98 KZEW-DALLAS FT WORTH

www.thezoofile.com
Ken Rundel... actually, the first voice on The Zoo played Simon & Garfunkel's "At the Zoo" as the station begin broadcasting from Communications Center in Dallas. With a 97.9, nearly 100,000 watts of power and the backing of what was then The Belo Broadcasting Corp., the station went from "beautiful music" WFAA-FM to KZEW-FM, aka The Zoo.
Shortly after Ira left W-4 in Detroit and joined John Dew in Dallas, he called W-4 DJ's Mark Addy and Gary Shaw, trying to convince them to move to Dallas to be on the proposed "Zoo."  I was PD at W-4 after Ira left.  Mark and Gary told Ira they wouldn't come unless I did, too.  So he asked me and I accepted.
As soon as I got to Dallas, Ira and I toured Texas, listening to other DJ's, trying to find some local talent.   We found Mike Taylor in Austin.  Mark Christopher (Underkofler) applied for a job.  Ira also liked some local Dallas DJ whose name I can't remember.  But on our "practice" day he excused himself.  Nice move, fella.