David B. Treadway Retires From U.S. 97

Today, the Voice Of Arkansas hangs his hat up...as per his Facebook post:

"Hello Goodbye.

Okay, here's the official word. I am retiring from US 97, 96.7 The Rocket, US Stations LLC and Radio in general, effective at 10:00 AM this Frida...y, February 10. It was a week ago today that I somehow survived to be 66. That's 198 in human years, and the feds declare it to be my Full Retirement Age. Being a good American, it is now my patriotic duty to quit working and get on that government tit. I am eager to become a burden on society, as I figure I have about half a tank of fumes left to get me through two more mornings.

I am deeply, seriously and humbly thankful to everyone who has ever listened to me. If you've gotten a laugh along the way, it has made me rich beyond reckoning--and I hope you're okay knowing that I'll never be able to pay you half of what I owe you. If you're one of that small handful of miserable bastards who tried to stomp me out, feel free to line up and start kissing my ass. I'll be home most days and I'll come down to the road so you don't even have to get out of your cars.
My eternal gratitude to Mr Charles Shinn, Gary Terrell and Craig T. Dale for having THE best company I ever did work for. My love to the Most Dangerous Woman On The Air, Vicki Parker, Tom Duke, Pat O'Briant, Jennifer Bailey, and Wayne Bennett for surrounding me with their consummate professionalism. It's been an honor to serve with y'all and I'll miss you like blazes!
Treadway out. For now."

There is more, if you have Facebook access...

David B., congrats for getting out alive; I hope you and Mrs. Treadway will have many, many happy days together in the sunshine with Shack, and all the wild animals.  maybe you can work full-time keeping the deer out of her garden now!

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)
 

The Final Listing, From Doug Virden

"Here is the final telephone listing I have for KAAY this is from the 1977 Little Rock telephone directory.  There had been some changes to KAAY over the past year, first KAAY was under new ownership, Multi Media took ownership of the station the previous year, second KAAY moved to a brand new building located at 2400 Cottondale Lane, third it was also the first time KAAY had a sister station, it was KEZQ located at 94.1 FM at the time.  You can see it a few listings down.  On a final note, the 7th Street building had been torn down by the end of 1976 to make room for the expansion of I-630.

Here is the front cover:

...and the back cover:

By this time, touch tone phones were growing in popularity.

A pic inside the Cottondale building 40 years later.  I had the privilege of visiting the Cottondale building a couple of months ago, 94.1 is still located there and is a Classic Rock station known as The Point 94.1.  There are a couple of other FM stations in the building and they are locally owned and operated   In the pic with me are morning host Rick Steel and Promotions Director Chuck Gatlin.   The engineer's shop is now located where the KAAY studio once was."

Thank you, Doug!  You know, what with newer social media technologies such as Facebook, there are more things like this popping up, then disappearing.  I am glad that this blog is serving as a repository for everything KAAY (and related).  You know you can come here and, with a simple search, find everything on a subject you're interested in: pictures, audio, etc.  Folks like Doug are helping us keep it alive...won't YOU?

Send us your stories, your memories, etc. of what KAAY meant to you...thanks!

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

To Maurice Miller's Comment

Thanks for your comment, Maurice,

Rest assured, even though we've come to information only coming in dribs and drabs, we will continue to try and find more KAAY treasures to share here.

Greg Barman, Dave Schmidt and I have encountered numerous challenges with life as we get older, but we are tackling them as they come at us.  And, even though I don't see myself as "owner" of this blog, I have been thrust to the forefront as the "leader".  Yes, I had the idea to continue A.J. Lindsey's blog, but no one, not even his family, had the login information- so the Lindsey family graciously allowed us to start a new blog, a' la A.J.'s efforts and in his memory, as well as the memories of the other KAAY Greats....

I have to hand it to Greg and Dave, however; even though I was highly motivated, these two guys have been the technical nuts and bolts behind it all- I couldn't do this without them, no way!  These guys are the cream of the crop and rose to the top, out of an original nine folks (ten, including myself) who I contacted about getting this thing off the ground.

So, with that, how about YOU contributing some of your KAAY memories, please?  Just drop them to my e-mail below and we'll get them here!

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

Doug Virden's Jump To The '70s

"Fast forwarding into the 70's, this is the 1974 listing for KAAY.  The studio and offices had moved to 7th Street several years ago.  There are also more department listings.  There is the studio, office, farm director, and the transmitter building number.  The telephone number at the transmitter is different from the previous listings since the phone company added a new prefix for Wrightsville.

Back cover:

...and the front cover":

Thanks again to Doug Virden for these pieces of history!

Again we are appreciative of anything regarding the history of KAAY, so even if you think something is not worthy, it very well may be- in the past, a single picture, item or audio bit has created a backstory or triggered memories that we can continue to share, so PLEASE let us know of your KAAY treasures!  We'll post them here!

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

1st KAAY Telephone Listing!

Another entry from blog friend Doug Virden:

"Here is the second yellow pages listing for KAAY,  this is from the 1963 Little Rock telephone directory.  This is the first year to be listed as KAAY, as the call letters had changed from KTHS six months earlier.

The front cover consists of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences building.

The back cover consists of the different styles of telephones, the princess phone was very popular at the time."

 

 

Thank you, Doug!  We (at least I) enjoy these bits of history- keep 'em coming!

 

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

 

A Bit O' History

Blog friend Doug Virden found some old phone books with some interesting listings...here are some pictures and his comments:

 

"Here is the first installment of the KAAY phone listings in the yellow pages. The first one is when it was still KTHS from the 1960 telephone directory. The numbers listed are the studio and transmitter. It's also when the station was located in the Channel 11 building. The front cover is of the fairly new constructed Barton Coliseum. The back cover has all the phones in various colors. On another note, there are also several concerts ads in the old KAAY audio files at Barton Coliseum."

 

Thanks, Doug!  We will be looking forward to more!  If you can get copies of those concert ads, we'd be interested in posting them here, as well!  Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

Happy New Year To All!

Wow, our 2016 ended and 2017 began with a tremendous deluge of rain!  New Year's Eve netted over five inches and New Year's Day netted even more.  Yards and roads are brimming with water, looking for somewhere to run off.  As I live pretty far out from "civilization" (not really, we're just not in the "right area" for cable or other internet services), we have to use a satellite-based internet connection.  To be sure, what with all of the cloud cover, internet connections were next to impossible- hence, my inability to wish you all a Happy New Year.

Nonetheless, with no offerings from anyone (that I have been aware of), I am going to post all of the New Year's posts from the past here, for you all to enjoy:

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/search?q=New+Year

I am amazed that we and this blog have lasted this long and I enjoy going back, at times, reading the different offerings sent to us.

From Dave, Greg and I, and all of The Greats of KAAY, we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Merry Christmas To All!

Dear visitors and blog friends,

I apologize for not being here, posting KAAY-related material lately; in fact, we've pretty much come to a close on everything we've been able to tap out there.  Oh, we've had promises of material, but those promises have not been fulfilled yet.  Dave S., Greg B. and I hope that one day, things can align in those folks' lives and we can hear from them again, hopefully with a sledful of goodies...

To be sure, all of us- Dave, Greg and I- recently have had quite a few challenges in our lives- some pretty large, some just piled up.  I myself am guilty of coming home, after working both jobs and not having the energy to turn on this computer...but you all are on my mind (what's left of it!).  I check into Facebook for a few minutes, as I eat a hurried breakfast at 5:15AM every morning and dash off to open the main job...and, quite a few too many nights, I drag in about 11PM, haul myself through the shower and drop into bed.  Maybe things will change as soon as I can get these massive medical bills out of the way, but I don't want to get into a pity-party or a political monologue, there's enough of that already on the web.

Needless to say, I was wondering WHAT I could offer at this 20106 Christmas...then, it hit me as I was searching...why not offer EVERYTHING we've done for Christmas?  Dave Montgomery's Jonnie King's, Barry McCorkindale's, Eric Thomas', A.J. Lindsey's and others comments in one link?  WHY NOT?!?

So many memories, so much to choose from, audio, visual, notes, everything in one link, so enjoy!

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/search?q=Christmas

From 2009 to 2016, we have been blessed with loads of material.  This little niche blog has done quite well for itself, far outliving what I'd hoped for.  Still, the material is becoming finite...

But I want to speak for all of us- Dave, Greg and I- that we appreciate your comments, your visits and your support.  We wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Season's Greetings!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Happy Thanksgiving! (?)

Regardless, here's hoping everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Anniversaries

Thanks to Doug Virden to remind us:

"This month marks key anniversaries for KAAY, first this month marks the 50th anniversary of Beaker Street and the 40th anniversary when KAAY moved to the brand new building @ 2400 Cottondale Lane."

Happy Birthday, Bo Ryder

I know Bo Ryder, a.k.a. Andrew Williams, is in Radio Heaven today with the other Greats, but I still wanted to wish him happy birthday today.  That's his lovely daughter, Jennifer Eversole, standing with him in the 2nd picture.

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Phil North from May 18, 1971 - Repost

Here's another repost of an aircheck from the old Podmatic servers, with a bit of technical cleanup for speed/pitch and overall sound.  It's Phil North (Eric Chase) from midday on Tuesday, May 18, 1971.   First, here is the original post with more information on the aircheck:

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-phil-north-aircheck-2.html

And, the upgraded aircheck:


(or download here)
Greg Barman

A Comment from John Kassen

"I have about 30+ hours of Beaker Street would anyone be interested in these? I have put a lot of time and money to converting these from cassette to cds. Also I have the original cassettes. Anyone interested? on Beaker Street Head Bed - updated re-post"

John Kassen, would you please contact me?  We have tried contacting you on Facebook, to no avail.

And if anyone knows John, please contact me, as well!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Happy Belated Birthday, Barry Mac!

I apologize for not getting this on earlier in the month...what with my work/sleep schedule, I've been a zombie for a while.  Nonetheless, happy 58th "victory", Barry McCorkindale!

Barry is pictured here with blog friend Doug Virden, obviously at a function (party for Barry?).  Barry is just days older than I am.  Barry also contributes heavily to the blog with audio programs and is highly appreciated!  Dave S. loads the programs for us on the blog...thanks, Dave!

Again, in celebration, and thanks to Doug: Happy birthday, Barry Mac!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com).

Phil North from April 17, 1971 - repost

During the earlier days of this Blog there were many airchecks posted and stored on the Podmatic servers.  But gradually some of those audios are disappearing from Podmatic.  We plan to repost some of them so as not to lose them, and in some cases see if we can improve the quality.

Here is an untelescoped aircheck of Phil North, aka Eric Chase, posted in 2010.  The original posting puts the date as Wednesday April 14, 1971.  But based on the comments in the aircheck, it sounds to me like the date is more likely Saturday morning, April 17 1971.  It's a weekend morning show where Phil is subbing for Sonny Martin, and Holiday does the news.  The original aircheck was noticeably slow, and it is corrected here for speed/pitch and levels.

It's pretty funny when the intro to the news gets messed up, and Phil and Holiday try to talk their way out of it.


(or download here)
Greg Barman

R.I.P., Jim Parr

As reported by blog friend Doug Virden:

"Jim Parr, the last Farm Director at KAAY, passed away on Monday Oct. 3rd. His funeral will be tomorrow (was Oct. 7, bs) at Griffin ,Leggett, Healy, and Roth on 12th St. tomorrow @ 10am (was Oct. 7 bs). After KAAY went all religion in 1985 he went to work @ AM 1010 KLRA and finally finishing up his farm broadcast career @ ARN."

 

Jimmy Van Parr, 80, of Conway, died October 3, 2016. Born November 21, 1935 at Tuckerman, Arkansas, he was the son of Van Kermit and Jenny Belle Williamson Parr. He enjoyed farming in the Wheatley, Arkansas area before moving to Little Rock where he became a farm broadcaster for the Arkansas Radio Network and later owned and operated the Blue Plate Special Restaurant with his wife, May. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Little Rock.
Preceded in death by his parents and his first wife, May Phillip Puryear Parr, he is survived by his wife, Mary Flanagin-Parr; children, Jimmy Parr (Wendy) of Long Grove, Illinois, Lisa Anne and Mary Kay Parr, both of Germantown, Tennessee, and Bill Parr (Wentz) of Collegeville, Pennsylvania; sisters, Nancy Roylance of Spokane, Washington and Judy McGaugh of Chesterfield, Missouri; a brother, Kenneth Parr of Hurst, Texas; grandchildren, Cassie Farrier, Mark Farrier, Emily Parr, Ellen Parr, Michaela Parr and Chase Parr; and one great-grandson, Noah Farrier.
Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, October 7, 2016 in the chapel of Griffin Leggett Healey & Roth, 5800 W. 12th Street, Little Rock, 72204, (501) 661-9111 with Dr. Jonathan Curtis and Dr. John Wright officiating. Entombment will follow in Forest Hills Mausoleum. Visitation will be from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. today (Thursday) at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society . To sign the online guestbook, go to www.griffinleggetthealeyroth.com

Thank you, Doug.  May Jim rest in piece.  Does anyone have any audio of Jim, anywhere, at all?  It doesn't necessarily have to be from KAAY....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Beaker Street as heard from Cuba!

Much has been written here on the Blog about KAAY's influence in Cuba -- how strong its' nighttime signal was on the island, how the US Government used KAAY to broadcast to Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and how listeners in Cuba wrote fan letters to KAAY, especially for Beaker Street.

Recently we were contacted by someone who not only listened to Beaker Street in Cuba -- he even recorded some of it!  He found his old cassette tapes of Beaker Street and digitized them for us to share.

His name is Gueorgui Lazarov Stoychev, George for short.  He's from Bulgaria, lived in Cuba from 1966 to 1975 and again in the late 70's.  Here is his story:

"Every Cuban in ages from 16 to 30 was into WQAM (that's Miami) during the day, and KAAY during the night, especially for Beaker Street.  So was I.  The recording of the 3 files I sent you are mp3's and were done some time between 1970 and 1975 in Havana where I was living at the time. I edited them now, just for this purpose. At the time I didn't own a tape recorder or a radio cassette recorder, so I always had to borrow one from some friend that had one. Sometimes there was only a tape recorder and I had to use a mike to record from the radio. Cables? No such luxury. 

The purpose was to tape all the music that I liked but there was no way to get in Cuba or in any of the communist countries, and by the way, was forbidden.  Cassettes were expensive like gold and scarce, so space in the cassettes for music was more important and not the DJ's comments or any commercial or radio station ID. Anyway, being the show very late at nite, it began at midnight Cuban time, sometimes I fell asleep while recording and some things got recorded and survived at the end of a tape.

Decades later, when I was digitizing the tapes whose music was nowhere to be found on any format, I discovered KAAY The Mighty 1090's Beaker Street's relics. Not much, but it's something new for anyone interested in preserving what was, if you ask me, the radio station and the radio show that made a mark and history in the industry never unbeaten by no one. People living in America or anywhere else outside the Iron Curtain took all that for granted, but for me and a whole bunch of Cuban friends, all those bands, songs, albums, were something like given by God. The DJs knew what they were talking about, knew about music, had and gave information, not like now when radio is ... there are no words to describe the kind of crap radio is now days. 

So, that's basically, there are many other details, perhaps some other time, if I find something new, undiscovered.  Thank you for allowing me to share with all the KAAY and Beaker Street fans the few minutes I have with the hope that if there are some people out there, that have Beaker Street shows or/and daily programming, please share them complete with the music, not only the airchecks. Listening to complete shows is like traveling in a time machine to better times and better music.

Thank you. Kind regards,
Gueorgui Lazarov Stoychev"

Here are 3 airchecks George recorded in Cuba, around 1974 or '75, one with DJ John Roberts and two with Ken Knight:


(or download here)
After living in Cuba, George also spent time in Mexico where he worked in radio for a while and was involved in the music business:  http://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Gueorgui_Lazarov/127549

Thank you, George, for keeping the KAAY flame going and for bringing those old Beaker Street tapes back to life.

Greg Barman

J.J. Stone aircheck from June 1973

We haven't had many airchecks of J.J. Stone, but here is one that's posted on YouTube, by "Rockford87".   It's from the evening of June 7, 1973 and sounds like DX reception but we don't know from where.


(or download here)
Greg Barman

Poster From Doug Virden

May have shared this before since the Arkansas Razorbacks play an old Southwest Conference rivalry on Saturday had to share it again.

 

Thanks, Doug!  We'd shared one of these years ago, good to see it again!  Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

 

Beaker Street Head Bed - updated re-post

Over time, internet sites can disappear along with the historical information contained on them.  We want to preserve the information on the creator of the spooky music bed used on Beaker Street --  Nik Raicevic and the 1970 Buddah "Head" LP.

There used to be a writeup about the Head LP and Nik on RedTelephone66.com, a psychedelic music site about obscure and out of print albums from the 1960's and 70's.  But that site has recently disappeared.  Here is a capture of the info from that page:

https://archive.org/details/BeakerStreetHeadBed

Fortunately the information about the Head LP on the Hippy.com site -- "dedicated to the hippy in all of us", ha! -- is still up:

http://www.hippy.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=477

And finally here is the music used for the Beaker Street bed, from the 17:00 minute cut "Cannabis Sativa".   

(or download here)

Greg