Sorry to hear he was difficut to be around. I listened to him for 6 or 7 years in the 70's and early 80's, and I recall him as far and away the best host I have ever heard on the radio, followed, in my opinion, by David Fowler. Both men were brilliant. Alvin also had the longest-running radio show in U.S. history, if you count his time at both stations, KTRH and KPRC. He used to talk about his struggle with severe depresion as a child, so yeah, I guess he had a pretty tough childhood. I also remember the Chubbettes, LOL people would call in and describe seeing them around town in their van, drinking and arguing, whatever. That was a lot of fun. Remember his describing being paid by the traveling evangelist A.A. Allen to get healed during his services at the Coliseum every year? He and his friends would line up in the back and get bandaged up, taught how to dance and swing their arms after they were prayed over and healed, if they did a good job they got 50 cents. He said Allen was flat-out drunk and nearly killed him with his whisley-breath He had a million growing-up stories like that. A real Houston Original and I do miss him. A friend of mine in the business told me that Fowler was fired for taking real ugly, venal pot-shots at Lynn Ashby on the air. (I do remember David doing that towards the end). The same company owned KPRC and the Post, and they gave him one strict warning and ordered Harry Schultz to fire him after the very next allusion Fowler made to Ashby. He - David - was devastated I was told. He thought he was irreplaceable.
