I began listening to KTRU while a senior in high school, and became a DJ during freshman week the next year, a few days before matriculation.

That year I became assistant sports director at KTRU, which quickly led to becoming the first freshman sports editor of the Rice Thresher.

I also published Rice Radio Folio during my freshman year at Rice. It was a lesson in humility and teamwork taught to a former high school BMOC by a staff that begrudgingly accepted a loud-mouthed, arrogant freshman into the station.

I had a regular radio shift, Mondays 4-7, but I took on any shift that I could when someone needed a co-worker to fill in. On my usual shift I played mostly punk, new wave, and reggae, but I also covered jazz, classical, women’s music, and even chicken skin shifts.

My two fondest memories of being a KTRU DJ follow. One night I was covering a late Friday night shift, and playing lots of fast music, not going on mic except at the top of the hour, as required by the FCC. After going on mic at midnight, I started the next hour with music from the playlist, as required by station policy. It was slower than what I had been playing.

The phone rang. The guy on the other end was breathing heavily. It took him at least a minute to say, “Why … did … you … stop?” Eventually he explained there was a huge party at his house, and they were all dancing to the music I was playing. The endorphins were flying off the walls.

On May 11, 1981, I volunteered to cover the 10 pm to 1 am shift for a DJ who had a hot date. That day, Bob Marley died. I decided to break station policy, and at midnight, to play a full hour of Marley. The Music Director popped into the control room around 11 pm, and told me he was getting lots of phone calls asking for a tribute to Marley, maybe play two or three songs.

I told him, “Jim, the whole hour from midnight to one is going to be Marley.”

KTRU was the only radio station in Houston to recognize the passing of Bob Marley. Today, Marley is on juke boxes and karaoke lists in every bar. In 1981, only one station in Houston would play Bob Marley: 91.7 fm KTRU Rice Radio Houston.

Steven Bailey

WRC 83

KTRU 79-82

Thresher 80-82