TALES OF THE SOUTHWEST: A Country Station Not Worth Its Salt

  It was 25 years ago today that “The Best Friend a Song Ever Had,” Mr. Conway Twitty, legendary Country singer, died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.   

  I liked ol’ Conway, his music was pure Country soul.  Listen to “Hello Darlin’” and hear the yearning.  Listen to “Linda on My Mind” and hear the human condition.  Listen to Conway’s cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” and hear pure Country soul.

  I was working at a Country station in Texas at the time.  This was not your standard issue “Country” station, nosireebob, unh-unh, nope…this was the “Hot Country” format full of uptempo dance numbers targeted for a younger crowd.

  A week into the gig I realized I had made a horrible mistake moving from an easygoing Country AM station in Roswell, New Mexico to this FM powerhouse in Texas. 

  The dude I interviewed with seemed friendly enough when he took me to breakfast.  When I got the gig I don’t know what happened to the guy who interviewed me but he had been replaced by an asshole who looked just like him.

  There would be no spontaneity, there would be no “organic-ness,” basically nothing would be unscripted. 

  This was NOT my style of radio.

  So when I heard Conway had died I shouldn’t have been surprised when I switched over to the station and didn’t hear any Conway being played.

  I called the station.

  “Dude, it’s Grant,” I said.  “Conway’s died.  Why aren’t you playing any Conway in tribute.”

  This was the way…BACK THEN…of any good Country station worth its salt.  If an icon died you played his or her music in tribute, like, RIGHT AWAY.

  “Kevin* said not to,” said my co-worker. “He said if I did he’d fire me."  

  That was the General Manager’s answer to everything…cross him in the slightest bit he’d fire you.  A radio Nazi.  He never fired anyone, I don’t think he had the guts.

  "He said there'd have to be a meeting," my co-worker continued, "And if we do it will have to be his most recent hits, no old shit.”

  As it turned out the station didn't play any Conway in tribute.

  The Hot Country place was shut down by the IRS a couple of years later.  The building is now a Somali grocery.

  I gracefully left that radio gig a couple of months after Conway died…loaded up a borrowed school bus that had barely any brakes and moved to Phoenix. 

  Never had I ever been so glad to get the hell out of a town.

  That was until I moved away from Pensacola, Florida last year.

  But that’s another story.

-30-

*not the guy's real name