HOUSTON, Texas–Legendary radio host Sam Malone has been nominated for induction into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. In an announcement this week from the Texas Radio Hall of Fame (TRHF), Malone was listed alongside eleven other candidates who now face the voting process before induction into this historic organization. Upon learning of the nomination, Malone asked his Facebook followers “Aren’t you nominated to HOF’s when your career is over??? YIKES!”
If you have driven a car to work and back anytime over the last twenty plus years, it would be hard to have missed Malone on the air. After moving from the northeastern U.S. to Houston in the early nineties, Sam Malone took a struggling 104 KRBE pop-radio station and turned it around with his Sam Malone and the Morning Show which quickly raced up the charts to be the number one rated show in Houston according to the TRHF announcement. For twelve years, Malone and his co-hosts would help ease the tensions of people negotiating Houston’s stressful morning rush-hour traffic by providing entertaining commentary alongside pop-music of the day.
Malone then took his many talents to Clear Channel Radio where his show, once again, rose rapidly to number 1 in the Houston market. It was during this period where Malone made the transition from radio DJ to conservative political talk show. Clear channel gave Malone the opportunity to carry on his music show from six to nine in the mornings on Mix 96.5 FM and then to carry KTRH’s AM 740 radio talk format through from “drive time to Rush time”. Malone’s conservative talk show filled the gap between drive time news and talk to the start of The Rush Limbaugh Show giving Malone a new audience to draw from.
An innovator in media, Malone is now president of Phonoscope New Media in Houston. He continues his morning drive-time conservative talk radio on AM 1070 The Answer where he uses his multi-media background to its fullest advantage. Malone’s show was the first to broadcast live on both Facebook and YouTube. He currently broadcasts his show on nine platforms leading to skyrocketing station revenues.
While Malone has spent the last couple of months talking about other people’s elections, he and his eleven co-nominees now await the voting process of their peers and other TRHF voters. Voting begins June 1st and runs through the end of the month and the final inductee list will be announced on July 4th. The induction banquet will be held in Galveston on November 1st.
Having had the opportunity to work with Malone, this writer can attest to the professionalism and entertainment Malone brings to the industry, the stations he works for and the dedicated listeners who join him daily from his opening to his trademark “See ya” denoting the end of another day of radio excellence.
Follow Bob Price on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX