January 31 2007 at 09:01:06
Name: Webmaster
Topic: 1957 Plymouth and time capsule
Comments: What would you put in a 2007 Tulsa time capsule? An iPod, CDs, DVDs...?

January 29 2007 at 22:31:08
Name: Lloyd in Bunker Under RoseBowl
Topic: LEE and THE King, and I Don't Mean Elvis
Comments: Sorry, Dana and friends, to break into the Foosball thing, but Lee's riff on the portraits of him and King Lionel ...

Back in the magic 60s, when the times they were a-changin', when civil rights workers were being murdered and lynching was still in style and napalm was obliterating every square inch of Vietnam it could find ... the handful of glorious years when Lee and King Lionel had space and made more sense than Cronkite and every other talking head ...

and I was in jr. high and high school and, no joke, they were a shining beacon of humaneness in a sad and mad world ...

If Jon Stewart or somesuch had a lick o' sense, they'd sign Lee and King Lionel, and turn them loose with a mandate from the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sinyavsky : "For me, the location of a writer's body is of secondary importance. The location of their souls and intellects is what is crucial".

January 29 2007 at 18:23:49
Name: Dana LeMoine
Topic: Foosball
Comments: The place behind Cotton's was indeed "The Mineshaft". I also remember the one at 31st and Garnett but I thought it was "Tornado Alley" but I guess not.

We were fortunate to have foosball tables at the junior high I attended, Lewis and Clark, thanks to our wonderful Coach Bill Perrier. Lewis and Clark churned out some excellent foosball players back in the day but I was average at best. Most of my quarters fed my pinball addiction, which I'm still battling to this day!

Why didn't we buy Walmart stock with some of those quarters??

It seems the term "misspent youth" applies here.

January 29 2007 at 16:31:47
Name: DolfanBob
Topic: Foosball
Email: MiamiPhin@yahoo.com
Comments: I have written about this very subject before and glad to do it again.

31st and Garnett was Foosball Heaven when I was growing up, Tornado of Tulsa was a big part of my life. If anybody remembers a customized 1975 blue Chevy van with yellow spider webbing, that was me.

There was a guy by the name of Keeter who was the best I had ever seen or played against. My partner was a big Indian everybody called Chief. His real name was Warren. We played tournaments there and around town at places like the Camelot Inn. Ridgeriders and Ziggy's were other places we played.

There is one other that I can't remember at 31st and 129th. They had Coyote tables. They were OK but not as good as Tornado tables.

January 29 2007 at 15:02:25
Name: Mitch Gray
Topic: Foos halls
Email: mitchwerx@cableone.net
Comments: I also spent way too many quarters in my teen years trying to block a push or pull shot or creating another amazing bank shot that would make everyone want me as their foosball partner.

As I recall there was Granny's Basement at 21st and Memorial, Sandy's at 21st and Hwy 169 (Hwy 169 ended at 21st street back then), the one by Cotton's on Admiral I remember being called The Mineshaft but I may have eaten Purple Microdot or Orange Sunshine that year.

I do remember getting my butt kicked at Goodtimes. Seems like the better players hung out there...We also played a lot at the Wharf Club at 21st and 101st where if you had the proper credentials you could consume alcohol and listen to live bands.

There was another joint at 41st and Garnett on the Northwest corner that was fairly large but I can't recall the name. These places and more were sprinkled throughout Tulsa and surrounding communities and were as much a part of our lives as Mazeppa was. Girls, games, drugs and parking lot booze was the norm for those of us with little parental supervision, but I came out with only small scars.

My friend and I have developed a two player foosball goalie game that's much easier than grabbing bars and hopping between positions. Play on Tornado freaks...play on...

January 29 2007 at 10:59:32
Name: Dwight L. Fast
Topic: Tulsa Jerk Joints
Email: fishingfast[at]comcast[dot]net
Comments: I can't express my thanks for this great web site. I would have to say it has brought me more joy than all the world wide web ever has. Thanks for all the love and hard work everybody has put into this labor of love.

I would like to suggest a possible addition to the 70s counterculture section. How about adding info on the fussball hangouts, like Goodtimes, the Zodiac and all the "Jerk Joints" as we called them that were around town? The above-listed are the only names I still remember.

Goodtimes was located in the strip building on the south end next to Oertle's and across from Whiskers. The Zodiac was over on Admiral back behind Cotton's restaurant. I remember there was also one behind Pizza Hut close to Tiffany bowling alley on 21st. Don't remember the name of it, or the one that was on Memorial and Admiral.

There were several others around town, but I was an eastside kid. And between the smoke of that time and now being 50 years old. I've forgotten a lot of the details. Thanks once again for all the hard work and information.

January 29 2007 at 08:19:40
Name: Lee Woodward (via email)
Topic: Tom Loepp, artist
Comments: I was about to introduce a former Tulsan on these pages by telling you of an upcoming episode featuring his great artistic talent, on a PBS program called "Wyoming Portraits". We then discovered that it would be shown only in Wyoming, which is where the artist, Thomas Loepp, now lives. (There is a slide show of the artist at work and a YouTube trailer at the linked site...webmaster)

This charcoal portrait of me was done by Tom Loepp back in 1978 when he was practicing his craft to finance a year of study in Europe in 1979. I was so impressed with his work, I had him draw my entire family, including King Lionel.

Tom studied at the Art Students Academy in Tulsa with an instructor named Pat McGuffin and then in New York. I lost track of him until just a couple of years ago when I discovered he had become one of America's leading portrait painters and so, easily found on the internet.

I'm sure there are many people out there who have wonderful portraits that Tom did of themselves or family.

If you have an interest in fine art and would like to see Tom's great talent, there are many sites to visit, but the one I like is OIL PORTRAIT PAINTING CITYSCAPE LANDSCAPE ART by Tom Loepp. There is a biography and many beautiful paintings to see there.

As generally happens here, the name Tom Loepp will jog some memories; good ones I'm sure.

Royal portrait by Thomas Loepp

January 28 2007 at 17:46:36
Name: Ken Harwood
Topic: Bell's amusement park
Email: jayhawken@aol.com
Comments: Bell's currently is considering options and offers from several surrounding communities.

As for Big Splash waterpark, one could only wish it would close and a "real" waterpark would be constructed somewhere in the area. Big Splash is a tiny, run-down, poorly operated excuse for a waterpark and Tulsa deserves far, far better. I believe Big Splash is owned and operated by Murphy Brothers, the folks with a seemingly permanent agreement with the Fairgrounds Trust Authority to operate the midway at the Tulsa State Fair.

January 27 2007 at 18:07:49
Name: Stan
Topic: Bell's amusement park
Comments: I'm sorry to hear about the demise of Bell's at the fairgrounds. Do they have plans to relocate? Didn't someone build a water park at the fairgrounds as well - is it closing also? I have many fond memories of Bell's, especially Zingo, which my friends and I would ride ad nauseum.

January 26 2007 at 19:51:02
Name: Dana LeMoine
Topic: Phantasmagoria
Email: d4wdwatvalornet.com
Comments: Well, Phantasmagoria is no more. There is a story on KOTV's site about it.

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=118983

Hopefully the other rides will survive.

Thank you Expo Square officials....

January 26 2007 at 18:53:36
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Fantastic Tulsa Films
Comments: Got my Jack Frank DVD today - am hoping to have a pleasant Sat. night enjoying all!

What's an ARVEST Bank though - his sponsor?

Related to 'Enry 'Iggins or an ArkieSaw investment bank?

Pretty close: Arvest is controlled by the WalMart Waltons. State Bank in Tulsa was Arvest-owned. In Tulsa, it is now Arvest State Bank.

January 26 2007 at 17:52:35
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Allan Sherman
Comments: Was just gifted his box set. Sad to think he passed young many years ago - his son is keeping his name out there.

Was he ever a draw to ya'all in Tulsa way back when??

As an adolescent in Chicago in the 60's - he was MOR stuff but we liked him. He was one of us - kinda - a Univ. of Illinois drop-out who made it big producing, I think "I've Got A Secret" in NYC.

He was "comedy" in the 1960s..."Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh"....and for some reason "Westchester Haddassah" is stuck in my feeble brain today...For some reason he was a draw on the then-Playboy Club circuit.

He and Vaughn Meador.

January 26 2007 at 15:08:10
Name: Webmaster
Topic: The Insects
Comments: Rex Brown sent this video to go with the discussion of the Crystal Pistol/Punk/New Wave in the previous GroupBlog. Says Rex:

"Live performance of Eighties new wave band, the Insects. This recording is from a local Tulsa television show called "Night Shift" that aired on KTUL television channel 8. The hosts of the show were Greg Roach and Jeannie Tripplehorn. The shows were taped at a club on Brookside called Charlie's Nostalgia.

"The Insects formed in 1980 and were later known as Radio Milan. Visit Maduko.com for more!"

January 25 2007 at 16:34:20
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: We are all gettin' older
Comments: E-mailing with Guy Atchley in AZ today. His daughter, Jami, will have his first grandchild in July.

I can remember the day Jami (then Jamina) was born. It was celebrated in the KTUL newsroom. Guy was just a producer there at the time. Studio cameraman John Heatley's daughter was also born the same week. Seemed like so many folks at KTUL were having kids then.

January 25 2007 at 07:12:44
Name: Jim Ruddle
Topic: folo Chew and Bruchas
Email: jruddle@earthlink.net
Comments: Bear with me on this.

A woman who occasionally joined the boys at the bar of the Red Lion Pub, in Chicago, told the tale on herself.

In 1970, quite young and innocent of the folkways of the Dairy State, and totally ignorant of world of sports, she had taken a job in Wisconsin as a waitress at a lakeside resort. The same people were at the same tables for every meal and she became acquainted with them.

One morning, she entered the normally glib and chatty breakfast scene to find only brooding faces, a tear or two, and gloom heavier than the pancakes.

She whispered to one of the gentlemen,"What's wrong?"

"Lombardi's dead," came the choking reply.

Not knowing what else to say, she laid her hand on his shoulder and asked in sympathy, "Oh, what will we do now on New Year's Eve?"

January 24 2007 at 23:59:26
Name: Gary Chew
Topic: Guy Lombardo/Midnight Special
Email: Just SW of the Donner Party Family Grill
Comments: YO! THAT was the name of the show on FMT: MIDNIGHT Special. I racked my brain for it, which tells me something, I guess.

On the subject of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians: my mother was a big fan of Mr. Lombardo and the indelible imprint he left on New Year Eve revelry. I think Guy had the inside track on that since his theme was "Auld Lang Syne."

Our old buddy, Mike Miller, now holded-up near Houston, used to have a great line relating to the "mickey-ness" of Guy's orchestral sound.

Mike would occasionally shout above the din, usually after a drink or two, "Who put the melted wax in Guy Lombardo's sax?!"

Delmeaux de Gillette du Coffeyville

January 24 2007 at 21:42:41
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: WFMT + New Year's Eve of a past life
Comments: Mike Nichols was also doing SECOND CITY with his wife, maybe after WFMT. In a Second City book, it says he has no eyebrows, was born that way and may have had to wear a "weave" for most of his life. I never noticed that...He was funny but back then, the comedy of Stan Freberg and wacky music of Tom Lehrer were bigger draws as I neared junior high age.

Every New Year's Eve night when I was in high school, if not at a party or just after, we raced home to hear THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, an overnight New Year's show which ran all kinds of music genre-wise, but I could never stay awake to 6am with my earphone plugged in.

Maybe WFMT had the biggest audience of the year on New Year's night!

For years before this, on Jan. 1 at midnight, WLS-TV (then WBKB-TV) ran all the Marx Bros. movies. This is before Dick Clark and ABC began doing their schtick. So that dates me. I was good for maybe 2 movies then passed out. Somehow I never remember being shepherded to bed by my folks.

Uh, Guy Lombardo was still on CBS network then at 10:30pm to midnight at the Waldorf Astoria....Guy whom?

January 24 2007 at 11:10:06
Name: Gary Chew
Topic: WFMT
Email: Just SW of the Donner Party Family Grill
Comments: The chit-chat about FMT is interesting since I have a distance connection to it via the late John Major. Dr. John hired me as he was putting on his short-lived commercial classical FM (KCMA) licensed to Owasso, OK. He had worked for WFMT and was involved with its expansion to cable FM via satellite. (I listened to it much of the time on my Tulsa Cable feed when I still lived in Tulsa.)

Dr. Major was a retired physics professor. He spoke English, French, German and Italian. His father had been Dean of a med school in Kansas City. At age 13, John was visiting Germany with his family and actually saw Adolf Hitler doing one of his infamous rants.

In all the conversations that went on at KCMA, one of the most interesting things I heard was: One time during the early years of WFMT, one of the staff included Mike Nichols, the famous film director and former stand up partner of Elaine May. (What a duo!)

As to Studs Terkel, who is still alive, I understand: when I first listened to his talk show from FMT on Tulsa FM Cable, I was taken quite aback to realize its political niche. I thought, then, that the only reason they've allowed it on the air must be because it made money in a big, diverse city. But, of that, I'm not sure.

A couple of other interesting items that FMT aired then, and probably still does, were The Saturday Night Special (folk music show, sometimes with live singer-songwriters) and a musical salute to Duke Ellington. The Ellington hour would be programmed on the Duke's birthday. It was the only jazz I ever heard on FMT.

I was struck, at the time, that WFMT was not so much an entity unto itself, but more importantly, a vehicle to disseminate its unique content. That is clearly not what commercial radio is about in America, but I found it to be a really damned good way to hear some really fine music.

Delmeaux de Gillette du Coffeyville

January 24 2007 at 07:28:02
Name: Jim Ruddle
Topic: WFMT & Public Radio
Email: jruddle@earthlink.net
Comments: WGN gave the FM license to WFMT to avoid conflicts over multiple media ownership. It was a good deal for all, as Mike Bruchas says.

I must disagree somewhat about the "lefty Bohemians" he mentions. Some were. Terkel, for all his iconic status now, ran an interview show for ages on the station and never met a Socialist he didn't like. He never interviewed--to my knowledge--anyone who didn't hold the same views he did.

It's a bit amusing that WGN, named for Colonel McCormick's World's Greatest Newspaper (the Trib), provided Terkel with his stump. The first time I met Studs, when I was working for WGN-TV, he informed me of his loathing for the late Colonel.

John Hillis' experience with public radio "sales" people re-opens the hypocritical bag on NPR. When NPR came on the scene, it was an alternative to "commercial" broadcasters--those rotten bastards. Now, NPR is "underwritten" or "supported" by every corporate and special interest in the country, which are acknowledged with short "commercials."

But, then, John is old enough to remember when regular broadcasters wouldn't schedule two competing car commercials within thirty minutes of each other. Now, they run cheek-to-cheek.

O, Tempore! O, Mores!

Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's Ray Kroc, left $200 million to NPR on her death in late 2003.

January 23 2007 at 22:22:16
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: WFMT folo
Comments: Went to their web page and it has been "sanitized" as Discovery Channel did with their "corporate history". Sad because it leaves a lot out and a lot of the known talent folks in Chicago who kept WFMT on the air and built a loyal audience. Their list of board of directors looks like GM's now.

It does say Bernie and Rita Jacobs started the station in 1951, but it leaves a lot out. The past is prologue, I guess.

I did forget WFMT runs 2 satellite music feed nets, one for classical music and one for jazz 24 hours a day. As I recall WFMT was an early station to do web streaming, too.

January 23 2007 at 21:48:56
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: folo to Bro Hillis re Chicago
Comments: WFMT may have originally belonged to Zenith, but WGN and the Tribune saved them somehow way, way back when or WFMT would have become WGN-FM.

Which is funny because of Studs Terkel and a bunch of what were termed "lefty bohemians" or classical music "snobs" ran the station for years in the 50s-70s. Really they were neither, just different folks, running a big city station on very little money for so long in a different way.

The late Col. McCormick, who owned WGN and the Trib was politically to the far right of Attila the Hun. But he hired good managers to run his empire and his heirs were far from stupid. The WFMT thing was like a gift to Chicago.

WFMT, WTTW-TV (maybe they still own WXXW-TV, their UHF), and Chicago magazine are all under 1 umbrella.

When I was a young'un, WTTW was part of the Museum of Science and Industry, hence Window To The World for WTTW.

And one could watch studio shows (though few) from the Museum. Folks may remember my post on early "classroom TV" when WTTW had a rented DC 3 with a transmitter on board and it circled the Chicago airways in the morning broadcasting what we now call ITV or instructional TV stuff.

Chicago magazine replaced an early WFMT listener programming tome with good articles and reviews at the right time.

It is a neat deal, and yes they fund raise but the get a lot of corporate funding in Chicago, too.

WTTW now has PBS rivalry with WYCC (WISE TV) from Chicago city College, who do things with Northwestern U's J School.

My family watched WTTW's nightly 7-8 pm news block for years after local Chicago TV casts. Good outfit!

WFMT is not NPR - I think WCEB (formerly the zzzzz Chicago Board of education station) is the NPR affiliate along with WCOD at the College of DuPage, which is 85% jazz music and NPR. BTW - I think one the Belushi boys was a jock at WCOD.

January 23 2007 at 20:58:09
Name: John Hillis
Topic: Classical Music Radio
Comments: WGMS in DC was for a long time owned by RKO General, which was in trouble because of some misfeasance of a parent company. It retained the classical format when the other RKO's like WRKO Boston KHJ LA and KFRC (I think) San Francisco switched to rock to mollify the FCC.

It would be strangely satisfying today if anybody in broadcasting did anything other than jawbone and lawyerify to keep the FCC off'n their backs. Anyway, RKO General give up the ghost a long time ago, but WMGS clung to classical, even after the AM of the AM/FM combo was peeled away to become an all-sports (and now all-satellite yak) station a couple of owners (at least) ago.

I did some consulting work for a public radio station in a large city which will remain nameless, but the manager gave me a thumbnail of what they were making running classical vs. what they could make with talk around the clock. The difference was astounding, and not in favor of Beethoven or Milton Cross. I was a little chagrined with a "non-commercial" station manager telling me about his "sales staff," but I'm a worldly sort, so I hid it from the client.

But long-running classical format stations like WGMS (with alums like Charles Osgood--whom I once saw in person playing a banjo and singing local Washington car dealer jingles of the early 1950's), WQXR in New York, and WFMT (Mike, didn't Zenith own them?) in Chicago, are either gone or going.

As for that '57 Plymouth, most everyone at CNN nowadays is just real highly educated and looks at what happens out in flyover country as an oddity anyway. I'll take one Bill Pitcock over a busload of Anderson Coopers anyday.

John knows whereof he speaks; he was one of the original CNN pioneers. Part of the story is in the book, Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN by Reese Schonfeld.

January 23 2007 at 14:14:34
Name: roy lee
Topic: Classical radio
Email: beerdrunk@cox.net
Comments: The late, great George Usdin was a board operator at KCMA back in the 80s. He called me up one night just before sign off time and told me to tune in and promised that I would be amused. he signed off and came back on a few minutes later and played the "Sex Pistols Symphony" from their "Great Rock and Roll Swindle" album. I guess I was the only one listening since he never got caught! I was definitely amused since I had loaned him that record in the first place.

January 23 2007 at 12:43:52
Name: Jeff H
Topic: Politicos on loud speakers and CNN
Comments: I also remember candidates driving around with loud speakers a-blaring.

One 4th of July comes to mind, I was in the back yard with my "Black Cats" and punk making all kinds of racket, when around the corner of the house none other than the Sheriff of Tulsa County appears (Dave Faulkner). I about wet my pants since fireworks were illegal in the city limits. I thought I was going to jail for sure. My mom said I turned white as a ghost. It seems Mr. Faulkner was campaigning door-to-door and my mom thought it would be funny to scare me after all the lecturing of the dangers of pyrotechnics. I think I got a short lecture, and I put the firecrackers away for a couple hours before I couldn't stand it any longer and had to blow something up. We laughed about this for years.

As far as CNN..... er, ah, arg, Oh don't get me started!!!!!

January 23 2007 at 12:20:16
Name: Erick
Topic: 97.1 The Sports Animal
Comments: The transmitter for 97.1 is the in the bullseye of where the ice storm hit hardest, maybe that is a reason.

January 23 2007 at 12:11:43
Name: Charles
Topic: Fargo
Comments: There is a story about the buried Plymouth on CNN.com. The article says that the car had largely been forgotten. I find that hard to believe. My brother and I grew up knowing exactly where it was buried and have been looking forward to its unearthing. For some reason, CNN categorizes the story as "offbeat news".

On another note, while Oklahoma has been blasted by ice and snow, North Dakota has largely been experiencing an Oklahoma-type winter. We had a brown Christmas and currently have very little snow on the ground

Also, in an entry several weeks ago, Dana asked if anyone remembered a man driving through neighborhoods blasting Christmas Carols over a speaker system on his car. Dana, I grew up in the same neigborhood and I have no recollection of that...I think you are dreaming it. I do remember cars coming through with speaker systems promoting political candidates though.

January 23 2007 at 09:49:13
Name: DolfanBob
Topic: Sports Radio
Email: MiamiPhin@yahoo.com
Comments: Anybody know what has happened to 97.1 FM The Sports Animal in Tulsa. It has been off the air now for over a week. The 1550 AM is such a weak signal that you can only get it off and on during the Day, and forget about it a Night.

January 23 2007 at 07:32:30
Name: Webmaster
Topic: Leake article today
Comments: Tulsa World story about former KTUL-TV owner, James C. Leake.

January 23 2007 at 00:07:21
Name: Gary Chew
Topic: Classical Music Radio
Email: Just SW of the Donner Party Family Grill
Comments: To Brother Bruchas' message regarding the advent of George 104 in D.C: I think what's the deal with commercial stations airing classical music in big markets is: they can make some money, usually, but they can't make NEARLY as much as ones that dumb-down to another kind of format. Many of those stations play ersatz music and have hosts who sound anal, but yet, cheerily disingenuous: Something I've always tried to eschew (yuck yuck); much to the chagrin of some managers in my past, including K-E-L---and little EYE( as Bill Miller's Jasper P. Jones used to call that AM).

I don't know what the lastest numbers are for Classical KDFC in San Francisco, which I can pick up, sort of, here in Sacramento, but I have heard that FM is the highest rated music station in SF. But heck, we all know how "weird" most people in the Bay Area are, right? They have very good announcers. Most sound like they might be movie/theatre actors who also know how to pronounce all that stuff we classical dudes have to spew.

My former place of employment still does classical, but I could read some 'faint handwriting on the wall' that the classical will be taking the 'third banana' seat in a two-seat vehicle most likely. That's just my guestimate on it.

The inexorable and rapid advance of the new technological delivery systems are really putting a big squeeze on conventional radio broadcasting, which most certainly includes those with noncommercial licensees as well.

The Tulsa market is very lucky to have two public FMs: one for public talk and the other for classical, mostly. But the classical comes to KWGS from Columbus, OH. I'm guessing that's what most public FMs will be doing in the future. My old station takes its overnight and some weekend programming from St. Paul, MN, which is just down the road from Lake Wobegon.

Delmeaux de Gillette du Coffeyville

January 22 2007 at 23:15:10
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Old time/jazz/classical radio
Comments: "Old time radio" shows or jazz shows are buried on weekend nights? Only truly devout fans will reserve weekend nights to listen to good stuff. Maybe this is why stuff web-streamed at any time is so popular. Formerly, I listened to a lot of BBC music shows "time shifted" to my schedule at work.

I mentioned earlier this year that several Pittsburgh, PA stations have "given up" and gone near total "informercial radio". Hopin' that never happens in Tulsey!

Big change in DC today: Bonneville-owned WGMS-FM, our commercial classical station, is now "George 104". "Your music of the 70's!" is the format. Not the 1770s either.

WGMS was an early FM with a co-owned lower-powered AM for years. Been on the air since I think 1953. After making money with classical for years for other owners and Bonneville, but changing frequencies last Jan. for better coverage for sister station news WTOP, they are now losing money.

Weird since they are the biggest boosters of HD radio here, on all the Bonneville stations. No idea if their 2-year-old all-classical vocal music web site (with commercials) VivaLaVoce.com will continue. (It won't.)

Last year WETA-FM-NPR dropped ALL music for talk. WGMS is giving ALL of the great record library to WETA; they had turntables and CD players in their control rooms. WETA will revert back to classical music with NPR.

Maybe a commercial classical station can't make it any more, even in a big market.

January 22 2007 at 19:12:38
Name: Mike Bruchas
Topic: Power hits
Comments: We were having power hits in downtown DC today. Wondered if someone at the White House plugged in a toaster and PlayStation at the same time. One of my-coworkers told of entering an elevator in NYC just as the famous 1977 power grid crash. Luckily, they did not let the door close and escaped to a very dark city outside.

I told him my famous KTUL 1975 Sunday Night newscast story. Bob Hower was filling in. We went from ABC network to roll the news open and next thing I knew, we all were sitting in the dark. An infamous Red Fork power outage. For a second I thought I had died - no intercom, no noise, no lights. After about 30 seconds, I popped my booth door and the engineers were scrambling for flashlights and yelling, " Is everyone okay?". KTUL never went on the air again till the next day.

January 22 2007 at 14:03:49
Name: Steve Bagsby
Topic: Bill Miller
Comments: I don't know if you still can, but you could get the Bill Miller Show on KGGF AM 690, Coffeyville KS. (reception is OK). Bill mentioned on one of his shows working in Tulsa for a time and getting to know Leon McAuliffe.

Another good show (when you can find it) is "When Radio Was". It too was on KGGF in the evenings. I personally prefer Joe Riddle's show Sunday nights on KRMG.

LUM AND ABNER RULE!!!

January 22 2007 at 06:47:38
Name: Dick Loftin
Topic: Mark O'Connell of KRAV Dies
Email: dloftin1@cox.net
Comments: This mornings (Jan 22) paper has a story about the passing of KRAV personality Mark O'Connell. I Googled his name and learned that he died of "a fast spreading melanoma that was diagnosed December 29th." Source is Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. and a website called PC Quote.

Stacy Richardson told us the sad news at the top of the just-archived GB 229.

January 22 2007 at 00:45:35
Name: Lowell Burch
Topic: Bill and Chill
Comments: You be right, Roy. Except I don't remember Chill wipe his face with the flag. He may have, though, since I was actually behind stage and only saw his "presentation" from the back. Still, despite his being soused and the unorthodox handling of the small, creased flag, he did a pretty good job. Among other movies, catch the man in "Tulsa", singing the title song.

I recommended the Ben Miller Radio Show out of Bartlesville on Sunday nights. As I listened tonight, I noticed it is the BILL Miller Show, not Ben.

Of course, he may have changed his name since I last listened.

January 21 2007 at 23:33:16
Name: roy lee
Topic: Roy Clark shows
Email: beerdrunk@msn.com
Comments: When I was a kid, my family went to a couple of those Roy Clark fundraiser shows and the thing I remember most was the actor Chill Wills who came onstage with an American flag and did a drunken crying speech about how much he loved the flag. He then wiped his face with it and stuck it in his pocket. Does anyone else remember this or did I dream it? I don't think I did since I had never heard of him before and my dad always pointed him out in the old western movies afterwards....

January 21 2007 at 14:30:44
Name: Webmaster
Topic: Previous GroupBlog summary
Comments: Archived GroupBlog 229...