A Special "Hello" to ALL who've taken the time to not only put this blog together, keep it running, add stories to it, but also to share their thoughts & memories of "The KAAY Experience" !
If you've had the time to check-out my Personal Website (http://www.jonnieking.net/) you've probably seen some early pix & read a lot of info on my years at "The Mighty 1090". It was truly one of the happiest, best times of my career...and, if I could get in that (as of now unfinished) Time Machine I've been building, I would set the dial for "April 21, 1969/Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A./KAAY Radio Studios, 1425 W.7th St." I would then go back, start it all over again, do it all BETTER than the first time, and, repeat the time period from 4-21-1969 to 9-15-1972 in a continuous loop.
Granted, I've had much success since I left KAAY, met many fantastic people, re-invented my career many times, still work at it everyday of my life, and currently have one of the hottest, most respected, individually produced, automotive sites in the R&C Industry (http://www.legends.thewwbc.net/), BUT the time I spent at KAAY remains deep in my heart, and my memory banks.
Ever see "Citizen Kane" ? One of my all-time favorites & Welles one of the absolute best actor's ever. But the mystery of "Kane" was based on his dying word: "Rosebud".
With all of his power, fame, money, property...Kane's dying word was linked back over 70 years earlier. Linked back to his childhood, and to the beloved sled that he possessed on the day his young life was changed.
If any of the above resonates within your "mind's eye", you will then understand my wanting to relive those days of fun, friends, music, excitement, adventure, learning, and working at my craft in "The Art Of Communication" at our beloved KAAY. AND, to go back to that first day there that began a change in MY life.
So it was, on this night of the aforementioned date, that I began my days at KAAY: The Mighty 1090. And, I've been proud to be a part of this Legendary station ever since.
Again, I salute all of those who were with me sharing that experience. Each has their own individual version of their involvement, but I'd like to remember and thank, those who were there at that time, and those who have passed away: Barry Wood, Pat Walsh, David B., George Jennings, Dave Montgomery, Matt White, Phil North, Nick Markel, Walt Sadler, Richard Enderwood, Joe Dickey, Celeste Dozier, Eddie Graham, Carolyn Metheny, Eula Mae, Felix McDonald, Marvin Vines, Tom Rusk, Delores Handy, Wayne Moss, Larry Montgomery, "Little Mary"...and if I missed you're name, sorry and thanks to you too !
My time at "The Mighty 1090: KAAY" ? It all began 41 years ago today.
God bless you all, and please keep in touch.
Your friend,
Jonnie King
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A.J. Lindsey Remembered
(This post was left in draft form on the blog several weeks ago. Rather than let it languish, I decided to go ahead and post it, in hopes that the originator could come forward and finish the great memories he/she started here. If not, this is still a wonderful memory of A.J. for all to enjoy...Bud S.)
I had the good fortune to meet with A.J. Lindsey, and even to work with him...but not in radio, unfortunately. Of course, I grew up with KAAY and "Doc Holiday," including the stint by A.J. in that on-air role. The first time I met him was when I lived in Pine Bluff, from 1978 until 1980. I was managing a movie theatre there (Flick Twin Cinema), and worked with KCLA, "Razorback Country," as it was known at the time. The general manager of the station was Ralph Taylor. A.J. was running a waterbed store near the theatre. The company I was working for, Commonwealth Theatres, had a contest between the theatre managers for the upcoming Academy Awards ceremonies. Being somewhat competitive, I enlisted the aid of several merchants, including A.J.'s Waterbeds. A.J., being a promotion minded individual, donated the grand prize, a complete waterbed outfit. He came and set it up in the lobby of the movie theatre, where customers could look at it. The contest involved the person filling out a ballot of the major Academy Awards. We got some promotional air time on the radio station.
I had the good fortune to meet with A.J. Lindsey, and even to work with him...but not in radio, unfortunately. Of course, I grew up with KAAY and "Doc Holiday," including the stint by A.J. in that on-air role. The first time I met him was when I lived in Pine Bluff, from 1978 until 1980. I was managing a movie theatre there (Flick Twin Cinema), and worked with KCLA, "Razorback Country," as it was known at the time. The general manager of the station was Ralph Taylor. A.J. was running a waterbed store near the theatre. The company I was working for, Commonwealth Theatres, had a contest between the theatre managers for the upcoming Academy Awards ceremonies. Being somewhat competitive, I enlisted the aid of several merchants, including A.J.'s Waterbeds. A.J., being a promotion minded individual, donated the grand prize, a complete waterbed outfit. He came and set it up in the lobby of the movie theatre, where customers could look at it. The contest involved the person filling out a ballot of the major Academy Awards. We got some promotional air time on the radio station.
FROM THE LAST DAY TO THE FIRST !
A special "Hi" to all !
I've been reading and listening to all of the great stories about "KAAY: The Last Day".
Ironically, today - April 20, 2010 - is the day I moved to Little Rock to start my job at KAAY.
It was that fateful day of April 20, 1969, that I left KLID in Poplar Bluff, MO. to drive on into L.R. I remember it almost as if it were yesterday: the excitment, the anticipation, the nervousness (yes, that was always a factor in leaving "established roots" no matter where you were headed), and the feeling that I'd try to capture "lightning in a bottle" and contribute all of my time, talent, and energy to this WorldWide appreciated 50,000 Watt Giant: KAAY.
I was driving my nearly-new, custom-ordered '68 Cougar XR-7 and stopped for gas about 30 miles out of L.R. In those days an actual "attendant" filled-up your car, and while he was doing that I went inside to get something to drink. They had a radio on and I was sure it was KAAY because I had been listening on the way down, they even had a "last year's" KAAY Razorback Schedule still hanging on the wall.
When I got my drink and was paying for the gas, I asked the clerk - as I always used to like doing - what station they were listening to. "That's KAAY", she said. "Is that a good station ?", I asked. "Oh, they're the only one I listen to ! They have really good songs all the time..." she replied. 'Nuff said. I had to contain myself, trying to keep from telling her that "...tomorrow night, you can hear me on that station !"
As it went, I got to L.R. okay, Barry Wood, who was the PD then, was waiting for me at the station. We went over the "basics of the board", and by that time a Sunday Night religious block was on. My friend, Richard Enderwood (read more about him on my Personal Site) and his wife, had said that I could stay in the spare room of their Mobile Home til I found a place, so we had some dinner, and I hit the sheets...trying very hard to get some sleep before the Big Day.
I'll try to fill you in on that tomorrow.
All the best to you all,
Jonnie King
I've been reading and listening to all of the great stories about "KAAY: The Last Day".
Ironically, today - April 20, 2010 - is the day I moved to Little Rock to start my job at KAAY.
It was that fateful day of April 20, 1969, that I left KLID in Poplar Bluff, MO. to drive on into L.R. I remember it almost as if it were yesterday: the excitment, the anticipation, the nervousness (yes, that was always a factor in leaving "established roots" no matter where you were headed), and the feeling that I'd try to capture "lightning in a bottle" and contribute all of my time, talent, and energy to this WorldWide appreciated 50,000 Watt Giant: KAAY.
I was driving my nearly-new, custom-ordered '68 Cougar XR-7 and stopped for gas about 30 miles out of L.R. In those days an actual "attendant" filled-up your car, and while he was doing that I went inside to get something to drink. They had a radio on and I was sure it was KAAY because I had been listening on the way down, they even had a "last year's" KAAY Razorback Schedule still hanging on the wall.
When I got my drink and was paying for the gas, I asked the clerk - as I always used to like doing - what station they were listening to. "That's KAAY", she said. "Is that a good station ?", I asked. "Oh, they're the only one I listen to ! They have really good songs all the time..." she replied. 'Nuff said. I had to contain myself, trying to keep from telling her that "...tomorrow night, you can hear me on that station !"
As it went, I got to L.R. okay, Barry Wood, who was the PD then, was waiting for me at the station. We went over the "basics of the board", and by that time a Sunday Night religious block was on. My friend, Richard Enderwood (read more about him on my Personal Site) and his wife, had said that I could stay in the spare room of their Mobile Home til I found a place, so we had some dinner, and I hit the sheets...trying very hard to get some sleep before the Big Day.
I'll try to fill you in on that tomorrow.
All the best to you all,
Jonnie King
Back When We Pushed Buttons
For some years now, I’ve been wondering what was so different about those “good old days” of radio back in the 60s and 70s. (Yeah, I realize I’ve just come out as a Geezer, but there are some things a man simply must do.)
A large part of the difference between Then and Now would be the use of the controlled playlist: here’s today’s song sequence from which you shall not deviate. You will play this one followed by that one followed by the other one—and so on until the next person (if any) comes on duty.
At least that’s the way it was until computerization rendered humans quaintly superfluous. Until sometime in the middle 1980s, DJs actually handled discs—compact discs in this case. We’d pick ‘em from the wall rack according to the playlist, cue ‘em up (meaning we’d insert one into the playback machine and set it to the proper track) and fire ‘em off at the exact moment so as to never let that VU meter drop (aka Dead Air). The process worked the same with vinyl records and turntables, though one had to learn to “lead” the turntable so it wouldn’t “wow up.” (Didn’t we have some lovely terms Back When?)
It was in the early 90s when some nameless Spawn Of Satan figured out that all the music a station played could be recorded into a computer hard drive and played back complete with jingles, promos and commercials without the need for human intervention. Go back and read that part another time or two, for it summarizes the entire decline and fall of Radio. I’ll wait.
“Without the need for human intervention” is what scooped out the soul of Radio and dashed its brains against the bottom line. It’s what enabled Clear Channel (known within the industry as the Evil Empire for several good reasons) to use voice tracking: a practice whereby a DJ in Memphis can also appear on-air in Seattle, Denver, and/or Milwaukee. Instead of hiring three actual humans, Clear Channel just throws a few extra bucks at the guy in Memphis. All glories to the profit margin. Et cetera, ad nauseum, world without end, amen.
Things were radically different in the control room of KAAY—and of a thousand other stations across the country Back When. At the end of a record, we WERE ready with the next one. At the end of a commercial, we WERE ready with the next one. We NEVER let the needle on that VU meter drop. EVER. A human being pushed every button, flipped every switch. There was no such thing as walkaway time. We started and stopped and monitored every blessed thing that went out on the air. We were as important as the electricity that fed the transmitter. When we were on the air, we WERE the station and our listeners knew it. There was a human being talking right to them through that speaker. There was a friend in that little old box. Somebody was alive in there and having a big time!
Fast forward to 2010—O Brave New World where the Radio landscape looks like a Salvador Dali painting full of limp pocket watches draped over the branches of dead trees in the desert. I take some evil consolation in the thought that Spawn Of Satan probably got a thousand-dollar bonus for his computerization idea and ultimately lost his gig to his own brainchild.
Cynically Yours,
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
Genuine Relic Of A Bygone Age
A large part of the difference between Then and Now would be the use of the controlled playlist: here’s today’s song sequence from which you shall not deviate. You will play this one followed by that one followed by the other one—and so on until the next person (if any) comes on duty.
At least that’s the way it was until computerization rendered humans quaintly superfluous. Until sometime in the middle 1980s, DJs actually handled discs—compact discs in this case. We’d pick ‘em from the wall rack according to the playlist, cue ‘em up (meaning we’d insert one into the playback machine and set it to the proper track) and fire ‘em off at the exact moment so as to never let that VU meter drop (aka Dead Air). The process worked the same with vinyl records and turntables, though one had to learn to “lead” the turntable so it wouldn’t “wow up.” (Didn’t we have some lovely terms Back When?)
It was in the early 90s when some nameless Spawn Of Satan figured out that all the music a station played could be recorded into a computer hard drive and played back complete with jingles, promos and commercials without the need for human intervention. Go back and read that part another time or two, for it summarizes the entire decline and fall of Radio. I’ll wait.
“Without the need for human intervention” is what scooped out the soul of Radio and dashed its brains against the bottom line. It’s what enabled Clear Channel (known within the industry as the Evil Empire for several good reasons) to use voice tracking: a practice whereby a DJ in Memphis can also appear on-air in Seattle, Denver, and/or Milwaukee. Instead of hiring three actual humans, Clear Channel just throws a few extra bucks at the guy in Memphis. All glories to the profit margin. Et cetera, ad nauseum, world without end, amen.
Things were radically different in the control room of KAAY—and of a thousand other stations across the country Back When. At the end of a record, we WERE ready with the next one. At the end of a commercial, we WERE ready with the next one. We NEVER let the needle on that VU meter drop. EVER. A human being pushed every button, flipped every switch. There was no such thing as walkaway time. We started and stopped and monitored every blessed thing that went out on the air. We were as important as the electricity that fed the transmitter. When we were on the air, we WERE the station and our listeners knew it. There was a human being talking right to them through that speaker. There was a friend in that little old box. Somebody was alive in there and having a big time!
Fast forward to 2010—O Brave New World where the Radio landscape looks like a Salvador Dali painting full of limp pocket watches draped over the branches of dead trees in the desert. I take some evil consolation in the thought that Spawn Of Satan probably got a thousand-dollar bonus for his computerization idea and ultimately lost his gig to his own brainchild.
Cynically Yours,
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
Genuine Relic Of A Bygone Age
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Last Day: During The Day Part 6
According to what I read, Barry Wood, a.k.a. Mike McCormick, worked part-time at KAAY, since he was in the Air Force at the Little Rock Air Force base (by the way, this is one of my customers! bs). This is a very short audio clip and I thought his selection of Kansas' "Dust In The Wind" was appropriate:
(insert KAAY Last day Woody audio here and delete this line)
The Last Day: Barry Wood: stream | download
(insert KAAY Last day Woody audio here and delete this line)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Jerry Sims/Sonny Martin Audio!
(Jerry Sims recently found a tape in his collection of himself...and a very important and valuable tape, indeed! Read on and enjoy the audio...many thanks to Jerry! bs)
Back in 1966 we were having some fun on KAAY. I believe the listeners were, and I can assure you we were. Here is an air-check from my Sonny Martin Program on August 30, 1966. We would always cut out the music when we recorded these. DJ's and Program Directors knew what the music sounded like. I did not think at the time that this would be listened to by others, 40+ years later, that would want "the whole experience." Sorry.
There were some special things I remember about this particular program. First of all, my good friend Richard Wiethan was about to take over the Buddy Karr name and shift. He walked into the control room to say hello, with his shades on. That is who I was talking to when I said "Hello Hollywood". Then he was acting silly and almost fell over a chair. Also his voice is on the tape (my only recording of this good friend) promoting the new season of the Buddy Karr Program starting September 12th, with a special preview on September 5th. I then said he would be on later today. This was all just promotional babble, because he was coming in as the new Buddy Karr. The one before him, Bob Mullins (Buddy Karr #2), had recently left. Listeners, many times, would call about the "new voice-same name" thing that we did regularly. They seemed to adjust to it quickly enough though. I have said before, I left KAAY as Sonny Martin on a Friday, and a different sounding Sonny was on the air on Monday. Not too long to make that adjustment, huh?
Also in the tape you will hear Walt Sadler (Ron Owens) on several promos, and George J. Jennings. And, my favorite voice of all time, Tom Perryman with his BIG K- A- A- Y. I really wish I had left the tape rolling on some of the news, etc. The voice on the Follow-A-Car promotion, I believe, is Ray Brown (the Doc Holiday who took A.J. Lindseys place).
While it is fun for me to listen again, there is a sad part of it: Richard Wiethan, A.J Lindsey, Ray Brown, Walt Sadler, and George Jennings are no longer with us.
"Return with us now to those thrilling days of yester-year"......
Jerry Sims......Sonny Martin KAAY.....the middle one
Jerry Sims/Sonny Martin 1966: stream | download
Back in 1966 we were having some fun on KAAY. I believe the listeners were, and I can assure you we were. Here is an air-check from my Sonny Martin Program on August 30, 1966. We would always cut out the music when we recorded these. DJ's and Program Directors knew what the music sounded like. I did not think at the time that this would be listened to by others, 40+ years later, that would want "the whole experience." Sorry.
There were some special things I remember about this particular program. First of all, my good friend Richard Wiethan was about to take over the Buddy Karr name and shift. He walked into the control room to say hello, with his shades on. That is who I was talking to when I said "Hello Hollywood". Then he was acting silly and almost fell over a chair. Also his voice is on the tape (my only recording of this good friend) promoting the new season of the Buddy Karr Program starting September 12th, with a special preview on September 5th. I then said he would be on later today. This was all just promotional babble, because he was coming in as the new Buddy Karr. The one before him, Bob Mullins (Buddy Karr #2), had recently left. Listeners, many times, would call about the "new voice-same name" thing that we did regularly. They seemed to adjust to it quickly enough though. I have said before, I left KAAY as Sonny Martin on a Friday, and a different sounding Sonny was on the air on Monday. Not too long to make that adjustment, huh?
Also in the tape you will hear Walt Sadler (Ron Owens) on several promos, and George J. Jennings. And, my favorite voice of all time, Tom Perryman with his BIG K- A- A- Y. I really wish I had left the tape rolling on some of the news, etc. The voice on the Follow-A-Car promotion, I believe, is Ray Brown (the Doc Holiday who took A.J. Lindseys place).
While it is fun for me to listen again, there is a sad part of it: Richard Wiethan, A.J Lindsey, Ray Brown, Walt Sadler, and George Jennings are no longer with us.
"Return with us now to those thrilling days of yester-year"......
Jerry Sims......Sonny Martin KAAY.....the middle one
Jerry Sims/Sonny Martin 1966: stream | download
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Arkansas Ham Radio Special Event Station
For those of you who enjoy the "different" and "interesting": I was just informed by Bill, WA9AQQ this morning of a special event Ham radio station that will take place from April 17 through the 25th, from 1400 to 2300Z (9 AM until 6 PM Central Time) from the club station W5HSV, located at Hot Springs Village Arkansas (note the last three letters of the callsign). For those who are Ham radio operators, or if you have shortwave listening capabilities, tune in to 21.240 MHz, 14.240 MHz (both in upper sideband mode), 7.240 and 3.940 Mhz (both in lower sideband) at different times of the day. There will be only one station operating, so any of the frequencies will be used one at a time during different parts of the day.
The special even station is to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Hot Springs Village, AR.
Ham radio operators will recieve a beautiful certificate for their QSL sent to the station. I suppose, in the case of a shortwave listener sending in a short report, a certificate would also be received...these guys from Arkansas are top-notch operators and welcome shortwave listeners, as well, so ask!
Reports and QSLs go to: Ken Graham, W5HSV, 71 Mandarina Dr., Hot Springs Village, AR 71909.
(Reason being, we've mentioned the Good Ol' Arkansas Phone Net here before and several of the operators there were KAAY listeners in the "glory days"; they visit our blog from time to time and I, as a Ham myself, enjoy operating with them and support them...might as well say, "everything Arkansas" for the blog! Bud S.)
The special even station is to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Hot Springs Village, AR.
Ham radio operators will recieve a beautiful certificate for their QSL sent to the station. I suppose, in the case of a shortwave listener sending in a short report, a certificate would also be received...these guys from Arkansas are top-notch operators and welcome shortwave listeners, as well, so ask!
Reports and QSLs go to: Ken Graham, W5HSV, 71 Mandarina Dr., Hot Springs Village, AR 71909.
(Reason being, we've mentioned the Good Ol' Arkansas Phone Net here before and several of the operators there were KAAY listeners in the "glory days"; they visit our blog from time to time and I, as a Ham myself, enjoy operating with them and support them...might as well say, "everything Arkansas" for the blog! Bud S.)
The Last Day: During The Day Part 5
This is a longer audio clip- the longest we have (almost ten minutes)- of The Last Day. This clip includes an Ear On Arkansas comedy segment...rather racy for the day! Also, Sonny (Matt White) Martin mentions how he came to KAAY- Tommy Riggs was the responsible party!
Sonny also mentions Toy Hill and marathon deejay sessions...I'd listened to these guys do their stints at the mic and wished I'd been able to travel up there on a Christmas vacation to participate helping with the toys, but I was never able to go.
Last Day: More Sonny Martin: stream | download
Sonny also mentions Toy Hill and marathon deejay sessions...I'd listened to these guys do their stints at the mic and wished I'd been able to travel up there on a Christmas vacation to participate helping with the toys, but I was never able to go.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Dennis Harrington audio
We received this from Fritze Prentice:
Dennis Harrington KAAY: stream | download
Attached is a KAAY aircheck from January (unknown year) featuring Dennis Harrington --- mostly oldies music, a couple of promos, some ads (one local, two national).Thanks, Fritz!
Fritze H Prentice Jr
KC5KBV
Star City, AR
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Last Day: During The Day Part 4
This is a humorous little excerpt from the Last Day, where Mike McCormick (Barry Woods) mentions Mary Smart in the character of "Magnolia". Mary/Magnolia played a part in the KAAY Ear on Arkansas comedies. According to A.J.'s memories of Mary, she was a copy writer at KAAY. By the way, there's a jingle at the end of the clip by Tommy Riggs...enjoy!
Last Day, Mary Smart and "Magnolia": stream | download
Last Day, Mary Smart and "Magnolia": stream | download
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Last Day: During The Day Part 3
I’m not sure how the following segments follow one another, so I’ll post them, according to times mentioned, as best I can find. This is a short segment of how “Harper Valley PTA” was the first country music selection played on KAAY; it is ‘scoped, so the whole song is not played. A news segment follows the song, done by Don Griffin at 1:00 PM...does anyone know if this is his real name or just an air name?
Last Day, Harper Valley PTA: stream | download
Last Day, Harper Valley PTA: stream | download
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Jim's Memories Of A.J.
A.J. owned (at one point or another) 3 Water Bed stores in Pine Bluff, Stuttgart, and Little Rock. I actually worked for him as a store manager for all 3 at one time or another before my return to radio.
A.J. also owned and ran a skating rink just outside Pine Bluff for a while as well. Somewhere I have a photo of my, now, 30-year old daughter at around age 2 in a pair of skates in the skating rink.
When A.J. and I worked at KCLA in Pine Bluff, he and our sales manager, Roger Breedlove, made a trip to Monticello, AR and managed to find the owner/founder of Monark boats. They worked out a deal with him give away a 14' flat-bottom fishing boat a day for 2 weeks (if memory serves). We got busy working on Promos and the mechanics of the contest and then Roger got a call from the C.O.O. of Monark Boats trying to get 'up-to-speed' on what had happened when he turned his back. Apparently, while the gentleman they had talked to was, in fact the Owner/Founder, he was somewhat inactive in running the business--unless, of course he decided to. The promotion went off without a hitch--as far as what listeners heard, but we definitely weren't sure for a while there.
Jim
A.J. also owned and ran a skating rink just outside Pine Bluff for a while as well. Somewhere I have a photo of my, now, 30-year old daughter at around age 2 in a pair of skates in the skating rink.
When A.J. and I worked at KCLA in Pine Bluff, he and our sales manager, Roger Breedlove, made a trip to Monticello, AR and managed to find the owner/founder of Monark boats. They worked out a deal with him give away a 14' flat-bottom fishing boat a day for 2 weeks (if memory serves). We got busy working on Promos and the mechanics of the contest and then Roger got a call from the C.O.O. of Monark Boats trying to get 'up-to-speed' on what had happened when he turned his back. Apparently, while the gentleman they had talked to was, in fact the Owner/Founder, he was somewhat inactive in running the business--unless, of course he decided to. The promotion went off without a hitch--as far as what listeners heard, but we definitely weren't sure for a while there.
Jim
Bruce M. Speaks Out On Beaker Street Memories!
Bruce M - Houston, TX said...
Fritze, thanks for sharing your KAAY memories as a Gen-Xer. I’m on the tail-end of the Boomers (born 1961) and want to share my memories of KAAY, all Beaker Street. It was around 1973 and I was 12, living in mid-Missouri. I had 4 huge teeth pulled one day to get ready for braces, and I was up late at night with severe pain. I had an AM radio; while turning the dial amongst all the late night noise, I came across KAAY…I think there was a cool song playing, then I heard the background track. WOW! This was COOL! I would thereafter go to sleep with the radio on (if I was still awake at 11!) and listen to the show. Sometimes I’d wake up for Beaker Theatre. After I got my driver’s license and became busier, I listened to Beaker Street less often. I recall only a few times picking it up in the car, as the show discontinued sometime around 1977. You may have heard the brief clips posted on the web….one of Stuart advertising the “new” Rush Farewell to Kings album I had on a tape. I later followed FM stations, often driving several miles in the country to barely pickup KSHE 95 from St. Louis, a VERY COOL station! Anyway, I wanted to share a list of songs that I remember from Beaker Street. BTW, I never paid attention to the DJ’s back then, please accept my apologies!
A few Beaker Street Classics that I recall in the mid 70’s era…
Blind Faith – Had to Cry Today
King Crimson – Court of the Crimson King
Steve Miller- Fly Like an Eagle
Led Zeppelin – In my Time of Dying, Stairway…, Kashmir, Nobody’s Fault but Mine
Peter Frampton Live – Do You Feel Like we Do
Ted Nugent – Together, Writing on the Wall, Stranglehold
Rush – 2112, Necromancer, Lakeside Park
Black Sabbath – Wheels of Confusion, War Pigs, Paranoid, others
Jaime Brockett – Legend of USS Titanic
Frank Zappa – Montana
Leon Russell – Jumping Jack Flash
Also, lot of Yes, Little Feat, Allman Bros. I could add a few more with time, but these may stir up a memory or two!
Fritze, thanks for sharing your KAAY memories as a Gen-Xer. I’m on the tail-end of the Boomers (born 1961) and want to share my memories of KAAY, all Beaker Street. It was around 1973 and I was 12, living in mid-Missouri. I had 4 huge teeth pulled one day to get ready for braces, and I was up late at night with severe pain. I had an AM radio; while turning the dial amongst all the late night noise, I came across KAAY…I think there was a cool song playing, then I heard the background track. WOW! This was COOL! I would thereafter go to sleep with the radio on (if I was still awake at 11!) and listen to the show. Sometimes I’d wake up for Beaker Theatre. After I got my driver’s license and became busier, I listened to Beaker Street less often. I recall only a few times picking it up in the car, as the show discontinued sometime around 1977. You may have heard the brief clips posted on the web….one of Stuart advertising the “new” Rush Farewell to Kings album I had on a tape. I later followed FM stations, often driving several miles in the country to barely pickup KSHE 95 from St. Louis, a VERY COOL station! Anyway, I wanted to share a list of songs that I remember from Beaker Street. BTW, I never paid attention to the DJ’s back then, please accept my apologies!
A few Beaker Street Classics that I recall in the mid 70’s era…
Blind Faith – Had to Cry Today
King Crimson – Court of the Crimson King
Steve Miller- Fly Like an Eagle
Led Zeppelin – In my Time of Dying, Stairway…, Kashmir, Nobody’s Fault but Mine
Peter Frampton Live – Do You Feel Like we Do
Ted Nugent – Together, Writing on the Wall, Stranglehold
Rush – 2112, Necromancer, Lakeside Park
Black Sabbath – Wheels of Confusion, War Pigs, Paranoid, others
Jaime Brockett – Legend of USS Titanic
Frank Zappa – Montana
Leon Russell – Jumping Jack Flash
Also, lot of Yes, Little Feat, Allman Bros. I could add a few more with time, but these may stir up a memory or two!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Last Day: During The Day Part 2
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Memories Of KAAY Radio
This is probably going to be a different perspective than most of the contributors to the Mighty 1090 blog. I've never worked in the broadcasting industry in any capacity nor in the music industry. I'm also not a baby boomer, since I was born in the mid 1960's.
KAAY was for many years the station that my parents listened to. Both of my parents were Arkansas natives but had lived in Wichita Kansas and met each other there and married. A few months before I was born, my parents relocated back to Arkansas and moved eventually to McGehee. My first exposure to radio was KAAY which they received with tube-type clock radio in their kitchen and occasionally they would listen to the local station, KVSA in McGehee. In 1972, we relocated to Pine Bluff for a few years, North Little Rock and finally rural Lincoln County where I became a teenager.
In Pine Bluff I got my first radio, a transistor pocket radio that was AM only. I managed to find KAAY, and KOTN (Pine Bluff) the two dominant stations at the time (Pine Bluff had other stations such as KCLA and KCAT). I could hear KLRA but I didn't like the twangy country music as a child.
My father considered being prepared for severe weather, and for about two years we lived in a mobile home near Pine Bluff. When the weather got rough, he would load us up and drive into town, sometimes after midnight. These times (1974-1976) were my only exposure to the Beaker Street radio show, and my Dad would become frustrated of having to hear that "hippie music" just to hear the severe weather warnings, but those warnings were aired and professionally, through the static of thunderstorms.
An important year was 1976. First my parents purchased their first car with a factory FM radio. That was the beginning of the end of their KAAY listening in-car, and secondly I got a GE AM/FM portable for my birthday. By that time, I was living in North Little Rock This was no "DX" machine by any means, but I could tune a bit easier and also I had a personal FM radio for the first time. I discovered stations such as KKYK, KLAZ, and a few others. I still listened to KAAY some but those days were slowing.
The next important year was 1979, I was in middle school, living in Lincoln County and had a budding interest in AM DX. In November of that year, the American Embassy in Iran was raided by radical Islamic students supported by the Iranian government. It was at that time, that a talk show on weekday evenings premiered hosted by Dick Price. Price's talk show was my introduction to talk radio. While I listened to KAAY some, most of my listening was to the FM music stations that I could pull in from Little Rock.
By about 1980-81 I only occasionally listened to KAAY. My first car (old and used ) had an AM only radio and while I listened to AM music in the car, it was only until I had gotten an FM radio/cassette tape player for it. I did discover the show Blues Alley and occasionally ran across the 9pm-Midnight paid religion block that KAAY was doing in the final years. That reminded me of my early days of listening to KAAY when the music stopped between 6pm-8pm and the preachers took over when most people were at home watching local news and early evening TV.
In March of 1985, I had gotten word of KAAY's pending demise as a secular-formatted radio station I happened to be home of the last day and recorded some airchecks of that time. Sadly those had gotten lost (including a recording of the "final" Beaker Street). At midnight, the station signed off and there was silence then a instrumental version of the Sanford and Son theme came on for a few minutes. The next morning I heard the Southern Gospel music that would become a mainstay for the early months of the post-Rock KAAY.
1985 was like 1979, a watershed year. That year Eddie Sutton would resign as head basketball coach at the University of Arkansas (in my house growing up Hog basketball and football were on equal standing), and my high school had their last graduating class. I graduated the year prior but knew several students in that last class.
My generation was one that looked to MTV and Little Rock FM stations for the latest music. Our "Ipods" were Walkmen or clones, and while we still listened to vinyl, most of us played the store-bought cassettes in the car/boomboxes/walkmans until they were ate up in the tape players (at all the wrong times). Still KAAY had a huge early influence in my music tastes and was a positive ambassador of Arkansas and America. Had I been born a few years earlier, I could have had memories of listening to Beaker Street under my pillow--or returning home from a date. I am grateful to have had the privilege of hearing Sonny Martin, Ray Lincoln, Dick Price, Marvin Vines, and those Razorback football games that never faded out.
A Gen-X fan of the old KAAY,
Fritze
Star City AR
KAAY was for many years the station that my parents listened to. Both of my parents were Arkansas natives but had lived in Wichita Kansas and met each other there and married. A few months before I was born, my parents relocated back to Arkansas and moved eventually to McGehee. My first exposure to radio was KAAY which they received with tube-type clock radio in their kitchen and occasionally they would listen to the local station, KVSA in McGehee. In 1972, we relocated to Pine Bluff for a few years, North Little Rock and finally rural Lincoln County where I became a teenager.
In Pine Bluff I got my first radio, a transistor pocket radio that was AM only. I managed to find KAAY, and KOTN (Pine Bluff) the two dominant stations at the time (Pine Bluff had other stations such as KCLA and KCAT). I could hear KLRA but I didn't like the twangy country music as a child.
My father considered being prepared for severe weather, and for about two years we lived in a mobile home near Pine Bluff. When the weather got rough, he would load us up and drive into town, sometimes after midnight. These times (1974-1976) were my only exposure to the Beaker Street radio show, and my Dad would become frustrated of having to hear that "hippie music" just to hear the severe weather warnings, but those warnings were aired and professionally, through the static of thunderstorms.
An important year was 1976. First my parents purchased their first car with a factory FM radio. That was the beginning of the end of their KAAY listening in-car, and secondly I got a GE AM/FM portable for my birthday. By that time, I was living in North Little Rock This was no "DX" machine by any means, but I could tune a bit easier and also I had a personal FM radio for the first time. I discovered stations such as KKYK, KLAZ, and a few others. I still listened to KAAY some but those days were slowing.
The next important year was 1979, I was in middle school, living in Lincoln County and had a budding interest in AM DX. In November of that year, the American Embassy in Iran was raided by radical Islamic students supported by the Iranian government. It was at that time, that a talk show on weekday evenings premiered hosted by Dick Price. Price's talk show was my introduction to talk radio. While I listened to KAAY some, most of my listening was to the FM music stations that I could pull in from Little Rock.
By about 1980-81 I only occasionally listened to KAAY. My first car (old and used ) had an AM only radio and while I listened to AM music in the car, it was only until I had gotten an FM radio/cassette tape player for it. I did discover the show Blues Alley and occasionally ran across the 9pm-Midnight paid religion block that KAAY was doing in the final years. That reminded me of my early days of listening to KAAY when the music stopped between 6pm-8pm and the preachers took over when most people were at home watching local news and early evening TV.
In March of 1985, I had gotten word of KAAY's pending demise as a secular-formatted radio station I happened to be home of the last day and recorded some airchecks of that time. Sadly those had gotten lost (including a recording of the "final" Beaker Street). At midnight, the station signed off and there was silence then a instrumental version of the Sanford and Son theme came on for a few minutes. The next morning I heard the Southern Gospel music that would become a mainstay for the early months of the post-Rock KAAY.
1985 was like 1979, a watershed year. That year Eddie Sutton would resign as head basketball coach at the University of Arkansas (in my house growing up Hog basketball and football were on equal standing), and my high school had their last graduating class. I graduated the year prior but knew several students in that last class.
My generation was one that looked to MTV and Little Rock FM stations for the latest music. Our "Ipods" were Walkmen or clones, and while we still listened to vinyl, most of us played the store-bought cassettes in the car/boomboxes/walkmans until they were ate up in the tape players (at all the wrong times). Still KAAY had a huge early influence in my music tastes and was a positive ambassador of Arkansas and America. Had I been born a few years earlier, I could have had memories of listening to Beaker Street under my pillow--or returning home from a date. I am grateful to have had the privilege of hearing Sonny Martin, Ray Lincoln, Dick Price, Marvin Vines, and those Razorback football games that never faded out.
A Gen-X fan of the old KAAY,
Fritze
Star City AR
Monday, April 5, 2010
Dave M. Comments on "The Last Day"....
Barry’s and David-B’s “last hours” essays are pure treasure.
You hear it often as a joke – “last one out, turn off the lights”. Well, this was the real deal, and it was in the guts. It was truly the day the music died, the last great breath of a gentle giant. I wish I could have heard the old RCA 50kW sing her last song, but . . . . (Wasn’t it poetic that she didn’t want to give up the microphone?) I’m glad I was 600 miles away and didn’t hear any of it.
Thank you Dave B and Barry for the bitter-sweet memories. We owe ya big-time!
/”Leeroy”/
(No where else and from no one else could we get heart-wrenching stories but from Those Who Were There...and, if anyone else can add to this important, but sad anniversary, please let us know! bs)
You hear it often as a joke – “last one out, turn off the lights”. Well, this was the real deal, and it was in the guts. It was truly the day the music died, the last great breath of a gentle giant. I wish I could have heard the old RCA 50kW sing her last song, but . . . . (Wasn’t it poetic that she didn’t want to give up the microphone?) I’m glad I was 600 miles away and didn’t hear any of it.
Thank you Dave B and Barry for the bitter-sweet memories. We owe ya big-time!
/”Leeroy”/
(No where else and from no one else could we get heart-wrenching stories but from Those Who Were There...and, if anyone else can add to this important, but sad anniversary, please let us know! bs)
The Last Day: During The Day Part 1
How can one follow the gut-wrenching stories of Barry Mac or David B. Treadway regarding that Last Day, the Day The Music Died on KAAY? I don’t think that if I wrote for a hundred years, I could even begin to convey the hurt, anger, anguish, confusion or the betrayal felt by Those Who Were There, whose beloved Friendly Giant was being sold out from under them.
Nonetheless, there ARE audio bits saved from that day; we gleaned all we could find from A.J.’s blog (by the way, as of middle March, the audio is back on there, thanks to an unknown benefactor! bs). We will be presenting those audio bits here for your enjoyment. The “Sonny Martin” you’ll hear is Matt White; the “Mike McCormick” is Barry “Woody” Wood. The different bits you’ll hear will be recollections of days past, re, the KAAY Komandos, different promotions, programming, antics and other things they got into.
I wish we had more audio; it must be “out there” somewhere. Wherever A.J. got it, it must be in existence, but we know not where; maybe someone out there rolled more tape and will be willing to share with us...
Sonny Martin on the Last Day: stream | download
Nonetheless, there ARE audio bits saved from that day; we gleaned all we could find from A.J.’s blog (by the way, as of middle March, the audio is back on there, thanks to an unknown benefactor! bs). We will be presenting those audio bits here for your enjoyment. The “Sonny Martin” you’ll hear is Matt White; the “Mike McCormick” is Barry “Woody” Wood. The different bits you’ll hear will be recollections of days past, re, the KAAY Komandos, different promotions, programming, antics and other things they got into.
I wish we had more audio; it must be “out there” somewhere. Wherever A.J. got it, it must be in existence, but we know not where; maybe someone out there rolled more tape and will be willing to share with us...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Gene Chenault, 90, Radio Pioneer Dies
Another great, but we missed him by over a month...thanks to Dave M. who definitely helps us stay on the top of things:
"I thought the Gene Chenault story was interesting because it helps explain the subtle but definite transformation of the early KAAY rock n’ roll format to the later ‘70’s KAAY rock format. As a listener you probably didn’t know it was happening, but it just sounded different and “better”. The Drake Chenault combo were brilliant program consultants, and everyone tried to copy their success.
“And now, for another hour of - Much Moo-oore Music! K-A-A-Y”
If you get a chance, look up Gordon McClendan, another radio programming great, but from Dallas –
//DM//."
Thus, below:
A rock and roll radio pioneer, who with his partner, Bill Drake, substantially reshaped the landscape of early rock and roll radio and innovated many devices and systems that could make stations more competitive and grabbing more young ears, died. he was 90.
A master of the idea of un-cluttering the rock broadcasts, Chenault built his business from the idea that by packing more music into the same hour young listeners would choose his client's stations to listen to. It worked. And, the approach helped craft and make profitable the idea of "top 40" sound. Although Drake's name was better known, Chenault was an equal partner and a major force in radio.
Here’s the Gene Chenault obit from the New York Times, FYI –
//DM//
Gene Chenault, Who Changed Rock Radio, Dies at 90
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: March 3, 2010
Gene Chenault, who with his business partner, Bill Drake, reshaped rock radio in the 1960s with prepackaged programming that delivered more music and fewer commercials to hundreds of stations, creating the automated format common today, died on Feb. 23 in Tarzana, Calif. He was 90 and lived in Encino, Calif.
The cause was non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his wife, Susan, said.
The programming, using reel-to-reel tapes of tightly spaced Top 40 hits, was primarily designed by Mr. Drake and marketed and syndicated by Mr. Chenault. It raised ratings at station after station and brought a certain big-city sound to many small towns. At the press of a button a local D.J. could jump in with his own boisterous one-liner — no more yarns about teenage romance — or a station-identifying jingle. To maximize the music, the Top 40 were sometimes edited, speeded up and pared to 30.
The new format gave rise to the stock phrases “boss jock” and “boss radio,” which first took hold at KHJ in Los Angeles in 1965. (The word boss was derived from California surfer slang for good, as in “That’s a boss wave.”) Within a year KHJ leapt from 12th to first place in the Los Angeles ratings. Its slogan: “Much More Music.”
“The big idea is to unclutter and speed up the pace,” Time magazine wrote of the Drake-Chenault format in August 1968.
“The next recording is introduced during the fade-out of the last one,” the article continued. “Singing station identifications, which sometimes run at oratorio length elsewhere, are chopped to 1 ½ seconds. Commercials are reduced to 13 minutes, 40 seconds an hour — almost one-third less than the U.S. average.” By cutting down on commercials, the stations could sell advertising at higher rates.
Newscasts were scheduled at unconventional times, usually 20 minutes after the hour, so that when the competition was reporting a local crime, the syndicated station was running a “music sweep” — three or four recordings back-to-back to lure away dial switchers.
It worked. Besides the rise of KHJ in Los Angeles, KGB in San Diego went from last to first in its market in 90 days. In New York an upstart FM station, WOR, brought in Mr. Chenault (pronounced sha-NAULT) and Mr. Drake when it decided to go up against the Top 40 powerhouses WABC and WMCA. By 1967 WABC was still the leading New York station, but WOR-FM was No. 2.
Marc Fisher, the author of “Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation” (Random House, 2007), said in an interview: “What Drake and Chenault did in California and then exported around the country was the idea that you could virtually automate the combination of hit music, D.J.’s with bigger-than-life personalities and the overall sense of possibility and danger that the rock revolution was bringing to pop culture.”
Though boss jocks could be raucous, there was a certain homogeneity to the formula. “The positive spin is that they brought a more professional kind of entertainment to places that had been fairly amateurish,” Mr. Fisher said. “But if you look at their work from today’s perspective, they emerge as the founding fathers of predictable, automated music-radio formats.”
Still, by 1975, Drake-Chenault Enterprises, their consulting company in Canoga Park, Calif., was serving about 350 client stations with makeover advice and totally automated packages in six formats. In 1979 the company produced “The History of Rock ’n’ Roll,” a 50-hour documentary that met with phenomenal success. Stations clamored to schedule it, first as a blockbuster weekend special, then in repeat broadcasts of shorter segments.
Lester Eugene Chenault was born in Eldorado, Okla., on June 12, 1919, one of two sons of Leonard and Fannie Burnett Chenault. When he was 4 the family moved to Los Angeles.
Besides his wife, the former Susan Akiko, Mr. Chenault is survived by his son, Mark; his daughter, Carol Moore; and four grandchildren.
While in high school Mr. Chenault got an acting job at a radio station in Los Angeles. On graduating he was hired by KFRE in Fresno, Calif., but was soon drafted into the Army. After World War II he and a friend started a station in Fresno, KYNO; he eventually acquired full ownership.
In 1962 Mr. Chenault hired Mr. Drake, a brash up-and-coming D.J. who shared some of his new boss’s notions of rock ’n’ roll programming. As KYNO’s new program director Mr. Drake, who died in 2008, adopted a jampacked playlist and pared down the D.J. talk. Within a year its major local rival, KMAK, switched to country music.
“Gene Chenault’s name is less familiar than that of his partner, programmer Bill Drake,” the Museum of Broadcast Communications’s Encyclopedia of Radio says of the partners. “Yet behind the impact of Drake’s contributions to the Top 40 format were Chenault’s management skill and marketing concepts. The two men altered U.S. radio and American popular culture in the 1960s.”
I never knew the impact this man nor Bill Drake had on the industry...now we know! Thanks, Dave, for sharing....Bud S.
"I thought the Gene Chenault story was interesting because it helps explain the subtle but definite transformation of the early KAAY rock n’ roll format to the later ‘70’s KAAY rock format. As a listener you probably didn’t know it was happening, but it just sounded different and “better”. The Drake Chenault combo were brilliant program consultants, and everyone tried to copy their success.
“And now, for another hour of - Much Moo-oore Music! K-A-A-Y”
If you get a chance, look up Gordon McClendan, another radio programming great, but from Dallas –
//DM//."
Thus, below:
A rock and roll radio pioneer, who with his partner, Bill Drake, substantially reshaped the landscape of early rock and roll radio and innovated many devices and systems that could make stations more competitive and grabbing more young ears, died. he was 90.
A master of the idea of un-cluttering the rock broadcasts, Chenault built his business from the idea that by packing more music into the same hour young listeners would choose his client's stations to listen to. It worked. And, the approach helped craft and make profitable the idea of "top 40" sound. Although Drake's name was better known, Chenault was an equal partner and a major force in radio.
Here’s the Gene Chenault obit from the New York Times, FYI –
//DM//
Gene Chenault, Who Changed Rock Radio, Dies at 90
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: March 3, 2010
Gene Chenault, who with his business partner, Bill Drake, reshaped rock radio in the 1960s with prepackaged programming that delivered more music and fewer commercials to hundreds of stations, creating the automated format common today, died on Feb. 23 in Tarzana, Calif. He was 90 and lived in Encino, Calif.
The cause was non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his wife, Susan, said.
The programming, using reel-to-reel tapes of tightly spaced Top 40 hits, was primarily designed by Mr. Drake and marketed and syndicated by Mr. Chenault. It raised ratings at station after station and brought a certain big-city sound to many small towns. At the press of a button a local D.J. could jump in with his own boisterous one-liner — no more yarns about teenage romance — or a station-identifying jingle. To maximize the music, the Top 40 were sometimes edited, speeded up and pared to 30.
The new format gave rise to the stock phrases “boss jock” and “boss radio,” which first took hold at KHJ in Los Angeles in 1965. (The word boss was derived from California surfer slang for good, as in “That’s a boss wave.”) Within a year KHJ leapt from 12th to first place in the Los Angeles ratings. Its slogan: “Much More Music.”
“The big idea is to unclutter and speed up the pace,” Time magazine wrote of the Drake-Chenault format in August 1968.
“The next recording is introduced during the fade-out of the last one,” the article continued. “Singing station identifications, which sometimes run at oratorio length elsewhere, are chopped to 1 ½ seconds. Commercials are reduced to 13 minutes, 40 seconds an hour — almost one-third less than the U.S. average.” By cutting down on commercials, the stations could sell advertising at higher rates.
Newscasts were scheduled at unconventional times, usually 20 minutes after the hour, so that when the competition was reporting a local crime, the syndicated station was running a “music sweep” — three or four recordings back-to-back to lure away dial switchers.
It worked. Besides the rise of KHJ in Los Angeles, KGB in San Diego went from last to first in its market in 90 days. In New York an upstart FM station, WOR, brought in Mr. Chenault (pronounced sha-NAULT) and Mr. Drake when it decided to go up against the Top 40 powerhouses WABC and WMCA. By 1967 WABC was still the leading New York station, but WOR-FM was No. 2.
Marc Fisher, the author of “Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation” (Random House, 2007), said in an interview: “What Drake and Chenault did in California and then exported around the country was the idea that you could virtually automate the combination of hit music, D.J.’s with bigger-than-life personalities and the overall sense of possibility and danger that the rock revolution was bringing to pop culture.”
Though boss jocks could be raucous, there was a certain homogeneity to the formula. “The positive spin is that they brought a more professional kind of entertainment to places that had been fairly amateurish,” Mr. Fisher said. “But if you look at their work from today’s perspective, they emerge as the founding fathers of predictable, automated music-radio formats.”
Still, by 1975, Drake-Chenault Enterprises, their consulting company in Canoga Park, Calif., was serving about 350 client stations with makeover advice and totally automated packages in six formats. In 1979 the company produced “The History of Rock ’n’ Roll,” a 50-hour documentary that met with phenomenal success. Stations clamored to schedule it, first as a blockbuster weekend special, then in repeat broadcasts of shorter segments.
Lester Eugene Chenault was born in Eldorado, Okla., on June 12, 1919, one of two sons of Leonard and Fannie Burnett Chenault. When he was 4 the family moved to Los Angeles.
Besides his wife, the former Susan Akiko, Mr. Chenault is survived by his son, Mark; his daughter, Carol Moore; and four grandchildren.
While in high school Mr. Chenault got an acting job at a radio station in Los Angeles. On graduating he was hired by KFRE in Fresno, Calif., but was soon drafted into the Army. After World War II he and a friend started a station in Fresno, KYNO; he eventually acquired full ownership.
In 1962 Mr. Chenault hired Mr. Drake, a brash up-and-coming D.J. who shared some of his new boss’s notions of rock ’n’ roll programming. As KYNO’s new program director Mr. Drake, who died in 2008, adopted a jampacked playlist and pared down the D.J. talk. Within a year its major local rival, KMAK, switched to country music.
“Gene Chenault’s name is less familiar than that of his partner, programmer Bill Drake,” the Museum of Broadcast Communications’s Encyclopedia of Radio says of the partners. “Yet behind the impact of Drake’s contributions to the Top 40 format were Chenault’s management skill and marketing concepts. The two men altered U.S. radio and American popular culture in the 1960s.”
I never knew the impact this man nor Bill Drake had on the industry...now we know! Thanks, Dave, for sharing....Bud S.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Last Day, The Last Hour, Part 2: David B. Treadway
This is the part of the story that hurts to tell, a chronicle of the last day of KAAY. It’s no stretch to say that April 3, 1985, was the end of an empire. It was the day we threw a Lion to the Christians.
The rumors were confirmed in a staff meeting in December of 1984: KAAY was for sale—and the high bidder was a religious broadcasting company which would end the station’s music format. The powerful Mighty 1090 signal would become the province of radio preachers and per-inquiry sales entities as soon as the deal closed and the FCC approved it. We could see the end coming, but we also had a tiny sliver of hope.
Philip R. Jonsson, whose Signal Media of Arkansas owned KLRA (10,000 watts at 1010 Khz and for decades the dominant country station in the market), expressed an interest in buying KAAY along with its FM counterpart KLPQ (100,000 watts ERP at 94.1 Mhz with a country format). Trouble was, under the ownership limits at the time, he had to find a buyer for KLRA so that Signal could divest itself of one AM station at the exact moment it acquired another. Even under perfect conditions, this would have been some tricky business—but the phrase “deep pockets” was coined for Mr. Jonsson. If there had been a way to pull off the deal, I believe he would have found it. Time ran out on him as well as on us.
Still, it gave us a little hope—an invaluable commodity among any demoralized group of people. And demoralized is exactly what we of the air staff were. I think we shared a sense of abandonment and, in my case, betrayal. “How can Multimedia DO this!” was the thought that kept coming to me in those few remaining months. “If they don’t know what to do with a music station, why don’t they sell it to someone who DOES?”
(Please note: I don’t intend this piece to be a hatchet job on Multimedia, nor do I mean to belittle anyone’s religious beliefs. They are just two facets of the story.)
KAAY was doing rather well for an AM station, ratings-wise. It had as much as an 8 share of Adults 25-54 in the 10:00 AM-3:00 PM daypart, according to the now-defunct Birch measurements. On Yom Kippur, 1984, KAAY had changed formats from Adult Contemporary (can anybody tell me what that means?) to Oldies—a simple move that made the station resemble the franchise that a BUNCH of people had grown up with. There was another simple move that may have had a little to do with the ratings increases as well.
I told my air staff that I didn’t care how long it took to say the call letters: it WAS going to be K-A-A-Y, not K-Double-A-Y or K-Y. There would be no shortcuts on the air. “If you have trouble saying the ‘A-A’ back-to-back, go somewhere and PRACTICE,” I told ‘em.
The station had received any amount of mail addressed to KWAY, KWUY and even KUUY. I had seen Arbitron mechanical diaries where “Unknown AM” came in with 5 or 6 shares. My theory was that that Unknown AM HAD to be KAAY, but whatever call letters the listeners were trying to write down did not exist in the Little Rock survey area. The diary keepers were trying to give the station its props, but they had become completely confused by the on-air shorthand!
I had returned to KAAY in the late summer of 1983 to do Afternoon Drive at the request of my friend Rick McGee. When he left Little Rock in 1984, he recommended me for his Program Director position and I got the gig. I also got his Morning Drive gig. It was, simultaneously, among the best and the worst times of my life.
It’s puzzling to me that my memories of that last day are fuzzy—and have been since the day itself. You could say that I was too preoccupied with all the little details that Programming involves. And you could certainly say that I was stressed out. I hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks, and when I did dream, I dreamed about being at work. NOT good. But though I’m unable to recall the facets, I do have the big picture of that day.
Sonny Martin III (Matt White) had graciously agreed to come down from Heber Springs to do the morning show, and he arrived around 6:30. We bantered on-air for a while, then I handed off the show to him. We called WOAI in San Antonio in hopes of getting George Jennings to join in via phone, but we were told that he was out covering a story. Talk about being perfectly in character!
Sonny did not lack for company, though. The two request lines had been ringing non-stop for the previous 48 hours after word had leaked that KAAY was (in the minds of a great many people) going off the air. Sonny spent as much time on the phone as he could, talking with people who remembered him from Back When. I had thought that I might have to run the board for him, but he took one look at the setup and told me to get out of the way. There was a tradition at KAAY where the microphone switch had a white key, all the rest being black. (We had brought this one over from 1425 West 7th Street.) Sonny saw it, grinned at me and fell right in!
About 7:00, I called Felix McDonald and asked if he would fire up the original RCA transmitter. He said it sounded like a great idea, but it would take him a few minutes to get over there and “get her warmed up.” Around 7:30, we heard the audio go dead for a couple of seconds and then Big Mama came on! The difference in sound was apparent to me right away—there was a depth, a roundness and a “punch” to the music and the voices that only comes from vacuum tube circuits. Those old hits that Sonny was spinning (many of them direct from vinyl) sure sounded good through that RCA! Meanwhile, the request lines kept flashing. I never saw an unlit button.
Mike McCormick II (Barry Wood) came in to do 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. He also tried to keep up with the phone calls, but the volume was simply overwhelming. We had calls from Canada and even Germany—people who had grown up listening to KAAY had somehow gotten the news in their faraway new homes and were phoning in to say goodbye.
By 11:00 AM, it became impossible for me to listen to the station. Newspaper reporters and TV news crews had taken every available seat in the lobby and were spilling over into the halls and the downstairs break room. They all wanted their sound bites and quotes. They all knew that a legend was passing into history, so I spent as much time as possible (in hindsight, probably too much) answering their questions and taking video/audio crews into the control room.
Eric (Weil) Lundy did 2:00 – 6:00 PM, his usual shift. You’ve probably not heard of him, but he is a very competent air talent with a quick and quirky mind. He was (probably still is) EXACTLY the sort of people I prefer to have working with me.
Though he tends to sell himself short, Barry Mac (who regularly did 6:00 – 9:00 PM and babysat the religion block from 9:00 – Midnight) is another good example of people I want on my staff. Give me five regular guys/girls who WANT TO WORK and I’ll meet or beat a collection of “stars” EVERY TIME.
I left the station around 5:00 PM to go home for a bit of supper and maybe a nap before coming back for the last few hours. Got a glimpse of myself on the 6:00 News and thought I looked like I’d been run over. Which I had been.
It might have been 10:30 when I got back to the station, thinking what a raw deal it was for us to be running those religion shows when we should have been bringing a last night’s worth of Solid Gold to 26 states and 10 foreign countries. There were half a dozen cars that I did not recognize in the parking lot—listeners who had just showed up to keep vigil, ordinary people who simply wanted to be nearby when The Mighty 1090 went down. Or MAYBE they had heard that Clyde Clifford—the completely, utterly beautiful Dale Seidenschwarz his unduplicated SELF—was coming in to do The Last Beaker Street at 11:00? I invited them in, too choked up to even remember their names for more than a few seconds. It was a serious violation of company policy to have visitors in the building after hours. Somehow, I didn’t care. Nor did I have any qualms about “losing” the taped program (Kenneth Copeland, I think) that was supposed to air at 11:00.
Just as I brought our visitors upstairs, Clyde arrived with a big box of albums and what we called a “cueless cart” (meaning it would not stop running until you hit the switch) containing the world-famous Beaker Background. I still remember the hush that fell over that hallway, the saucer-eyed faces of our guests and the way they whispered his name to each other. You’d have thought Jimi Hendrix had risen on the third day and appeared unto the faithful!
Clyde took a few moments to chat with the folks, to thank them for coming, and I believe he even signed a few autographs. Then it was seriously close to air time, so I sat down at the board, rolled the Background and spoke “Beaker Street. KAAY, Little Rock” into the main mic while Clyde stood at the guest mic. I turned the board-op duties over to Barry Mac and wandered the building to listen to what we all thought was The Last Beaker Street on the house air monitors. Every now and then, I’d pass by the control room window, moved beyond words by the visitors who were content to look at Clyde’s back while he did the show. There was a monitor speaker in the ceiling by the window and I had cranked up the volume far beyond levels that would have been tolerated in the daytime.
Yes, I rolled tape on that Beaker Street, but I only remember two songs from it: Jamie Brockett’s “The Legend Of The U.S.S. Titanic” and the song Clyde chose to close the hour—Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game.” I am gratified beyond words that a recording of that Last Beaker Street (little did we know, except Clyde may have picked up a message from the future) is available to readers of this blog. THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. Everything we did at KAAY, every song we played, every word we spoke, every stupid stunt we pulled in public, BELONGS TO OUR LISTENERS. Then, now, and always!
So midnight came and Joni’s last notes faded into the skywave, followed by a rather uncomfortable and lengthy stretch of dead air before the new owners could get their programming on the frequency via some remote arrangement. A few days later, Felix explained to me what happened: the RCA transmitter would not disconnect from the antenna array!
WELL, I TOLD YOU SHE WAS ALIVE, NOW DIDN’T I?
Very Truly Yours,
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
The Last P.D.
EPILOGUE: There are undoubtedly people I failed to mention in this piece. I’m SORRY for that and I mean NO disrespect by it! I was in a Twilight Zone that last day, and the passage of twenty-five years (can it really be that long?) has done nothing to shore up a notoriously bad memory. If you were there and I left you out, get my email address from Bud and give me the lashing I richly deserve. I won’t ask you to go easy on an old man, but please know that I love you ALL and I am grateful for your part of the Legend.
The final Beaker Street on KAAY, 3 April 1985, Part 2: stream | download
The rumors were confirmed in a staff meeting in December of 1984: KAAY was for sale—and the high bidder was a religious broadcasting company which would end the station’s music format. The powerful Mighty 1090 signal would become the province of radio preachers and per-inquiry sales entities as soon as the deal closed and the FCC approved it. We could see the end coming, but we also had a tiny sliver of hope.
Philip R. Jonsson, whose Signal Media of Arkansas owned KLRA (10,000 watts at 1010 Khz and for decades the dominant country station in the market), expressed an interest in buying KAAY along with its FM counterpart KLPQ (100,000 watts ERP at 94.1 Mhz with a country format). Trouble was, under the ownership limits at the time, he had to find a buyer for KLRA so that Signal could divest itself of one AM station at the exact moment it acquired another. Even under perfect conditions, this would have been some tricky business—but the phrase “deep pockets” was coined for Mr. Jonsson. If there had been a way to pull off the deal, I believe he would have found it. Time ran out on him as well as on us.
Still, it gave us a little hope—an invaluable commodity among any demoralized group of people. And demoralized is exactly what we of the air staff were. I think we shared a sense of abandonment and, in my case, betrayal. “How can Multimedia DO this!” was the thought that kept coming to me in those few remaining months. “If they don’t know what to do with a music station, why don’t they sell it to someone who DOES?”
(Please note: I don’t intend this piece to be a hatchet job on Multimedia, nor do I mean to belittle anyone’s religious beliefs. They are just two facets of the story.)
KAAY was doing rather well for an AM station, ratings-wise. It had as much as an 8 share of Adults 25-54 in the 10:00 AM-3:00 PM daypart, according to the now-defunct Birch measurements. On Yom Kippur, 1984, KAAY had changed formats from Adult Contemporary (can anybody tell me what that means?) to Oldies—a simple move that made the station resemble the franchise that a BUNCH of people had grown up with. There was another simple move that may have had a little to do with the ratings increases as well.
I told my air staff that I didn’t care how long it took to say the call letters: it WAS going to be K-A-A-Y, not K-Double-A-Y or K-Y. There would be no shortcuts on the air. “If you have trouble saying the ‘A-A’ back-to-back, go somewhere and PRACTICE,” I told ‘em.
The station had received any amount of mail addressed to KWAY, KWUY and even KUUY. I had seen Arbitron mechanical diaries where “Unknown AM” came in with 5 or 6 shares. My theory was that that Unknown AM HAD to be KAAY, but whatever call letters the listeners were trying to write down did not exist in the Little Rock survey area. The diary keepers were trying to give the station its props, but they had become completely confused by the on-air shorthand!
I had returned to KAAY in the late summer of 1983 to do Afternoon Drive at the request of my friend Rick McGee. When he left Little Rock in 1984, he recommended me for his Program Director position and I got the gig. I also got his Morning Drive gig. It was, simultaneously, among the best and the worst times of my life.
It’s puzzling to me that my memories of that last day are fuzzy—and have been since the day itself. You could say that I was too preoccupied with all the little details that Programming involves. And you could certainly say that I was stressed out. I hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks, and when I did dream, I dreamed about being at work. NOT good. But though I’m unable to recall the facets, I do have the big picture of that day.
Sonny Martin III (Matt White) had graciously agreed to come down from Heber Springs to do the morning show, and he arrived around 6:30. We bantered on-air for a while, then I handed off the show to him. We called WOAI in San Antonio in hopes of getting George Jennings to join in via phone, but we were told that he was out covering a story. Talk about being perfectly in character!
Sonny did not lack for company, though. The two request lines had been ringing non-stop for the previous 48 hours after word had leaked that KAAY was (in the minds of a great many people) going off the air. Sonny spent as much time on the phone as he could, talking with people who remembered him from Back When. I had thought that I might have to run the board for him, but he took one look at the setup and told me to get out of the way. There was a tradition at KAAY where the microphone switch had a white key, all the rest being black. (We had brought this one over from 1425 West 7th Street.) Sonny saw it, grinned at me and fell right in!
About 7:00, I called Felix McDonald and asked if he would fire up the original RCA transmitter. He said it sounded like a great idea, but it would take him a few minutes to get over there and “get her warmed up.” Around 7:30, we heard the audio go dead for a couple of seconds and then Big Mama came on! The difference in sound was apparent to me right away—there was a depth, a roundness and a “punch” to the music and the voices that only comes from vacuum tube circuits. Those old hits that Sonny was spinning (many of them direct from vinyl) sure sounded good through that RCA! Meanwhile, the request lines kept flashing. I never saw an unlit button.
Mike McCormick II (Barry Wood) came in to do 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. He also tried to keep up with the phone calls, but the volume was simply overwhelming. We had calls from Canada and even Germany—people who had grown up listening to KAAY had somehow gotten the news in their faraway new homes and were phoning in to say goodbye.
By 11:00 AM, it became impossible for me to listen to the station. Newspaper reporters and TV news crews had taken every available seat in the lobby and were spilling over into the halls and the downstairs break room. They all wanted their sound bites and quotes. They all knew that a legend was passing into history, so I spent as much time as possible (in hindsight, probably too much) answering their questions and taking video/audio crews into the control room.
Eric (Weil) Lundy did 2:00 – 6:00 PM, his usual shift. You’ve probably not heard of him, but he is a very competent air talent with a quick and quirky mind. He was (probably still is) EXACTLY the sort of people I prefer to have working with me.
Though he tends to sell himself short, Barry Mac (who regularly did 6:00 – 9:00 PM and babysat the religion block from 9:00 – Midnight) is another good example of people I want on my staff. Give me five regular guys/girls who WANT TO WORK and I’ll meet or beat a collection of “stars” EVERY TIME.
I left the station around 5:00 PM to go home for a bit of supper and maybe a nap before coming back for the last few hours. Got a glimpse of myself on the 6:00 News and thought I looked like I’d been run over. Which I had been.
It might have been 10:30 when I got back to the station, thinking what a raw deal it was for us to be running those religion shows when we should have been bringing a last night’s worth of Solid Gold to 26 states and 10 foreign countries. There were half a dozen cars that I did not recognize in the parking lot—listeners who had just showed up to keep vigil, ordinary people who simply wanted to be nearby when The Mighty 1090 went down. Or MAYBE they had heard that Clyde Clifford—the completely, utterly beautiful Dale Seidenschwarz his unduplicated SELF—was coming in to do The Last Beaker Street at 11:00? I invited them in, too choked up to even remember their names for more than a few seconds. It was a serious violation of company policy to have visitors in the building after hours. Somehow, I didn’t care. Nor did I have any qualms about “losing” the taped program (Kenneth Copeland, I think) that was supposed to air at 11:00.
Just as I brought our visitors upstairs, Clyde arrived with a big box of albums and what we called a “cueless cart” (meaning it would not stop running until you hit the switch) containing the world-famous Beaker Background. I still remember the hush that fell over that hallway, the saucer-eyed faces of our guests and the way they whispered his name to each other. You’d have thought Jimi Hendrix had risen on the third day and appeared unto the faithful!
Clyde took a few moments to chat with the folks, to thank them for coming, and I believe he even signed a few autographs. Then it was seriously close to air time, so I sat down at the board, rolled the Background and spoke “Beaker Street. KAAY, Little Rock” into the main mic while Clyde stood at the guest mic. I turned the board-op duties over to Barry Mac and wandered the building to listen to what we all thought was The Last Beaker Street on the house air monitors. Every now and then, I’d pass by the control room window, moved beyond words by the visitors who were content to look at Clyde’s back while he did the show. There was a monitor speaker in the ceiling by the window and I had cranked up the volume far beyond levels that would have been tolerated in the daytime.
Yes, I rolled tape on that Beaker Street, but I only remember two songs from it: Jamie Brockett’s “The Legend Of The U.S.S. Titanic” and the song Clyde chose to close the hour—Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game.” I am gratified beyond words that a recording of that Last Beaker Street (little did we know, except Clyde may have picked up a message from the future) is available to readers of this blog. THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. Everything we did at KAAY, every song we played, every word we spoke, every stupid stunt we pulled in public, BELONGS TO OUR LISTENERS. Then, now, and always!
So midnight came and Joni’s last notes faded into the skywave, followed by a rather uncomfortable and lengthy stretch of dead air before the new owners could get their programming on the frequency via some remote arrangement. A few days later, Felix explained to me what happened: the RCA transmitter would not disconnect from the antenna array!
WELL, I TOLD YOU SHE WAS ALIVE, NOW DIDN’T I?
Very Truly Yours,
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
The Last P.D.
EPILOGUE: There are undoubtedly people I failed to mention in this piece. I’m SORRY for that and I mean NO disrespect by it! I was in a Twilight Zone that last day, and the passage of twenty-five years (can it really be that long?) has done nothing to shore up a notoriously bad memory. If you were there and I left you out, get my email address from Bud and give me the lashing I richly deserve. I won’t ask you to go easy on an old man, but please know that I love you ALL and I am grateful for your part of the Legend.
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Last Day, The Last Hour, Part 1: Barry McCorkindale
(April 3, 1985 was the last day KAAY was a Top 40 blowtorch. Two guys who had something with coordinating The Last Day, Barry Mac and David B. Treadway, have stepped up to the plate to give us an inside look behind the scenes. By the way, audio is included of The Last Hour of The Last Day. Below are some recollections of Barry Mac, the man behind the board for Clyde Clifford:)
Wow, my recollections of "the last day." Don't really know how much I can come up with, as I was only there for the last six hours, six to midnight. I can certainly come up with bits and pieces, but probably not anything resembling a coherent story line.
As I recall, it wasn't a weekend, it was about the middle of the week, so I'd probably been at school (UALR) for either two or three classes. In fact, thinking of that, I'm almost absolutely certain it was a Wednesday, because I remember working through that weekend and we were still running a lot of spots, but when it got to Monday, April 1st, we were running virtually NO spots, because not only had we completed a week, we'd completed a month, and none of those advertisers were going to sign up with "the new" KAAY. But there was one exception, which was a rather odd one. Radio station KLRA, a long time local AM country music station (which hired David B., who in turn hired me - again!), bought a huge package of spots to run those last three days, and it was so strange, because those were close to the ONLY spots that were running. They were :30 as I recall, with local radio legend Brother Hal doing the spot dry, nothing in the background, just him talking. I think he recorded two of them, but the message was essentially the same in both: "When KAAY goes gospel, we sure hope you folks will consider coming over and finding a new home at AM 1010 and give us a listen." I mean, I was used to these stopsets (sorry, commercial breaks) with 3-5 spots in them, running three or four times an hour, and then the last three days, it's virtually nothing but the occasional bailout from the music to listen to thirty seconds of Brother Hal.
Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you the last song I played just before 9:00, when we went into our regularly scheduled religious block time programming (The Harvest Gleanor Hour!), although I do remember playing a few different things those last three hours from 6:00-9:00, specifically "Bus Rider" by the Guess Who. The only reason I remember that is because two of the jocks from the other side of the building, working at K-Light 94.1, were egging me on about whether or not I was going to cut lead singer Burton Cummings' line about "I'm so awful GD glad I'm not in your shoes," telling me, go ahead, air it, don't cut it, come on, you've got no balls if you don't just go ahead and air it (the jocks were Terrell Woodall and a big musclehead guy named Blake, but I couldn't tell you his full name or the name he went by on the air). Well, when it got to the moment, I cut the "GD" out, and the guys just railed on me incessantly.
Speaking of "The Harvest Gleanor Hour," which, by the way, was only 15 minutes long (a lot of the Christian programs did that for some reason - the "something hour," but it was almost invariably only 15 or 30 minutes), I don't think I had an inkling about David B. bringing Clyde back for that last hour until after I'd hit that block programming at 9:00. I also recall not thinking to record it until about 11:15, which really didn't matter, as I know I haven't had that tape since I've lived in the house I'm in now (which is since the end of 1990).
Another thing to add was my disappointment in the "crowd" that had shown up outside the studios, in the back parking lot after dark. Now, David B. could correct me on this one, but I only recall seeing somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe 30 or 40 people holding vigil for the great KAAY - maybe to some a decent showing of the locals for the demise of a formerly great and influential AM station, but not nearly what it deserved. Granted, this is 1985, and the transition from AM to FM for music listeners had been in full swing for several years, but we're talking about the mighty 1090, which every 20-something and 30-something in central Arkansas and beyond had grown up listening to. And we can't even get 50 people out here to pay homage? Well, if there were 50, it was barely 50.
Other quick recollections - the ratings that came out a few weeks later showed a significant spike for KAAY (I think the last rating was 4.1 or maybe 4.5, and had been closer to around a 3.0 or less just the previous summer), that Eric Lundy (real last name "Wiehl") was the last experienced jock on the air (I had the last shift, but I was very, very GREEN), that I couldn't believe that Multimedia sold the station for LESS than a million (Sudbrink, who bought it, sold it just over two years later for 2.6 million), and that the station, in my opinion (and based on the ratings), had regained momentum and found direction, after a few years of having no direction. I still remember our categories of music - pre-'64, '64-'70, '71-'75, and '76 to '79 (with a few very early '80s thown in), with the primary emphasis on the '64-'70 years, secondary emphasis on '71-'75. I also recall a black guy who had a late night show when I first came on by the name of Buddy King, and the show was "Blues Alley." It may have been only a Friday night thing, but I don't think he was still doing the show the last few weeks, or maybe even the last couple of months. The rumor of the sale had gone back to around the holidays of '84, and I think the official announcement came in early February.
And by the way, David B., you hired me in October of '84, as I recall it being about two weeks past my birthday on the 6th. I also recall about three weeks after being hired thinking about quitting, because I knew that I was not only a pretty horrible jock, but I was a pretty horrible jock on KAAY! Which was just wrong! But luckily, that didn't happen, and eventually I got better, although even by the following April, I think I had only achieved "barely tolerable" status.
Hopefully, this will help supplement anything that David B. comes up with, and if there's anything else I think of, I'll pass it along.
BMac
P.S. And I'll never forget a bunch of us getting together at Pepper Joe's (just down the road from the station) afterwards, and after fellow and former co-worker Sheila Glover said something that had us laughing, David B. came back with the line, "Sheila, you're just a d**k away from being one of the guys!" Which got an even bigger laugh than whatever it was that Sheila said!
(Here's the first half-hour of that Last Hour:)
The final Beaker Street on KAAY, 3 April 1985, Part 1: stream | download
Wow, my recollections of "the last day." Don't really know how much I can come up with, as I was only there for the last six hours, six to midnight. I can certainly come up with bits and pieces, but probably not anything resembling a coherent story line.
As I recall, it wasn't a weekend, it was about the middle of the week, so I'd probably been at school (UALR) for either two or three classes. In fact, thinking of that, I'm almost absolutely certain it was a Wednesday, because I remember working through that weekend and we were still running a lot of spots, but when it got to Monday, April 1st, we were running virtually NO spots, because not only had we completed a week, we'd completed a month, and none of those advertisers were going to sign up with "the new" KAAY. But there was one exception, which was a rather odd one. Radio station KLRA, a long time local AM country music station (which hired David B., who in turn hired me - again!), bought a huge package of spots to run those last three days, and it was so strange, because those were close to the ONLY spots that were running. They were :30 as I recall, with local radio legend Brother Hal doing the spot dry, nothing in the background, just him talking. I think he recorded two of them, but the message was essentially the same in both: "When KAAY goes gospel, we sure hope you folks will consider coming over and finding a new home at AM 1010 and give us a listen." I mean, I was used to these stopsets (sorry, commercial breaks) with 3-5 spots in them, running three or four times an hour, and then the last three days, it's virtually nothing but the occasional bailout from the music to listen to thirty seconds of Brother Hal.
Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you the last song I played just before 9:00, when we went into our regularly scheduled religious block time programming (The Harvest Gleanor Hour!), although I do remember playing a few different things those last three hours from 6:00-9:00, specifically "Bus Rider" by the Guess Who. The only reason I remember that is because two of the jocks from the other side of the building, working at K-Light 94.1, were egging me on about whether or not I was going to cut lead singer Burton Cummings' line about "I'm so awful GD glad I'm not in your shoes," telling me, go ahead, air it, don't cut it, come on, you've got no balls if you don't just go ahead and air it (the jocks were Terrell Woodall and a big musclehead guy named Blake, but I couldn't tell you his full name or the name he went by on the air). Well, when it got to the moment, I cut the "GD" out, and the guys just railed on me incessantly.
Speaking of "The Harvest Gleanor Hour," which, by the way, was only 15 minutes long (a lot of the Christian programs did that for some reason - the "something hour," but it was almost invariably only 15 or 30 minutes), I don't think I had an inkling about David B. bringing Clyde back for that last hour until after I'd hit that block programming at 9:00. I also recall not thinking to record it until about 11:15, which really didn't matter, as I know I haven't had that tape since I've lived in the house I'm in now (which is since the end of 1990).
Another thing to add was my disappointment in the "crowd" that had shown up outside the studios, in the back parking lot after dark. Now, David B. could correct me on this one, but I only recall seeing somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe 30 or 40 people holding vigil for the great KAAY - maybe to some a decent showing of the locals for the demise of a formerly great and influential AM station, but not nearly what it deserved. Granted, this is 1985, and the transition from AM to FM for music listeners had been in full swing for several years, but we're talking about the mighty 1090, which every 20-something and 30-something in central Arkansas and beyond had grown up listening to. And we can't even get 50 people out here to pay homage? Well, if there were 50, it was barely 50.
Other quick recollections - the ratings that came out a few weeks later showed a significant spike for KAAY (I think the last rating was 4.1 or maybe 4.5, and had been closer to around a 3.0 or less just the previous summer), that Eric Lundy (real last name "Wiehl") was the last experienced jock on the air (I had the last shift, but I was very, very GREEN), that I couldn't believe that Multimedia sold the station for LESS than a million (Sudbrink, who bought it, sold it just over two years later for 2.6 million), and that the station, in my opinion (and based on the ratings), had regained momentum and found direction, after a few years of having no direction. I still remember our categories of music - pre-'64, '64-'70, '71-'75, and '76 to '79 (with a few very early '80s thown in), with the primary emphasis on the '64-'70 years, secondary emphasis on '71-'75. I also recall a black guy who had a late night show when I first came on by the name of Buddy King, and the show was "Blues Alley." It may have been only a Friday night thing, but I don't think he was still doing the show the last few weeks, or maybe even the last couple of months. The rumor of the sale had gone back to around the holidays of '84, and I think the official announcement came in early February.
And by the way, David B., you hired me in October of '84, as I recall it being about two weeks past my birthday on the 6th. I also recall about three weeks after being hired thinking about quitting, because I knew that I was not only a pretty horrible jock, but I was a pretty horrible jock on KAAY! Which was just wrong! But luckily, that didn't happen, and eventually I got better, although even by the following April, I think I had only achieved "barely tolerable" status.
Hopefully, this will help supplement anything that David B. comes up with, and if there's anything else I think of, I'll pass it along.
BMac
P.S. And I'll never forget a bunch of us getting together at Pepper Joe's (just down the road from the station) afterwards, and after fellow and former co-worker Sheila Glover said something that had us laughing, David B. came back with the line, "Sheila, you're just a d**k away from being one of the guys!" Which got an even bigger laugh than whatever it was that Sheila said!
(Here's the first half-hour of that Last Hour:)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Jerry "Sonny Martin" Sims Shares More Memorabilia!
It seems that most radio stations, back then, had a pen with the familiar mic and call letters on them. Here is the KAAY version. I don't remember us passing them out, so there may not be many in existance. I have more than this one, and offered one to A.J. who already had one. The name tag was possibly never worn. I do not remember using it. Everybody already knew me! (Well possibly there were some small egos from time to time) I hope we all know that the above "everybody already knew me" was a joke. Where was I to pin it? On my KAAY Basketball Jersey?
Jerry (Sonny) Sims (Martin).......(the one with his treasured pen in his pocket)
Jerry (Sonny) Sims (Martin).......(the one with his treasured pen in his pocket)
Gladys Knight & The Pips Concert
Here is a Creative Concerts promotion for Gladys Knight & The Pips at Barton Coluseum; accompanying them are the Chi-Lites and the Fabulous Independents. The date was October 27 (don't know the year) for a $5 ticket price. Does anyone recognize this announcer?
Gladys Knight Concert Ad: stream | download
Thanks again to Barry Mac!
Gladys Knight Concert Ad: stream | download
Thanks again to Barry Mac!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Jerry Sims' Comments, Re: A.J.
A.J. was very important to my career because he hired me twice. My first radio job at KXLR (age 18), and later at KAAY. I am sending you a Kx-Tundex (our music survey). I am Larry London, he is A.J. Lyons. John Scott, by the way for local folks, is Gary Weir (later Bozo on KATV 7). We had a great time there at KXLR. I grew up listening to them and always wanted to work there. A.J. gave me that opportunity. He was only a little bit older than I was, but because he started so young, he seem older at the time. I always looked up to him as a "real radio man". He loved his work and was always involved in promoting the station. As we have told before, we (the KXLR guys) sat around and listened to the early KAAY and knew we had our hands full with them. As I have said before, they hit the air giving away mink coats and cars (used), while we were across town giving away records and an occasional radio or stuffed animal. Under A.J., we made every effort to hang on, but the station finally sold. Then A.J. ended up as Program Director at KAAY and called me to come over. I had gotten a "real job" by then and thought I was through with radio and its unstable atmosphere. Wrong! I could not pass up the KAAY offer. I have always been proud of my time there. Even before the renewed interest with A.J.'s blog, I treasured my memories of my time there and knew they were extra special.
David B.'s comments about the staff there certainly are mine as well. I did not work with big egos. I came to work and was made to feel that I was one of the team, and left there with the best of wishes of all. I considered them good friends....still do. A.J. was my radio hero. I pass by Alma, Arkansas fairly often. That was A.J.'s home. I wish often that I had made a visit to see him there both before and after his brief illness. However, we had phone conversations and great story exchanges on his blog. He did several things during his lifetime, but I somehow think his time at KAAY was when he had the most satisfaction and fun, career wise. Me too A.J.!! THANKS.
Jerry Sims....a friend and co-worker.
David B.'s comments about the staff there certainly are mine as well. I did not work with big egos. I came to work and was made to feel that I was one of the team, and left there with the best of wishes of all. I considered them good friends....still do. A.J. was my radio hero. I pass by Alma, Arkansas fairly often. That was A.J.'s home. I wish often that I had made a visit to see him there both before and after his brief illness. However, we had phone conversations and great story exchanges on his blog. He did several things during his lifetime, but I somehow think his time at KAAY was when he had the most satisfaction and fun, career wise. Me too A.J.!! THANKS.
Jerry Sims....a friend and co-worker.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Ron H. Is Back! Re: A.J.
I am glad to see Ron H. is back with us! The following is his comments on speaking with A.J.:
"A.J.'S first phone conversation with me lasted until his cellular phone battery died. The conversation was so long I thought maybe he used up all of the minutes in his plan. I came close running out my minutes for the first and only time during my initial conversation with A.J. I learned a lot that day.
Ron Henselman"
"A.J.'S first phone conversation with me lasted until his cellular phone battery died. The conversation was so long I thought maybe he used up all of the minutes in his plan. I came close running out my minutes for the first and only time during my initial conversation with A.J. I learned a lot that day.
Ron Henselman"
Monday, March 29, 2010
Jaime Brockett And Beaker Street
Jaime Brockett's "Legend of the U.S.S. Titanic"- what a crazy tune! Clyde Clifford played it often on Beaker Street, home of the "more than 3-minute tunes" or whatever. This tune, often sought out but not often found, is available again, via Amazon.com (a little commercial here), on the CD, "Remember The Wind And The Rain":
http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Wind-Rain-Jaime-Brockett/dp/B00078GHT8
Some compare it to Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" in hilarity and cult following...of which I still have ("Alice") on 33-1/3 vinyl! Needless to say, you may want to view the comments yourself at the link above. There are many more Amazon offerings for music which was aired on Beaker Street; you'll have to search by artist or song(s) to find their offerings, but they're there! I wonder how many Beaker Street diehards have bought up a bunch of this music????
Speaking of the "Legend Of The U.S.S. Titanic", please stay tuned...we have that "special treat" we promised awhile back...check the blog on April 2 and April 3 for special anniversary postings...that's all I'll say!
Until then....Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Wind-Rain-Jaime-Brockett/dp/B00078GHT8
Some compare it to Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" in hilarity and cult following...of which I still have ("Alice") on 33-1/3 vinyl! Needless to say, you may want to view the comments yourself at the link above. There are many more Amazon offerings for music which was aired on Beaker Street; you'll have to search by artist or song(s) to find their offerings, but they're there! I wonder how many Beaker Street diehards have bought up a bunch of this music????
Speaking of the "Legend Of The U.S.S. Titanic", please stay tuned...we have that "special treat" we promised awhile back...check the blog on April 2 and April 3 for special anniversary postings...that's all I'll say!
Until then....Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
David B. Treadway Comments On A.J.
Among his many pursuits, A.J. Lindsey was involved in selling parcels of land up in North Arkansas. This was in 1971, I think, and he would do phone-in spots on Sunday afternoons--when I was on-air as Doc Holiday.
It got back to me indirectly, but the gist of his comment was that he sold more land when I was on than at any other time. Now, that was HIGH praise coming from a legend with whom I got to share an air name!
(It also dovetailed neatly with Walsh Dictum Number Two: "There ain't but one set of ratings that matters a d*mn, and that's how much money did you make.")
To Bud: It's not unusual at ALL that A.J. would take time with you. He would do that for ANYONE who wanted to converse about KAAY. Perhaps he was the one who started the tradition of never being too busy to talk to a listener. Maybe it was in place before him, but no matter. It was firmly in place in the company culture early on.
It bears repeating: every one of the Legends I met during my time there took time to teach me. There was never the slightest hint of ego, and they accepted me as one of their own.
That's pretty much what happened between you and A.J., isn't it?
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
(Yes, David, that's pretty much it! And I felt fortunate that One of the Greats took time for a listener, no matter HOW long it had been since he was on the air. Also, I am fortunate that you, Jerry Sims, Marvelous Mark Larson, Dave Montgomery, Jonnie King, Barry McCorkindale and other Greats, both of early and of later tenure, who also take the time to relate to me and the other KAAY afficianados, both here and in a personal way...we are so rich because of it! Thank you so much to ALL the Great Ones of KAAY! Bud S.)
It got back to me indirectly, but the gist of his comment was that he sold more land when I was on than at any other time. Now, that was HIGH praise coming from a legend with whom I got to share an air name!
(It also dovetailed neatly with Walsh Dictum Number Two: "There ain't but one set of ratings that matters a d*mn, and that's how much money did you make.")
To Bud: It's not unusual at ALL that A.J. would take time with you. He would do that for ANYONE who wanted to converse about KAAY. Perhaps he was the one who started the tradition of never being too busy to talk to a listener. Maybe it was in place before him, but no matter. It was firmly in place in the company culture early on.
It bears repeating: every one of the Legends I met during my time there took time to teach me. There was never the slightest hint of ego, and they accepted me as one of their own.
That's pretty much what happened between you and A.J., isn't it?
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII
(Yes, David, that's pretty much it! And I felt fortunate that One of the Greats took time for a listener, no matter HOW long it had been since he was on the air. Also, I am fortunate that you, Jerry Sims, Marvelous Mark Larson, Dave Montgomery, Jonnie King, Barry McCorkindale and other Greats, both of early and of later tenure, who also take the time to relate to me and the other KAAY afficianados, both here and in a personal way...we are so rich because of it! Thank you so much to ALL the Great Ones of KAAY! Bud S.)
Moore Ford, North Little Rock, AR
Where else could you buy a 1971 Ford Mustang for $2,530.00? Moore Ford in North Little Rock, that's who! But that was then and this is now...and I've got NO idea what a new Ford Mustang would cost today!
Thanks to Barry Mac, here is another advertisement aired on KAAY; thank you, Barry!
Moore Ford Ad: stream | download
Thanks to Barry Mac, here is another advertisement aired on KAAY; thank you, Barry!
Friday, March 26, 2010
A "New" KAAY Survey Sheet From Charlie Okle!
Charlie Okle, in moving his digs, came across yet another piece of history and wanted to share it with us! This is a Survey Sheet from November 7, 1966, signed by "Buddy Karr"...what a cool find!
Enjoy...the view is of the front and the back of the survey:
I'll bet the "Doctor Holiday" he's mentioned is A.J.!
Thanks to Charlie Okle!
Enjoy...the view is of the front and the back of the survey:
Thanks to Charlie Okle!
A. J. Lindsey And Me
As we all do over time, we drift away from hobbies, persuits, indulgances and interests, all in the game of fulfilling "life"...and sometimes life is not very fulfilling, unless we can do something we enjoy. Work, for many, is not fun, nor fulfilling, but it is a way and means to get what we want (if we're fortunate) or need (to support a family); many dads, I heard over the course of my growing up, only stayed in jobs not for the enjoyment, but for providing a living for their families. So sad, may of us (myself included) are in that boat (although I DO derive a sense of satisfaction in what I do....).
Thus, my drifting away from KAAY and Beaker Street in the 1980's. For a while, I didn't even know they sold out in 1985 until much later, since my job evolved and I was finally able to work a day shift, after many years on nights, which was where I listened ALL the time. Even in my late teens and early twenties, work, college and responsibilities to my family, then getting married, took me away from much of my radio hobby....
...then, years later, just a few years ago, I wondered what ever happened to KAAY and Beaker Street. I missed listening to the hot Top 40 music in the early evening, then the wierd album rock in the late evening, culminating in Beaker Theater. I got more and more exposure to the Internet, started searching and finally found A.J.'s blog: http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/
What a rush!!! I started devouring everything I read in A.J.'s blog, in addition to what I found on the web. Finally, I got the courage to e-mail A.J. and what a wonderful experience it was. I realized that he had many projects going on at the time we became aquainted, so I tried to keep things brief; at the same time; as I did more and more research, I sent him links and articles with anything having to do with KAAY. Some he posted, some he didn't and much of what he didn't has been posted here in Mighty1090KAAY.
As time went on, I tried diligently to find and supply him with material (as we all did!) as I found it. Then, he e-mailed me, saying he was in the hospital, following his vacation, which had followed his cancer treatements. I was able to call him on the phone a couple of times, the last time being three days before he passed away. His e-mails going unanswered, I wondered how he was faring, when by chance, his daughter-in-law Brandy notified Jerry Sims and I via e-mail that he'd passed away. What a shock....
It was through Jerry and ultimately a core group of ten people, that we were able to start this blog; several of us remain to maintain it as much as possible, around the aforementioned work and family schedules and I am very thankful for everything they do to help. Yes, I might look like the "front man", and as David B. Treadway said to me one time, "You're the guy behind the mic, you get all the glory or all the blame!" Well, for better or for worse, I and we are in it for the long haul- and we have A.J., and his passion for KAAY and starting his own blog, to thank for what we do today!
Remember what I said about work not being enjoyable or fulfilling? Well, not everyone was that less fortunate- the guys and girls of KAAY had a great job in what they did. From the developing relationships I have gained with The Greats of KAAY who are here with us on the blog, we can see, through their stories, memories and anecdotes, that they enjoyed their jobs to the fullest. Did I say "job"? They got paid for the fun they had while working...did I get that right, Oh Great Ones???? Nonetheless, in my personal conversations with them, I sense they had loads of fun at what they did- and still enjoy the memories of KAAY.
Why do I open with "A.J. and me"? Well, me being a lowly listener and him being who he was, he took time with me, tolerated my questions, put up with my voluminous e-mails of material (some he already had) and graciously took my phone calls at times I felt I may have been an intrusion. And now, here I am, helping with a blog, in the same manner as he, reaching a sense of fulfillment when drudgery seems to be the rule. A.J. has been on my mind lately and we haven't mentioned him much, except in passing, and in memorium at the beginning of this blog, with a little material thrown in here & there.
Here is a picture of A.J. when he was a teenager at KBBA, Benton, AR:
His commentary was, "I was in high school and working at KBBA, Benton AR, my first radio job when this picture was taken with a wonderful RCA BX-44 that could make even a teenager sound good." The RCA mics were (and still are) great mics. Here's A.J. in later years with an RCA 77D:
He also mentioned that RCA mics, as well as Ampex mics, were used extensively at KAAY, the former due to having them from the KTHS days. Boy, what us Hams can do with some of those mics! Some Hams DO use these and other mics on their stations, for the rich, wonderful sound they reproduce. The DO make a fair voice sound much better. In fact, may Hams who run AM use these, along with other audio gear, for wonderful transmitted audio...but, I'm running a rabbit trail here....
Nonetheless, I miss A.J., as many of us do. Jerry Sims, a.k.a. "Sonny Martin" and I have had several wonderful conversations about "Doc" or "Emperor Holiday". A.J. started something great and we all benefitted from his labor of love...we can only hope to continue the efforts here, bringing to light more and more history about KAAY and those Greats who worked...er, played...there.
What are YOUR favorite memories of A.J.?
Let's keep the memories flowing, folks! Please leave a comment or two, no story is too small, no memory is too insignifigant for us to post here. Everyone who listened to KAAY, visited its facilities, participated in the giveaways and programs, danced to the music or otherwise enjoyed the station, your comments are welcome!
A.J., thanks for getting us started!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Thus, my drifting away from KAAY and Beaker Street in the 1980's. For a while, I didn't even know they sold out in 1985 until much later, since my job evolved and I was finally able to work a day shift, after many years on nights, which was where I listened ALL the time. Even in my late teens and early twenties, work, college and responsibilities to my family, then getting married, took me away from much of my radio hobby....
...then, years later, just a few years ago, I wondered what ever happened to KAAY and Beaker Street. I missed listening to the hot Top 40 music in the early evening, then the wierd album rock in the late evening, culminating in Beaker Theater. I got more and more exposure to the Internet, started searching and finally found A.J.'s blog: http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/
What a rush!!! I started devouring everything I read in A.J.'s blog, in addition to what I found on the web. Finally, I got the courage to e-mail A.J. and what a wonderful experience it was. I realized that he had many projects going on at the time we became aquainted, so I tried to keep things brief; at the same time; as I did more and more research, I sent him links and articles with anything having to do with KAAY. Some he posted, some he didn't and much of what he didn't has been posted here in Mighty1090KAAY.
As time went on, I tried diligently to find and supply him with material (as we all did!) as I found it. Then, he e-mailed me, saying he was in the hospital, following his vacation, which had followed his cancer treatements. I was able to call him on the phone a couple of times, the last time being three days before he passed away. His e-mails going unanswered, I wondered how he was faring, when by chance, his daughter-in-law Brandy notified Jerry Sims and I via e-mail that he'd passed away. What a shock....
It was through Jerry and ultimately a core group of ten people, that we were able to start this blog; several of us remain to maintain it as much as possible, around the aforementioned work and family schedules and I am very thankful for everything they do to help. Yes, I might look like the "front man", and as David B. Treadway said to me one time, "You're the guy behind the mic, you get all the glory or all the blame!" Well, for better or for worse, I and we are in it for the long haul- and we have A.J., and his passion for KAAY and starting his own blog, to thank for what we do today!
Remember what I said about work not being enjoyable or fulfilling? Well, not everyone was that less fortunate- the guys and girls of KAAY had a great job in what they did. From the developing relationships I have gained with The Greats of KAAY who are here with us on the blog, we can see, through their stories, memories and anecdotes, that they enjoyed their jobs to the fullest. Did I say "job"? They got paid for the fun they had while working...did I get that right, Oh Great Ones???? Nonetheless, in my personal conversations with them, I sense they had loads of fun at what they did- and still enjoy the memories of KAAY.
Why do I open with "A.J. and me"? Well, me being a lowly listener and him being who he was, he took time with me, tolerated my questions, put up with my voluminous e-mails of material (some he already had) and graciously took my phone calls at times I felt I may have been an intrusion. And now, here I am, helping with a blog, in the same manner as he, reaching a sense of fulfillment when drudgery seems to be the rule. A.J. has been on my mind lately and we haven't mentioned him much, except in passing, and in memorium at the beginning of this blog, with a little material thrown in here & there.
Here is a picture of A.J. when he was a teenager at KBBA, Benton, AR:
His commentary was, "I was in high school and working at KBBA, Benton AR, my first radio job when this picture was taken with a wonderful RCA BX-44 that could make even a teenager sound good." The RCA mics were (and still are) great mics. Here's A.J. in later years with an RCA 77D:
Nonetheless, I miss A.J., as many of us do. Jerry Sims, a.k.a. "Sonny Martin" and I have had several wonderful conversations about "Doc" or "Emperor Holiday". A.J. started something great and we all benefitted from his labor of love...we can only hope to continue the efforts here, bringing to light more and more history about KAAY and those Greats who worked...er, played...there.
What are YOUR favorite memories of A.J.?
Let's keep the memories flowing, folks! Please leave a comment or two, no story is too small, no memory is too insignifigant for us to post here. Everyone who listened to KAAY, visited its facilities, participated in the giveaways and programs, danced to the music or otherwise enjoyed the station, your comments are welcome!
A.J., thanks for getting us started!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
1953 KTHS Newspaper Notice, From Fritze Prentice!
As many of us remember, KTHS was one of the oldest radio stations in Arkansas, and on Labor Day of 1962, KTHS became KAAY. Fritze Prentice, a friend and contributor to this blog, has invited us to link to his blog regarding a bit of history regarding KTHS:
http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-this-date-in-history-march-24-1953.html
Yesterday, March 24, in 1953, KTHS 1090 signed on at 5 o'clock A.M. as a full-time station with 50,000 watts from the Wrightsville site...I took the liberty of posting the newspaper ad here and it and more info are at Fritze's blog at the above link....
Thank you, Fritze! What a find!
Be sure to visit and enjoy Fritze's blog often, as well: "DXing From Lincoln County, Arkansas". Fritze has also prompted his visitors to visit this blog as well.
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-this-date-in-history-march-24-1953.html
Yesterday, March 24, in 1953, KTHS 1090 signed on at 5 o'clock A.M. as a full-time station with 50,000 watts from the Wrightsville site...I took the liberty of posting the newspaper ad here and it and more info are at Fritze's blog at the above link....
Be sure to visit and enjoy Fritze's blog often, as well: "DXing From Lincoln County, Arkansas". Fritze has also prompted his visitors to visit this blog as well.
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Doug Krile To Head Arkansas Broadcasters Association
This story appeared on the Arkansas Business website, under the "media & marketing" category. Doug Krile is a frequent and welcome visitor/contributor to this blog site. I know that all of us wish Doug well in his new role with the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. He will represent the broadcast industry in Arkansas well. Congratulations, Doug!
Richard Robinson
Doug Krile To Head Arkansas Broadcasters Association
By Sam EiflingArkansas Business (arkansasbusiness.com)3/22/2010
Doug Krile, the longtime newsman and marketer, will take over as executive director of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association on April 1. In that role, he hopes to guide member television and radio stations on best uses of new technologies.
"I have not been thrilled with the things that have happened in the broadcast industry over the last 10 years. I don't think anybody has," Krile said, citing the old woes: too few people producing too much news with too little money. He began his career in radio, but Arkansans might recognize him best for the 11 years he spent as a newscaster at KARK-TV, Channel 4. In 1997, he left for a corporate post at the broadcast chain Equity Broadcasting of Little Rock, where he spent 10 years before taking a tech marketing position at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Since leaving that job in 2007, he has worked with a partner on the startup Station X, a digital media and marketing venture.
"Honestly, if I were to design a job for me at this point in my life, I don't think I could do it any better than this one," he said. "It does so much."
The ABA's current executive director, Jim McCall, will remain in the office through July before moving to a consulting role for the body. The ABA is an advocacy and advisory organization for broadcasters, as well as an advertising consortium.
Doug Krile, the longtime newsman and marketer, will take over as executive director of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association on April 1. In that role, he hopes to guide member television and radio stations on best uses of new technologies.
"I have not been thrilled with the things that have happened in the broadcast industry over the last 10 years. I don't think anybody has," Krile said, citing the old woes: too few people producing too much news with too little money. He began his career in radio, but Arkansans might recognize him best for the 11 years he spent as a newscaster at KARK-TV, Channel 4. In 1997, he left for a corporate post at the broadcast chain Equity Broadcasting of Little Rock, where he spent 10 years before taking a tech marketing position at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Since leaving that job in 2007, he has worked with a partner on the startup Station X, a digital media and marketing venture.
"Honestly, if I were to design a job for me at this point in my life, I don't think I could do it any better than this one," he said. "It does so much."
The ABA's current executive director, Jim McCall, will remain in the office through July before moving to a consulting role for the body. The ABA is an advocacy and advisory organization for broadcasters, as well as an advertising consortium.
Win Rockefeller, Arkansas Governor, '67-'71
You never know what will pop up as a coincidence...Barry Bac sent me an audio clip for Governor Win Rockefeller from the 1966 election campaign...and I just happened to pick up a March 1967 Reader's Digest and read the article, "Big Rock of Little Rock". Unfortunately, Reader's Digest doesn't archive anything this far back on the Web (that I could find), so if anyone wants a copy of the article, I'll be glad to furnish one. Why do I have such an old Reader's Digest? I like old books and magazines....
Nonetheless, it, and an article I found on Encyclopedia of Arkansas differ somewhat. Reader's Digest's version was condensed from Time Magazine and seems to evoke more warmth, while the EoA was more impersonal, in my opinion.
Governor Rockefeller has been mentioned here on this blog a couple of times in passing...and, from what I've read, was a gentleman in many ways. He'd put up part of his own personal fortune to fund many things within Arkansas in the effort to bring progress and upscale change to the state. When he passed away in 1973 from pancreatic cancer, his ashes were buried on Petit Jean Mountain, his home where Winrock Farms was located. His personal fortune still benefits Arkansas today through a charitable trust and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
There are several more references to Arkansa's 37th governor, but I'll let this one suffice, since it has several other links. Audio of a campaign is to follow....
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=122
KAAY Ad: "Democrats for Win Rockefeller '66": stream | download
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Nonetheless, it, and an article I found on Encyclopedia of Arkansas differ somewhat. Reader's Digest's version was condensed from Time Magazine and seems to evoke more warmth, while the EoA was more impersonal, in my opinion.
Governor Rockefeller has been mentioned here on this blog a couple of times in passing...and, from what I've read, was a gentleman in many ways. He'd put up part of his own personal fortune to fund many things within Arkansas in the effort to bring progress and upscale change to the state. When he passed away in 1973 from pancreatic cancer, his ashes were buried on Petit Jean Mountain, his home where Winrock Farms was located. His personal fortune still benefits Arkansas today through a charitable trust and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
There are several more references to Arkansa's 37th governor, but I'll let this one suffice, since it has several other links. Audio of a campaign is to follow....
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=122
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Do You Recognize This Pair?
Here they are standing in front of the 7th street KAAY studios, with a gold record award. KAAY was always getting awards from different record companies, when the station helped break a new record or contributed heavily to it's success, as in a million-seller. These same record companies had plenty of records to give away and were in and out of radio stations all the time.
It is not known who's hand that is in the lower right hand corner, holding another award, nor what that award may have been for.
What with KAAY's great coverage, monseterous signal and talent (both behind and in front of the mic), you can rest assured that the station did its part in getting exposure to many, many artists and records, some local talent as well. One can only wonder how many awards actually graced the walls of KAAY....
This picture is compliments of A.J.'s blog and is well worth posting here.
By the way, the guys above are Matt White (the third Sonny Martin) and Dave Montgomery, the original contributor of the photo. Dave is always checking in, giving advice and information to post, but so far we have not been able to lure Matt White here!
Thanks go to Dave for the original loan of the photo!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Ron Henselman: Alive & Well
Dear readers and visitors,
I just heard from Ron Henselman today, a wonderful friend and contributor to this blog. Ron had a massive heart attack about nine days ago from this date, had a triple bypass and is home resting and recuperating.
To be sure, Ron will be back...I'm sure his creative juices are flowing, albeit a little slow right now, so keep him in your prayers and thoughts.
Ron, get well soon, we're looking forward to you returning and contributing!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
I just heard from Ron Henselman today, a wonderful friend and contributor to this blog. Ron had a massive heart attack about nine days ago from this date, had a triple bypass and is home resting and recuperating.
To be sure, Ron will be back...I'm sure his creative juices are flowing, albeit a little slow right now, so keep him in your prayers and thoughts.
Ron, get well soon, we're looking forward to you returning and contributing!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Movie: The Snowball Express
I'm not sure where this fits in, but it was an ad aired on KAAY in the early '70s for a Walt Disney movie. Harry Morgan, one of my favorite actors, is mentioned in it, as well as Dean Jones and Nancy Olsen. Also mentioned was the feature, "The Magic Of Walt Disney World".
Many of us grew up on Disney, but were dismayed when we saw what some of the later movies became, along with some of the urban legends accompanying them. There's still good movies out there in syndication and when they are "brought out of the vault" for sale. My wife & I still have a lot of Disney movies (VHS) on-hand from when our kids were young, but I'd still like to get more non-cartoon movies.
Enjoy the audio, compliments of Barry Mac....
KAAY Ad for Disney's "Snowball Express": stream | download
Many of us grew up on Disney, but were dismayed when we saw what some of the later movies became, along with some of the urban legends accompanying them. There's still good movies out there in syndication and when they are "brought out of the vault" for sale. My wife & I still have a lot of Disney movies (VHS) on-hand from when our kids were young, but I'd still like to get more non-cartoon movies.
Enjoy the audio, compliments of Barry Mac....
Saturday, March 20, 2010
It's Spring....
...and a young man's fancy turns to.....antenna maintenance???
Yes, antenna maintenance! Oh, don't worry, everything's OK in the romance department in my household, but my technical juices are flowing again, now that there's some warm, dry weather at hand. IF you're a serious hobbyist or monitor, it's time to clean up and fix those antennas and connections possibly damaged from the harsh weather conditions. When you do, please be careful with those ladders or other supports while you're working on those sky-hooks...
...and, if you're not a serious listener, please just disregard...just setting the radio on a Lazy Susan and twirling it around for a better signal while listeneng to AM is good, too!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Yes, antenna maintenance! Oh, don't worry, everything's OK in the romance department in my household, but my technical juices are flowing again, now that there's some warm, dry weather at hand. IF you're a serious hobbyist or monitor, it's time to clean up and fix those antennas and connections possibly damaged from the harsh weather conditions. When you do, please be careful with those ladders or other supports while you're working on those sky-hooks...
...and, if you're not a serious listener, please just disregard...just setting the radio on a Lazy Susan and twirling it around for a better signal while listeneng to AM is good, too!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
Friday, March 19, 2010
TV Icons, Fess Parker, Peter Graves Pass Away This Week
Talk about memories! These two actors were the favorites of many.
I especially remember watching Fess Parker in "Daniel Boone" in my youth. His Disney "Davy Crockett" movies were outstanding as well, along with a long list of other movies. And, yes, I fantasized about having a rifle like Old Betsy!
Good article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_on_en_tv/us_obit_fess_parker
And Peter Graves, of the TV series "Fury", later of "Mission: Impossible"...what a great, suspenseful show! His silver hair had always been his trademark. I suppose my favorite character, however, was Clarence Oveur in "Airplane!" What can I say- I love to laugh!
Another good article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_en_tv/us_obit_peter_graves
Why mention TV? Because it was a big part of our growing up, along with radio...and these two men were part of great programming, NOT something we get today...much of today's fare is an insult to our intelligence, in my opinion.
Rest easy, gentlemen...see you later....now, back to our regular radio programming....
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
I especially remember watching Fess Parker in "Daniel Boone" in my youth. His Disney "Davy Crockett" movies were outstanding as well, along with a long list of other movies. And, yes, I fantasized about having a rifle like Old Betsy!
Good article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_on_en_tv/us_obit_fess_parker
And Peter Graves, of the TV series "Fury", later of "Mission: Impossible"...what a great, suspenseful show! His silver hair had always been his trademark. I suppose my favorite character, however, was Clarence Oveur in "Airplane!" What can I say- I love to laugh!
Another good article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_en_tv/us_obit_peter_graves
Why mention TV? Because it was a big part of our growing up, along with radio...and these two men were part of great programming, NOT something we get today...much of today's fare is an insult to our intelligence, in my opinion.
Rest easy, gentlemen...see you later....now, back to our regular radio programming....
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
We "Broke" 10,000! And Comments From David B. Treadway
Re: the upcoming bittersweet surprise mentioned a few days ago...I'd mentioned to a couple of the guys who collaborated on it and how excited I was to see the number of visitors to the blog. I only hope that, what with word getting out and the recent (February) Monitoring Times article about KAAY, this little niche tribute site would continue to grow! And it has, more than ten thousand "hits" on this date! Maybe not as good as, say a classic car site, or something of the sort, but the memories of KAAY live on!
The wise and sage David B. comments:
"I must remind us of what The Great Walsh said about numbers all those years ago:
"There ain't but one set of ratings that matters a d*mn and that's how much money did you make." He would sometimes add:
"If you believe the good ratings, you also have to believe the bad ones."
Pat could be cynical to the point of surreal, but I am SURE he would be proud of the way his (our) station endures well beyond its expiration date. You may put me in the "proud" column as well.
Yes, Bud, that's a helluva job for a "niche" website! You and your team are to be commended for a job done EXCEEDINGLY well done! Perhaps the niche is a bit bigger than any of us thought?
I look forward in eager dread to reading the Last Day(s) commemoration on the site. Sorta like driving past a lovely meadow and thinking "Say! Wasn't there a bad wreck right about here 25 years ago? It all looks so peaceful now...:"
All the best,
Treadway"
I can only wish I'd had the opportunity to meet Pat Walsh, or to even talk with him before he passed on. One wonders how a blog or website would progress under his direction.
Stay tuned!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
The wise and sage David B. comments:
"I must remind us of what The Great Walsh said about numbers all those years ago:
"There ain't but one set of ratings that matters a d*mn and that's how much money did you make." He would sometimes add:
"If you believe the good ratings, you also have to believe the bad ones."
Pat could be cynical to the point of surreal, but I am SURE he would be proud of the way his (our) station endures well beyond its expiration date. You may put me in the "proud" column as well.
Yes, Bud, that's a helluva job for a "niche" website! You and your team are to be commended for a job done EXCEEDINGLY well done! Perhaps the niche is a bit bigger than any of us thought?
I look forward in eager dread to reading the Last Day(s) commemoration on the site. Sorta like driving past a lovely meadow and thinking "Say! Wasn't there a bad wreck right about here 25 years ago? It all looks so peaceful now...:"
All the best,
Treadway"
I can only wish I'd had the opportunity to meet Pat Walsh, or to even talk with him before he passed on. One wonders how a blog or website would progress under his direction.
Stay tuned!
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
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