My social media feeds are filled with heartwarming tributes to my all-time favorite Houston columnist, Ken Hoffman who died this weekend.
I said in a recent interview on the 90.1 KPFT "Houston Hour" with Mister McKinney and Heidi Vaughan, that my whole blog is just ripping off Hoffman's TV column work...he just did it way better. And I could never write the fantastic non-media columns he did. I am not interesting or witty enough.
When I first started this blog almost 20 years ago, one of my first sit down interviews was with Hoffman who was a columnist with the Houston Chronicle (listen to the interview embedded below).
To be honest, I was totally starstruck. In fact, the photo of Hoffman many people are using in Facebook posts today was the one I took all the way back then.
He seemed to be notoriously camera shy and wasn't thrilled to take the photo, but was nice enough to do it for me. We met that day in 2007 to do the interview at the now shuttered JMH Market & Cafe in Hoffman's favorite city of West University where he lived and often wrote about. I framed the interview about his new position with the newly signed on 1560 The Game KGOW, but I just wanted to interview him period.
I would go on to be a Hoffman show guest and usually there was some kind of controversy that followed!
And you have to know, I really don't know anything about sports. I am the last person who should be on sports talk radio, but it was Hoffman and no way was I going to miss that opportunity!
The first time, I got in major trouble for going on the air with Hoffman and co-host Raheel Ramzanali with my employer at the time, abc13 KTRK. I showed up to promote the new abc13.com high school sports section which eventually earned a Lone Star EMMY award. However, my promotional efforts were not appreciated. I was asked to write an essay about what I had done. It was like being back in school.
If anything the luster of working for channel 13 was quickly disappearing after that and I eventually bailed. So what did I do next? Went back on as a guest with the Hoff again!
This time, co-host David Nuno and I hatched a plan to surprise Hoffman. I arranged a surprise phone call from then KPRC 2 evening anchor Dominique Sachse during the show. Unfortunately, Hoffman did not like surprises, but his interview with her turned out great!
Speaking of camera shy, I tried to interview Hoffman for my 101 KLOL documentary "Runaway Radio." He had covered the station extensively for the Houston Post, Chronicle and CultureMap, but he did not want to participate. As he wrote in his own column, he wasn't exactly a fan of the station, but I thought his perspective would be good. One of many who got away. Still, he was always supportive of my efforts as he covered the film numerous times.
Appearing in his column never got old to me. He revealed my new gigs, and he was nice enough to reveal his on my blog. Both of us are night owls because we would email after midnight on multiple occasions.
I would like to hope there was a mutual appreciation between the two of us. There certainly was a big appreciation from my side.
Rest in peace Hoffy, Houston will miss your humor, witty writing and unique takes. Where else will be able to learn about H-Town, Beatles, Seinfeld, Reg “Third Degree” Burns...etc.?
