After working as an engineer for 20 years with the Pulitzer stations, KSD and KSD-TV, Ed Ceries invested his life savings and his considerable engineering efforts in building his own FM station, which he called KSHE. He literally built some of the equipment himself, and on February 11, 1961, the station signed on from the basement of the Ceries' home in suburban Crestwood.
The station called itself "The Lady of FM," and had a classical music format. For a time all announcers were women. Most of the basement was used for the station operations, with the Associated Press Teletype installed next to the clothes washer.
The record library room doubled as an administrative office where Mrs. Ceries also did her ironing. Listener loyalty was strong, and at times they would come to the station with copies of classical selections they thought were better than the ones being played.
Unfortunately, advertisers were not convinced FM radio—particularly classical music on FM radio—had much of an audience. After the first year, the format was adjusted to contain about 90% middle-of-the-road music and 10% classical, with nine daily news broadcasts. In 1964, the station was sold to Century Broadcasting and new general manager Howard Grafman.
Meanwhile, in California, Tom Donahue was making waves with a radio format unlike anything heard before. Donahue was quoted as asking “How many…times can you play Herman’s Hermits and still feel good about what you do?” He began his first show on KMPX, Los Angeles in April of 1967 saying “This is Tom Donahue, and I’m here to clear up your face and mess up your mind.”
Back in St. Louis, Howard Grafman knew he had to do something with the FM radio station he had purchased. It had started out, under different ownership, playing classical music. That morphed into a conservative middle-of-road format, including “The Lawrence Welk Show” and a weekly German-language program. Few sponsors were buying ads.
Enter Ron Elz, who had been running a school for radio announcers in St. Louis. He’d paid a visit to his old stomping grounds in San Francisco, returning to St. Louis with a blueprint on how to program Grafman’s station, KSHE, just like Tom Donahue was doing at KMPX. Grafman was convinced. KSHE would adopt an album-oriented rock format, with high latitude given to individual DJs as to what to play. But he told Elz there was no money to buy any records.
Elz then went about persuading local record distributors like Al Chotin, Record Merchandisers and Roberts Records to help build a station music library.
KSHE also hired new disc jockeys to appeal to its new, younger audience. Richard Palmese, a student of religion at St. Louis University, was given the air name “Brother Love.” Elz’s air name was “Johnny B. Goode.” Lee Coffee was “The Musical Pumpkin,” and Ron Lipe became “Prince Knight.” Don O’Day and Jack Davis rounded out the staff.
KSHE staffers 1968 (from left): Sir Ed, Prince Knight, Gary Bennett, Shelley Grafman (holding sign), Steve Rosen, John Williams, Don Corey and Dick Merkle.Those first announcers recalled phone calls from angry listeners upset with the music change, but it was also obvious young people were discovering KSHE. Word of mouth was spreading among those kids who saw themselves as part of the counterculture movement.
The playing of “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane kicked off the “real rock radio” format on November 7, 1967.
Radio historian Michael Keith wrote about the national movement in “Sounds in the Dark: “Underground radio’s raison d’etre was in step with that of the growing counterculture. It resented the mainstream gestalt of the day regarding countless social issues (war, drugs, race), but most of all it detested formula radio with its 2-minute song cuts and hyper jocks.”
The gradual format change continued at KSHE. Listeners were asked to vote on which artist they preferred - Frank Sinatra or the Rolling Stones. The Stones prevailed. KSHE sometimes played music nonstop for hours without station identification, which eventually was brought to the attention of the FCC and warnings from the agency to identify as required.
Sir EdTwo airchecks with Sir Ed in 1972. [ LISTEN ] (13:45) [ LISTEN ] (30:58) and the KSHE April Fool's Day Jam Promo [ LISTEN ] (1:02) Marilyn Chambers movie promo & Putt-Putt Fun Center ad in May, 1974. [ LISTEN ] (2:05)
In late 1967, '68 and most of '69 they would play whole albums in the late afternoon and late at night any day of the week. Albums played in their entirety included such titles as The Firesign Theatre's Waiting for the Electrician, The Who's Tommy, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's Let's Make Up and Be Friendly, Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, KSHE was influential in the growth of many midwestern bands such as Styx, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon and Head East. KSHE had a wide and varied play list, which popularized such rock artists as Lake from Germany, Stingray from South Africa, and rising bands from Australia and New Zealand like Midnight Oil and Split Enz, as well as playing the classics from well-known rock legends.
KSHE would frequently play concept albums in their entirety, as well as entire album sides from favorites such as Rush. Sunday evenings were dedicated to playing seven albums from seven different artists on a show called the Seventh Day starting in the late 1970s, a program that continues to this day. The albums usually were played from 7:00 pm until after midnight. The Seventh Day concept was later used by other stations around the country.
It's rumored that on a Saturday in 1969, Bob Seger hitchhiked from Detroit to St. Louis to perform an hour-long concert which was simulcast on KSHE and the then-new UHF TV station KDNL, after which he hitchhiked back to Detroit.
In 1974 KSHE invited St. Louis rock fans out to Forest Park for a "Kite Fly". There were contests for the largest kite, the "coolest" kite, etc. And Kiss performed.KSHE DJ Mark Klose had the job of delivering the band to the concert site. They arrived to the stage area safely, and then the Kiss Tour Manager approached Mark to talk about power needs for the show.He said that for the PA and stage show, the band would need 125,000 watts of power. Mark pointed to four Honda gas generators which were capable of knocking out a total of 18 horsepower. By the time Kiss hit the stage to perform in front of 40,000 rabid rock fans, three of the four generators had burnt up.
RUTH HUTCHINSONRuth was the 80 year old grandma who was the original host of KSHE Klassics in the early 1980s.November 23, 1983
KSHE also had various subgenres for various times of day, such as Hair Band Doran (DJ: Mike Doran) from 8pm-9pm weekdays (previously called '80s at 8 under the previous DJ, Katy Kruze) and Monday Night Metal with Tom "Real Rock" Terbrock (producer and co-host of 97.1 Talk's Dave Glover Show) on Tuesday nights from 9 pm to midnight (originally on Monday night at 10 pm with Radio/Radical Rich from the mid-'80s until 1987 when it was moved to Tuesday night, until it was canceled in the 90s.
The station mascot is a sunglasses-and-headphones-wearing pig named "Sweetmeat," the likeness of which originally appeared on the cover of Blodwyn Pig's 1969 album 'Ahead Rings Out'. The cover of Blodwyn Pig's 1969 debut album, "Ahead Rings Out," which inspired the Sweetmeat character.
Like the pig pictured on the LP cover, Sweetmeat first appeared with a joint in his mouth. This "controversial" detail disappeared in the early '80s in favor of an updated, cartoon "rocker" pig. Originally, Sweetmeat was a female. At one point, a contest was held, which allowed listeners to name her children, which there were two of, a male, Borbo, and a female, Efemily.
Then, sometime in the '80s (More than likely at the same time the "Rocker" pig image was put into place), Sweetmeat suddenly became a male character. In recent years, the station is using the original image, along with the original KSHE-95 text logo.
WHO WORKED AT KSHE? Here is the list: Billy Addison (KSHE's 1st DJ), Gary Bennett, Bobby Burch, Ron Buttery, Byrd, Michael "Mike Charles" Ermatinger, Lee Coffee, Mark Cooper, J.C. Corcoran, Don Corey, Richie "Radio Rich" Dalton, Rosie "Radio Rose" Dalton, Sue Daniel, Jack Davis, Mike Doran, Ron "Johnny Rabbit" Elz, David "Grafman" Graham, Shelly "Grafman" Graham, Joy Grdnic, Teddy Habeck, and Reverend Steve "The Gatekeeper" Hammond.
Donnie O’Day, Lee "The Pumpkin" Coffee, Randy Raley, Vince Richards, Edward "Sir Ed" Rickert, John Roberts, Steve Rosen, Jack Silver, Jim Singer, Peter Skye, JP Soto, Ron Stevens, Ken Suitter, Dave Shelton, Asher "Smash" Benrubi, John Williams, and Steve "Hitman" Haas.
John Ulett August 27 1980
Alan Hofer, Ruth Hutchison, Drew Johnson, Karen Klaus, Mark Klose, Gary Kolander, Katy Kruze, Richard Louis, Ashley "Princess Knight" Lipe, Ron "Prince Knight" Lipe, Peter Maer, Joe "Mama" Mason, Dick Merkle, and Joel Meyers.Donnie O’Day, Lee "The Pumpkin" Coffee, Randy Raley, Vince Richards, Edward "Sir Ed" Rickert, John Roberts, Steve Rosen, Jack Silver, Jim Singer, Peter Skye, JP Soto, Ron Stevens, Ken Suitter, Dave Shelton, Asher "Smash" Benrubi, John Williams, and Steve "Hitman" Haas.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: KSHE 95 Radio, St. Louis Riverfront Times, All Access Music Group, Internet Archive, StLToday, indychauffuer.
