Paul Williams, KNUZ Houston, TX. 1961 (38:58)

This Exhibit 'SCOPED (22:00)

. . . Five-One degrees in downtown Big H . . .

[Description by Uncle Ricky. Contributed by Stormy Hunter]

There's quite a lot going on with Paul Williams overnight at KNUZ in Houston. He's one of the seven Southern Gentlemen and his own newscaster, too. There's a Stuck Record contest, lots of reverb, a time-tone, and a dazzling variety of rock, R&B, country and pop music from the Sonic Sixty Survey.

KNUZ was the primary competitor of Gordon McLendon's KILT. You'll hear many influences from better-known Top 40 stations of the day, including jingles by the jocks, like WMCA, the term FunTest, like WFUN, and elaborate show, feature and even pre-recorded record introductions like KBOX. After the news, there are TWO introductory pieces for Paul Williams. Later on, Bill Drake described this kind of programming as "clutter", but at the time, it was exciting, aurally stimulating contemporary radio.

Paul apparently has some trouble with a MacKenzie deck, but otherwise, the fidelity of this studio recording is exceptionally good. (Some music was 'scoped, and has been restored in the full version here.)

Paul Williams, KNUZ Houston, TX. 1961