The last I'd heard of Jim Hankins was that he was in Austin, Texas (President and CEO of MCC Radio Consulting), but the last e-mail I had isn't working. It was he who had the intestinal fortitude to contact the authorities to get KAAY on the bandwagon, transmitting Voice of America (VOA) programming to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This was when he realized the tremendous potential of KAAY's night time signal pattern, and the fact that not one of LIN Broadcasting's executives could be found to make the decision. It almost cost him his job (and some say it later did), until the station got a commendation for its part in broadcasting to Cuba during this time of trouble. We owe him a lot for making such great radio history.
I'd made a mis-spelling awhile back, and got corrected by someone, I don't know who, but it seemed "1st person". I'd mis-spelled the last name, "McCormack" and immediately went back and spelled it correctly. If that was you, Jim, would you care to make some comments? Thanks in advance!
Jim Hankins was the first "Mike McCormick" in 1962, if I remember correctly....
Bud S. (
staceys4@hotmail.com)
I never knew Jim during his KAAY days, however, in 1985 he was an executive with Dick Oppenheimer's company, Capitol Cities Broadcasting, which purchased KLAZ from Ron Curtis and evolved it into KZOU. In fact, Jim was the guy who came up with the KZOU call letters.
ReplyDeleteJim was assigned to the station as temporary GM for several months during the change-over, and was an incredible gentleman to work for. Very creative, smart, a complete pro, and a heck of a fun guy to be around. Unfortunately, I lost touch with him after I left KZOU for Denver, but I still make use of a lot of the things he taught me way back then.
Greg Fadick
Mike McCormick is retired and lives in Auston Texas.
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