Pruett, half of the legendary Stevens & Pruett show, on Houston’s former Rock 101 KLOL, was 72. Mark Stevens died in 2011.
After serving in Vietnam, Pruett was hired by KNUZ-AM program director Buddy McGregor. In those days, Pruett went by the name Tony Raven on the Night Flight show playing the “hippie” style music that would define rock and roll. In the early 70s, KLOL founding program director Pat Fant hired Pruett to work mornings on the newly signed on 101 KLOL. He would eventually become program director. It was a chance to work in the persona of morning show characters Hudson and Harrigan with Fort Worth DJ Mark Stevens that took Pruett away from KLOL in the mid-70s. Eventually the duo realized they wanted to be themselves on air and worked stints at KULF-AM and 97.1 KEGL The Eagle in Dallas-Fort Worth as Stevens and Pruett. In the early 80s, as an intense radio war waged between ABC’s 97 Rock KSRR and KLOL, GM Patrick Fant made the move to bring Stevens and Pruett back to Houston.
In 1980, the duo founded the Stevens and Pruett Ranch, a 38-acre facility on County Road 59 near Texas 288. The ranch, which included a chapel, at one time provided a home for troubled and abandoned young men ages 12 to 17. Pruett opened a gun store after his run on the radio.
A public memorial for Jim Pruett is planned for Saturday, October 1st in Houston. It will coincide with a previously scheduled KLOL Reunion for the station’s staff, personalities, management and sales force. .A GoFundMe campaign, expected to be finalized this week, will allow those who wish to do so contribute to The Stevens and Pruett Humane Ranch which connects “damaged” kids with “damaged” animals for the benefit of both.
Thanks to KLOL Promotions and Marketing Director Doug Harris for providing Radio Ink with the details of Pruett’s passing.
