More than 200 radio personalities and well-wishers from across the state are descending on Kilgore this weekend for the Texas Radio Hall of Fame’s 2025 induction ceremony at downtown’s Texas Museum of Broadcast & Communication.
It’s the ninth year for the hall’s annual honors, showcased year-round at the local venue. Among the honorees is Kilgore’s own Chuck Conrad, owner and operator of the broadcast museum and the driving force behind Chalk Hill Communications for more than two decades.
“I’m kind of humbled by it, frankly,” Conrad said this week, gratified to be in good company with the year’s posthumous honorees and living inductees. “There’s some pretty heavy hitters there.”
Five individuals will be recognized posthumously this year for their ‘Lone Star Legacies,’ including Alberto Alegre Calvo, Randy Lemmon, Gary Mason (Aycock), Susan O’Donnell and Tom Perryman. Other honorees in the Class of 2025 include John Breland, Bill Coates, Steve Coffman, Kevin Dorsey, Bruce Gilbert, Henrietta Hernandez, Jay Howard, Joe Izbrand, Chris Kelley, Bob Lewis aka “Tumbleweed Smith,” Harold Mann, Brian Purdy, Jerry “The Car Pro” Reynolds, Ken Rush, Rod Ryan, Ray Schilens, William “Chilly Bill” Smith, Rudy Trevino and Tom Tynan.
Centered on the museum at 416 East Main, the hall of fame weekend begins tonight with a 5 p.m. welcome reception and salute to the hall’s scholarship recipients. With complimentary beverages and a food truck on hand, admission is free to anyone holding a ticket for Saturday’s induction ceremony, or it’s just $10 at the door to walk-in Friday night.
Come Saturday, doors open for the induction ceremony at 10 a.m. Nov. 1 for museum tours and seating before the event itself kicks off at noon. The ceremony will conclude at about 3 p.m. ahead of an after party, reunion and reception at the Old Post Office on South Kilgore Street.
In addition to Conrad’s relatives coming in from Pennsylvania, “There’ll be people from all over Texas. I know they’re very heavily from Houston and from Dallas and San Antonio. And, there’s actually quite a bit of East Texas representation,” Conrad said, especially with the induction of Gary Mason and Tom Perryman: “I think both of these people are long overdue for being inducted.”
Conrad’s been in the business a long time, too, beyond a significant gap in his radio resume.
“I had a 30-year hiatus, but I was still working with broadcasters all the time when I was in the sound business working with rock ‘n roll folks,” he said. “I always wanted to do the broadcasting thing.
“Someone said back in college, ‘You’ve got a radio face and a TV voice.'”
Chuck Conrad | Texas Radio Hall of Fame Biography
Chuck has been a life-long fan of broadcasting, especially radio. His experience in the field includes, TV production, TV news, as well as AM and FM commercial and non-commercial radio. He is the owner and general manager of KZQX (QX-FM) and KDOK Radio which also simulcasts on KZYX, Tyler. More importantly, he is the founder and Executive Director of the Texas Broadcast Museum in Kilgore, where The Texas Radio Hall of Fame holds their annual induction ceremony.
While in college in 1967, his first job in radio was at KNER-FM in Dallas. (A truly terrible station.) He worked weekends for the princely sum of $1.25 an hour. He became involved in the university’s radio station KSMU as Chief Engineer, eventually becoming its General Manager while also holding down a daily air shift.
Upon graduation from SMU, he found himself getting involved in the fledgling concert sound industry. Eventually he started his own company, Crossroads Audio, Inc., which he and his wife, Diane operated in Dallas for over thirty years. When they sold the company in 2000, Chuck tried out “retirement” for a while but found it was boring. Living around the community of Lake Cherokee in East Texas, he applied for and got a Low Power FM license to serve his friends and neighbors. It was one of the first five LPFM stations in Texas to receive a Construction Permit. The little station became quite popular, eventually expanding its coverage area through licensing three FM translators. One day, the opportunity to acquire a Class A commercial FM station on 100.3 presented itself. This was something he jumped on, donating the LPFM to a local group, but keeping the licenses for the translators. That turned out to be a good move because the owners of 1240 AM in Kilgore came to Chuck asking him to buy it. Because the FCC had recently ruled that AM stations could now be broadcast on FM translators, a deal was struck. Chuck found himself as the proud owner of KDOK in Kilgore. Coupling it with the translators gave it a new audience, and also a new format, Classic Hits. Then the opportunity to acquire KYZS 1490 in Tyler, along with its FM translator came along. Once again, Chuck jumped on it. It now is a full simulcast of KDOK and branded “K-KOK” which has significantly expanded its coverage area.
Chuck’s other interests include antique automobiles and collecting vintage broadcast equipment. An engineer at heart and a member of Society of Broadcast Engineers, one of his biggest projects was a complete restoration of a 1949 TV mobile unit that was once owned by WFAA-TV in Dallas. Known as “The Golden Telecruiser” it is one of the oldest surviving TV mobile units anywhere. It’s involvement in the TV coverage of the Kennedy Assassination makes it an important part of Texas broadcast history. Needing a place to display it was part of the inspiration for founding the Texas Broadcast Museum. The museum has been open for almost 9 years. It has had thousands of visitors from all over the world. Its mission is to preserve broadcast history. It’s your history. Chuck devotes most of his time in that pursuit and is deserving of being inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.
