Russ Knight (actually Russ Moore) AKA "The Weird Beard," died recently. Here's a short article with an obituary from The Houston Chronicle. (Check out his intros for The Beatles when they played at the Coliseum.)
I remember the Weird Beard well. He moved from Dallas to KILT in the winter of '64. He worked at Gordon McLendon's Dallas station before transferring to KILT, so they had a big promotional campaign for a few weeks prior to his arrival. They had a jingle that said, "The Weird Beard's coming, the Weird Beard's coming ...."
I remember the Weird Beard well. He moved from Dallas to KILT in the winter of '64. He worked at Gordon McLendon's Dallas station before transferring to KILT, so they had a big promotional campaign for a few weeks prior to his arrival. They had a jingle that said, "The Weird Beard's coming, the Weird Beard's coming ...."
I listened to him a lot. Here's a clip from one of his shows. I was surprised that he left KILT in 1966. I thought he was there a lot longer than that. He had a fan club at Dulles, as you can tell from this picture in the '67 yearbook. [My thanks to Tommy Laird (DHS '67) for the scan.]
KILT had another disk jockey named Jim Wood. He wasn't a shock jock (which didn't exist then), but he liked to 'push the envelope.' He pulled a prank (and caught a lot of flack) when he told kids to put their radios in their open windows and turn them up as loud as possible. When they were ready, he then said, "THIS IS THE POLICE. WE'VE GOT YOU SURROUNDED. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP." He fooled enough people throughout Houston that there was a mini-firestorm. After a series of incidents, KILT eventually fired him. Here's a tape of one of his shows from 1964.
I got this interesting note from Wanda Skidmore Benge (DHS '69)about the Weird Beard.
ReplyDeleteHi, Chuck:
I'm pretty sure we had the Weird Beard play his DJ music at one of our dances ~ when we could NOT get a live band to play at one of our Pink Panther Dances. Hence, the reason for the photo with Sally Gryder and others visiting the Weird Beard at his radio station. They got him to do this for the Pink Panther Club. We generally paid $200 to $500 dollars for a band. So, I'm sure he got paid that same amount. For awhile, I was the Treasurer for the Pink Panther Club and I wrote the checks to these bands.
What I really remember is the weird psychedelic images The Weird Beard created on a huge screen at the old Missouri City. I had never seen anything like that before. And, I'm sure others had not either. I wonder if these images might have inspired Joan Maresh to create that psychedelic yearbook cover for 1968???
And, I babysat Mr. Whatley's kids ~ the man who was on the School Board for one year. He lived in my neighborhood. I remember him running for the School Board. But, I didn't remember him winning. I must have quit babysitting his kids by then! Ha!
Happy Week,
Wanda
Thanks for posting the photo of my dad...very trippy to see it!
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