The Evolution Of KLAQ: A Look At Its Three Studios

Throughout its history, KLAQ has had 3 different studios. They weren't far apart, we slowly migrated to our current location in 3 steps that cover less than a mile.

I've worked every shift, in every building and have some great stories from each building. Funny behind the scenes stuff, visits from famous peeps, watching the evolution of the technology that makes radio happen.

Here's a quick rundown of the 3 KLAQ locations and a few stories ...

KLAQ started out around 1978 at 4141 Pinnacle on the west side. That's where The Q and KROD first began to broadcast and the building in which several, iconic El Paso events were born. The KLAQ BBQ, The KLAQ Balloon Festival and the KLAQ Downtown Street Fest.

It was also, arguably, the craziest location. The rules were more lax, cell phones and security cameras non-existent and the staff, the evening and overnight jocks anyway, were pretty much totally unsupervised. You get a, (super), quick glimpse of that 1st studio here:

One night, when I was doing overnights, the program director, (Magic Mike), showed up at about 2am with a record rep and two porn stars who were appearing at a local strip club. He had promised them they could promote their show. It was one of my first and still wildest, live interviews ever. I still have a promo photo that one of them signed for me. (I was going to post it and others here but management shot that idea to teeny, tiny little pieces.)

Some where around 1997, we moved to 4150 Pinnacle. (Big leap, huh?) We hand carried a lot of the stuff over because it was directly across the street. The overlords loved that - Why spend money on expensive movers when you can just have the part timers suffering heat stroke for minimum wage?

READ MORE: A Peek Inside The KLAQ Studios

It had been home to a classic rock station that put Howard Stern on air to go up against Buzz. Buzz not only kicked his ass, Stern's show was scrapped and we assumed control of the entire station. It was flipped to hot AC and KSII, (KISS FM), was born.

Famous KLAQ Visitors

Along with visits from Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Paul Rodgers, Mike Tramp, (only time I ever, EVER, saw all the female sales, office and air staff find a reason to be in the building on a Friday afternoon.) Sevendust, Static X and a myriad of others. We also had a staff New Years Eve party in that building to ring in 2000.

The dreaded midnight that everyone feared was going to cause all kinds of chaos if not bring about the end of the world. We spent it getting trashed in the lobby and putting the overnight guys through hell.

The Q now sits at 4180 N. Mesa. This building has seen everything the first two saw, times 100 ...

In addition to other rock stars like Ghost, September Mourning, Anthrax, Joe Perry, Marky Ramone, Trapt and a ton of others, we've also had comedians and actors like Jim Brewer, Carlos Mencia, Willie Barcena, Steve Oh, Doug Jones, Sherman Hemsley, Ethan Hawke ... honestly, covering actors and rockers alone could take all day.

Some actually performed here.

It's Not Just Rock Stars

KROD's list of athletes and coaches is almost as long as The Q's list of rockers: Tuff Hedeman, Aaron Jones, Tm Hardaway, Randy White, Don Haskins, Oscar De La Hoya, Stephanie Han, Notah Begay and the legendary Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, among others.

It's never boring around here, that's for sure - and it never will be. Thanks for listening ... and reading.