- Title: Runaway Radio
- IMDb: link
Director Mike McGuff‘s documentary looks back at the history of Houston’s KLOL 101 FM featuring interviews with DJs (Jim Pruett, Dayna Steele, Crash, Outlaw Dave, Grego, Levi Booker, Jennifer Reyna, and others) and celebrities (including Lyle Lovett, ZZ Top‘s Dusty Hill, Melissa Etheridge, and Sammy Hagar) whose lives were changed by the station’s underground and progressive rock of the 1970s leading it to become one of the top-rated AOR stations of the 80s.
The documentary covers the rivalry with the other Houston rock station, crazy promotions (including a giant bra hanging from a billboard), various shows and personalities including the controversial “The Stevens and Pruett Show,” along with recounting various community outreach, all of which make up the legacy of the station prior to the slow death of KLOL after its sale, the increased corporate control, and the struggle of its format against the rise of Alternative Rock in the 1990s.
Runaway Radio is a fun and interesting look back for those who remember music before streaming. Both from those who worked there and the musicians providing their experiences with the station, there’s a sense of loss not only for KLOL fading away but the end of radio being a primary source to introduce new listeners to music which seems so contrary to the current on-demand world. The rise and fall of KLOL not only provides behind-the-scenes look at a single rock station who burned bright but also a bygone era of music the likes of which we may never see again.
Watch the trailer
