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Ken Grant |
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Ken Grant was born in Detroit where his first
job was at the Detroit Times. He became the "News Tip"
editor. World War II came along and in late 1943, Ken was a
US Army air Corps aviation cadet trainee. That's what
brought him to Texas and San Antonio.
After the war, he was a student at Southern Illinois University when he visited WJPF radio in Herrin, Illinois and read a brief public service message. That led to an audition, which led to a 50-hour per week announcer’s shift where Ken says he "played awful records for a program director who was right out of “Laugh-In”. So Ken quit and headed for San Antonio and got a part time job with KMAC - KISS-FM. When he was offered more money at KBKI in Alice, Texas to be the morning drive personality and program director, he jumped at the chance. KNUZ went on the air in Houston in February 1948 and Ken joined them in June. He was hired by a now fellow Texas Radio Hall of Famer, the legendary Cactus Pryor. With the K-News’ block programming format, he hosted a couple of top shows -- as Ken Grant and as “Bones Grant" -- on Houston’s favorite country show—the Houston Hoedown, with the great Biff Collie from 7-10 p.m. In 1952, when KNUZ was shopping for a program director, both Biff Collie and another Texas Radio Hall of Famer, Paul Berlin, recommended Ken for the job -- and he got it. He programmed KNUZ duing its twenty "golden years", 1952-1972. Ken originated, produced and coordinated station promotions, community service activities, contests and around-the-clock coverage when hurricanes threatened. In fact, KNUZ suspended normal programming and went to “all-hurricane watch” news as early as 1949 -- probably the first independent radio station to do so. With a name like K-News, there was a heavy emphasis on news, of course. KNUZ was the first radio station in the Houston area to have a fleet of mobile news units. By the time KNUZ went to a country music format in 1973, Ken Grant had already been named program director of sister station KQUE. He also served as manager and sales manager of both stations, at one time or another and continued successfully until 1997 when the KNUZ/KQUE combo was sold. Today, Ken still lives in Houston. |
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