***A note to air check traders. Please do not record these air checks and try and trade. I have the original tapes many of which I recorded myself and thus the authenticity can not be in doubt and can be easily traced.
Interesting content from one of the early Dallas Texas free form stations, KNUS FM, from the summer of 1969. This is an in tact air check only for 11 minutes at the beginning of the first clip but there are snippets of DJ patter interspersed throughout plus a nice station ID at 45:19 of the second clip. Also notable is the ad for early Texas outlaw country act Frummox heard at 10:07 of the first clip. The announcer at the beginning of the clip sounds like a gent named Ken Weir who was at WPHD FM ( Which I learned was also a Mackendon owned station like KNUS). I have an air check of Ken Weir on WPHD in the Radio Corner. Have a listen and see if it’s the same jock.
The musical content is varied and indicative of a wide open free form musical policy. Some of the music played is outlined below and that musical diversity is the highlight of this tape:
Grand Funk, Melanie. The Youngbloods, Buffalo Springfield, The Nice, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Tony Joe White, Zephyr, Jethro Tull, John Stewart, Pink Floyd, Vanilla Fudge,The Moody Blues, Roxy ( Bob Segarini’s second recording group, actually heard twice), Laura Nyro, The Rotary Connection, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Ruth White, Frank Zappa, Ten Wheel Drive and more.
What the heck is that starting at 11:12 in the first clip. It lasts for nearly 5 minutes too! Truly bizarre they’d have played that on the radio!
By 1974 KNUS had gone commercial and was basically playing top 40.in the early days however it truly was an underground station aimed at the hip.
Long before K-ZEW this station was for the hip young crowd, boy did it sound good!
I always admired the t.v. spot with all sprouting brightly colored flowers
“I heard the news today oh boy” started the news at KNUS in 1971
I’m glad someone ELSE remembers that, besides me!
Yep. Great station prior to early K-ZEW with Mike Taylor,Jon Dillon, Beverly Beasley, Ken Rundle, Mark Addy,Michael Brown,Rob Dayton & few more I can’t recall
From the back sell talk break at 3:36 (“…part the third of the Gentry trilogy..”), I can claim with confidence that the jok at the top of the first clip is me, using the air name Gentry on KNUS in 1969. I held down the 9 pm to midnight weeknight slot while I was still in college. I was pleased to hear this, as I never made air checks of myself. KNUS was a most unlikely success in underground radio, transmitting from the KLIF studios on Commerce Street. There was, at that time, a flourishing counterculture scene in Dallas that tuned to 98.7 FM. Fellow jox included Sandy Superchick (as she called herself), Strider, Murphy, Weaver, Lear, Mother and the late Mike Selden.
Was Mike Selden an air name ?
Mike Selden’s radio name was…Mike Selden.
Mike Selden’s real name was…Mike Selden.
OMG !!! Just thought about KNUS and found you !!! MEMORIES !!! MOTHER went through a stint where she played the full length INAGODDADAVIDA every night at around 11 !!
I certainly remember you as well … lots of great vibe !!!
Granted it was a long time ago, but Mother was the KNUS radio name of a gentleman whose first name was Jim.
Tim Brandon was Mother’s real name.
That was me…from 1969-1972…See more vintage KNUS at myradiodaze.blogspot.com
YES! As a high school kid I had a portable radio on my night stand. I remember going to sleep during the drum break in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. My memory is that it was a regular occurance at the same time for a while.
Gentry,
If you’re the DJ I’m thinking of, you’d occasionally close your show with Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”.
If this was you, would you happen to remember the solo Spanish Guitar piece you’d alternate that one with? All I remember of it is that it had the most mournful two-string bend I’ve ever heard, but don’t have the title or artist. Can you help a guy out?
I got turned on to KNUS-FM Dallas, in the Summer of 1974. I lived in Tyler, Texas about 100 miles east of Dallas. We did not yet have an FM Top 40, Rock, & R&B Station. KNUS had a very strong Antenna, which allowed us to pick it up. It was truly Glorious! It really related to me as a 17-year-old Teen. I loved it!!
These are fantastic. Knus in the early days was a great underground station. Hip as opposed to klif if you were fortunate enough to have an FM in your home. Many people did not. To hear zephyr again is very cool. As I would call in to request songs from their first album.
I have a great reel-reel recording off the air of one of the KNUS Saturday afternoon live sessions from 1971 featuring Michael Williams (approx 45 min.) Joe (don’t know last name) was the host. Williams had several songs that were recorded by John Denver and Michael Martin Murphy and I heard him play often at the Rubaiyat club in Dallas. I would like to know what happened to Williams.
Good memories I too am from Tyler. Always thought I was in a special club while listening. thanks for trip back to the 70s
I may have been a little young to catch In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida at 11PM in 1969, but I sure remember The Chambers Brothers
“Time Has Come Today” played regularly for a time right as I was getting up in the morning to go to school, etched into my
memory, and perhaps a little pre ‘69.
The syndicated Blues Deluxe radio show plays a good bit of progressive rock which should still be on the radio everywhere!
Knus-fm was a start, but very little dead or airplane. Was more excited by short-lived kfad-fm
..much more progressive
I remember kfad. They played anything and everything. Stuff that you would not hear anywhere else
I grew up with KNUS! The best radios 📻 ever