I happened to use my 8' ladder to go up in the garage rafters today to get the Christmas lights down. I usually only use the 6' ladder. Using the taller ladder allowed me to look down at what I thought was just a board used hold boxes and other random stuff in the rafters. I noticed some writing on it so I started to move the boxes. What I fould was 3 4' x 8' pieces of wood covered in canvas that is filled with autographs. I got it down and realized it was from 93Q from back in the days when it was a rock/pop station. Much of the autographs were signed to "John"...John Lander from the Q Morning Zoo Show. Tons of famous people... Board 1: Sam Kinison, Huey Lewis, Carl Lewis (signing "Who is that Lewis?). Kenny Loggins, Tiffany, Gregory Abbott (the singer, not the governor), Michael Bolton (thanking the show for letting him say "f***"), Pat Sajak, Chuck Norris, Rodney McCray and Jim Peterson from the Rockets, Robin Williams, Expose, The Fat Boys... Spoiler Board 2: Will Smith (Signed as "Fresh Prince" and asking them to add his record), Bruce Hornsby, Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs... Spoiler Board 3: Brett Michaels (twice), Geraldo Rivera, Frank Zappa, The Human Beat Box, Marlon Jackson (Jackson 5), Deniece Williams, Donna Summers... Spoiler Many that are illegible but I'm going to try and figure out as many as I can. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, yet. I'd like to clean them up. If anyone knows how to clean canvas w/o damaging the "artwork", please let me know. Additionally, (total long shot here) if there's anyone that might have some connection to John Lander, I'd love to reach out to him. I'm searching online but can't find anything more current than when he was let go from a station in Boston back in 2012. I've lived in this house for 3 years and the people before me for over a decade. I don't think they knew it was there either. No real reason to stick your head up that high. Needless to say, I've been distracted from my plans to hang lights today...
Wow, that brings back memories. Incredible find. There seems to be quite a few legendary signatures on there. Maybe you can ask Mr. Leonard what became of John : https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-rio-a83b4226/ ** EDIT ** : I was just thinking -- if you really want to get it back to him or let him know it exists and can't find him online, you may want to email David Barron at the Chronicle or Ken Hoffman. They probably have connections that could contact him. Good luck!
Didn’t recognize it at first. Also found Gunnar Nelson and Steven Seagal on the 3rd board. I’ll try that. Just want to see if maybe he could tell me about them and remember some of the more illegible ones. Yeah. You can see “93Q” all over them.
Far out, OP. I'm not familiar with 93Q, having lived in Austin since 1980, but I've certainly heard of many of the celebrities that signed the boards. That's quite a find! Not sure what you'll be able to do with them, but I hope you think of something. Heck, the radio station I miss the most is KFMK Radio, the first and really the only underground station in Houston, besides Pacifica, worth mentioning. I bought a new receiver to replace my old amplifier just so I could listen to it at home on some good speakers. It was on the air from 1967 through 1969. The DJ's literally played whatever they wanted to play, and there was an overwhelming stream of new music that flowed from the ether to your FM radio at home and in your car (bought a new FM radio for my clunker, as well). If a song was 10 minutes long, it wasn't edited to "fit the format." They played the entire thing. There was nothing like it before, and has been nothing like it since. Good times. Spoiler
It didn’t become 93Q until the early 80’s. Pre-1980, it was KYND, a “beautiful music” (instrumentals, elevator music, easy listening) station. Before that, it was the first Spanish language station in Houston.
I honesty don’t know what we’ll do with them. I want to get them cleaned up first. They’re so huge so they wouldn’t fit in my house without modifying them in some way. For now, we are just mesmerized by it and having fun figuring out the signatures. A ton of one-hit-wonder types from the 80’s (Howard Jones, Gunnar Nelson, After 7). I think Tom Jones is one of them on board 2. I can’t imagine what they’d even be worth.
I don't think you're in harris county, but here I'm able to look up my property with the appraisal district, which allows me to see the names of past owners. You might be able to find something similar where you're at, which could help you determine who originally stored these.
How dare you call After 7 (and Howard Jones) one-hit wonders?! Who knows what they're worth, but that one where Fresh Prince is begging Lander to play his record is hilarious. Some of those are really causing flashbacks. Sweet Sensation, Oleta Adams, Deniece Williams, Gregory Abbott? Human Beat Box died a few years after he signed that. Going to have to go watch some 80's videos now. For anyone interested, there are a few 93Q (FM)/79Q (AM) audio clips on YouTube including parts of their first broadcast. Funny thing now is that 79Q was 790AM which is now sports talk.
I did (I’m in Montgomery County) and the original owner nor the people that bought the house from them (and who I bought the house from) doesn’t appear to have a connection that I could put together. I honestly don’t think the people I bought it from had any idea it was up there. I think they thought, like I did for the better part of 3 years, that it was extra drywall.
I honestly thought Gregory Abbott was our governor at first but then realized he wasn’t anybody back then (he was still in private practice at the time).
Might want to spend a little money to get the signatures authenticated... then frame the boards and hang them in your house as artwork.
They’re 4’x8’ and canvas over 3/4” plywood. They are huge and heavy. I’m certainly going to get them cleaned. Don’t really have a good place in my house for them...at least not without some construction. At first we thought, “Cool, we’ll use them as wall paneling in the garage.” As we kept looking at them, we both realized this is more than that.
