Dallas News Blog

Far as George knows, this binder contains the only surviving recordings of The Early Birds. There may be others. But ... where?

​No Roky Erickson freak-outs this Friday; no KNUS odds, sods or seeds and stems for you, dear Friends. Instead, George Gimarc offers something even more lost from the Dallas radio lost-and-found. As in? Well, let's let the rock and roll alternative explain:

Once upon a time there was a program called The Early Birds on WFAA. It was the No. 1 most popular morning show on radio in the DFW area, and it made its debut on the air in March of 1930. Here are some excerpts from one of their Sunday morning broadcasts. It's from April 19, 1953.

I gotta tell you, for a show that ran as long as this did, there are only a very few audio recordings in existence. And a friend of mine recently found a binder with eight consecutive shows -- each the whole 45 minutes long -- across 3 sides of a one-of-a-kind acetate. So out of the 7,237 shows.... eight of them have been found. That's only a grain of sand on the beach, but it's still a gem in my archive.

By the way, Bob Shelton is the guy from the Shelton Brothers, who was also a regular down at the Sportatorium shows and on the WFAA Shindig show. He was about 42 at the time of this broadcast. I gotta find a way to makes some of this stuff more available to the public. Back to the '70s in the next Unfair-cast, unless something else turns up.

And now ... to the Time Machine!

Courtesy Benny Benavides/NBCDFW.com

How Brian Curtis and Jane McGarry spent last night's evacuation following an electrical fire at KXAS-Channel 5

​KXAS-Channel 5 was supposed to go off the air at 11 this morning -- there's still much repair work to be done after last night's electrical fire that knocked the 10 p.m. newscast off the air. But staffers are still awaiting the outage, which is forthcoming ... any ... second ... now. No, not during The Martha Stewart Show!

KNUS99.com

​We wrap our broadcast week with yet more from the KNUS vaults currently in the possession of one George Gimarc. What you'll find below are few minutes of what aired on Gordon McLendon's FM freak-out on August 22, 1970 -- some of the sounds and some of the smells, dig? The best part: the faaaaar-out-man ads for a Novas show at LouAnn's and a Sticks gig at the Studio Club ... and all the action you can handle at the Fair Park Midway! There's some deep-cuts James Gang and Jefferson Airplane mixed in there as well. So smoke 'em if you got 'em.

The rock and roll alternative provides a sample playlist, including The James Gang ("Thanks"), the Airplane ("The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil"), Eric Clapton ("Let it Rain"), Quicksilver Messenger Service ("Fresh Air"), Pacific Gas & Electric ("Staggolee"), Bob Dylan ("Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"), Rotary Connection ("May Our Amens Be True"), Jeff Beck ("Girl From Mill Valley") and Steve Miller Band ("Quicksilver Girl"). Now, see, that's music to the core. Dig? You want a keeper for your private collection, let me know. I've rolled another just like the other and am only too happy to share.

​Only a few days ago, Tom Merriman was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame -- the great Ron Chapman's introduction of the local-radio icon can be heard here. Says Chapman of Gordon McLendon's former music director, who came to Dallas in 1952, Merriman "shaped the sound of thousands of television and radio stations around the world." Which isn't hyperbole: Merriman's Dallas-based TM Studios is among the most successful commercial jingle and radio ID production companies in the business.

But sad news today: KLIF's first jingle writer, as well as the voice of "I'm Otto the Orkin Man" and the writer of the immortal 7-Eleven jingle-turned-single "Dance the Slurp" (used on Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow's Brainfreeze comp), died today "following several months of declining health," according to Radio Online. It also notes that he wrote and produced music for Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, among others. According to TM Studios' tribute to its founder, services are pending.

​A Friend of Unfair Park asked if I wouldn't mind mentioning Bill Minutaglio's appearance at Legacy Books in Plano this Saturday, when the ex-DMN'er heads up north to sign copies of Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, which he co-wrote with W. Michael Smith. Sure; happy to. Which reminds me: The book's in stores tomorrow, but till then there's this excerpt courtesy The Texas Observer; not to mention this fond farewell from her former colleague at the Dallas Times Herald, one Jim Schutze, penned upon news of her death on January 31, 2007. The publisher, PublicAffairs, also offers this gratis sneak peak concerning Ivins's move to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram following the demise of the Herald. An excerpt from the excerpt:

She wrote her first column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in February 1992 and faxed it to the paper at around 5 p.m. After the fax went through, she called the newsroom.

"Hon, this is Molly Ivins. I'm making sure my column is there. And hon? Can you talk to Ken Bunting? I'm not sure he wants me to say dildo."

She had written about archaic Texas laws involving "lifestyle accessories" and whether or not you should be charged with a crime for owning a certain number of dildos. Bunting, the managing editor, brought the column to editor Mike Blackman. Blackman told people that he felt his newspaper career flashing before his eyes.

"This is crazy, this can't run this way," he said.

​OK, so KERA's musical youth been on the air for, what, 60 minutes? First song played: Santana's "She's Not There" (probably a little too classic-rock for a new-station kick-off, you ask me), followed by Monsters of Folk, Ingrid Michaelson, Telegraph Canyon and ... well, look, the playlist is here, so there. (Hey! Rhett Miller!) The missus listened for a few minutes before laughing: "It's so ... NPR, like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Little bit." Pete wonders in this week's paper what it all means; hard to say 15 songs into its existence. But ponderin' is fun. So too is Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa," better than a cup of coffee before 8 a.m.

​So, yes, this is a weekly feature now -- your Friday acid flashback, courtesy the copious collection of one George Gimarc, with whom we're awfully proud to partner. A brief recap so far: KNUS news tuned up with sitar, followed by A Very Roky Halloween. Now, it gets even better as George continues to dig through miles' worth of KNUS odds and sods picked up at a garage sale two weeks ago. I will let the rock and roll alternative explain:

Long before the KERA did acoustic sessions, or KDGE, or even my sessions at KZEW in the '80s, or the Live At January Sounds sessions at KZEW in the mid-1970s, KNUS was doing in-studio performances around 1970-1971. So far I've uncovered astounding sessions by Freddy King (acoustic!), Brewer & Shipley, Ann Benson, Three Faces West (early Ray Wylie Hubbard) and even some songs from Jose Feliciano. There was a time he was considered pretty hip, and here's one of those songs that he never put onto his many RCA albums, but was pretty kindly disposed to sing. Fraternity of Man did this on the Easy Rider soundtrack.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em. And if you want a roadie, you let me know. I'll roll another one, just like the other one, for any good Friend of Unfair Park.

​On Tuesday morning, Belo Corp. released its third-quarter financials ("total revenue decreased 17.7 percent"), then followed up its press release with a conference call with analysts. During the chat, Michael Meltz of J.P. Morgan asked Dunia Shive, the president and CEO of WFAA-Channel 8's parent company, if there was "any update on ABC agreement." Because, as it turns out, the network wants more of Belo's retransmission consent revenue -- which, plainly put, is "the revenue [that] comes from cable and satellite operators in exchange for broadcasters' permission to carry or retransmit TV station signals." Belo said yesterday its retransmission revenue totaled $10.6 million during the third quarter, which represented 7.5 percent of its total revenue.

And ABC wants a bigger cut for letting WFAA and other Belo-owned affiliates carry its programming -- not all of it, Shive said, but more than it's currently getting. Because, look, that's big money out there for the taking -- and, some analysts say, the pile's only getting bigger, and what better way to offset ad-revenue losses than by snatching easy money off the top. Said Shive, according to the transcript on Seeking Alpha, "You can call it several different things, but I think it's really a mechanism for having the ability [to] share in the cost of programming. ... It's a negotiation, it's a discussion, and we expect to complete our agreements in a way that is manageable for the company and continue the good relationships that we have." One suggestion: Just take it out of Hansen's salary. He'll never miss it.

​When A.H. Belo Corporation released its third-quarter financials on Friday, included high in the press release was this note: "As part of the Company's ongoing efforts to realign its business and reduce expenses, The Dallas Morning News will close the packaging facility as it consolidates production operations into a single facility located in Plano, Texas. This consolidation of production facilities should be completed in the first quarter of 2010. The Company has begun the process of marketing the packaging facility for sale."

Jim Moroney

​The facility in question is the "post-press and distribution" center located near the intersection of Interstates 20 and 45 in southern Dallas, which only went online in the summer of 2007; perhaps you saw Rudy Bush's follow-up, in which City Manager Mary Suhm said of the plant's March 31 closing, "It's sad. We're working hard at increasing the tax base and the quality of life in southern Dallas." Council member Tennell Atkins, in whose district the plant sits, also was not pleased, especially given the fact The News received tax abatements from the city that it has promised to return.

Several Friends of Unfair Park have wondered about the irony of the announcement -- since, after all, the paper has made a self-proclaimed "crusade" out of "Bridging Dallas' North-South Gap." Which is why, just as editorial writer Tod Robberson was posting his position on the announcement, I sent News publisher and CEO Jim Moroney a note asking for his thoughts on the closing of the southern Dallas facility. Moroney, who ultimately made the decision but was not quoted in his paper's piece, responded with a lengthy note Monday night. It follows after the jump.

Sean Salisbury

​Sean Salisbury was not -- no way, no how, no sir -- fired from The Fan 105.3 for "sexting." At least, that's what Richie wrote on September 11 about his former radio-station teammate.  Gawker Media-owned Deadspin, which has been obsessed with the Frisco resident's Salisbury steak for a long time, insisted otherwise, and so began a lengthy, riveting back-and-forth with the former NFL journeyman QB-turned-ESPN analyst.

Late Friday, the McKinney Courier-Gazette provided the latest chapter in this ongoing narrative: Salisbury has sued Deadspin and Gawker Media for defamation in Denton County Court. (Deadspin, offering no comment save for a lengthy excerpt from the McKinney paper, noted that is has not yet been served.) Jeffrey Tillotson is repping Salisbury, who says Deadspin's made it hard for him to find work. I have been unable to reach Richie Whitt for comment.

Gini Mascorro

​We've already told you when KERA-FM's all-music offshoot, KXT, launches -- November 9 at 7 a.m. But the question remains: Who's gonna do the talkin' while the station gets to rockin'? This morning, we have some idea: Jeff Ramirez, veep of radio, sends word that former Ticket traffic reporter Gini Mascorro will serve as the station's music coordinator, as well as the host for the weekday KXT Morning Show and KXT Texas Mix on Fridays. Joe Kozera (who was, says the press release, "host of a Sunday morning show for Weatherford's 89.5 QXFM") will host the weekday KXT Afternoon and KXT Evening shows. The station's Web site is also live -- and there you'll find the in-studio schedule, which kicks off with Sarah Jaffe. Of course it does. The O's and Danny Balis to follow. One suggestion: more sitar.

​The great George Gimarc bestows upon the Friends of Unfair Park quite the neat treat this Friday eve: a few minutes of a newscast from the late, great KNUS-FM (98.7). George, who could find a needle in a thousand haystacks in the pitch black whilst wearing a blindfold, just picked up hours' worth of airchecks from Gordon McLendon's rock-and-roll-and station at a garage sale. And, just this very morning, he started converting the reels to digital and thought this gah-roovy enough to share. But what is it, George?

The name on the cassette is Joe Reed -- but that might not have been his air name. It really almost sounds like Tim Spencer to me on this clip but I'm not the expert ..... yet! This one's from August 23, 1970. Just imagine 120 minutes of radio with only 2 commercials, and the DJ never mentions his name. Just records record records. More to come as I plow thru these 30 hours or so of audio. Oooh! I just heard them play Three Faces West -- that's Ray Wylie Hubbard's band back in the day.

That is but a taste down below. You know, to get you hooked? Because George says he'll provide more. He's a pusher.

​Good friend of the show Jack E. Jett sends word: This weekend he's debuting a new"experiment" on Rational Radio (1360 on Your AM Dial) that's quite the throwback -- two hours' worth of punk rock, nothing but. Here's how he puts it in his missive to Unfair Park:

After a brief hiatus, The Jack E. Jett Show is back on the air this weekend with a new show and a newer show. After taking a few weeks off for self inventory, I found myself getting back to my roots, my punk rock roots. I created a music show, along with the Southwestern Texas King of the Mosh Pits, Mr. Rob Lobster, that would focus on old new wave and punk rock. The first show in this experiment will air this Saturday, from 1-3pm on Rational Radio. We hope it to be the most interactive radio show in Dallas with the listeners creating the line up. It will be the only place in town where one can hear Patti Smith's "Gloria" followed by "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

I expect the Friends of Unfair Park to post requests below.

And while we're on the subject of good friends of the show and the radio: Rawlins Gilliland had a delightful commentary on KERA-FM (90.1) this morning about his love affair with Latin music, which began with a 1950s local radio show. Did I mention it was delightful?

Dunno how we missed this -- well, actually, I do, since nobody 'round here watches the 5 o'clock news. Anyway, thanks to WFAA-Channel 8 for posting to YouTube this afternoon a clip of Dale Hansen with yesterday's special guest anchor, one Oprah Winfrey, with whom Dale took issue for introducing the world to Dr. Phil. Best watched while listening to this.

Keith Garvin

​Meet Keith Garvin. Or maybe you already know his work from, oh, Good Morning America and ABC World News Now. At this moment, he's an anchor and reporter for the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., but before that he spent a good long while reporting and back-up anchoring for ABC News, after having served his time with ABC owned-and-operateds in Fresno and Raleigh, North Carolina. Anyway.

He's in Dallas now: Says the press release that just landed in the Unfair Park inbox, Garvin's now the weekday co-anchor of the TXA 21 News, sharing the desk with Tracy Kornet. He'll also guest anchor on the KTVT-Channel 11 news, which seems more his speed given two previously high-profile gigs. And, to his credit, not an embarrassing YouTube video in sight. Just this ho-hummer. He starts mid-November.

PGA Tour

David Feherty

​The Match.com profile to which Golf.com links this morning has been removed -- so much for the "goodguy_in_Texas" looking for women 32-42 living within 50 miles of Lewisville, always a plus. Besides, says David Feherty, that's not him, swear -- no matter what the picture with the profile says with a come-hither look. Apparently, his ex-missus asked his current wife what the what, which led to a discussion not discussed in this particular piece. Still, it does lead to this revelation from the Preston Hollow resident:

[Anita, his wife] knew it wasn't me because it says "slender." Actually, I sound like a pretty good catch. I think I'll answer the ad, show up, and date myself. I wonder what it will be like to be with me. What if it really is me? What a Freudian nightmare. But it would never work out. This guy's looking for a woman into barbecues and boating, two things I hate.

​In late July, Emily Ramshaw sent word that after six years she was leaving The Dallas Morning News, for whom she covered City Hall before moving to Austin, for the online news venture Texas Tribune, of which Evan Smith will be CEO. Today, the folks over at Poynter want to know: Why come? To which Ramshaw says:

"I feel, and still feel, that the newspaper business is in serious crisis. I'm not content to cling to a deck chair and go down with a sinking ship. We're trying to prepare for the next incarnation of journalism. If this venture is going to work, it's going to work because serious, talented journalists were brave enough to take the risk."

By the way, that picture of Ramshaw comes from the Tribune's promo short, which is its first official act of plagiarism.

​It's been close to a year since Chesapeake Energy tossed its Shale.tv start-up down an deep, dark shaft -- and, along with it, former KTVT-Channel 11 anchor Tracy Rowlett, who left the CBS affiliate in the summer of '08 to work for the online news service that wasn't. On Monday, Ed Bark checked in with Rowlett, who's now teaching broadcast journalism at SMU and "spending much of his free time with wife Jill and their autistic son, Michael," writes Uncle Barky. Rowlett tells Ed why he thinks Shale.tv really cratered, and what he thinks of the state of local TV news ... or, rather, what's left of it.

"If someone actually tried to do good, hard investigative reporting and put on a decent, informative newscast, I think it would still work. But whether the managers running those stations would have the guts to do that is very, very doubtful ... I don't mean to sound as negative as all that. I certainly think that television news should have an important role to play in all of our lives. But it's not playing that role now, and I'm not sure it ever will again."

​It's been around since forever -- not quite since the '70s, but close enough. But just yesterday, National Public Radio's Wade Goodwyn got around to profiling for All Things Considered none other than Mesquite ISD's KEOM-FM (88.5), our once-upon-a-time favorite blast from the past where, Goodwyn reports, the sound of high school students playing the soundtrack to their parents' lives "might make you say, 'What is this, bring your kid to work day?'"

For grins and the occasional gem, I used to listen with some regularity -- then again, I think my story on the station appeared in the paper version of Unfair Park well before the Internet, iPods and, um, reliable and affordable in-dash CD players? Maybe I'll jog the memory on the drive in with a listen to the station with the prettiest broadcast tower in town. But someone needs to do a study on the toll DJ'ing for KEOM has taken on generations of Mesquite school children:

The music is a cornucopia of the 1970s. Motown, rock, folk, disco -- everything from Karen Carpenter to Parliament Funkadelic, a mishmash that ironically would never have been played together on a single station back in the '70s. The student DJs say they absolutely would not listen to this stuff of their own volition. But being forced to day after day, Wilson describes its insidious effect on her musical tastes.

"Some of it's like, 'Oh, I know this song,' " Wilson says. "Then you're singing it, and pretty soon you like most of the stuff on here."

​A Friend of Unfair Park, who I'm pretty sure works for North Texas Public Broadcasting, sends word: KXT-FM (91.7), the all-music sibling of KERA-FM (90.1) set to get its rocks off November 9, now has two tees up for grabs, each available for the pledge price of $60 if you act between now and December 31. Ah, but there's also the "limited-edition KXT '2009 Launch Crew' window cling decal," thrown in with the $60 donation but also available all by its lonesome for the low, low (?) price of $35. Keep in mind, 24 hours a day of music, some of it syndicated but much of it programmed locally, don't come cheap; NTPB spent $18 million just to buy the frequency.

​It's been two months since Texas Monthly's president, Evan Smith, announced he was leaving the magazine to go into the virtual newspaper business as CEO of Texas Tribune. In the October issue of the Monthly, Smith offers his adios: "What I've Learned." And among those myriad lessons is this one: The magazine's audience is "middle-aged" (ooof!) and "elite" (pow!) and therefore not inclined to buy issues whose covers feature American Idol winners from Burleson, even if the story was written by Skip Hollandsworth:

Our readers also tended to be well -- educated and well-to-do, with tastes that were sophisticated but fell short of obnoxiously rarefied. That's not to say they didn't enjoy popular culture (Willie Nelson always sells), but at the end of the day I knew I was serving the elites rather than the masses.

Is it any wonder, then, that when we occasionally gave in to the temptation to pander to the masses, we almost always pulled up short? See Clarkson, Kelly, May 2005, and NASCAR, Popularity of, February 2007. Our profile of the former ("Since She's Been Gone") and our piece on the latter ("EEEEEEAAAOOOOWWW!!!") were terrific journalism, but as cover stories, they were just awful. We couldn't give copies away. They inflicted the kind of commercial wounds you spend the rest of the fiscal year recovering from.

​At last: KERA just sent word that its announced-in-June all-music radio station, now known as KKXT-FM (91.7), will officially makes its bow November 9 at 7 a.m. Also announced this morning were the nationally syndicated programs KXT, as it'll be known, will air: Acoustic Café, American Routes, Mountain Stage, Putumayo World Music Hour, Sound Opinions, The Thistle & Shamrock, UnderCurrents and World Café. But the local programming's still a mystery: The press release, available in full after the jump, offers only these scant, tantalizing details:

The KXT Morning, Afternoon and Evening shows will provide nine to eleven hours of weekday local programming. On Fridays, two hours of Texas Mix will be featured at midday. KXT Weekend will air on Saturdays and Sundays, and The Paul Slavens Show on Sunday evening will move from KERA 90.1 FM to KXT 91.7. Details about local hosts, program features and special live performances developed in celebration of the station's launch will be announced closer to the launch date.

To which KERA veep of radio operations, Jeff Ramirez, adds, "The national public radio music programs selected for KXT complement the station's own local productions and enhance the public service mission of KXT, which is to introduce, discuss and explore music that otherwise may not be heard on free radio."

Also after the jump, the programming grid so far.

​I'm a big fan of illustrator Jack Unruh's -- you probably are too if you've seen his work in, oh, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Time or ... look, you name it. The man ain't in the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame for nothing. He's a good. So, funny thing: I was looking for something on eBay and stumbled across this circa-1970s piece the Dallas-based illustrator did of the Dallas Convention Center.

I called Unruh to ask him about it. He didn't know what in the hell I was talking about, so I sent him the link. He took one look at it and insisted, nope, not his. Then he looked at it a little harder.

A close-up from Jack Unruh's Dallas Convention Center piece

​"I would not ever have recognized it, but I recognize the signature," he said. "Boy, if that ain't a crappy-ass painting. It's a wonder I ever survived." He laughed, long and hard. "I think I'd pay $110 to burn the sumbitch."

But, I told him, you're in the illustrators' hall of fame. That price tag seems like a hell of a good deal.

"Mistakes are made every day," he said. "I wonder where in the hell they came up with this thing."

Then he read aloud the description: "This is an incredible piece of original 1970s illustration art for the Dallas Convention Center." He stopped, then laughed again.

"Didn't say good," Unruh said. "Just said 'incredible piece.' That doesn't mean good."

Act now, before our art director Alexander Flores does. 'Cause as far as he's concerned, $110 is a steal for a piece by a local legend.

Just discovered my new favorite thing about Dallas Cowboys game: the Randy Galloway-Michael Irvin video that follows.

​Been feeling awful nostalgic for KZEW in recent days -- maybe it has to do with the latest eff-you over on 93.3; maybe it stemmed from catching a vintage clip last week on The Ticket, where someone had dug up Mike Rhyner talking media-league softball way back when. So, of course, I visited The Zoo File -- where, as it turned out, late last week Scott, aka "The Zewkeeper," updated the media player so it could kick out more flashbacks than a Dead show: prolonged clips of John LaBella and John Rody (and Rhyner), a traffic report ("Damn this traffic jam ..."), a Hunt James commentary on how to be a man, the Bangles' Rock and Roll Alternative theme song, a James Taylor in-studio and more than enough to get you through what's left of your Monday afternoon.

Of course, there's a plenty good reason to post this: This Wednesday -- at 6 a.m., to be exact -- marks the 36th anniversary of the station's debut. (But: Some say September 19 is the actual launch date.) To mark the event, Scott writes, "I know I'm going to ... add some more audio by then. I'm going to chat with Rody about it and see what we can come up with." He'll send a note when he's got more.

​Can't say this was much of a surprise: 93.3 FM -- now known as i93, yawn -- just introduced itself as Your Home For Today's Hit Music with a serving of Black Eyed Peas followed by Miley Cyrus. In other words, Pop 40 as predicted by a Friend of Unfair Park a couple of days ago. Which doesn't bode well for a frequency troubled in recent years by rotating-door formats -- not unless Cumulus expects the similarly formatted 106.1 KISS FM to stop transmitting at 12:14 this afternoon. So sit back for 93 hours' worth of ad-free "iMaximum music." Ad-free? Indeed.

Yes, but will we see the return of these klassic kollections?

​Late yesterday, a Friend of Unfair Park suggested that Cumulus Media's going to rebrand 93.3 on Your FM Dial as a pop-40 station -- as in, Justin Timberlake and the Black Eyed Peas. Maybe so. But this much is (almost) certain: Sooner than later, KDBN-FM will most likely be known as ... KLIF-FM, shades of Gordon McLendon. So suggests Cumulus's request to the Federal Communications Commission filed on Monday, which would resurrect a call sign that hasn't been around since 1966 and has radio boards speculating about all kinds of possibilities for the frequency.

​Several Friends of Unfair Park -- which is to say, the handful of people still listening to 93.3 Quality Rock -- have e-mailed me this morning wondering what the what is going on on the left side of the FM dial. Because starting at midnight, the fledgling station began broadcasting a schizophrenic hodgepodge of format promos -- everything from old-school country to classic rock to jazz -- and the Web site now says it's "under construction."

Of course, it was just four months ago that Cumulus Media Inc. buried The Bone and went for the Snow Patrol-Coldplay crowd; said Jeff Catlin, operations manager for Cumulus Radio Dallas, at the time, "I think the station has a real chance to succeed." But the format, or lack of one, never caught on: It sat near the bottom of the ratings since its launch, especially with the coveted 25-54 demographic. So, that's that.

What's the new format? Hard to say. Catlin's been unreachable this morning, but Unfair Park has learned that the latest extreme makeover is being handled by Cumulus execs who came to town from Atlanta this week and set the station to "stunt" in advance of the changeover. Messages have been left for John Dickey, the chain's executive vice president and co-chief operating officer, and Jan Jeffries, the senior veep in charge of programming.

KNUS99.com

​I was tracking down some information on the Federal Communications Commission's Web site regarding an unrelated matter, then figured while I was there I'd check in to see how the KVTT-to-KERA transfer was going. Because every few days, someone will ask me when KERA's going to launch its all-music station on 91.7 FM -- like I'd know.

Turns out, at the end of July, the FCC signed off on the swap: North Texas Public Broadcasting will indeed assume control of the frequency from Covenant Educational Media. According to the official document, processed on July 30, "The actual consummation of voluntary transactions shall be completed within 90 days from the date hereof." Which means the station will debut by when, exactly? A few minutes ago, I posed this question to Deborah Johnson, senior vice president of marketing at KERA.

"We're going through the process, and the process is the process," she tells Unfair Park. "Everything's going fine, as far as we know. They've got a schedule -- that is, the FCC has a schedule -- and it's the process." I told her she sounds like a David Mamet character. Then I asked her if the station had a launch date in mind.

​Waaaay back in May '07 I wrote about the late, great John Peel -- the Liverpudlian who made a stopover in Dallas in the early 1960s before becoming "The Most Important DJ in Rock History," per the subtitle of the book by and about the great man behind, natch, The Peel Sessions. That olden Unfair Park item was entirely about Peel's detailed recollection of his daze in Dallas, with which I'd been fascinated for years. Hence, this artsy audio-visual follow-up posted today -- a 1996 taped interview with Peel fleshed out with old photos of the jock and the city, married to a Yo La Tengo soundtrack. Jump for it.