The KAZZ-FM staff

When Rim Kelley (Bill Josey Jr.) joined its DJ staff in October 1964, KAZZ-FM's weekday programming blocks featured Spanish, easy listening, light classical, showtunes, folk, country, and jazz. With Rim's addition, a new rock block was added on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. During this period, Gib Divine was station manager, Sam Hallman served as program director, Bill Josey Sr. was sales manager, and Norman Bodden was the station's chief engineer. Elward "Ruff" Ruffin not only carried a large part of the broadcast day on the air spinning easy listening and pop albums, but also served as the station's traffic manager, preparing the daily program logs and scheduling commercials. Most of the weekday DJs also pulled at least one weekend shift, and KAZZ's regular weekend-only DJ was Gene Chapline.

The station's broadcast day began at 6 am and ended at 1 am. Although in 1961 the FCC had authorized FM stations to broadcast in stereo, KAZZ's owners decided not to invest in the necessary stereo equipment, which would have included a two-channel control board and new transmitter. So, KAZZ remained monaural, despite being outfitted with stereo turntables and two-track tape recorders.

KAZZ subscribed to the Associated Pess newswire and presented a 5 minute newscast at the top of each hour and headlines at the half-hour. The AP teletype machine was in the station's transmitter room, down the hall and half a flight of steps downstairs from the studio itself, so twice each hour the DJs would make a mad dash out of the control room, down the hall, down the stairs, into the locked transmitter room, and back, trailing 5 to 6 feet of teletype paper behind, all while a long song played. Heaven forbid they forget the transmitter room and control room keys! Adding to the DJs' challenge, the men's restroom was half a flight of stairs up.

Rim Kelley on the air

Like all radio stations, KAZZ underwent many personnel changes. During early 1965, Bill Josey Sr. replaced Gib Divine as station manager, Mike Hull briefly joined John Jay on the late night shift, Don Craig joined as a weekend DJ, and David Lopez (who had been managing editor of the Daily Texan campus newspaper while a student at the University of Texas) replaced Juan Urda on Mananitas Desde La Capital!. Notably, in February 1965, KAZZ adopted a 24 hour format, playing rock from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Gary Paul Davis (who initially used the name "Gary Davis" and later shifted to "Paul Davis") took the all-night slot until Stan Parks joined the DJ roster in fall '65 with a rhythm and blues show at 1 a.m. weeknights and midnight Saturdays. Mid-'65, after graduating high school, Bill Jr.'s friend Gary Thomas, an avid ham radio operator, took over chores as the station's chief engineer. In October '65, Kirk Wilson replaced Bob Lockhart on the Folkways block. In April '66, Richard Grammon joined the staff, taking the rock block at 2 a.m. weeknights and bringing the program a more eclectic and erudite playlist culled from rock album "inside tracks", foreshadowing the progressive rock movement in American FM radio that peaked a decade later. But there were still more changes afoot...

Next: staff changes and remote broadcasts