsense like that. I said yes to going on because it’s one of those things that’s fun to talk about later. In this case, as it turned out, much later.

    I was seated between Stevens and Pruett, supposedly as the voice of reason. Downey went on his usual rant about how KLOL and other stations around the country were pandering to perverts and "pablum-puking liberals," yadda yadda.

    At one point, Downey told Stevens and Pruett to give an example of their shenanigans. They went into the audience and pretty much delivered an outrageous, sex-charged performance laced with embarrassing questions for women in the audience. Mock horrified, Downey turned to me and asked, “Do you approve of that?”

    I wanted to answer, “Please may I go home, I shouldn’t be here.” But I said something like, “These guys are very popular, obviously there is an audience for that kind of entertainment, it’s targeted to adults, and there is a First Amendment that protects their right to do that show. It’s not my thing, but I do approve of that.” Downey hated my answer.

    Now, here are 10 Questions for McGuff about his KLOL documentary.

    CultureMap: There are 10,000 radio stations in America. What was so special about KLOL?

    Mike McGuff: KLOL was one of the top rock radio stations in the country. It won four Billboard Magazine Radio Awards in 1990 including major market rock station of the year. While other rock stations came and went, KLOL managed to stay on the air for 34 years. Bottom line, it was a very creative environment, took a lot of chances, hired great people and let them do their thing.

    CM: What was your involvement with the station?

    MM: My involvement with the station was simply growing up with it and being a fan. In the pre-Internet era, KLOL was the only way rock fans could be exposed to new music and pop culture happenings that would appeal to that audience.

    CM: Could something like KLOL happen today?

    MM: I don't believe KLOL could happen today. There is too much competition for our attention and way more media options available. Everything is becoming more personalized thanks to Google, Facebook, and streaming services like Netflix. It's harder for one thing to have as much cultural impact.

    CM: What is your standout memory — one moment or, in KLOL’s case, incident?

    MM: One of my favorite spots of the film happened in 1974, when then-disc jockey Levi Booker didn't believe George Harrison was calling KLOL while in town to play Hofheinz Pavilion. The next thing, Harrison was knocking on the station's door. Harrison came in and did a long interview with Booker that has become a famous bootleg traded by Beatles fans.

    CM: The public's attention span today is fleeting — do you think people still care about KLOL?

    MM: A lot of people still care about KLOL because it is nostalgic and transports them back to their youth. There is a Facebook Group with more than 2,000 members that still talk about the station daily plus an online KLOL tribute station.

    CM: How time-consuming and difficult was doing this documentary?

    MM: This documentary will probably go down as one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. I would never advise a first-time filmmaker to do what I did and document something that lasted 34 years, has hundreds of people associated with it, and is still very important to people. I spent years researching, trying to get materials related to the station and convince people to sit down with me for an interview. That took the most time.

    CM: Give me the Monday-Friday lineup during the station's peak years of popularity, and one sentence where they are today.

    MM: Former KLOL production director Doug Harris says the top lineup would have been in the late 1980s, with Stevens and Pruett in the morning, Dayna Steele on middays, Moby in the afternoon, and Outlaw Radio with Grego at night. Both Stevens and Pruett are dead, Dayna Steele is a motivational speaker, Moby just retired from radio, and Grego is still on Houston radio at 95.7 The Spot.

    CM: How long did KLOL flourish as an important station?

    MM: KLOL was an important station for at least three decades starting in the '70s and ending in the late '90s. By the early 2000s, it had been swapped by so many radio companies in a short amount of time causing it to lose its mojo.

    CM: How did you react when it was announced that KLOL was changing formats and dropping the call letters?

    MM: When I heard rumors the station was flipping formats, I was more angry that the powers that be let the station get to the point that the format should be changed. In the last years, as a fan, I thought it was a down period for the station, but it could always come back. Like many said in the documentary, it was like watching an old friend die and be put out of their misery.

    CM: Do you feel like you are the steward of KLOL's legacy?

    MM: No, I am not the steward of KLOL's legacy. That duty has been taken up by the person who signed on the station, Pat Fant, and the others who worked there for many years. I am just telling their story.

    A soon-to-be-released documentary spotlights KLOL's stars such as Dayna Steele.

    Dayna Steele Rock 101 KLOL Houston
      
    Photo courtesy of Mike McGuff and Dayna Steele
    A soon-to-be-released documentary spotlights KLOL's stars such as Dayna Steele.
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    game, set, zina.

    Best of Ken Hoffman: Interviewing Houston's greatest tennis icon

    Ken Hoffman
    Aug 29, 2024 | 12:30 pm
    Zina Garrison, tennis player
    ITATennis
    Garrison, a tennis legend, is now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation.

    Editor's note: After the sudden death of beloved columnist Ken Hoffman on July 14, CultureMap is republishing some of our favorite "Hoffman's Houston" columns. In honor of the U.S. Open, here's Ken's interview with Houston tennis legend Zina Garrison; it was originally published on June 27, 2022.

    As a child, Zina Garrison learned how to hit a tennis ball on the public courts at MacGregor Park during the 1970s and became, simply, the most accomplished player ever from Houston.

    She developed into a Grand Slam champion, a Top 5 ranking in the world, Wimbledon finalist in 1990 with 20 tournament titles, Federation Cup captain, and Olympic gold medal winner and later Olympic coach.

    Now Garrison is back where she started, only this time she’s devoted to making Houston a great place to learn and play tennis … again. Like she did.

    “I am now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation,” Garrison tells me. “I’m over all the public tennis programs and facilities. The job came open recently and I applied for it.”

    Wait... she’s the greatest champion this city has ever produced — and she had to apply for that job?

    “To be honest, I was more interested in the benefits than the money. As you get older, you start thinking differently,” she shares.

    Unlike the major sports leagues in America, tennis doesn’t provide any healthcare insurance or assistance once a player, even a legend, retires.

    “They’re working on it,” Garrison, 58, notes. “But as of now, nothing.”

    Garrison said her first priority as Houston’s tennis director is to repair the public courts.

    “I want to bring the public tennis facilities up to where I’d be proud, where everybody would be proud, to bring people to use our courts. There are cracks in the courts. Nothing’s really been done in the last 20 or maybe 30 years,” she says.

    “I’ve traveled to Florida and some other places and they have really nice public courts. Tennis in Houston was really thriving for a while and we had nice courts and people could play in the parks. We had junior programs. We flourished. That’s my main goal.”

    While I had Garrison on the phone, I served up some questions:

    CultureMap: Wimbledon is on. You’re familiar with that tournament, right? Who are your picks to win the men’s side and women’s side?

    Zina Garrison: Yes, I’m familiar with Wimbledon. I have my alarm set for the early morning so I can watch. I have a weird pick, a more personal pick, for the men.

    I would love to see Rafael Nadal keep going on, but it’s going to be tough for him. The guy from Italy, Matteo Berrettini, I watched him play a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. And I am absolutely in love with that little guy, Carlos Alcaraz, from Spain. He’s made me watch tennis again.

    On the women’s side, I don’t think it will be Iga Swiatek. I think it’s just too hard to keep a streak like hers (35 matches in a row including the French Open title) going in today’s game. It’s really wide open. I don’t really have a pick, it’s just who comes in and plays well at the right time.

    CM: What do you think about Natela Dzalamidze, the doubles player from Russian who switched her nationality to Georgia so she could play Wimbledon, which has banned players from Russian and Belarus this year?

    ZG: I don’t like that she was able to do that. I was just on the phone with (former pro turned broadcaster) Chanda Rubin talking about what’s going on in tennis these days.

    First of all, there is the human rights stuff that’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We have to start forcing accountability for actions. A lot of people didn’t agree with what Wimbledon did, but I think they had to take a stand.

    CM: The women’s GOAT is easy — it’s Serena. But who do you think is the men’s GOAT?

    ZG: Wow, that’s a hard one. If you had asked me earlier this year, I would have said Roger Federer because of everything he’s accomplished. But right now I’m going to have to go with Nadal. Nadal has taken tennis to a whole ‘nother level, of getting people to watch, coming out of the pandemic, where he has matches and you think he can’t come back and he’s still grinding no matter what.

    For me, he is the epitome of what we need in this world right now: Never give up but not be selfish about helping others. I know it sounds clichéd, but that’s what I’m going through right now.

    CM: When I first met you, you were painfully shy. It was hard to get an answer out of you. Now you’re a TV commentator and a regular chatterbox. What happened?

    ZG: I was an introvert but I had always been intrigued by people of wisdom. A lot of it came as I developed confidence in myself. I had always been told at a very young age, if you really knew me, I spoke a lot. If you didn’t know me, I would be quiet. I would only speak about things that I was extremely passionate about.

    As I’ve gotten older, because of my experiences. I feel like I can help people so I’m not afraid to say what I want to say.

    CM: Starting the week after Wimbledon, coaches will be allowed to communicate with men players during matches. Up to now, that’s only been allowed in the women’s game. Every other sport allows coaching. Do you think tennis should allow coaching, too?

    ZG: I don’t think coaching should be allowed. That’s one of the great things about tennis. That’s a part of the sport, that you grow and figure things out. You learn to think for yourself.

    There’s always been little signals from coaches, but now you have these full blown conversations. Another bad thing about allowing coaching is it gives the players the opportunity to blame a loss their coach. That’s not good for the sport.

    CM: You were known for wiggling your butt when receiving serve. Did you know you were doing it? Did you do that on purpose?

    ZG: It started off as kind of a joke with my coaches. They said, we need you to move your feet. I said, you mean like this?

    So, it started as a joke but I realized that it helped get my feet moving: Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.

    I’ll never forget that year after I got to the Wimbledon finals, 1990, I went over to Japan and there were 1,200 people there … and all of them started wiggling!

    CM: What was the first extravagant thing you bought for yourself when the tennis prize money started rolling in?

    ZG: It was 1982, and I bought a candy apple red Volkswagen convertible with a white top.

    CM: You were on the Biggest Loser, the show where contestants compete against each other to lose weight. Let’s just say you didn’t win. Are you happy you went on that show, or do you regret it?

    ZG: I was one of the first who had to leave the competition. (No, you were THE first.) It was an experience, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I think I regret going on there. It wasn’t what I thought it was.

    It was reality TV and at the time I didn’t know what reality TV was .I was more ready to get out of there than anything else.

    CM: Now here’s the big question, Zina. For years, I’ve had a running disagreement with ESPN 97.5 FM morning host John Granato about which is a more demanding, tougher sport – golf or tennis?

    Granato says it’s golf, because the tournament winner has to beat every other player that week, while in tennis the winner just has to beat seven players at most. And, each week, golfers have to contend with a different course.

    But, I say it’s tennis because players have to be in top physical condition, while nearly anyone in any shape can win a golf major.

    Plus, in golf, players have a caddy helping them make decisions. In tennis, players are on their own.

    In golf, you can have a bad day on Thursday and still win the tournament. In tennis, if you have a bad day in the opening round, you’re on a plane out of there.

    In golf, it’s the player against the course. There’s no defense in golf. In tennis, there’s a human opponent trying to beat you.

    In golf, the ball is lying still. In tennis the ball is coming at you at 140 mph.

    So which is the tougher sport, golf or tennis? I’m right ... right?

    ZG: Are you serious? Who is this guy who says golf is harder? The answer is tennis and it’s not even close.

    You’re playing against someone. You’re only controlling the ball when it’s on your side of the net. You can’t control what the other player is doing. It’s almost like a boxer coming at you.

    You have to have both the physical and mental capacity to win. In golf, if you have a bad day, it’s because you’re having that bad day. There’s no opponent competing with you. So, I’m saying it’s tennis.

    CM (note to John Granato): I win. Granted, it might have been the way I asked the question. Also, Garrison is a former tennis pro.

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