New Jonnie King Photo!

Once again, history is uncovered!  Jonnie King sent in a picture of himself...well, let me allow him to describe it:

"Hi Bud !

Hope you are okay and can get some rest occasionally ! I found this photo and thought you might like to Post it when you have time.

It's at my apartment which was 2200 Louisianna (the corner of 22nd & Louisianna) in L.R. I lived there for 3 1/2 years...the entire time I worked at KAAY.

The attached photo is myself (on the left), and 2 members of a then-new St. Louis group called "The Murge"...headed by my old St. Louis friend, Steve Cummings (Steve Cummings & The Classmen with Gayle McCormick).

I am not sure of the names of the 2 guys in the pic...but they were nice. The date of the photo was Friday, April 3, 1970.

(NOTE: The apartment I lived in had just been built around 1968 when I moved in May 2, 1969. It was a nice/clean/new one-bedroom apartment, completely furnished, air-conditioned, dish washer, garbage disposal, panelled walls. Water, Electricity & Gas were also included in the rent. What was the rent ? $135.00 per month !!)

The name of the Apartments were "The Jo-Mar Apartments". The manager at the time was Jerry Boyd, and his wife Sandy. Great friends...and, Jerry was also from St. Louis, like myself. And the $135.00 rent was not raised in all of the time I was there !!!

All the best to you and yours, Bud !"

 

Thank you, Jonnie!  Here's the photo:

 

 

KAAY - Tom Robbins on May 16, 1968

Here is another aircheck from the Gary Pfeifer collection -- Tom Robbins sitting in for Mike McCormick on May 16, 1968. It runs from 11:09am to 11:39am. It's mostly untelescoped, but some music and the full COMEX newscast by Ron Owens was not recorded.

I don't know anything about Tom Robbins, if that is his real name or that of a LIN Board member.  If anybody knows more about him, feel free to comment.



(or download here)
Greg Barman

KAAY Beaker Street - Clyde Clifford, June 2, 1972 - Continued

In June, this aircheck was re-posted from the old blog.  Actually it was the first hour of a THREE-hour telescoped aircheck of Beaker Street from the night of June 1-2, 1972.  I don't think the last 2 hours of the show have ever been posted.  So here they are, starting at Midnight June 2 and running thru the beginning of Beaker Theater at 2:00am.

This was DX reception of KAAY at my home in Evanston IL, just north of Chicago.  The signal varied but as you'll hear it often boomed in as strong as a local station.  Simply amazing.

Clyde's playlist for these two hours included:  Hawkwind, Daddy Cool, Steppenwolf, Joyous Noise, Vigrass & Osborne, Dust, Arlo Guthrie, Foghat, The Chambers Brothers, Spooky Tooth, and Mason Proffit.


(or download here)
Greg Barman

KAAY Martin & Jennings - January 31, 1972

This is the first of several contributions from Gary Pfeifer, an aircheck collector and KAAY fan.  He has submitted a batch of airchecks that you'll be seeing over several weeks, mostly new material for this blog along with a few airchecks that were previously posted but are now available with slightly better audio quality.

Gary's collection includes a bunch of Sonny Martin & George Jennings airchecks.  Here is an untelescoped one from Monday January 31, 1972, from about 6:41am to 7:15am.


(or download here)

Greg Barman

KAAY - One of Arkansas' Top 20 Icons (Reposting)

This feature on KAAY is no longer accessible to free users of the Arkansas Business website, so I’m reposting it in document form.

The 20 Arkansas Icons feature was part of the 20th Anniversary edition of the Arkansas Business magazine, and since the magazine started in 1984 this probably appeared in 2004. The Icons are defined as "recognized as representative of the state even by non-Arkansans - people, institutions and phenomena that are uniquely Arkansas." So KAAY is among icons such as Bill Clinton, Billy Bob Thornton, Central High School, Wal-Mart, and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

I have to say it is a shame that KAAY is barely a fraction of the Icon it once was, which makes it all the more important to preserve the legacy.

http://goo.gl/bG4zMy

Greg Barman 

Ray Dolby, Innovator of Cinema Sound, Has Died

Via e-mail from Dave Montgomery:

http://gizmodo.com/ray-dolby-innovator-of-cinema-sound-has-died-1303210020

This man touched the entire world with his work....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Clyde Clifford in for Phil North, April 15, 1972, telescoped

And for those of you who prefer a 'scoped version (I personally don't... I LIKE the unscoped versions), here is that version, again compliments of Greg Barman:

(or download here)

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Encyclopedia Of Arkansas Book Release!

Dear reader and visitor, you know I RARELY toot my own horn...but I was honored when Ali Welky of the Butler Center in Little Rock sent me this notice (edited for brevity):

"Mr. Stacey,

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture is proud to announce the release of our first ever venture into print: the Encyclopedia of Arkansas Music. The book—published by Butler Center Books—is composed of more than 150 entries from the EOA website on all subjects musical. It also includes an introduction covering centuries of music in Arkansas, overviews of musical genres, a musical map of Arkansas, and a plethora of marvelous color and black and white photos.

What’s even more exciting is that you’re a part of it. Your entry on KAAY is included in the book, p. 120!

We would be honored if you could join us to celebrate the book’s launch in Little Rock on Sept. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the Main Library’s Darragh Center."

"Even if you can’t make it to the event, the book can still be yours!

It is for sale at bookstores around Arkansas (including River Market Books & Gifts, WordsWorth Books, and Barnes & Noble); from Butler Center Books’ distributer, the UA Press (http://www.uapress.com/titles/butler/welky.html); and from other online retailers such as Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Arkansas-Music-Ali-Welky/dp/1935106600/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377535400&sr=1-3&keywords=arkansas+music) and Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/encyclopedia-of-arkansas-music-ali-welky/1115985360?ean=9781935106609).

Thank you for joining us in preserving and celebrating Arkansas’s musical history and culture.

Best regards,

Alexandra (Ali) Welky
Assistant Editor
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture"

Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend for several reasons, but I intend on obtaining the book for my birthday next month!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

September 11...Two Events....

...still no answers....

...be sure to thank every first-responder, fireman. law enforcement and military person you encounter today...and make the effort to call at least ONE of the same today....

...God bless the U.S.A.

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Clyde Clifford In For Phil North, April 15, 1972, Pt. 2

Here is Part 2 of the aircheck leading into Beaker Street at 11pm; again, Clyde Clifford has taken over for Phil North while the latter is away for a few days.

Beaker Street begins with a live version of "Johnny Be Good".  Can anyone recognize who the singer is?

Clyde is a professional, handling both "prime time" and Beaker Street... a very candid example and fun to listen to.

(or download here)


A telescoped version of this aircheck is coming up.
Thanks again to Dave S. and Greg Barman for their dedication to the blog!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Reader comments....

From time to time we receive comments, which we happily attach to the relevant posts.

Sometimes it's hard for readers to see when new comments are posted.  So, here are a couple of comments that arrived in the past week, and they are interesting enough that they deserve a posting of their own:

I recall my friends and I sometimes driving around to find a spot to catch the bounce so we could listen to your show. For us in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, there were certain areas where your station would come in pretty good without the signal dropping fully and some areas where is would fade out completely at times. But it didn't always stay that way as nights with weather disturbances would move things around. Most of us would pile in 1 or 2 cars and drive to the closest hot spot was previously and see how it was. If the signal would fade out too often or for long periods of time, it was on to the next spot or explore for another place to hear those tunes and your commentary/insights on the music. That bit of adventure sometimes made the journey to listen all the more interesting. Needless to say, we all enjoyed the time spent with you and getting down with the music and the psychedelic sounds.

on Clyde Clifford - Then and Now
Coz  on 8/27/13

Speaking of the transmitter... HELP !!!!! I can't find anyone to communicate with (like maybe Dale/Clyde) about a burning Beaker Street question. WHAT was the intro montage of songs Dale would play at the START of each Beaker Street in 1968? Specifically, part of the montage was a male singer/group singing "Candy, my vibration".... or something. Almost like Deep Purple... but it wasn't them. Does ANYONE on the planet know what that particular song in the intro snip was from? I can't find it anywhere... can't find a reference to it... yet I KNOW I didn't dream it... esp since I listened to Beaker Street about every night it was on in the 60s.
on VIDEO: A Visit To The Transmitter Site
Anonymous on 8/23/13

 Would anyone like to comment on the comments...?


P.S. Check out the two new comments to our recent post, "Clyde Clifford In For Phil North, April 15, 1972, Pt. 1"

Clyde Clifford In For Phil North, April 15, 1972, Pt. 1

Thanks to Greg Barman, our "resident audio guru" for finding this tape, transferring it to digital and getting it in.  I don't think we ever had these versions, (part 2 to follow), but I do remember Clyde Clifford taking over for Phil North at one time.  Here's Greg's comments:

"This is an untelescoped aircheck of Clyde Clifford on KAAY from Saturday night, April 15, 1972.  But he's not doing Beaker Street, instead he's doing Top 40, subbing for Phil North.  Apparently, Phil was called away unexpectedly so Clyde came in a few hours before his regular 11PM Beaker Street show and played the hits.  The faster-paced Top 40 format really isn't Clyde's forte, the results are interesting, but he got the job done, including two 5-minute newscasts.

"I got this aircheck from a collector in Iowa about 10 years ago and I don't know anything about who originally recorded it.  It's local reception, an untelescoped recording starting around 9:30PM with a few breaks or blips here and there.  Note the 2nd song after the 10PM ID and the singover jingle over the intro to Ocean's 'Put Your hand In The Hand.' "

(or download here)

Part 2 is to come...

Many thanks to Dave S. and Greg Barman for continually digging in "the pile"!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Upcoming Book???

I'd just heard from Greg Barman, our "resident" audio technician, about something he found while doing research:

"Memorializing the Mighty 1090


Sonny Rhodes, a journalism professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is tackling a book project on KAAY-AM, 1090, a Little Rock radio station that began broadcasting in 1962.

"I think it's a fascinating piece of Arkansas history. There's not been a lot documented about radio history, especially in Arkansas," Rhodes said last week.

The book will focus on the glory days of "The Mighty 1090," which lasted well into the 1970s, he said.

Fans and former employees of the old KAAY celebrated the 50th anniversary of its launch Sept. 14 in Little Rock.

"It had an interesting format in that it was sort of ‘all things to all people,'" Rhodes said. The station would broadcast reports on livestock prices for farmers, top 40 music, religious programming and "Beaker Street," a three-hour night program that "was really one of the forerunners of underground music programming," he said.

Early on, around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, KAAY also used its broadcast range to point American propaganda toward Cuba.

KAAY was the top-rated radio station in Arkansas through the 1970s and was heard in other countries because the 50,000-watt station's signal reached so far at night, Rhodes said.

"You could hear it all the way from Canada to Argentina," Rhodes said. "The sun interferes with AM signals, so at nighttime nothing interferes and the signals travel a lot farther."

KAAY is still on the air, but was sold and converted to all-Christian broadcasting in 1985.

Rhodes is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is working on the written history of KAAY with a friend and professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Richard Robinson.

Robinson wrote his doctoral dissertation on KAAY, and the book is a result of that project.

Rhodes is currently researching the book, plans to conduct interviews with the famous former KAAY radio personalities who are still alive and is adapting Robinson's academic paper to appeal to an audience outside of academia. Rhodes hopes to have the book finished by May, he said.

Rhodes and Robinson have not yet found a publisher."

I'd also like to clarify the statement about the sun affecting radio waves: during the day, the sun causes the 'F layer' of the atmosphere to divide into what is called the 'F1' and 'F2' layers and are more porous to radio waves.  At night, both layers recombine and become more dense to radio waves, causing signals to 'skip' longer distances.  Radio propagation is a fascinating science and is worthy of basic study, of you're interested in radio and/or communications.

Thanks to Greg Barman for this catch!  We'll be waiting for the book to come out....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

KTHS History Per Hollis Duncan

Former KAAY engineer Hollis Duncan recounts the history behind KTHS, the precursor to KAAY:

"From its earliest days, the future of KTHS was tied to both WFAA in Dallas and WBAP in Fort Worth. The outcome of this strange relationship unexpectedly worked to the benefit of KTHS, WFAA, and WBAP.

WBAP and KTHS were together from the very start. During the Summer of 1924, WBAP paved the way for KTHS by hosting The World's Longest Remote Broadcast from Hot Springs High School. WBAP later supplied KTHS General Manager Givens Campbell "Cam" Arnoux (AR-noo) and KTHS Chief Engineer Ed L. Olds. After its Grand Opening on New Years Eve 1924, KTHS shared time on 780 kHz with WBAP.

WFAA and WBAP came on the air within months of each other in 1922. WFAA found it sharing time on 1040 kHz with KRLD, owned by competitor Dallas Times-Herald.

WFAA was owned by George B. Dealey of the Dallas News and WBAP was owned by Amon Carter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Both the Dallas News and WFAA were operated under the A.H. Belo Corporation, who still owns The Dallas Morning News.

As radio became a more established and important business, WBAP was finding it troublesome to share time with distant station KTHS. Over in Dallas, WFAA was finding it REALLY troublesome to share time with their hated competitor the Times-Herald.

Fort Worth and Dallas were distant Cities in the 1920s and the News and the Star-Telegram were not competitors. It is reported that Mr. Dealey and Mr. Carter held each other in high regard, so they decided to resolve the situation.

After negotiation, WFAA and WBAP came to an agreement with KTHS for WFAA to share time with WBAP on 800 kHz and for KTHS to move to 1040 and share time with KRLD. This change was approved by the Federal Radio Commission and became effective on May 1, 1929.

The shift to 800 kHz (later 820 kHz) was a good move for WFAA-WBAP, giving one or the other station access to the Dallas-Fort Worth market. It was also proved to be a good move for KTHS, allowing a power increase to 10,000 watts and paving the way for its move to 1090 kHz. KRLD found a full-time home on 1080 kHz and KTHS started sharing time with WBAL, a station that KAAY continues to protect at night.

Because WBAP could use 800 kHz for only half of the broadcast day, Mr. Carter bought KGKO-570 in Wichita Falls, Texas, and moved the station to Fort Worth as an alternate outlet for WBAP. Because it seemed silly to leave KGKO's facilities idle when WBAP was operating on 800, WFAA asked to use 570 and KGKO's call letters were formally changed to WFAA-WBAP-570. As an aside, a station in Benton, Arkansas, (now deleted) acquired the KGKO call letters and used them on 850 kHz for many years.

Both WFAA and WBAP were NBC Red Network Affiliates and KGKO as affiliated with the NBC Blue Network. This situation became slightly more complicated when the NBC Blue Network became the ABC Radio Network WFAA and WBAP changed Networks several times a day when they changed frequency from 800 to 570.

The WFAA-WBAP time share continued until May 1, 1970, when WBAP bought 820 kHz and gave WFAA sole possession of 570 kHz. WBAP became a National powerhouse while WFAA drifted along until leaving radio in 1983.

I doubt that KTHS had a great deal of choice. In the late 1920s, the new Federal Radio Commission was busily reallocating the broadcast band and little stations like KTHS were assigned to poor positions on the Broadcast Band or regulated out of existence. That is what reportedly happened to KFMQ-Fayetteville, one of the earliest radio stations in Arkansas. THe FRC assigned KFMQ to a frequency that was shared with a Fort Smith station and KFMQ either sold or just gave up.

Although both the Dallas News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had plenty of political influence, it appears that KTHS had powerful Arkansas Senator Joe T. Robinson on its side. The FRC file of the Joe T. Robinson Papers in Fayetteville probably makes for very interesting reading.

It has been said that the future is often determined by the past, and the dance of WFAA, WBAP, and KTHS might be a good example."

Thank you, Hollis!  Sometimes, the pointless frequency-shuffling done by the Federal Radio Commission (precursor to the Federal Communications Commission) probably made more sense to them than the radio stations....

Good read, Hollis!  We're looking forward to more interesting history of KTHS and KAAY!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

VIDEO: A Visit To The Transmitter Site

Again, I apologize for not getting this on sooner...as Jerry Sims and I left the McDonalds' home, we had to drive back past the KAAY transmitter site.  Jerry agreed to let me video the grounds, especially since the gate was still open and the tech was still trying to get a transmitter up and running (the newer 50 kw was down and the tech was trying, unsuccessfully, to get a back-up 5 kw running).  So, I popped in another set of batteries and jumped to the task:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnFEKp81Pco

You can see the decrepit state of the building even then...back in the Summer and Fall 2011 postings, there may be one or two photos where one can make out a small tree growing on top of the transmitter building.

Thanks to the late Great Jerry Sims for driving me around that day and to another Great, David B. Treadway (and son) for also spending a lot of time with me that day, both at the transmitter site and back in town at KHTV.

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

44 Years Ago This Past Weekend....

....Richie Havens opened Woodstock in 1969.  Richie passed away, at the age of 72 years young, from a heart attack in April.  His ashes were spread over the grounds of the historical concert, which featured many, many entertainers.  Some pictures of the "ceremony" can be seen here:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=TH&Date=20130818&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=818009998&Ref=PH&Presentation=desktop

You know what they say: If you remember Woodstock, you really weren't there....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

VIDEO: A Visit With Felix McDonald, April 2011

I must apologize for not getting this on sooner..."life" has its way of getting priorities reshuffled.  Nonetheless, when I was in Little Rock in April of 2011 (see the series in the Summer and Fall 2011 postings), Jerry Sims, David B. Treadway and I visited Felix and his wife, just yards from the transmitter.  David B. had to get his son back to town and left before I thought to take this video.  It is a very short video, because I wasn't watching my battery level...

...however, Jerry Sims was discussing how he know some of the McDonald family and his business associations with them through radio & TV.  It was a very enjoyable hour or so...I wish I could have gotten some other, candid conversation, especially when they were talking KAAY history.  Makes me all the more thoughtful to keep a pocketful of spare batteries!



Here is the link, for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVDKTN1trhY

As you can see, it was a very nice, relaxed atmosphere in their spacious sun room...but the acoustics were not too good.  You may have to turn up the volume a bit to hear what Jerry's talking about.

My thanks to the McDonalds for their hospitality!  And my thanks to the late, Great Jerry Sims for driving me around that day....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

KAAY: George J. Jennings, 1964

As mentioned in A. J. Lindsey's words below- a great way to remember George Jennings:

"A Great Way to Remember George!

Relive one of his newcasts. This newscast comes from January 1964. The newscasts were still at :15 and :45, later changed to the top of the hour.

Thanks to Mike McKinney a/k/a Jack Lee for several airchecks. This cut is a George J. Jennings newscast from Jan. 1964. I do the commercial in the middle for Holly Ham. This is a great example of a George newscast complete with Jimmy Fiddler at the end. Is anyone doing exciting radio news today?  Hearing this makes me want to shuffle through the 45s and find the fastest, hottest hit, cue it up, and be ready to blow the monitor out with more muuuuusic!!! (See earlier discussion of Jimmy Fiddler and how we got "free" Ampexes.) Even in 1964 "Hollywood" news was big. The news department was never excited about Fiddler, but I'm sure he added to the adult audience."

---A.J. Lindsey, March 19, 2007
http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/2006/09/first-at-45.html


(or download here)

Did you catch A. J.'s Holly Ham commercial?

You can also search A. J.'s blog, just like you do here, for Jimmy Fiddler....

Thanks again to Dave S. for all his hard work on the audio of this blog!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

KAAY Monitoring Times article - repost

For those of you who didn't see the Monitoring Times article that Bud wrote on KAAY (with the help of other folks on here) in the February 2010 issue, here is a re-posting.

http://goo.gl/SKdR1e


Greg Barman

PSA: Ward Off Heat Stroke

Dear reader and visitor,

Just two years ago today, our dear friend Jerry Sims ("Sonny Martin", KAAY, 1963-68) passed on into eternity while practicing/playing on the softball field; temperatures were extremely high and dangerous.  I suspect this had a direct factor in his demise....

I also have suffered heat-related health effects, known otherwise as "heat stroke".  It was a scary experience the first time and I thought my time was "up"; the second time it happened, I recognized the symptoms and was able to react quickly.

As a public service announcement and in memory of Jerry, PLEASE watch out for heat-related problems such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion/prostration.  They ARE deadly; when I was a Paramedic, I witnessed others suffer and die because of extreme heat.

Please, if you must exercise or work outside during the summer, do it in the early morning, or at night; stay hydrated and cool as possible in all instances, even if you have to douse yourself with a water hose!  Life is precious and we want to keep you around!

We miss you, Jerry....see you later....

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)