The Author

In 2001, while searching for people on the internet who might have old recordings of KSHE, I came across someone with a vintage reel-to-reel tape of KSHE recorded in 1970. Up until that year, my hobby was family history. The tape hadn't been played in 30 years and contained six hours of KSHE recorded by Mehlville High School graduate Ralph Morse prior to being sent to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War  On the tape were commercials, DJ chatter, and music. The DJs talked of The Doors new release Morrison Hotel. KSHE DJ Dick Merkle prophetically spoke of Jethro Tull: “One of these days they’re gonna make it and everything is gonna be alright.” Morse took the tape with him and played it at the U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand, giving the locals a sample of what young people enjoyed in St. Louis. A few of those at the base thought the signal had carried around the world and they were picking it up live. What was on that tape was unlike anything I had ever heard. What was on that tape ended my search in my family's past. I had a new hobby. After several years of collecting vintage recordings of KSHE, that hobby turned into a book, helped inspire a KSHE reunion and became a large source of vintage artifacts and recordings for the debut of the KSHE Real Rock Museum.

Background

I grew up in Collinsville, Ill. In 1976, I attended Superjam, my first rock concert. That year I began listening to KSHE. Over the next several years, I started frequenting shows at Kiel Auditorium and The Checkerdome. By 1979, I had started waiting all night at Peaches and Co-Op Records to score good seats. That year, I also began to photograph shows and took a number of front-row shots of bands that were at the peak of their success, including Van Halen, Sammy Hagar and Bob Seger. In 1983, I recorded Ruth Hutchinson and the Klassics show for a year. I also enlisted in the Air Force and took those KSHE tapes along to my first assignment in Florida. At Eglin Air Force Base, I occasionally played the tapes to my co-workers, who didn't quite understand the concept of an 89-year-old lady playing rock.

I have worked in graphic arts for more than 25 years. Ten of those years were in publishing. For the last nine years I have worked for a large advertising agency in Chicago. I have been married to my wife Kim for more than 21 years. We have two children, Michelle and Sean, along with two cats named Milo and Zeda, a dog named lucy, Seth the boa constrictor, Speedy the turtle and a couple of fish.