Bob Nelson Checks In!

Hey, folks, Dave M. assists once again in helping fill in more KAAY history! His friend, Bob Nelson, Operations Director from 1976 to 1978, fills us in:

"As much as I enjoy broadcast history, until today I wasn't even aware of``The Mighty 1090 KAAY'' blog site. It's a great resource and I appreciate the time and effort put into keeping the memories alive.

As for me, my stint at KAAY/KEZQ was all-too-brief, stretching from winter 1976 to late summer 1978. In that short span of time, I worked with an outstanding collection of people. I subsequently worked in larger markets than Little Rock (Nashville, Pittsburgh and Dallas) but I always look back to my days in Little Rock as the most fun I've ever had in any job.

I was really just on the periphery of the great people that worked there. My job was running the automated Bonneville beautiful music companion,KEZQ. My actual title was Operations Director but it amounted to little more than keeping the Schafer-903 programmed. But the part I enjoyed the most was doing weekends and fill-in over on KAAY. It was a blast giving the phone number for the hit lines, complete with area code (501) 661-1212. It never got old picking up the phone and getting a request from places like Des Moines, New Orleans, Duluth and Bismarck.

For a while I did middays on the AM and had the pleasure of working with Farm Service Director Marvin Vines, a true gentleman.

As for Dave Montgomery, I have this one story to share which reveals the true measure of the man. One weekend, I was driving back to Little Rock after visiting friends from college up in Nashville. My little red Mercury Capri had close to 200,000 miles on it when the engine finally blew out in the little town of Widener, AR on the far side of Forest City. This happened around 1:00 early on a Sunday morning and I was scheduled to do live assist on KEZQ for morning drive. Dave was doing the regular weekly maintenance for KAAY at the studio. I called the hotline and told him of my dilemma. Without a complaint, he hopped in the station jeep and drove the 200+ mile round trip to get me back what seemed like the middle of nowhere back to Little Rock.

There are other anecdotes I can share about Dave (and other KY-ers) but that act of generosity is among the more memorable. -- Bob Nelson"

Bob we certainly hope you'll check in often...we'll be looking forward to many more stories and anecdotes...and, thanks to Dave M. for bringing Bob on board. Kudos, gentlemen!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)