One of the cool things about my job is getting access to various wildlife and being able to take their pictures. The photos are taken in a controlled environment which allows them to look natural and gives me a chance to capture their beauty.
Here’s a quick slide show of just a few of the better ones….
It was on this day in 1971 Led Zeppelin released it’s fourth album. The 8 song album came unnamed, but soon became known as Led Zeppelin Four, ZOSO, or Zep IV.
If you were growing up in the early 70’s, the importance of this album cannot be understated. It would be hard to argue against “Stairway to Heaven” being the greatest rock song of all time. You would also be hard pressed to find an album with the plethora mix of songs. From the hard driving “Rock n’ Roll”, to the mystical “Battle of Evermore”; Led Zeppelin Four captures the brilliance and diversity of one of the all time great bands.
Did radio over play many of the songs found on the album? You bet, but don’t blame the band for that. That was more a result of radio researching songs to death and then shoving the most popular down the consumers throat. It should not diminish or take away from the greatness of what Led Zeppelin Four was and still is.
The album was released at a time when FM radio was just taking off and many stations went to the Rock Format. Imagine DJ’s picking the songs they wanted to play. What an amazing rush it must have been for DJ’s to cue up “Stairway to Heaven” for the first time.
Some records are called great because record labels market them as such, others are called great because they stand the test of time. ZOSO falls into the later category.
The world of radio and the city of Houston recently lost someone who could be called a legend, an icon, a mentor, and/or a family man (pick one or all).
Bill Zak passed away after a long and distinguished career at KTRH. Over five decades he did it all. He was a “News Presenter”, anchored an Agri-Biz program, and was a co-host of the popular KTRH Gardenline.
Bill Zak was a lot of different things to a lot of people, but to me, he was a treasure trove of great stories about the “Golden Age” of radio. Bill would start telling me one story, only to morph into a second one and then end up telling me a third one. When he was done he would say, “you asked me what time it was and I told you how to build a watch”. I didn’t care. I loved hearing them all.
Ed Shane who was the Program Director at KTRH in the early 80’s said he tested personalities in the early 70’s to determine the most popular/best known person in Houston. The top three were the Mayor, Judge Roy and Bill Zak.
I guess that’s why I was a little surprised at the lack of media attention when Bill passed away. I found it sad that the passing of someone who had such an impact on so many lives was not acknowledged by more people. Randy Lemmon (who replaced Bill) did a nice tribute on the KTRH Gardenline. It was great hearing the old Bill Zak stories and hearing that powerful voice one more time.
After the service was over, one of the old “KTRH’ers” said he was surprised at the lack of turn-out of people who worked with Bill through the years at the station. I agreed and told him I thought it was disappointing, but then I started to think about it. There were four people who were at the funeral service associated with Bill because of KTRH, but there were many more who were family and friends. It helped remind me what is important in life.
I heard many great stories of what a wonderful husband, father and family man Bill was. How he always stepped up and helped family and could be counted on time and time again.
A great career is one thing, but being surrounded by loved ones at the end is the ultimate tribute a person can have.
Got to work a University of Houston Football game recently. The best part was having my wife work the sidelines as a parabolic mic operator. The Coogs played a great game, and we had a blast working the game.
Welcome to the new and improved “Bill’s Blog”. I have been using WordPress for a while at work, and finally decided it was time to add it to my web site. My goal is that this will give me the incentive to add more material than I have in the past. You can still find some of my older stuff below the WordPress blog.
Happy reading!