Kevin Connor Celebrates His 44th Texanniversary
Kevin Connor celebrates his 44th Texanniversary this week on A Hill Country Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. He’ll be playing just some of the great artists and bands he has come to know and love since first coming to Austin in the first week of August in 1981. Though the radio was physically out of Kevin’s reach growing up- with his radio veteran mom stacking their home radio on their refrigerator high above the kids’ reach so they couldn’t play with it- Kevin’s gone on to lead a legendary radio career in Austin.
Originally from Boston, Kevin attended Washington & Lee University in Virginia. There, he studied English and got into archaeology, but more than anything Kevin says he studied radio. He worked at the student radio station, WLUR-FM, and loved watching PBS’ Austin City Limits. His Texan classmates introduced his love for Texas music and encouraged him to move to Austin. Fatefully, Kevin finally came down to Texas on August 3, 1981, for the wedding of two college friends. He almost immediately got a part-time job at a radio station and made Austin his home, only leaving briefly for a California job in the mid 90s.
“The first night I was in town, one of my college friends brought me down to Liberty Lunch, which is long gone. First week of August 1981, and there was a band called Beto and the Fairlanes playing. And this guy named ‘Mambo,’ John Trainor, who was one of their two percussionists, he was leading the crowd at a limbo contest,” Kevin said. “He was bent at the knees and perpendicular, and I just remember- to this day, and I hope I never forget- the look of pure joy on his face. And I remember looking around going, ‘Wow, this place is cool. It’s hot, but it’s cool.’”
Starting in 1986, Kevin began hosting a local music program highlighting local/regional Texas artists called “The Sound of Our Town.” The program was originally an hour long Sunday show on Z102, however, Sun Radio has since embraced the phrase and idea. “The Sound of Our Town” now runs weekdays at 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. & weekends at noon, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Though he’s been dedicated to radio, Kevin also served two tours of duty as a staffer at SXSW and served as Chairman of the Austin Music Commission for 5 years.
He joined Sun Radio as host of A Hill Country Saturday 11 years ago in April of 2014 and came on as host of weekday mornings in 2015. 11 into 44 means a full one quarter of Kevin’s life in Austin has been spent on the air on Sun Radio!
