Don Samuel Air Personality / Production Director

Born in Liberty, Texas, Don Sam was raised in Barrett Station, just a few miles from Crosby, Texas. At the age of 15, Don went to live with his brother in Denver, Colorado. "Since I was 10-years-old, I would listen to radio not to hear the music, but to hear the DJ talk during commercials", Don said. "I used to just hang around the station, wanting to be in radio. I would just sit in the studio with the jocks and watching them work the board," Don remembers. In 1972, Don returned to Houston and enrolled in Elkins Institute to get his broadcasting license. He began working as part of the Houston radio scene in 1973. In 1980, he was offered a job as production manager at KCOH, 1430 AM, Houston's flagship AM station. Offered the afternoon time slot he had so desperately coveted in 1981, the rest is KCOH history. Don's specialty shows, like "Two-steppin' Tuesdays", "Artists Battle Showdowns" on Friday and "More Memory Mondays" are all classic Don Sam.

Don has recieved some much-deserved recognition for his dedication to radio broadcasting in recent years. In 1999 Don recieved the first Lorine Wade-Hunter Award for his 20-plus years of broadcasting service to the surrounding communities. In 1989, he recieved the AM Announcer of the Year Award from the young Black Programmers Coalition, the first AM announcer from Houston to be so honored. Don is one of the only on-air announcers that you will regularly hear doing advertising spots on competing stations located in the same market, a rarity in radio broadcasting.

Don and his wife Marilyn were married in 1991. They attend New Light Christian Center Church in the Greenspoint area of north Houston. The church services with pastor Dr. I.V. Hilliard can be seen on the cable channel Black Entertainment Television (BET) every Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m, during which Don does all the voice production work for the show. "There's a whole lot of people better than Don Sam, but there's nobody that can be me like me. I'm happy with who I am. There was a time when I wasn't happy, but since I've been a born-again Christian, I've enjoyed life. Without Christ in my life, I don't know where I would be," Don says.

Find out more about the amazing life of Don Samuel and buy the book at: www.marilynsamuel.com