Joe and Moe

I was in charge of the KBAT station promotions. One day, Bob Magruder, the station manager, told me he wanted to create a very abrasive character who would rub everyone the wrong way, named Joe Rotton. Today, the description would probably be shock jock.

Anyhow, Joe had to be someone whose voice had never been heard on San Antonio radio. Bob's idea was to find a young soldier from one of the local military bases and groom him for the “Rotton” role. I was dead set against it and tried my best to talk Bob out of it. However, since Bob was one of my favorite station managers, I finally gave in.

An enlisted soldier (sorry, I can’t remember his real name) from Fort Sam Houston was finally selected. Now the hard work began, because the young soldier knew practically nothing about San Antonio and he was a mild-mannered, easy-going person to boot. I had to practically write his script for him, each night, to get him started.

Joe made all kinds of irreverent remarks, such as suggesting that they pave over the San Antonio River and make a drainage ditch out of it to get rid of that unsightly polluted stream throughout downtown. He made similar remarks about all the city's famous landmarks.

Joe quickly got the idea how things needed to work and was able to fly solo for most of the time. Additionally, the concept caught on right away and Joe Rotton had the most popular show on KBAT.

One of the best lines I remember from the show is when a young idol of Joe Rotten called in and rambled on about how he admired Joe and how great he was. Joe Rotten let him go on and on and when the fan finally finished, Joe said, "What do you want me to do? Run up a flag!" and then hung up on him.

Lee High School was on their way to the state football finals and each week in the playoffs Joe Rotten would build up their opponents and rail about what a lousy team Robert E. Lee was. When Lee played a quarter final game in Austin, a 50-foot banner was unfurled in the end zone just as Lee took to the field. It said, "Joe Rotten Says Beat Lee." When Lee finally made it to the state finals against Odessa Permian, Joe switched sides and started pulling for Lee. The outraged Lee fans were furious, and started calling the station saying they didn't want Joe’s support. He would be a jinx to them. Sure enough, Lee lost to Odessa in that game played in San Angelo.

After a while, the pressure built trying to force Joe off the air. We even had to hire a bodyguard to patrol outside the building to protect him each night.

Someone eventually found out Joe’s true identity and reported him to his commanding officer. The young soldier was forced to give up his show and to disappear into the woodwork.

Because the Rotton show was a moneymaker, we wanted to keep it going. That meant we had to look for a Joe replacement. We eventually hired a young fellow who had just been let go from KTSA. I am sorry, but I cannot remember his name either. We decided to name Joe’s replacement Moe, because he was "even mo' rotten than Joe." My immediate task was to carefully coach “Moe” to change his voice so that it would not be recognizable. Moe Rotton did well, but not as well as Joe, though no fault of the new disk jockey.

About this time, things changed. New management decided to change the KBAT format, so Moe...just disappeared.

George Lester

Moe Rotton

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