At the risk of speaking ill of someone who has passed on, and as someone who worked around Alvin at KTRH for a few years in the 70s and 80s, I can testify that he was a very hard person to be around. I can believe he was unhappy when he was young, because he always seemed to be unhappy when he was a grown adult approaching middle age.
Alvin's personna on the air in radio wasn't an act. The word "misanthrope" comes to mind. I always suspected he was mildly misanthropic. He was highly intelligent, very well-read on practically every subject and knowledgeable about a lot of things. He could talk intelligently about practically anything. Unfortunately, he didn't care much for other people, including his coworkers. He just tolerated our presence in the space he had to share with us. A line in the old song Big Bad John comes to mind. "If you spoke at all you just said Hi to Big John", or Big Alvin. And yes he was very big.
In the three years I worked there, I don't remember him ever saying more than two or three sentences to me, and that was when he got very angry one morning when he couldn't find the newspaper that was supposed to be in his office mailbox. He thought I had taken it. I hadn't, but he thought I had and proceeded to dress me down, very loudly, right there in the newsroom. It was NOT a pleasant scene, and I came very close to belting him in the chops, but I resisted the urge. After that I worked at avoiding him.
I have to say that the call-in shows he did at KTRH and KPRC were successful because he was actually being himself. What you heard was what you got with Alvin. Nothing phony about him -- on the radio at least.
That's why many people who knew him were stunned to see him acting like the original Mr Nice Guy in those silly "Alvin at Night" features on channel 13. That guy on TV wasn't the Alvin Van Black we all remembered from his radio days. I like to think that maybe we were finally seeing a side of Alvin none of us had ever seen. TV seemed to agree with him, because he really seemed to be enjoying himself. Maybe he finally found something he enjoyed doing. I sincerely hope that was the case.
Rest in peace Alvin.
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.
Alvin Van Black On The Radio
in Houston and the Media
Posted · Edited by Jimkingwood
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.