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New
Baytown’s DJ of the ‘50s, Bill “Rascal”
McCaskill, Conducts His “Night Train” Once More 4-10-08
"... It was 1954, and in Baytown, a new disc jockey
arrived at a somewhat small, sleepy and nondescript AM station on
Decker Drive... The new KREL disc jockey’s name was Bill “Rascal”
McCaskill, and for the next several years he brought notoriety to
Baytown the likes of which that city hadn’t seen before and some are
quickly willing to testify that it hasn’t seen since. And he turned
conventional radio programming in Houston upside down..." |
Columns:
How
Sam, Rose and Frank Maceo Created the Fabled Balinese Room 3-6-08
The
Oryoku Maru and Lieutenant Walter A. Kelso, Jr.'s Journey 2-18-08
No
One Who Truly Knows the Mansion Would Ever Call It The Open Gates
1-23-08
Slick
the Shoeshine Man, Sam Maceo and Christmas Eve 1949 12-21-07
Teacher
Paul Barbuto’s Lifetime Pursuit Was Always Just to Play in the Band
11-18-07
Carolyn
and Sammy, Her Daddy's '52 Ford and the Singer Roy Hamilton
11-2-07
Champ
Did His Experiment at the State Theater and in the Name of The Enforcer
9-27-07
"Set
'em up, Bascigallupi!" 9-3-07
George
Roy Clough Invents Call-in Radio 8-15-07
One
Time a Kitten Named Elijah Came to the Passover Seder Table to Bring
Wisdom 8-3-07
The
Magnificent Montague 7-15-07
He’s probably one of the most important contributors to American
black culture that has ever lived...
At
First Galveston's Stewart Beach Was Called the Riviera of the Gulf
6-30-07
The
Strand: A Lingering Shadow of Riches Untold, Whispering Night Bay
Breezes 6-16-07
Now that the battle that made Texas a republic in 1836 had ended,
the founders of Galveston were finally able to get down to the business
of building the new city...
Jewish
Immigrants Competed with Galveston's Former Slaves in the Beginning
6-4-07
"When the Jews began temporarily settling in the Galveston,
they were faced with a new problem, one that hadn't existed in New
York and Baltimore and Boston and Philadelphia..."
The
Korean War Hero Who Swung the Board of Education at Ball High
5-27-07
Lt. Col. Richard H. Schiebel
"Wanting to defend one's country, even if it cost you your
life, was something his generation understood...."
Cartwright
5-14-07
Mayor Herbie, His Time in Jail and the Big Downtown Parade that
Followed
The
Only Only
5-1-07
He Was the World's Oldest Trapeze Artist and He Lived in Old No.
25
Stanley
Marcus 4-2-07
Columns
Beginning: April 2007
Copyright William S. Cherry
All rights reserved |
William
Speakman Cherry
He
may not have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle, but his middle
name proved to be prophetic.
"Born on the island" of Galveston in 1940, Bill Cherry became a R
& B disc jockey at the tender age of 14, using the nom d'air "Brokenhearted
Bill." When he wasn't talking he was writing, and at 16 he sold his
first feature story to a Houston paper. He has since written for Fortune
Magazine, The Houston Business Journal and numerous other Texas
newspapers including The Victoria Advocate, The Dallas Morning
News, and The Galveston County Daily News.
In the late '50s, Cherry was attending classes at New Orleans' Tulane
University while working for AM radio station WWL. Broadcasting from
behind a plate glass window of a French Quarter furniture store, Cherry
was the tuxedo (and short pants) host of Music 'til Dawn. He
also subbed as host for broadcasts from the famous Blue Room of the
Roosevelt Hotel.
In 1961, he married well-known St. Louis classical and jazz concert
pianist and Vogue fashion model, Judy Fosher. They traveled as a team,
each playing different venues. Cherry performed at the piano at such
spots as the St. Louis Playboy Club, New York's Waldorf-Astoria, LA's
Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Chicago's Blackstone Hotel and St. Louis'
Chase-Park Plaza Hotel.
Two years after their marriage, Judy died from a heart attack. She
was just 24.
In 1964, Bill returned to the University of North Texas for additional
studies and briefly worked as the second manager of KNTU, the school's
FM station.
Cherry became a vice president at Houston's Guaranty Federal Savings
and Loan and headed that company's real estate investment company
before moving to Houston's Columbia Communities where he served as
vice president of residential home building. In the mid 70's, Cherry,
with partner Steven Jay Rudy, founded The Old House Company, a Real
Estate company specializing in restoring historical housing and commercial
buildings.
For twenty years, Cherry was the historical real estate consultant
for George and Cynthia Mitchell (who developed The Woodlands, Texas).
The Mitchells restored and leased many of Galveston's 19th century
cast-iron buildings in the historic district now widely-known as the
Strand.
Cherry taught finance, economics and investments at Houston's St.
Thomas University and at Galveston College and even did a brief stint
as a high school English composition and debate teacher at Dallas'
Thomas Jefferson High.
Cherry's childhood memories of life on Galveston Island was the basis
for his popular column in the The Galveston County Daily News. The
title Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories was used again
when he assembled 60 of his best columns for his first book: The book's
dedication is to his family, teachers and professors who had influenced
him, and to his friend, commedian-musician Steve Allen, who died just
before the book was published.
Bill Cherry's Memories, also appeared as a series
of television features in 2001, for News 24-Houston, where it was
voted the station's most popular feature.
Now living in Dallas with his wife (a former college sweetheart),
Cherry remains busy writing, doing voice-overs for commercial films,
and playing piano for weddings, receptions, and dinner parties. He
remains a real estate consultant and tax arbitrator and is a highly
regarded expert witness for real estate and business trials.
Mr. Cherry was inducted into Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2005 as a
Premier Member and his radio experience has made him a popular after-dinner
speaker.
We are proud to include Mr. Cherry's Galveston Memories as
a monthly feature in Texas Escapes. The abbreviated biography that
appears here is paraphased from his Wikipedia entry. |
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