Radio icon entertained Houston for 6 decades
Paul Berlin, the peerless Houston radio disc jockey who guided generations of Houston listeners across 60-plus years from 1950s rock ’n’ roll to the gentler sounds of nostalgia and easy listening music, has died after a brief illness. He was 86.
For years as an announcer on several Houston radio stations and as a concert promoter at venues like the Plantation Ballroom and Dome Shadows, Berlin was the Dick Clark of Houston as an arbiter of the city’s musical tastes, said protégé and longtime Houston radio announcer Scott Arthur.
“This is the end of an era,” he said. “Paul was a great storyteller and a great story-maker. There are so many great stories about Paul as well as Paul telling stories about his association with icons of the business.
“Paul had more than his 15 minutes of fame in this town, and he earned every minute of it.”
Berlin arrived in 1950 in Houston from his hometown of Memphis, where he got his start on a show that also included Sun Records impresario Sam Phillips.
Known during his early days on the air as “Buzz” Berlin, he plunged into the western swing/R&B/rock ’n’ roll/big band radio melting pot at KNUZ (1230 AM) and moved in 1974 to KQUE (102.9 FM), in 1997 to KSEV and in 2001 to KBME (790 AM) as a champion of easy listening sounds.
His formula, he said in a 2013 interview, was simple: “Be informative. Be entertaining. Or be quiet.”
At the height of his popularity, in 1958, Berlin was offered $40,000 — the equivalent of $340,000 in 2017 dollars — to jump from KNUZ to KILT (610 AM). He stayed at KNUZ as one of the best-paid radio announcers in the country and mentored waves of young announcers, including young newsman Dave Ward.
“I was Paul Berlin’s news reporter from 1964 until 1966, and I will always remember how kind he was to everybody,” said Ward, the longtime KTRK (Channel 13) anchor. “There was no one quite like Paul Berlin.”
Berlin helped make hits out of songs like “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper and “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine” by Gale Garnett and promoted Houston concerts by acts ranging from the Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie big bands to the Dave Clark Five and Sonny and Cher.
After retiring in 2004, when KBME switched from easy listening to sports, Berlin returned to the air in 2010 for a Saturday night show on KSEV that continued with live shows until last year. The station still airs reruns of Berlin’s shows and will air a tribute to him Saturday.
Arthur said Berlin could be a strict critic — he so disliked Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman to Me” that he smashed the station’s recording to pieces — but in the 1980s took a chance on a song called “Words Get in the Way” by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, a far cry from his usual diet of Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee songs.
“He would play good music from any era,” said co-worker Ronnie Renfrow. “He told me, ‘I know you like to play new things and evolve, but do this: Always remember to play the Hersheys and leave out the Zagnuts.’”
Air checks of Berlin’s shows are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and he was a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.
Friends said Berlin, whose wife of 60-plus years, Inez, died several years ago, remained alert into his final months, watching Astros games on television and having lunch with former colleagues Arthur, Renfrow and Walt Hammock, who will emcee the KSEV show in his honor at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“We’ll play the Hersheys and leave out the Zagnuts,” Renfro said.
Funeral arrangements are pending.