Here in the Star-Telegram's Thirty Something Bureau, though, we remember Marky Baby and the KFJZ Top 60 hits, a 1960s teenager's only link to the civilized world. In 1964, there was no MTV. No Entertainment Tonight.  If there was a Rolling Stone, Skillern's Drug didn't sell it.

For us, the Beatles came to life every afternoon on KFJZ, played almost non-stop by a loud, wise-guy disc jockey named Mark "Marky Baby'' Stevens.

In the week of Feb. 2, 1964, the Beatles had the top 11 songs on KFJZ's Top 60. I remember, because I had a fierce case of the mumps. I had to listen to the Beatles all week instead of to Mrs. Goodell at South Hi Mount Elementary School.

Every school morning of my life began with Porter Randall's deep-throated, very-serious morning newscast. Randall delivered news of the growing war in Vietnam, just as 23 years earlier he had told Fort Worth about a Sunday-morning bombing at Pearl Harbor. Friendly ""Big George'' Erwin played a few soft-pop records on his ""Coffee Cup Caper'' between Randall newscasts.

Bill Enis, a Fort Worth native who would go on to become Channel 5's sportscaster, anchored ""Swap-Shop'' after 9 a.m. Jack ""Mother'' Murray smoothed out the afternoon, then Marky Baby arrived at 3 p.m. Marky Baby was omnipresent. He would laugh, scream, play joke tapes, take requests and generally barge into your living room like a belligerent drunk. He also played songs, and when he got off at 6 p.m. he drove across town to KFWT//Channel 21 and did a half-hour TV show like American Bandstand.

The schticks worked, and Mark Stevens lasted a lot longer than KFJZ. He worked here till two years ago, when KEGL fired him as half of the foul-mouthed Stevens and Pruitt.

Randy ""Big R'' Robins wrapped up the night back then, running a request countdown on the 7-to-midnight show. I remember them all. They were my friends, part of my life. If KFJZ was playing some leftover doo-wop trash, I might listen to KXOL, only a half-twist over from 1270 AM to 1360. Dallas stations, even Ron Chapman's mighty KLIF-AM, pointed their signals east and were hard to pick up on those first tinny transistor radios.

A couple of years later, I wrote reporter Ken Carter a letter and asked him if someday, he could take me up with him in the KFJZ Traffic Copter. He never wrote back, perhaps because he was too busy collecting records for his future career as ""Hubcap'' Carter.

Late one night, I heard reporter John Moncrief come out of the blazing Royal Orleans Apartments fire and tell how he was inside when a burning 2-by-4 fell on his head. Only a few nights later, Gene Craft reported live from the burning Tandy Mart shopping complex, and told how trapped animals were screaming and crying inside Wilkinson's Pet Shop. I decided to become a reporter that night. Blame it all on KFJZ.