Monthly Archives: May 2019

Remembering Mr. Babe

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A friend of mine on Facebook found a video of the Village Boys who played hillbilly/swing music back in the 1940s. The photo used as the thumbnail for the video features several musicians and a very young Edward V. “Babe” Fritsch standing behind a KTRH microphone.

I went to work for KTRH in 1981 as a studio producer/production assistant. Part of my duties included working with the station’s traffic department (the people who schedule the commercials). That was when I first meet Mr. Babe.

At first, Mr. Babe was simply terrifying. He was well into his 70’s and had no patience with anyone and yelled a lot. He was the kind of person you went out of your way to avoid, but then I got to know him through some of the older employees that worked there.

Back in those days, radio was not as volatile as today. Working your whole life at one radio station was very common and many employees developed life-long friendships. One such employee was Mary Vavasour. Mary was the station mom. Needed advice, Mary could help you. Had a little too much to drink at lunch (a common ailment for many sales executives then), Mary would tuck you in your chair behind your desk for a quick cat-nap.

Another gift of Mary’s was telling stories about the old days and the fun they had. There was announcer named Bill Zak who would always tease Mary about this and that. One day, Mary put on black makeup under her eye. When Bill asked what happened, she told him sobbingly that her husband hit her because he thought she was flirting with Bill. According to Mary, Bill’s face hit the floor and she burst out laughing knowing that she finally got even with him.

Mary also shared stories about Mr. Babe and that’s when I learned who the man I worked with and was terrified of, really was.

Back in the day (the 1940s), Mr. Babe was the host of a radio program called “Hillbilly Bandwagon” (Lily Bunyard who was the longtime receptionist for KTRH/KLOL remembered listening to the program as a young girl). The program was only 15 minutes long (quite common back in those days) and would feature various local and national acts.

In addition to being the host, Mr. Babe was also credited with writing several songs including “Baby I Ain’t Satisfied”, “I’m Doin’ a Peach of Job (with a little Peach down in Georgia” and “Honey, Honey, Honey”.

One day, Mr. Babe told me how the local movie theater had someone who played the organ between shows. He son ended up in some band that started with a z (that being Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top). I was also told that Mr. Babe helped bring a very young Elvis Presley to Houston because of his connections.

Mr. Babe was a character to the very end. One day, he was leaving work carrying a brown paper bag. When I asked what was in the bag he said underwear. He was returning them because the person sold him a pair that was too tight. He said every time he farted, his hat came off!

Mr. Babe also used to like to walk through the newsroom asking the young ladies if they wanted to run away to Mexico with him saying you’ll never leave the room (obviously not very PC, but they never seemed offended). They would usually giggle and say Oh Mr. Babe, you are too much!

I remember a female sales executive coming to me crying once because Mr. Babe yelled at her. I explained that Mr. Babe yells at everyone because he’s going deaf!

One day when Mr. Babe didn’t show up to work, Mary Vavasour went to check on him and found he had passed away. He didn’t have any close family, but before his funeral, one of his nephews came to gather his belongings we collected from his desk which included sheet music of songs Mr. Babe had written. His nephew was amazed to learn about his past. He told me the one thing he remembered about visiting his uncle was that the radio was always on and tuned to KTRH every time. I don’t know if this true, but was told it was in Mr. Jones’s (the person who owned the station) will hat Mr. Babe would be allowed to work at KTRH for as long as he wanted.

Looking back, I wonder what Mr. Babe thought of us. Our sister station (KLOL) was very outrageous and I am sure we all must made his head spin. I wish I would have talked to him more about the old days. Later, Bill Zak, another longtime KTRH employee shared stories with me from when they broadcast from the Rice Hotel which I still savor to this day and cherish those memories of “the good old days”.

Shared experiences

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Before I begin, I would like preface this by acknowledging that the world does not stay still and is forever changing. Whether for the good, or bad is up to the beholder to decide, but as the saying goes “the only thing that is consistent is change”.

One big change that has taken place in the past 50 years is the loss of shared experiences. With a limited amount of media outlets, less entertainment options and fewer choices, more people tended to share in the same events.

The Jack Benny Show is just one example. The program made its network television debut back in 1950. At the time, there were only three major television networks (NBC, CBS and ABC), which of course meant there were not a lot of choices.

In the 14 years it aired, The Jack Benny Show averaged a 33 rating (the 2019 Super Bowl achieved a 41 rating). Compare that number to the 7.5 rating NCIS earned the week of April 15, 2019 and you begin to see what huge difference there is in audience share. It’s also important to note The Jack Benny Show was not always the most watched program every week.

What would happen is a very large part of America tuned in to The Jack Benny show every Sunday night and then talked with co-workers, neighbors and friends about the show. It was a shared experience.

Fast forward to today with 100’s of television/cable stations, DVR’s and streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and you can see that type of shared experience is harder to come by. There are still examples of where the nation gathers to witness something in large numbers (the Super Bowl, awards shows, etc.) but those are getting harder and harder to come by.

And it’s not just television. Radio stations and formats have multiplied over the years. Add in satellite radio, Pandora and Spotify and well, you get the picture (nod of the cap to Charles Osgood and “see you on the radio”).

Researchers at Brigham Young University carried out a series of studies that showed those who shared positive experiences with others felt happier, claiming their life was more meaningful, and reported greater life satisfaction.

In study conducted by Harvard, 68 participants were split into 17 groups of four: one participant in each group was randomly assigned to watch what they were told was an ‘interesting’ video, while the remaining three watched a ‘boring’ video.

Afterwards, those who watched the ‘boring’ video felt better than those who had seen the more entertaining offering, but watched it alone.

In his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow stated that humans share certain needs, and that these needs can be arranged in a hierarchy, from the most basic ‘deficiency’ needs (those that make us feel anxious until they’re met) to the higher level ‘growth’ needs (those that make us feel happy and fulfilled).

As our lives continue to be more invested online searching for that next offering to keep our attention, the internet that once promised an end to isolation is now forcing people to re-examine the importance of the shared experience.