Provocative radio hosts

Alvin Van Black used to host a drive time evening show on KPRC AM (Houston Texas) and every evening on my way home from work, I would tune in...because I had to!

Mr. Van Black always played the devil's advocate and in all that traffic & heat - especially at the Baytown tunnel - I would get so worked up over his comments, I would change stations - for 2 minutes. LOL Then tune back over just to repeat it and repeat it.

He made a very good living always taking the opposite stance with his nasal whining about everything and then to top it off, whenever he felt like it, which was often, he would disconnect the caller mid-sentence. He would tell the radio audience what an idiot the caller was. Ha! It was great now that I think about it.

I think Ol’ Alvin did a lot to make the average American voter take sides, sometimes for good, sometimes not. One thing was sure - he made people think. I’ve told friends for years, that anyone who challenges you to think, or defend your position is your friend.

Oh! There is a subtle difference between people who make you justify your beliefs and those that are just mean. Sometimes I’m just mean, but I’m working on that.

On another radio station, same time period, they had an old Hispanic fellow who claimed to be a dogcatcher for the city of Houston. His English was poor, but understandable. He talked about his love for the job and how he held a national record for catching dogs. He went on to say he would work late at night, weekends, holidays, even on his own time to catch stray dogs. He then said he had “methods” which helped him lure “potential strays right out of peoples yards”.

Talk about people going crazy! Ha! The city and radio station was inundated with calls wanting to jail this fellow. It was all a stunt and a good one at that.