Learning to walk

Bill Josey Jr. (whose air name was "Rim Kelley") interviewing folk-pop singer Judy Collins in the KAZZ-FM control room

Sonobeat Recording Company was formed in Austin, Texas, by Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr. at the beginning of 1967 (after months of research and planning beginning in mid-'66), but its roots date from late '64, when Bill Jr. began working as a DJ at KAZZ-FM in Austin. Notably, KAZZ (which no longer exists in Austin) was credited by Billboard Magazine as the first FM station in the U.S. to regularly program rock 'n' roll music. It offered an alternative to Austin's dominant Top 40 station, KNOW AM. Although KAZZ was hardly a serious competitor in the Austin radio market -- broadcasting with only 840 watts, about the same power as a dozen light bulbs -- it was the only Central Texas radio station to showcase local and regional musicians and singers in weekly live remote broadcasts from Austin night spots and dance clubs, including the Club Seville at the Sheraton Crest Motor Inn (now the Radisson Hotel), the New Orleans Old World Night Club, Club Saracen, the 11th Door, and the Jade Room. Among the local acts who appeared on KAZZ's remote broadcasts were the 13th Floor Elevators (Elevators' front man Roky Erickson and Bill Jr. had been high school friends), the Sweetarts, Janis Joplin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Allen Damron, Ernie Mae Miller, and Don Dean. KAZZ also played the occasional record by local talent, including the 13th Floor Elevators, Leo and the Prophets, and the Sweetarts, something rarely done by KNOW.

The formation of Sonobeat was influenced by and to some extent a natural extension of the KAZZ live remote broadcasts, if not of KAZZ itself. Bill Josey Sr. was KAZZ's general manager, Bill Jr. (whose "air name" was Rim Kelley) was its afternoon DJ and, during 1967, its program director, and Bill Sr. and Rim alternately hosted KAZZ's Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night remote broadcasts. Indeed, the live broadcasts introduced the Joseys directly to a broad cross-section of talented Central Texas musicians and their managers. When the Joseys decided to form Sonobeat, KAZZ offered access to musicians and to equipment and facilities the Joseys couldn't otherwise afford.

But even giving due credit to KAZZ's influence, Sonobeat really began as a dream that pre-dated the KAZZ remote broadcasts: one of Bill Jr.'s high school friends composed chorales and hymns and was frustrated by his inability to attract established music companies to publish his compositions. Desiring to help his friend promote his music, Bill Jr. formed a music publishing company in 1965 that later morphed into Sonobeat's publishing affiliate, Sonosong Music Company. Conceptually, Bill Jr.'s publishing company would record and distribute albums of local choirs performing the hymns, and the recordings would be used to publicize the songs' availability. Although Bill Jr.'s music company never did record or formally publish those hymns, it seeded in both Bill Jr. and his father, Bill Sr., the idea for a combined recording studio, record label, and music publishing company that would serve the rapidly growing community of talented Central Texas musicians.

Front and back of a typical 4 page KAZZ Starline Record Survey, issued weekly. From first to last issue, the survey featured an ad for KAZZ owner Monroe Lopez's Big 4 Mexican restaurants

KAZZ-FM was owned by businessman Monroe Lopez, who also owned Austin's Big 4 Mexican restaurants (no longer in business), which also sponsored the KAZZ record surveys that were distributed to record stores in the Austin area. In fall '67, Lopez sold KAZZ to Austin's then top-rated AM country station, KOKE, and on January 4, 1968, KAZZ-FM made its final broadcast. Its frequency -- 95.5 MHz -- fell silent for several weeks as KOKE relocated and upgraded the transmitter and antenna from the Perry-Brooks Building in downtown Austin. Reincarnated as KOKE-FM, the station simulcast KOKE-AM's signal, and, therefore, the entire KAZZ staff was superfluous and pink-slipped. The Joseys, who had no ownership in KAZZ, were suddenly free to devote all of their time and energies to Sonobeat. Though it had not been their plan, and, in fact, created a serious financial challenge for them, the timing of KAZZ's demise ultimately worked to the Joseys' advantage: 1968 was Sonobeat's most expansive and successful year, with its recording and release schedule reaching a zenith in only its second year of operation. Sonobeat capped 1968 with its first sale of an album to a national record label.

But, at its nascent stage, when its formation was being planned at the end of '66, Sonobeat's first challenges were to find out how to actually record a band and then to find an actual band to record.

KAZZ-FM had an Ampex 354 professional 2-track tape recorder that Sonobeat could borrow. Although KAZZ had a remote broadcast console, it was designed for playing records and not for recording music. Professional mixing consoles were far too expensive for a modest startup, so Rim enlisted KAZZ's chief engineer, Bill Curtis, to design and build a portable stereo mixer using then-new field effect transistors, which were inexpensive, could be powered by batteries, and were easy to assemble into microphone preamplifier circuits.

By the time the mixer, housed in a simple gray wooden box, was ready for its acid test -- an actual recording session -- Bill Sr. had arranged to record youthful Austin rock band Leo and the Prophets. Since the session was a test, neither Bill Sr. nor Rim documented the location used as a makeshift recording studio, but it is likely to have been either local dance club Ozone Forest, where the Prophets served as house band, or The Lake Austin Inn, where the Prophets performed frequently. The sessions early in '67 with the Prophets yielded three tracks that proved the homemade mixer wasn't quite ready for prime time. The recordings were distorted, a combination of mixer circuit overload and Rim's lack of experience as a recording engineer. The tracks were left in various states of completion while Bill Curtis took the portable mixer back to the drawing board.

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