Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sonny Martin (Matt White) At Pfeiffer Blass

Compliments of Barry Mac, folks! The more we dig, the more audio history erupts from files all over! It is only due to diligence, passion and drive that memories are awakened, opened and, someone says, "Yeah, I remember something about that...it's GOTTA be up in the attic!", and badda-bing, badda-boom, we get to share it with YOU!

This comes from the 1971-1974 era...someone (I think it was Dave M.) positively identified this as Matt White, which would be about right in the deejay line-up:

Sonny Martin at Pfeiffer Blass (stream) | (download)



Barry Mac is able to supply us with clear, great audio he's downloaded and recorded, free of static, hiss and atmospheric noise. I had a great conversation with him about a week ago from this post and I had an absolutely great time visiting with him.

Keep 'em coming, Barry!

(Thanks to Dave S. for all that audio help!)

--Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Saturday, January 30, 2010

My Thanks To You...

Dear readers,

I wanted to give thanks for all who contribute to the blog; without them, there would be no blog, nor little tribute to one of the greatest stations ever to grace the dial, KAAY. The deejays, engineers and everyone who worked at or contributed in some way to the station, my hat is off to you. Your stories, anecdotes and contributed materials are of utmost value to us. To the audio and memorabilia collectors, you have also helped in a great way to add to the memories. And to the listeners, your comments and memories further enrich the history of KAAY, as well.

I cannot even BEGIN to be able to thank Those Greats Who Were There: Jerry Sims, David B. Treadway, Greg Fadick, Dave Montgomery, Don Payne, Jonnie King, Phil North, Mark Larson, Barry McCorkindale, and others, who have given of their time and talent to sift back through the years, to contribute and share their valuable memories, recordings and materials with us. The same warm gratitude goes out to Dave Schmidt, Richard Robinson, Ron Henselman, John Shultz, Greg Barman, Tom “The Voice” Perryman and others, who either put in sweat equity, time, talents or materials, to keep this tribute site going. And, especially to you, dear reader, who takes the time to visit, leave a comment, or gives insight on your KAAY enjoyment- I thank you.

This is NOT “my” blog...it belongs to everyone. My passion, drive and love of great memories of KAAYs’ Top 10 heyday compels me to constantly search, research and do the best possible to bring even more history “to the page”. I constantly beg, plead, cajole, entice and otherwise harass the aforementioned Greats for their memories- and they so willingly and graciously comply, all because of their love of the station and the fun they had while at KAAY. I cede authority to Them in matters of KAAY history. However, without EVERYONE’S contributions, this blog would have died a quick death.

Have I made mistakes? Yes, I have, I humbly apologize...and I’ve done my best to correct them, when alerted to the fact. I depend on everyone connected with the station to keep me straight! Only the true history of the station is coveted here. I understand opinions abound, at times; that is to be expected. They’ll be left to the “comments” section of the posts, if they warrant merit, OR, if deemed important enough, as in the search for more history, posted appropriately. However, as I’ve mentioned to the various contributors as I’ve contacted them or interviewed with them over the phone: we do not run an “Enquirer” here and “dirt” will not be tolerated.

My humble thanks to all...and may we all be able to keep this blog alive for some time to come. Your contributions of audio, station memorabilia, memories and what-have-you are always welcome; we’ll share them here for all to enjoy!

Bud Stacey (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Friday, January 29, 2010

Re: The Don Marcus Question

Although this was during my tenure at KAAY I don’t remember Don Marcus nor do I recognize the voice. However, if I were going to risk conjecture, I think he may have been there, perhaps as a short-timer in between Clyde Clifford and Stuart McRae. This is only a “SWAG” and I most humbly bow to anyone with better information.

Dave M/

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Don Marcus, June 2, 1974

Greg Barman has contributed a 6:44 scoped aircheck of Don Marcus's overnight (post 2am) shift on KAAY.  Greg previouly submitted this clip to A.J. Lindsey with this comment:

Here’s an aircheck from the early morning of June 2, 1974, received on the skywave at my home in Evanston, IL, north of Chicago. There’s some fading, but the signal is usually good and sometimes downright awesome, strong as a local station. The jock is Don Marcus and he’s cranking out the jingles and the hits including some “hard core rock’n’roll at the 50,000 watt Mother of Arkansas”. Since the jocks usually assumed the names of the LIN board members, who this really was is anybody’s guess.

The aircheck starts with the opening for “Beaker Theater” at 2:00am, followed by the overnight rock format from 3:30-4:30am. Note the nighttime Voice of Arkansas promos – “greetings to the Great South” and later to “Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.” KAAY loved to use big voices on its imagers, you’ll hear Gary Gears on several of them and also that of WLS/Chicago morning newsguy Lyle Dean on the News IQ contest promo. Answer the news IQ questions and you could win $10.90! I figure that’s about $45 in today’s dollars.

(download here)


So, who was "Don Marcus"?   Where is he these days?  Anyone know?

Thanks to Greg for contributing the audio clip!

---Dave S.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hearing Jerry "Sonny Martin" Sims....

Jerry was the only Sonny Martin I ever had the honor of hearing at my location near Chicago. Maybe I missed a lot by being only in skywave range of the station, but I still cherish every bit of what I was able hear. I'm sure I missed many wonderful personalities.

Ron H.

(Ron, I, too, heard Jerry...when he was in Mobile a few weeks ago, we did the math and it was apparant that I heard him as well, when I was a kid...we had fun talking about a bunch of things along that line!  I wish I'd have been as wise as you and others who recorded things, but a kid doen't normally think of things like that...otherwise, I'd have Jerry on tape!  Bud S.)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Jerry"Sonny Martin" Sims, Setting The Record Straight

Anonymous (I wonder who that was) got several facts right, but was confused on just a few. Possibly I can fill in some blanks....... A.J.'s first hire was me (to replace Wayne Moss/Sonny Martin) and Tommy Riggs did not come along for a while. You might look up an early blog comment about Tommy calling me while I was on the air one night....."Please tell me that you are Jerry Sims, and please get me a job there!". He was traveling with his band somewhere in the upper mid-west. Tommy and I had worked for A.J. when we were first starting in radio back at KXLR in Little Rock. I told A.J., they got together and Tommy took over the 8pm-Midnight shift as Rock Robbins. I am thinking that is when I took the Sonny Martin Program to mid day. I believe it was Jim Hankins who always said it was a "Program", not a "show", 'cause you couldn't show anything. Well, we tried to!

Also Matt White was not an "early" hire.....'cause it was me, and I did not leave until 1967. Matt took my place and name. And George J. Jennings did not leave "soon" after A.J., because he was still there in 1967 when I left. I listened to Bruce Jenkins after I left, but we never worked there at the same time. So "Mr. A.", (or is it Ms. A.?) has some real inside knowledge, and we appreciate it. If these little "fill in" details really matter........... "now you know.......the rest of the story".

I just turned up some new pictures, along with the Bob Mullins one, and will send one of Tommy Riggs (awarding a contest winner a new Lawn Boy Mower) out in front of the KAAY 7th Street location. Also a "not so clear" shot of the building. For those familiar with Little Rock, the location was adjacent to the State Capital Building. The street right in front of the capital building, which was called Woodlawn back then, ran right up our driveway on the southern end. The building, that one that David B. and I would pay big bucks to re-enter, was torn down after the station moved to Cottonwood Lane.







I enjoy all comments on the blog. Thanks to those who put in all the time getting them out. I will try to do my little part too.

Jerry "Who was really there as the middle Sonny Martin" Sims

Farewell, Pernell Roberts....

Bonanza star (and star of other shows, as well) Pernell Roberts passed into the hearafter, January 24, 2010.  There are a few reasons I mention him, even though he wasn't involved with the radio industry: he starred as Adam Cartwright on the show Bonanza, which started in 1959 and was the Number 1 show from 1964 to 1967...during some of the greatest years (some consider) of KAAY...and it was a great show to watch growing up!  In ten of its 14 years on the air, it was in the Top Ten, as well.  He also starred in, "Trapper John, M.D." which I didn't watch much, but he played the character as a spin-off from another favorite show of mine, M*A*S*H.

Pernell Roberts cut a folk album, "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies"...which, I doubt any of which aired on KAAY, but still, was a musical endeavor of his.  He also served in the Marines before acting in the 1950's...Ooh-rah!

I wonder how he rode off into the sunset: in a jeep or on a horse?  Nonetheless, good memories....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Bob Mullins, The 2nd Buddy Carr


I was excited to find among my old stuff a picture of the old control board at KAAY. This is from the original control room upstairs in the KTHV Television station. This was home to KAAY from the start and for a few years after. I am not certain of the year we moved from there to the 7th Street location. (Help me somebody! ...1965 or 1966?) We did not take a lot of pictures back then, unless they had a promotional purpose. This one is of Bob Mullins, the second Buddy Carr. There was one after him, Richard Wiethan, who was number three. The station retired the name after Richard was killed in a National Guard training accident in 1967.

There were lots of exciting times behind that board. These were the most popular days of the station ( in my opinion). You can see one turntable off to the left....there was another off to the right. The white labels are carts with all commercials, jingles and promos. You can see three cart machines behind Bob. In the upper right corner you can see a little of the window that provided a view into the KAAY Comex News booth/room. The phone on top of the board was left alone for transmitter calls, etc.

Just to the right of the board was a phone with ten lines. They were flashing most of the time at night. Most of us would answer when we could. It was always fun to see who was listening and from where. I recall that when I was working the 8pm to midnight shift, the lines would start to light up about ten minutes before we returned from our religious block (6:30 to 8pm) to good ole Top 40 fun for our part of the world. Salesmen, who made lots of money off the religion, would prefer we come out of the religion with one of our softer sounding records. I, on the other hand, thought all those listeners had waited long enough, and might prefer some Mitch Rider or Paul Revere and the Raiders. I never got any negative thoughts from A.J. (Program Director) or Len Carl or Pat Walsh (General Managers). Always, they let us do our thing. It seemed to work very well.

Many times regular listeners from other states outside Arkansas would travel to Little Rock and want to visit us there. Visitors after hours was a definite no-no with the TV station. That did not usually slow us down. I always thought that if a listener traveled to Little Rock, and wanted to visit for a while in person it was the least I could do. I do not remember any visitor not being in full surprise, that all that fun was coming from just one guy, behind that board with a stack of 45's, many more recorded voices, and the greatest jingles in the world. I suppose I am now kind of amazed too, looking back on it. Lots of credit goes to Felix McDonald and his crew too, for cranking that signal out so far to so many. I sure am proud to have been a small part of it.

Last time I saw my friend Bob Mullins was many years ago when he flew through Little Rock delivering a small airplane from California to someone back east. He made a short stop in Little Rock to refuel. He called, and we got to visit for a while. Possibly some day he will get word of the blog. He was a great Top 40 DJ with a great voice. I promise he would have some interesting stories of the glory days of KAAY.

Listeners were not the only ones having fun.....can you tell?

Jerry Sims......Sonny Martin .....The middle one

Monday, January 25, 2010

Beaker Street New Year's Eve Aircheck Question

Guillaume Lanfray said...


Glad I could help! Now can someone tell me the name & artist of that "grizzly bear" song at the very end of Part 4 of the Beaker Street airchecks?

(Guillaume is referring to the 12/31/1971 New Year's Eve Aircheck in reply to Greg Barman's "Thank you"...anyone know the song he's referring to?  Bud S.)

KAAY-Megalomania Info

Bruce M said...


Bud, this aircheck came from me, I had it on a tape segment. The album reference puts a reasonably close date stamp. I'm thinking it was recorded beyween Aug 75 - 76. There's another aircheck..."77/stuar...." that I found & posted, accurately dated, as it mentions Rush's new album, Farewell to Kings.

KAAY Tidbits

Wayne Moss (Sonny Martin) was on the air from 12:30-3:00 (following Marvin Vines 12-12:30) and he became PD when Jim Hankins (Mike McCormick) left the station in early '64.

It was Hankins who was the mastermind when the KAAY signed on with the new format and call letters. He would go on to PD positions at WLS, WABC, and top stations in Houston.

The afternoon drive 3:00 - 6:30 was Bob Mullins, (Buddy Carr). Garner Ted and others were on 6:30 - 8:00.

Moss left the station after a very short stint and was replaced as PD by A.J. Lindsey, (Doc Holiday.)

Also leaving during the approximate time period was George Jennings, (replaced as News Director by B. Bruce Jenkins), who went home to Texas and KBOX in Dallas. He would later move to WOAI and San Antonio. Jennings returned to Little Rock in the 70s but would go back to Texas and briefly New Orleans before retiring from WOAI in the late 90s.

A couple of A.J.'s first hires were Tommy Riggs for the night shift, and Matt White as the new Sonny Martin. Riggs was a talented musician in his own right and would leave for Nashville in the mid-70s. (His bother Steve continues to live in Little Rock.)

White would leave 1090 for KSSN and was allowed to taken the "Sonny Martin" name with him. He retired from broadcasting a few years later and moved to s resort on the Little Red River near Heber Springs which his wife's family owned. He can still be heard on stations in the Searcy market.

(Good info, left as a comment from an anonymous source...thank you!  Bud S.)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Beaker Street Megalomania Aircheck

I can't recall where I got this aircheck; it is labelled, "Beaker St KAAY 1975-08 or Later Megalomania".  It's just a 33-second aircheck at the end of a Black Sabbath selection.  The announcer sounds like Clyde Clifford.  Give a listen- can anyone verify who this is?


(download here)


Just one of those curiosity things of mine....Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
(Thanks to Dave S. for the audio link!)

Friday, January 22, 2010

Wayne Moss & The WOAI-KAAT Bet

Dave M. and David B. Treadway identified Wayne Moss as the voice behind the WOAI-KAAY bet, previously posted.  Wayne was a "Sonny Martin", left KAAY then came back and used his own name, which was a rare case, since the moniker was already in use (Was Matt White using "Sonny Martin" at the time, does anyone know?  I'm supposing so...Bud S.).

Dave M. sends along some goodies gleaned from A. J. Lindsey's old blog that we gladly share here:





Note that the date on the personality profile is 9/27/62 and Wayne Moss was 25 years young at the time this was released.

Click on the attachments, they should expand for better viewing.  Thank you, Dave M.!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Jan Gabriel Comments

Denise Dorman said...

Thanks for remembering Jan. He was a very special person who touched thousands of lives.

(...and...)

I think Jan touched more than thousands. Many of his fans never knew his name, but they knew his voice. He inspired many of us who wanted to sound like him, but even more important than that, he made every commercial stick in every listener's mind. I was testing transmitters yesterday, and each one had a slight digital delay. I found myself saying, "Sunday, Sunday." Thank you for your comments. Ron Henselman

1972 KAAY-WOAI Bet

KAAY always had SOMETHING going on!  Sometimes two or three promotions at a time.  This time, it was a bet between KAAY and WOAI down in Texas, regarding the 1972 Razorback-Longhorn football game.

If the Razorbacks won, the WOAI had to send 100 lbs. of prime steak to KAAY; if the Longhorns won, KAAY had to send 100 lbs. of ham.  In addition, the losing station's deejay  (between KAAY's Wayne Moss and WOAI's Bob Moody) would have to go to the winning deejay's city and treat him to a fine meal.

I like the spunk in this announcement- the announcer said, "...when the Longhorns lose..."...but it was not to be:  Arkansas lost to Texas, 15-35 on 10/21/72:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas_Razorbacks_football,_1970–1979

Can anyone identify the announcer in this audio clip?  By the way, Barry McCorkindale donated this audio clip for all of us to enjoy...thank you, Barry Mac!


(download here)

(Thanks to Dave S. for help with the audio!)

(Dave M. says it is Wayne Moss...thanks, Dave!  Bud S,)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

BE THERE! SUNDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

In 1971, Phil North and I would cut the Carlisle Dragway spots on Thursday, to start on Friday with a heavy schedule that would wrap up at the last possible minute (roughly noon) on Sunday.

Phil would set levels in the production room by having me yell at the top of my lungs into both microphones in the voice booth: an Electro-Voice 667 and an RCA 77DX. He would roll tape on an Ampex 350 (the left-hand rear machine) and join me in the booth, where it was literally off to the races.

“SUNday at Carlisle Dragway” was how they always began, with Phil taking the first line. We’d go from there, trading back and forth as loud as we could, as fast as we could. I remember “O.D. Brazil in his top fuel dragster” figuring prominently in the spots—after that it was a litany of racers’ names and their “stocks, super modifieds and funny cars!” “Time trials at 10:00 AM, racing starts at noon!”

Inevitably, we’d get the giggles somewhere in the first or second take. I’d blow a line and start laughing, but Phil always stayed in character. “I can’t BELIEVE you screwed up (NOT the term he used) something that simple!” he’d shout, just like it was in the script. “I’m working with a MORON!” We’d waste a bunch of tape before I could get it back together.

We usually had it by the third take and Phil didn’t have to edit the track for time. This was because of the considerable copywriting chops of Kaye Risser, another of the great women of KAAY. Before she turned in any piece of copy, she’d read it aloud and put a stopwatch on it.

The backing track was contained on a gray Fidelipac tape cartridge labeled “Drag loop.” Phil had found maybe ten seconds of music that sounded like the intro to the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” on steroids and had looped it out to a full sixty seconds—probably took him all of five minutes. The drag race sound effects came from the Major Production Library and featured the unmistakable roar of supercharged hemi-head Dodge engines from California strips.

The Carlisle spots were about the only ones where Phil would use the built-in limiter in the Collins tube-amp console. You had to lift the lid and turn a couple of knobs to get what Phil called the “big fat” sound. (To this day, my pet name for any good compressor/limiter is “fat box.”) When he had finished the mix, the needle on the VU meter barely moved.

Phil and I were by no means the only voices of Carlisle. I remember Mike McCormick (Barry Wood) and George Jennings taking their turns. No doubt, everyone who had ever been on production duty appeared on at lest one Carlisle spot. It seems that the raceway started advertising on KAAY shortly after the Great Debut of 1962 and was thoroughly integrated into the station folklore by the time I got there.

I don’t think even one of the Carlisle spots from Phil’s tenure made it to his extensive archives—and I sure hope I’m wrong about that.

“Carlisle Dragway, thirty miles from Little Rock, ninety miles from Memphis on I-40! Be there! Sundaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”

I swear I can still smell burning rubber…

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ron H. Comments On Jan Gabriel

Take a look at this link to YouTube. The person doing the show, who is Bob Sirott, brought an antique radio to my former employer to be restored. Since I like Bob, I restored it on my own time and donated the parts from my dad's forty year old stock.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMqhq67xei0&NR=1

I never realized Jan Gabriel was the voice in the dragstrip commercials; I remembered him as a guy who hosted a show on TV called "Up Tempo." It was sort of an "American Bandstand" show which originated in Chicago. If Jan Gabriel only knew how many times I tried to mimic his dragstrip commercials, he would have had a good laugh. He became the announcer for Santa Fe Speedway. It was advertised as the only speedway with a track of clay. I was never there for the races, but the wooded and unpaved parking lot was the site where at least three major hamfests were held during the summer months. I'll bet I was there at least thirty or forty times on a Sunday, but there weren't any races while I was there.

I forgot to mention Bob Sirott was one of the WCFL deejays during the station's most popular years.

73,

Ron

(In the Ham radio world, "73" is short for "best regards", originating in Morse Code, when we abbreviated as much as possible.  Both Ron and I are Ham radio operators...Bud)

Drag Race Announcer CD!

In regards to Dave M.'s post about Jan Gabriel, I started to snoop about the 'web, looking for information on the old Carlisle Dragway...and found an interesting CD offer, "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Be There!"  You can click on the link within the link below to hear a sample of the CD and find how to order it.  Fun stuff for drag race fans!

http://www.hotrodder.com/trackforum/dragstrips.html

There WAS some discussion there about dragstrips around the country, including Carlisle Dragway, but the latter has since been purged.  Well, there's the CD!

Did anyone remember KAAY being on-site for any races?  Does anyone have any photographs they'd like to post here from Carlisle Dragway?  Send the attachments to my address below and I'll post them!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

"Greetings!"

I was listening to a Don Marcus 6/2/74 aircheck, which contained the announcement:

"Greetings, to the great South: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Sunshine State of Florida, this is the nighttime voice of Arkansas, KAAY, Little Rock!"

...in that deep, rich voice we all love to hear!!!!

Another announcement later in the aircheck includes, "Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Caribbean..."
And, as deeply south as the signal reached, I'd also like to say "Greetings!" to San Jose, Costa Rica, who just checked in!

We've had well over 6900 "hits" since we started this blog- not as many as others- but we serve a niche audience, and a loyal one at that, from all over the North American continent...plus, we have visitors in Europe and Asia, as well.

Welcome all!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

"SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!"

We recently lost Jan Gabriel, who made these dragway spots famous.
======================================================

SAD DAY! SAD DAY! SAD DAY!

Hail and farewell to Jan Gabriel, long time Chicago voice talent and inventor of the iconic "SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!" ads for Chicago's U.S. 30 Dragstrip in the 70's.

Mr. Gabriel, 69, passed away after a long battle with kidney disease, appropriately enough on Sunday.
========================================

KAAY advertised for “Carlisle Dragway, I-40 in Carlisle, Arkansas” in a style that mimiced this historic radio voice. I don’t remember who did the spots for KAAY, but maybe DBT does – there were several as I remember.

There’s a good video on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYzidMqq4o

BE THERE! SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Dave M/

"Blues Alley" on KAAY

A regular reader and contributor to the blog, pauls66, posed a question:

"In regards to KAAY, I have one question for the blog.  Is there anyone who remembers a short-lived overnight show called "Blues Alley"?  The show ran sometime around 1981.  I also wonder if anyone rolled tape on the show."

Thanks, Paul!  OK, to Those Greats Who Were There: anything in those wonderful, knowledge-filled memory banks?  And, if anyone has an aircheck of this, please contact me so we can post it here for everyone to enjoy!

Thanks, Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Have You Gotten Your Monitoring Times?

Well, I was planning to go to the magazine store & buy a few copies Saturday, for the article written about KAAY, but no one in Mobile, AL had it yet!  I was told in all instances that the next magazine shipment was expected by "next Thursday", so I'm waiting!  If you got your copy, what did you think?

In the meantime, available time and webspace here has been at a premium to do research and to write and post; also, work has increased (thank God for the business!), so my apologies for being slack here on the blog.  This is a labor of love and none of us garners wages...but, the benefits of uncovering "new" goodies and audio are boundless!  Things are in the works, however....

Speaking of business, we here in Mobile just rolled out the new LCS-2 and business in Alabama is holding it's own, as reported in several business journals.  If these pics don't make you proud, you're not a true-blue American patriot....



Besides this, Alabamians build some mighty fine stuff, despite some Congresscritter's offhanded comments...


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Teddy Pendergrass, R.I.P.

Yesterday, January 13, 2010, Teddy Pendergrass passed away at age 59.  I listened to lots of his music growing up.  Great R & B artist....

Croon on, Teddy, I'm sure they're using your voice in Heaven....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100114/people_nm/us_pendergrass_dead

Bud S.

Request From Paul Bankston

I was a late comer to the radio wars in LR during the early-mid 70's. I worked with Fadick, Treadway and Wood at KLAZ.

Does anyone know Where Wood is today?

Paul Bankston
pbankston@prodigy.net

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Felix McDonald

Felix McDonald has been mentioned in this and A. J.'s blog numerous times...everyone has said what a knowlegable man and gentleman he is.  I had the pleasure to speak with him briefly last night.  Mr. McDonald (I couldn't bear to call him Felix- I didn't feel worthy!) had a cold and had difficulty speaking.  He also mentioned, though, that he was recovering and doing better after the stroke he suffered.

As I spoke with him about KAAY, I mentioned that he was every bit of a hero of mine as was the deejays I listened to; also, that I was in awe of the Mighty 1090's RCA transmitter and all the moxie it had.  Funny thing, though, he wanted to talk more about Ham radio (which both of us are Extra Class operators) and he took my callsign ("...maybe we'll talk on 40 meters?") and my telephone number.  I will definitely call him later, hopefully, when he is feeling better.

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Jerry Sims' Memories Of Pat Walsh

As always, I enjoyed the post from David B. I have great memories too of Pat Walsh. My impressions of Pat run close to his. Anyone who knew Pat, I am sure, will have stories of his rough, gruff, exterior that he was very proud of. Not everyone got to see the other side. A comment that paints a great picture of Pat in the "compassion department" is this: As a young Sonny Martin, newly married, and feeling rather grown up, I arranged to buy a house. I wanted to take care of all the details of the buy without involving my financial consultant (my dad). When it came time to close on the house the mortgage company called with details of time and place. They also told me the amount of money I would need for closing. I had never known of anything called "closing costs".  I was in a heap of trouble having used all the money I could come up with for a down payment.

I was too embarrassed to talk to my dad about the money. I went to Pat and asked if it was possible to get an advance on my pay. He listened to my story and told me that it was a policy of Lin Broadcasting to never advance anyone pay. I turned to leave Pat's office when I heard him say...."but that doesn't keep me from giving you the money personally.  Just keep it between us." That was Pat. I feel free now to let y'all know. He was my boss and my friend.

Also on hearing the stories of the famous, loud butt chewings.....Funny, but Pat never said anything cross or otherwise to me about my time on the air. Also, not much from A.J.either. Mostly just good or constructive. (like how to say K A A Y without running the two A's together...and they had stopped us from using K- Double- A- Y) The other character in David B's post, G.J.J., a great radio newsman, was not my boss. We got along when we needed to.

Jerry Sims..The Middle....Sonny Martin

General Comments

Just some general comments from visitors...)

Wasn't KLRA previously KELC...when Ron Sherman owned it back in the late 70's-early 80's. That picture of KLRA seems very familiar of the KELC building in England, AR. Steve Martone briefly worked their also.

(...and...)

I worked for Pat at KITA-AM..while Tom Rusk was the engineer. That was my first radio gig. Pat used to make copies of his monthly FCC newletters so everyone would have a copy. Pat was a great guy. His daugher was a dorm-mate of my old girlfriend at UofA. Oh..I was told that KITA stood for "Krist Is The Answer." When Pat left Gary Vaile took over.

(Wish I had names...they just posted in as "Anonymous"....Bud S., staceys4@hotmail.com)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

David B. Answers Jim's Questions

RE: Walt Sadler and KLRA

Jim, Walt was indeed Brother Hal's newscaster at KLRA and he used his own name on the air. Jerry Hendrix worked there at the time and his voice sounded a good deal like Walt's. Perhaps that's it?

KLRA Little Rock does not exist as an AM station anymore. It was bought in the mid-90s (I think!) by the company that owned 1010 WINS in New York City. They shut it down in a bid to avoid interference on the frequency at night.

KLRA's nighttime pattern was one of the strangest I ever saw. It basically ran along I-40 to Memphis and along I-30 toward Dallas. In its time, it was a great favorite with truck drivers.

A television company applied for the KLRA call letters for one of their low-powered stations, as they did with the KKYK calls when Signal Media (which owned KLRA) abandoned them. I hope this helps a little!

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

More Pat Walsh Comments

spiritof67 said...

Pat Walsh reminds me of Robert Hyland. Hyland ran KMOX (CBS Radio) from 1960 until his death in 1992. He pioneered the "At Your Service" format which put KMOX in double digit ratings and annual sales figures in the millions. Hyland was ruthless, but had a keen sense of sales and programming talent--something one doesn't see very often.

Perhaps it takes a certain degree of ruthlessness to make things work, as long as its backed with intelligence, integrity, and an ability to see the big picture. It sounds like Pat Walsh had all of those qualities.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Jim Clark Comments....

In my original comment about Herbie Byrd, I neglected to mention an incident which reflects on his courage as a newsman. In the early 1960s, the Congressman from the Little Rock area was Dale Alford. He had a brother named Boyce Alford. Herbie had broadcast some news reports about Dale Alford that Boyce Alford took offense at, so he lay in wait outside Herbie's studio one evening and when he walked outside, attacked him, and roughed him up pretty good. That did not intimidate Herbie. He continued to report as always, and charges were brought against Boyce Alford, although I do not remember the ultimate disposition of the case. Incidentally, Herbie was a little guy. Boyce Alford was much bigger than he was.

I also must comment about Jerry's statements about Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. In my opinion, he was the consumate gentleman.  Always polite even to people who were attacking him. He also was the governor who brought Arkansas out of the darkness of segregation and discrimination into the era of equal rights for all. I appreciate Jerry's analysis of how patient he was.  You know, he had all the money in the world before he came to Arkansas, and he did a lot more for the state than the state ever did for him.

Jim Clark
Rogers, AR



(...and...)

Was Walt Sadler the newsman who did the news during the Brother Hal shows on KLRA? Didn't he use an air name of Jerry something? And what kind of station is KLRA today?

Jim Clark
Rogers, AR

(Walt Sadler's air name was Ron Owens at KAAY.  A.J. mentioned in his blog that Walt Sadler went on to do news at KLRA...at this time, this article is still available to read:

http://www.fewmets.net/articles/cochran/hal.html

Chasing the format, I found an interesting little link:

http://www.hibblenradio.com/KLRA.html

There's also mention of a KLRA-LP Univision Hispanic TV station in Arkansas:

http://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/us/4/94/25194

I'm getting mixed signals on a KLRA in Glendale, CA and one in Pulaski County, AR...and in my few minutes of research, I haven't found out which is the REAL KLRA...can anyone enlighten Jim and I, please?  Thank you!  Bud S., staceys4@hotmail.com)

Picturing Pat

The only person who scared me worse than George J. Jennings was Pat Walsh. Jennings was an imposing figure, over six feet tall, dark-haired and stentorian of voice. He looked—and sounded—like a full grown Orson Welles. He carried himself like Patton and did not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. Pat Walsh had no refinements that I was ever able to determine.

“Don’t you think he looks like a big old Razorback hog?” Phil North asked me early on. Yeah, I did!

Describing Pat reminds me of the fable of the six blind men who went to look at an elephant. One touched the side of the beast and said the elephant was like a wall. Another grabbed its tail and said the elephant was like a rope. The one who felt its trunk said the elephant was like a python, and so on. They each had a little piece, but none of ‘em had the whole picture. That’s how it was (and will probably always be) with Pat.

His exterior was not a pretty sight—I wrestled with the word “ugly” but it lost on points. Let’s just say he was scary-looking. To the point where a kid from Friendship decided that George wasn’t so bad after all.

Pat was HUGE. He’d have gone 300 pounds easy. Like George, he was over six feet (it occurs to me now that 1971 was a good year for tall idols) and belted his pants halfway up a beer belly gone wild. He never wore a tie at work, probably because there was no off-the-rack shirt in this world that would button around such a neck as he had.

His dishwater-blond hair, the line of which started way up his forehead, was somewhere between a crew cut and a flat top. It was never longer than three-quarters of an inch and it laid in every possible direction. He had jowls like Jabba The Hutt and the upper right portion of his forehead was adorned with what they told me was a whiskey knot.

His voice was the opposite of Jennings’—nasal and shrill and LOUD. When he was chewing somebody’s butt to bloody shreds in his office up front, you could hear it VERY clearly all the way to the back door. I ran outside more than a few times, fearing the roof would blow right off from one of his tirades.

His desk was legendary. How it did not collapse from the weight of the papers stacked on it I will never know. It was a monument to clutter, a doctoral thesis of apparent disorganization. Yet you could ask Pat for Pulse ratings numbers from 1964 and he could whip ‘em out in under three seconds. Once, during one of his rare vacations, Eloise Copeland, Celeste Dozier and Eula Mae Caldwell (three of the great women without whom KAAY would NOT have functioned) had the temerity to clean off his desk and carefully file every document away. When Pat returned, the fecal matter immediately struck the blades of the rotating ventilation device. I was not there, but I am told the air turned purple before it went black. Pat said it took him nearly a month before he could find anything again.

Lest I leave you with the impression that Pat Walsh was the cigar-chomping evil twin of Lou Grant on steroids (with none of Mr. Grant’s charm), let me point out that Pat was the greatest General Manager that KAAY ever had. You can’t find anybody to refute that. Nobody who came after him was worthy of polishing his Buick station wagon. He was the first—and probably only—GM in the history of Lin Broadcasting who ever billed a million dollars from a stand-alone AM station in a calendar year. The decline of KAAY can be placed squarely at the feet of whatever idiot it was at Multimedia (to whom Lin sold the station in 1976) who thought it would be a good idea to replace Pat. KAAY began to lose its mojo on the day when I watched Pat clean out his office.

Here is the essence of Pat Walsh: in the early summer of 1971, I had moved to Little Rock to fill in for vacationing DJs. My status went from part-time to full-time and I worked for fully a month without a day off. The payroll at Lin lagged a week or so behind, and the paycheck I got wouldn’t even cover my rent. I went to Pat about it and he pulled a roll of twenty-dollar bills out of his pocket that staggered me. He peeled off a hundred dollars—which was some MONEY back then—and told me to let him know if I needed more.

Years later, when I reminded him of the incident and thanked him again, HE DIDN’T EVEN REMEMBER IT! Eloise Copeland summed it up for me: “Oh, that’s just Pat. He’d have done that for anybody.”

Pat Walsh raised me from a pup. He didn’t have to give me the time of day, but I guess he saw something in me that was worth cultivating. He would never answer my questions directly, preferring to make me think for myself—to figure things out the way he had always done. He PUSHED me into what I am today and I thank his splendid memory for it.

I have only one big regret about our long relationship. I never did tell him that I loved him.

But I think he knew.

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

Friday, January 8, 2010

Radio Yesterday

"On Labor Day weekend of 2003, the station returned to its roots with a historical segment called "KAAY Rewound". KAAY's Barry Mac and sister station KARN's Grant Merrill played the hits and took calls from all over the country. Clyde Clifford returned to talk about "Beaker Street". This eventually led to a weekly segment called "Radio Yesterday" which features the memories of the station's heyday."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAAY

When going to the "Radio Yesterday program page" on Wiki's External Links, you'll get a current KAAY page that mentions that it no longer exists.

Indeed, does anyone know where we can get in touch with Barry Mac?

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Wilson Pickett And Pat Walsh‏

Memory becomes unreliable under the heel of time, but a few jewels retain their gleam forever. So it is with two giants in my life.

I was parked at Norwood’s Freez-King in Friendship with the windows of my mother’s 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 rolled down and the radio blasting KAAY, sitting on the fenders with a couple of friends. We didn’t have coins for the jukebox, but that Ford radio pumped pretty good.

The Earth tilted when a new song came on. The drums and the horns got my attention right away, but I was not prepared for the singer. “I’m gonna wait til the midnight hour…” It was the howl of some caveman between bites of raw mammoth meat. “That’s when my love comes tumblin’ down…” It was the glory shout of a gospel singer in the grip of the Holy Ghost. “Gonna take you, girl, and hold you…” John Lennon’s feral “Twist And Shout” was suddenly tamed. Wilson Pickett had brought Soul Music to Friendship—and all I wanted was more!

Over the next couple of years, KAAY played everything Pickett released. (I remember Sonny Martin yelling “Pick it, Wilson!” over an intro.) “Mustang Sally” literally made me jump up and down. “634-5789” put a groove on me that I’ve still got. I don’t think I’d have survived my sixteenth summer without “Funky Broadway.”

It was during this time that Pat Walsh became General Manager of KAAY. I reckon it as the Second Stage of the Golden Age. In my own teenage wasteland, The Mighty 1090 was always playing the latest Soul hits, be they Motown, Stax, Atlantic and/or Muscle Shoals. I wouldn’t learn about Pat for a few more years—but the big station in Little Rock that he commanded was part of my life just as sure as breathing.

Pat was generally hands-off when it came to what records were played on KAAY. He hired the right people and let them do their thing. However, he always said that a hit song was a hit song; didn’t matter if it was Soul or Country or Rock and Roll. If it was a hit, he wanted it on the air. I guess it was Pat who kept the Pickett hits coming. I knew there was something I liked about him!

Fast forward to December of 2005. My wife, Pat (!), and I were driving to the airport for a Christmastime visit to our son in California when I got to thinking about Pickett. My fantasy involved him somehow being on the same flight and I would be the only person on the plane who recognized him. Well, that didn’t happen—but I believe I know why I was thinking of him that day. Less than a month later, he was dead.

And less than a week after that, Pat Walsh was dead. Funny how life works out, huh? No, wait. There ain’t a thing funny about losing two men who were so important to me, so close together! I owe them both more than I can ever repay. I hope they get a good chuckle when they read this Up There.

I hate January.

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

Jerry Sims on Howard Watson, Herbie Byrd, Walt Sadler and Tom Perryman

I have great recollections of both Howard Watson and Herbie Byrd. First of all Herbie: Yes, a very true professional newsman. I came to know this even better after I left KAAY to go to KTHV (Television). I worked for a while as a news reporter on TV and would run into Herbie and the other reporters (Newspaper) regularly. This was mostly a time when Winthrop Rockefeller was Governor of Arkansas. I remember many times when the reporters would grill the Governor at press conferences. Herbie took no back seat to any of the old newspaper guys who could get W.R. in a sweat on a regular basis. Herbie was good. As a side note: I thought many times that the Governor should get up and walk out on them. I even considered, at one time when he gave me an exclusive interview, telling him...."Why don't you tell them until you guys start treating me with the respect that this job can demand, I'll just go back in my office" W.R. was just too nice to them. He would sit there with sweat pouring off his face, smoking one Picaune(?) after another, and allow them to whip him entirely too long. Herbie though, was always good to me. If I was in total confusion (as a young D.J. turned reporter) to what had just happened, he would take time to explain to me if I asked. He was a seasoned reporter and I was a kid who wanted to be on TV. We both got our wish, I suppose.

My take on the Howard Watson story is a little different too. As I remember it, Howard knew he could not take the Ken Knight name across town. He did it for the publicity. He knew KAAY would sue, but there would be lots of coverage on it too, and his audience would know of the change and follow him to KMYO if they wanted. Also on the name change....."Len" was the first name of the KAAY General Manager (Len Carl) and Knight is the opposite of Day. I believe it was all done in a fun sort of way. I doubt if anyone at either station was really upset over it. I worked, up until a short while back with Howard's son Jeff (doing TV production) and was able to keep up with his dad a little. I gave him some old Silver Doller Surveys to frame for his dad. Howard, still Len Day, was on the radio everyday in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas until some health matters arose. I understand he now lives in North Little Rock. I hope that he will be able to return to the radio some day, and I hope we can hear from him sometime in the future on this blog. Great voice.

One more detail on the KLRA/KAAY newsroom guys: Walt Sadler worked with Mr. Byrd at KLRA before coming to the KAAY newsteam as Ron Owens. Walt, who died a few years back, in my opinion, had the best pure radio voice of anyone who ever worked there.

Tom Perryman doesn't count. He wasn't an employee. Although you know, when God was handing out voices, Perryman broke in line and got to be number one.

Jerry Sims Sonny Martin KAAY a while back

Gene Stewart a.k.a. Frank Woods (KAAY TV Feature)

Did Gene Stewart happen to mention his tenure in the KAAY newsroom under the name Frank Woods? I remember him filling in as a DJ, too, when the station got short-handed, circa 1969-70.

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

(David, I'd wondered about Frank Woods, as well...I think there's an audio clip out there somewhere with Frank Woods doing the news...I'll have to research and try to find it.  Bud, staceys4@hotmail.com)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

KAAY Feature on Little Rock TV

This is a video feature about KAAY that appeared on Little Rock TV nearly 5 years ago. KTHV Channel 11 aired it on February 14, 2005, as part of a series called “Whatever Happened to…?” The Mighty 1090 was certainly a great subject for that.

The station did 4.5 minutes on KAAY, which is long for a TV news or feature story. It is a great, savvy piece by Craig O’Neill, the station’s sports director and a Little Rock radio veteran, though as you’ll hear, he didn’t work at KAAY. But he looked thrilled to be doing the story!


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-bQOtQT6Zs)

I read about this feature somewhere on the 'net shortly after it aired, called KTHV, and they referred me to the Gene Stewart Pro Video aircheck service in Little Rock, who had a copy. They sent me a VHS tape with the feature, plus the teases, intros and banter by the TV anchors. Total time: 6:13.


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4lwm5A7wnw)

There is an interesting spot in the piece where O’Neill visits KAAY (in 2005) and talks with Barry Mack, who ran the station. Mack said he found “a few hundred” tapes at the transmitter. The tapes formed the basis of a show called “Radio Yesterday“, in which the old KAAY briefly resurfaced, but it is not on their schedule nowadays. What exactly was on those tapes? Can anyone get access to them? Just curious....

Greg Barman
Denver CO

Herbie Byrd and Pat Walsh

I remember Herbie Byrd well.  His professionalism as a broadcast radio journalist was legendary in Arkansas.   In one of my interviews with Pat Walsh (actually, it was a telephone conversation in the car, headed for a luncheon with media types in Little Rock), he spoke of Byrd.  Pat said that while the KAAY news team - which had several reporters and at one point two farm reporters - was great, they could rarely get the scoop on a story before Herbie Byrd.  Walsh was highly complimentary, and a great admirer of the reporter.  In fact, he indicated that he approached Byrd on more than one occasion about going to work the the mighty 1090, but Byrd was loyal to KLRA and never moved to KAAY.  


This is an interesting point, because Walsh did not think highly of employees who jumped to another station in Little Rock from KAAY.  In fact, he had a hard and fast rule that if a staff member, especially a disc jockey, went to another station in the Little Rock market, he would never rehire that person back at KAAY.  You may wonder why, given the fact that KAAY was the dominant station in the market, that anyone would want to do that.  But some of them did.  Probably the most historic case was Howard Watson, who was one of the "Ken Knights" on KAAY.  Howard left KAAY for KMYO ("Cameo") in LIttle Rock and tried to take the moniker Ken Knight with him.  KAAY sued him and won.  As a result, KMYO held a contest to give him a new name.  The listeners dubbed him "Len Day."  This was ironic, because KAAY was owned at that time by the LIN (Louisville-Indianapolis-Nashville) Broadcasting Corporation, and some thought that this was a jab at them.  Both Howard and the station denied it, of course.


It was obvious in my conversation with Walsh that he had the greatest respect for Herbie Byrd, both as a broadcast journalist and as a person.  The two remained close friends through the years, even after Walsh retired from radio.  Herbie Byrd was the consummate professional in Arkansas radio news, and Pat Walsh knew it.


Richard Robinson





Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Dixieland Jam

Guillaume Lanfray said...

The "long unidentified Dixieland-style jam after midnight" was "Pussy Wiggle Stomp" by Don Ellis, from his "At Fillmore" album.

(Thank you!  I really enjoy listening to that whenever I "tune in"!  This is in regards to the New Year's 1971-'72 audio Dave S. posted a few days ago.   It is great when someone comes forth with some neat information!  Bud)

FHP's Comments On AM Radio

FHP-DXer said...

You do know all that AM radio I heard as a kid planted a seed. Anyhow, thanks to this blog for bringing back some distant memories of the "good old days" and some history. Radio in the 1970's was perhaps in my humble opinion the last golden age before splintered playlists, and deregulation came along to change things and in many ways not in a positive way.

I decided that this subject needed some treatment, so I blogged about it over at "DXing From Lincoln County Arkansas" last night.

In a nutshell, news on the radio (local) in Central Arkansas produced in-house outside of KUAR Public Radio, and KARN-FM is nil. A few other stations broadcast special newscasts produced by sponsoring TV partners (sports-talk KABZ's arrangement with KATV comes to mind).

Fritze Prentice, Jr (FHP-DXer)

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

FHP-DXer on Herbie Byrd

FHP-DXer said...

I can barely remember hearing Herbie Byrd doing news when my dad listened to KLRA back in the mid 70's. Before KSSN went in with their country music about 1977-78 my parents mainly listened to KOTN (before moving briefly to LR metro), KLRA, and of course KAAY.

Local news on the radio is a lost art and something out of the history books, like 24/7 music videos on MTV.

(yes, I'm a Gen-X'er that considers the 1970's the "Golden Age Of TV")

Jim Clark On Herbie Byrd

In all the discussion about radio in the 1960s in Little Rock, one person who has not received the attention he probably deserves was a competitor of KAAY in the news field, Herbie Byrd. He probably was Little Rock's first radio newsman, as we know them today, running all over town in his news cruiser, reporting first for KVLC, a 6 a.m to 6 p.m. station, and then later for KLRA. I would like to hear the remembrances of all the KAAY people about Herbie.

Thanks

Jim Clark

Rogers, Arkansas

Monday, January 4, 2010

Comments, Re: Richard Robinson and Jerry Sims

(Richard first...)

How great is this? I know that BOTH of you had a wonderful visit. Actually, I'm jealous. I hope to get the opportunity to interview Jerry sometime in the near future. I remember when Jerry was in television as well. I didn't know until later that he was "Sonny Martin II." Great picture too, Bud!

Richard Robinson

(...and from Jerry)

Kind words from you both. I am just a very lucky guy who was in the right place at the right time. Also, I suppose, I had enough talent to fill the bill. It was a very fun time in my past. I loved KAAY and the memory of it. Also....I do not understand why anyone associated with her would not want to at least look back a little. My life is full now, but looking back is fun too. I like to remember and am always eager to talk about it, if y'all want to.

Also you tech guys might know, but what happened to that signal? Last night, here in Mobile, I tried with no success. Where is Felix McDonald when we need him? I have been in the area, years back, and could pick it up.

Also anyone who does not appreciate the efforts Bud and others put in on the blog are not paying close enough attention. Thanks Guys!

Jerry Sims

(Thank YOU, gentlemen!  Jerry, ANYTIME you have a memory pop up, you have the floor, as I've mentioned before...you have all access!  Also, Jerry, to answer your question, KAAY had been granted a reduction of power...see previous posts along the lines of this and possible other causes.

Richard, I'll be looking forward to that interview with Jerry!  Also, we need some comments from Eddie Graham!  Go fishing with him and pry into that sharp mind of his!  Bud)

Sunday, January 3, 2010

My Meeting With Jerry Sims/"Sonny Martin II"!


        Jerry Sims/"Sonny Martin II" and Bud Stacey

When Jerry Sims informed me that he was about to take a business trip to Mobile, AL and points beyond, and wanted to meet ME, I was thrilled beyond comparison!  We met at the Original Oyster House this afternoon on the Mobile Bay Causeway for supper.  The Original Oyster House is a mile east of its old location, due to having been "blown out" by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.  It had been flooded several times, by hurricanes Ivan and Georges, but not devastated as in Katrina.  Since the Causeway is barely inches above river level, many businesses along this stretch of nostalgic roadway across Mobile Bay have been closed over the decades.  But, I am running up a rabbit trail....

Jerry and I spoke of lots of things besides KAAY: softball, religion, radio in general (Ham and broadcast), TV, etc.  It was a very enjoyable evening and Jerry was very gracious to me, a former listener.  I was (and still am!) humbled in his presence!  We "did the math" and, yes, I was a listener of his...I was young and don't remember the details, but, in the time that I found KAAY, I listened during his shift.

Jerry mentioned once when he was in Biloxi, MS, he decided to twiddle the dial and BOOM! in came KAAY.  I told him that, in looking at the nighttime pattern, the Gulf Coast was in a large area, what I would call a "sweet spot"...so much so, that I mentioned to Jerry that a friend of mine had listened in bed at night as a kid with nothing but a pocket radio using its internal ferrite rod antenna!

Jerry brought some of his treasures down to show to me...his cart machine (pictured on A.J.'s blog) and numerous pictures.  Some we have already seen via the blog, but he found others that he mentioned that he'll scan and send along to share.  I can hardly wait!

I had a great time and could have talked late into the evening, but I knew that Jerry had several long days of sales meetings ahead of him...not only that, but it was 35 degrees, slated to get colder, and we said our "see ya laters" (I don't like saying "goodbye").

The picture above was snapped for us by our waitress Lisa...and, as you can see, Jerry (on the left) is STILL a good-lookin' feller after all these years!  Yours truly (on the right) went ahead and got a haircut & beard trim, now that Christmas is over.

Today, January 3, 2010, I stood in the shadow of a true giant and idol, Jerry Sims...thank you, Jerry!

Bud S. (mailto:staceys4@hotmail.com)

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Doug Krile's Side Of The Story

Doug Krile said...


Richard,

The story (as told by Bob) is 100% accurate! When I made the trip to Little Rock, it was mid-December. I was working in Iowa (where it was 10 degrees and snowing when I left) and realized 50 degree weather in December was much nicer. Beyond the weather, Bob (and all of the management at the then-locally-owned KARK) showed me around a marvelous city, a respected TV station, and changed my mind. I'll never forget calling my wife and saying, "Honey, this might turn out completely the opposite of what we expected". It did.

Here's the next chapter - we put the early morning show on the air and got through the first program in pretty darn good shape, complete with some chatter about my Iowa background. As we walked out of the studio, Bob S. met me at the door and said, "That's the last time you EVER mention that you're not a native Arkansan!" He was right. We've been here since 1986, raised our children here, and certainly consider ourselves "Arkansans"!

Thanks for the rememberance!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing you all a happy, safe, prosperous and blessed New Year!

How 'bout that beautiful "blue moon" last night?  Maybe not technically a "true blue moon", according to Sky and Telescope or farmer's almanacs, but a unique event nonetheless, on a New Years Eve!  It was beautiful and bright last night, very enjoyable and (ahem!) romantic, if you and your sweetie were out enjoying the evening....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)