70 years ago

This is the Houston Post radio guide from April 28, 1937.

"Live at Five" turns 30

KTRK has the first broadcast of the 5 p.m. news show available for viewing. It originally aired on April 18, 1977.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=stationinfo&id=5223619

Alternate design

I found this in the 1907-1908 edition of the Standard Blue Book of Texas Who's Who.

The image says the Chronicle building "will be one of the largest and handsomest newspaper and office buildings in the Southwest."

Of course, the building ended up looking like this:

Now, some may say that first image sure looks like the Rice Hotel. Well, construction on the Rice Hotel as it looks today wasn't complete until 1913. The third wing was added 13 years after that.

Plans change, I guess!

43 years ago today

I highly suggest checking out Grady McAllister's Houston Radio History Web site. Scroll down a bit on that page, and you'll find an MP3 of KILT's breaking news coverage of the Kennedy assassination. It's a fascinating peek into what Houstonians were listening to as news poured out of Dallas that day.

The MP3 is about 30 mins long.

The birth of the Chronicle

The first edition of the Houston Chronicle -- published Oct. 14, 1901 -- didn’t go unnoticed by its competitor.

Reaction to that first issue came from, of all places, the Houston Daily Post.

“It is a cleanly printed, skillfully arranged, well written sheet -- in most essentials an up-to-date publication,” the Post noted in its Oct. 15 edition. “In the first issue the business department makes a flattering exhibit in the way of advertising patronage….”

The short paragraph heralding the paper’s debut appeared inside the newspaper.

In conclusion, the Post wrote:

“The paper promises to join vigorously into the campaign for industrial development already going on, and announces that it is independent of any political party or faction.”

The Post closed in 1995 when the Hearst Corporation, which operates the Chronicle, purchased the Post’s assets.