I've just been surfing your Tulsa TV site. There is so much stuff that hits home. Tulsa was a great town to grow up in, at least back then anyway, haven't lived there in a while. You had the only house and the only parents I knew in town that you could go out running around all night and still come by the Ransom's at midnight and watch Don Kirshner's Rock Concert until 1:00am without them getting mad. Most parents would have shot someone for that!

I noticed several things about Jeanne Summers (Tripplehorn) such as on your Creature Feature section. I haven't seen anything on the early 1980's phenomenon on Channel 8 called "Night Shift". It was a local show with live bands and videos that was simulcast with KMOD. I have a videotape of a 1983-1984 New Years show that was a 2 hour special hosted by Jeanne Summers and Phil Stone as the DJ. Let me know if it would be of any use to you!

It would!

Yes, well, I will do my best now to send the web Master more "stuff" 'bout MAINTAIN since he has dropped it here. I am busy with school things for the next month or so...but will feed more things from olden 3/4" tapes soon. My only problem is (besides time) is how poorly the old tapes play. HOWEVER...cool crap coming. You all don't mind bad-playing video, do ya?

While I am at it...Bro' Bob..Robert Edwards was a dear friend of mine during the "underground" radio period. He was "Strider," he was "Bob Roberts" Anyone remember him? I saw him doing a gig for KOME one time during a break I had while running camera for KTUL. His pupils were bigger than I have ever seen any operating (on air) persons in my fine life. I ask him during a break in his broadcast "how the hell can you do this?"...he answered, "when one guy throws the ball to the other, it makes a long brown streak to the other. Easy to tell where it came from and where it went. LORD! May we all work in this fashion!

There is a review of Daddy a Go Go's new CD (see Bulletin Board) in the Arts section of yesterday's Tulsa World.

Another TTM reader is featured in the Southside Community World today: The Whistler, Robert Stemmons. His group, "Whistlin' By Crackie", will appear at the Jenks Herb & Plant Festival Saturday morning at 10 a.m., where they will also judge the first Oklahoma Open Whistling Contest. Read the story in the Tulsa World until 5/2.

My father, Bill Hackathorn, used to be on "Sun-Up" on Channel 6 back in the 60's. He played with Sammy Pagna's band -- I think it was a trio. He also did skits, such as "I want a drink of wa wa." Anyway, my dad passed away several years ago, but was a main stay in the Tulsa music scene -- he was at Tulsa Central in the late 30's and played in the Daze Band -- in the late 60's and early 70's he taught at TU. He also had a music store in Brookside in the mid-60's. I thought he belonged on this site because of his "Sun-Up" days.

Indeed he does. Thank you, LeeAnn.

The governor has declared April "Made in Oklahoma" month. Some of the local products featured in the Tulsa World today: J.C. Potter Country Sausage (Durant), Shawnee Mills, and Griffin's Foods in Muskogee. Of course, there is a link between Griffin's and Tulsa TV: Channel 8 was started by Griffin-Leake, and Griffin Communications today owns Channel 6.

Here is film from the early 60s, courtesy of Mike Bruchas. It is a dual tribute, to Griffin's and to noted science-fiction writer and editor Damon Knight, who passed away last week at the age of 79. One of his stories was adapted for "The Twilight Zone". It makes an odd "sandwich".

This is the stub of my first paycheck at KFPW, Ft. Smith. You can see how well paid we were.

KFPW was a sister station to KTUL. Karl Janssen, KTUL program director, sent me to KFPW to be summer replacement to fill in for people on vacation. I think that Karl, wanting to get me some commercial experience other than being weekend man for KTUL, forced me on the KFPW general manager, Jimmy Walker. Walker never was very friendly, even though he had been a very likable guy when he was a coach of my pee-wee league baseball team several years earlier. Walker got rid of me as soon as he could---in about a month.

After I returned to Tulsa, I got a job on the night shift at KAKC, the same job that Jim Ruddle and Noel Confer had before me and that Bob Griffin had after me. After a year there, I was hired by Janssen at KTUL.

As for Jimmy Walker, unfortunately he was sent by headquarters to be KTUL's general manager, after I had been there for a year. He was never a friendly guy. Maybe he thought I had taken too much of KFPW's money.

Television helicopters are more integral in Oklahoma than one would think. Obviously, there's not nearly enough traffic here to validate one as a "traffic copter", but as a news copter, they are invaluable.

Take May 3, 1999 for instance. Both KWTV and KFOR in OKC had their choppers in the air showing live footage of the monstrous tornado in central Oklahoma for several hours (KOCO got rid of their chopper several years ago). In addition to their new-found job as tornado trackers, news choppers in Oklahoma have been used for years to show tornado damage, and the all too familiar grass fires.

Tulsa has only recently started to explore the chopper phase. I think KTUL is the only Tulsa station that owns and operates its own chopper. KOTV would make you believe it owns one, but more often than not, it uses footage from KWTV in OKC. I'm not sure if they even have a Tulsa-based chopper at their disposal. Does anyone know?

Speaking of Dallas news choppers, current KDFW report/pilot Scott Wallace used to hold the same position at KFOR in OKC. I think he is extremely talented as both pilot and reporter. The metroplex is lucky to have him.

I am looking for a Kitty Clover Potato Chip commercial that aired in 1979 or 1980. It was a little boy by a fence and he said, "Come on over." The jingle went, "Come on over to Kitty Clover....."

The little boy was my son, and he is getting married now. We have somehow lost the commercial, and I thought someone in Tulsa might have it in some memorabilia from the kiddy show they sponsored in Tulsa.

Any help you could give me would be very greatly appreciated.

Uncle Zeb responded:

I sort of remember the spot, but unfortunately, that's all.

Sorry, Carl B.

While reading the "Maintain" page I was reminded that in the early Seventies one could go to Greer's (I think) and have an 8-track tape made of songs from Greer's collection?

I saw the operation once. I'm sure BMI/ASCAP/RIAA got it and others like it shut down for copyright reasons.

Mazeppa used to advertise that 8-track jukebox/recorder for Greer's.

My first job following high school was as an artist for Graphic Associates located at the corner of 3rd and Cheyenne. I had the pleasure of working next to a fine illustrator, Ben Brown. Ben and I became good friends.

One day, Ben informed me he had been previously employed as an artist for KVOO-TV.

Naturally, I was quite impressed, but when he told me he had been the artist behind Big Bill and Oom-A-Gog's Magic Window, I was thrilled!

The Big Bill set had a picture frame on the wall with a blank piece of paper mounted inside. Each week, Ben would stand behind the Big Bill set and draw on the newsprint with a black marker. When the marker's ink bled through the paper, Ben's drawings "magically" appeared. I felt honored to become friends with someone so talented and who had worked on one of my favorite kiddie shows.

Mitch

Added your comments to the Oom-A-Gog page, Mitch.

What a great site you have!

Having grown up here, I especially like the photos of the local children's shows. (When I was REAL young, I appeared on the Big Bill and Oom-A-Gog Show - I won a case of Coke when I said it was my birthday. I lied. Boy! Some peoples' kids!)

Anyway, thanks for the great site, and let's not just continue reading memories, let's make some positive memories for our next generation.

Billy can be heard Saturdays 7am - 12pm on KMOD, and then 3pm - 6pm on KOOL 106.1.

He has also started a site called T-Town Time Capsule. It lists Tulsa happenings by the month for the years 1960-1973. The emphasis is not so much on headline-makers, but items that would have been noted, then mostly forgotten. The Tulsa culture I remember was made up of just such things.

Examples:

In October 1960, Vice-President Richard Nixon visited Tulsa in hopes of garnering votes for his upcoming election against John Kennedy (this one was a headline-maker; my family watched Nixon's procession from the old Sheridan Library location just north of Admiral);

In December 1960, "Beware of the stare" was the headline of the ad for the movie "Village of the Damned" which was playing at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown (the ad showed scary-looking kids with whited-out irises - it creeped me out pretty badly).

Welcome, Billy!

What a delight it was witnessing growth in broadcasting here in Tulsa. I was lucky enough to have been on the Big Bill Show at KVOO-TV in 1959 and came to know some really great people in the business when I started working here. Among my favorities were Johnny Martin at KRMG. I got to know Johnny quite well during the early 70's when I worked for the FM. Other great folks I got to know were Don Cummins at KRMG; Alan Lambert, Neil Kennedy, Ramona Huffman and Jack Campbell at KVOO; Forrest Brokaw, Ken Douglas and Dick Ralston at KELi. The list is way too long. Tulsa was always a great place for broadcasters!

Hi, Si! Welcome.

RE: "Galaxy" Thanks for the comments, Edward. I also remember those hectic but fun days doing that show in the mid-60s. I recall being not so hot at directing, but I found my niche in the sound booth. I later became a cameraman (cameraperson?) at Ch. 8, and worked on the news (Jack Morris) as well as "Mr. Zing and Tuffy." Boyce Lancaster was station mgr. at the time. Carl Bartholomew was my supervisor. That was my first (and last job) at KTUL (or any other TV station for that matter). Like so many others online here, I found the late John Chick to be very charming, nice and talented. He was a class act.

Helicopters and stuff: Oklahoma was one of the first places TV helicopters caught on back in the late 70s. I think KTVY was among the first. Vast distances and wide open spaces are good, both for maximal utilization of the chopper's speed vs. a news van and for landing in case of emergency.

Back then, there was a good supply of Vietnam-trained pilots who got into chopper work for stations as they adopted airborne platforms. Some were, shall we say, about half a bubble out of plumb, and were probably more confident about their flying ability than they ought to have been. On the other hand, as one told me once, any flight where nobody's shooting at you is an easy one.

Here in Washington, the NBC O&O is joining Fox in launching a copter in time for the May book. This is particularly unproductive, as all airspace within 10 nautical miles of the center of town is closed.

Apart from the safety and p.r. issues of an unfortunate incident, someday, somebody will do a study about how unsatisfactory helicopter aerials are in conveying the reality of the news story based on the dehumanizing aspects of a gyro-stabilized shot from at least 1,000 feet up.

I'd better relinquish the soap box now. Grumpy old man out.

I have been reading about the weathermen in Tulsa's TV history. My late grandmother was deathly afraid of storms and watched all three channels religiously. She didn't care much for Don Woods because she thought he liked it when the weather was going to be severe. She was so frightened of storms that at one point my aunt would put her in the storm cellar in the morning and get her out after work in the evening. It was this or risk her hurting herself trying to go there on her own.

I occasionally can actually listen to KVOO radio (see David Halpern's large photo of the transmitter site) at night. When I do, I get a craving for Chocolate Gravy. Does somebody have the recipe?

KVOO's "Sleepwalkers' Serenade" was heard in many states back in the 50s and 60s. More about it on the 1952 Tulsa radio schedule page.

The only recipe we have here so far is for Pepper Martin's Sour Dough Biscuits...ah, here's one for Chocolate Gravy:

1/2 cup butter
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups milk

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add cocoa and flour; stir until a thick paste is formed. Stir in sugar and milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick.

I wonder if Peggy Shaber ever featured it on ONG's "Coffee Break"?

We get nervous about helicopters at my station. I'm at the Fox O&O and we have two helicopters. One that does just traffic and one that is used for breaking news. Back in '85, to celebrate the Texas sesquicentenial, we did our newscasts from all over Texas. A different location each night. The first night, as the 6pm show was ending out in West Texas near Van Horn, the station's helicopter crashed as it was returning with meals for the crew. The pilot, and the news dept.'s business manager were both killed.

Jim Ruddle's remarks about broadcasting's traffic reporters came to mind last Friday (April 12) when I read in the Dallas Morning News about the helicopter crash in north Dallas the day before. No one was killed or even seriously injured, so the Tulsa World didn't have the story, but it was a VERY near thing.

Pilot David Meyer said it was the first time a chopper had quit on him in 32 years of flying, including 20 years in the Army. He said "thousands" of practice auto-rotations as a military flight instructor "paid off." (the helicopter's main rotor spun automatically during a quick but controlled descent, through trees and under power lines to the crowded street 400 feet below).

John Wolf of KRLD (AM) was on the air during the emergency landing. The News reported he said in only slightly urgent tones, "635 (LBJ Freeway) westbound is..just a mess. And we're going down." The transmission crackled for a few seconds before a voice at the studio asked, 'John, you OK?' He was, and so were Starlene Stringer of KTVT (TV) and Perri Reavis of KVIL (FM). But Wolf declared his flying days are over and noted he had had to reassure his wife and son when he took the job last summer. 'I'm hoping to find work on the ground,' he said."

The News reported 43 radio and 4 TV stations in the Dallas market lease helicopters for reports through Metro Networks. Shane Coppola of Westwood One, the largest network radio company (Metro is about 55 per cent of Westwood One), said Metro has had three fatal crashes, in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Cleveland and about a half-dozen other accidents. "Given the amount of aircraft and the number of hours flown on our behalf (roughly 200,000 hours a year) we feel good about our track record. (But) one incident is too many."

Just a short note about UHF. It has become a "cult classic" of sorts here at the Boys and Girls Club. We show it on a wide screen TV with surround sound. The kids are already beginning to quote it from memory (which is a little frightening to say the least). An autographed picture of Weird Al would really make it for our kids. They have so few good role models.

Also, I was a student of Eldon Hallum's at what was then Claremore Junior College. I have gone on to be a Preacher, but got my start in public speaking in Mr. Hallum's class.

Thanks, Jerry, added your comments to the UHF page, where Mr. Hallum can be seen.

Lowell Burch sent a couple of pictures from Tulsa Public Schools' "High School Highlights" below.

I found a poster for the 1937 Easter Pageant...see it in Guestbook 104, along with all the commentary (not uniformly pious in tone).

I just discovered something that will be useful to many of you. The undisputed best all-around search engine, Google, now has a Toolbar available for download. Once installed, it becomes an integral part of your Internet Explorer browser (it is removable, too). One feature is search within individual web sites such as this one. TTM already has a good search engine, but the Google Toolbar also offers buttons to let you immediately find your search words within the page you have selected. All of TTM except maybe the most recent couple of Guestbooks can be searched in this way. The price is right: free.

Further geek news: I just got an m105 PalmPilot as a gift. I was able to get all the main pages of this web site plus a sampling of pictures onto it in browsable form!

Jim Hartz did indeed gain his first tv experiences at KTUL, Ch. 8, on "Galaxy" ("Odyssey" was almost right, Jim). At the time, he was a pre-med major at TU while announcing on KRMG radio. It was spring of '62, Jim's senior year. Ye gads, almost exactly 40 years ago! I could tell you the dates of his first appearances if it weren't for the fact that my only missing grade book is for that year (weird . . . ).

For eighteen seasons, from fall of '57 through spring of '75, KTUL-TV most graciously provided for our students in my Television Fundamentals and Television Production classes (Tom Ledbetter's classes during '68-'69) the opportunity of two semesters of lab experiences once a week in their Lookout Mountain offices and studios. Each week in the fall, our students met with a different executive or department head, who explained the functions and responsibilities of his or her area and answered all questions.

In the spring, the main studio, control room, and announcer's booth and Ch. 8's state-of-the-art equipment were turned over to us on Saturday mornings for set-up, dress rehearsal, and LIVE telecast at 11:30 or (after the arrival of videotape equipment) live on tape for airing early Sunday afternoons. Throughout spring, students were rotated through all production positions from floor manager, camera operator, booth announcer, cue card holder, and talent, to technical director and director. While a member of the Ch. 8 studio crew supervised the students in setting up sets and lights and generally stood by in the studio in case of crisis, I put in a lot of mileage racing up and down stairs; but I spent most of the time in the control room, also in case of crisis.

During the week preparation took place of diverse programs of the director's choosing, such as plays, jazz and classical music, dance, discussions and documentaries related to the arts, history, political science, business, social issues, etc.

After the first few seasons, the last five minutes became "TU Telenews" as a lab for Bill Hays' Broadcast Newswriting class with student reporters and presenters. Film stories were shot throughout Tulsa.

"Galaxy" (actually "Galaxy '58," "Galaxy '59," etc.) ended with the completion of New Kendall Hall on campus with its own tv studios and new equipment.

But what an invaluable experience KTUL provided for so many fledgling broadcasters! It would be great to hear from more of you guys through Tulsa TV Memories.

I could be wrong about High School Highlights, after all, it has been 25 years and I have forgotten an awful lot.

This weekend and next, Tulsa Community College is presenting the 1940s Radio Hour at the PACE. Two of my sons and I make up the brass section for the stage band. Come on out and enjoy a live musical for a nominal price (5.00).

Mr. Lowell: I'm sure that it was High School High Lights (or at least, that's what they told us). My 'band' consisted of just my brother and I. We played a Hoosier Hotshots tune called "From the Indies to the Andies in his Undies". Also on that particular day, I had the honor of meeting Jon Glazer (from Booker T.) who was playing piano for a girl singer and who later went on to play keyboards for Wynonna. I saw a spread on Jon in Keyboard magazine a while back.

David B., I don't remember your band (Hosejobs) right off hand but you probably were not on Tulsa Public School's High School Highlights show. Instead, it was probably on the show that showcased high school talent. I can't remember the name of the show at the moment but it was a weekly, live production featuring about six acts from different Tulsa high schools. There would be a dancer, a band, a singer, a pianist, a monologue, etc., all packed into one studio. We would just swing the cameras around the room from act to act.

I thought we were pretty creative to set it all up and make it happen so smoothly. The students were pretty sharp to be so well prepared, too.

I really enjoyed my time at the TPS studios. We worked both with pros like S.E.Hinton and with many up and comers, like Mr. Bagsby.

While reading some of the notes about the high school TV shows in Tulsa it dawned on me that the first time I was ever on television came on Channel 8 - a program I think was called Odyssey.

This was a University of Tulsa production, supervised by Ed Dumit. Channel 8 donated the time, on Saturday mornings, and the university broadcast/journalism students produced the shows, if my recollection is clear.

Maybe Ed can reinforce my memory. On the other hand there are a couple of shows I have been trying to forget for about 40 years.

Comments:

I happened to find this site by accident, but boy, what a find. I grew up in Tulsa. As a child I watched the test pattern until Warren Hultgren came on with Moments of Meditation. As a teen-ager I turned it off when the test pattern came on after the Indian signed the Lord's Prayer. I was actually on Mr. Zing and Tuffy. I remember watching John Chick during the winter praying for a snow day. I also took a group of kids to see Uncle Zeb shortly after his show was re-born on Tulsa Cable. I will read further and probably write again.

JAO

Dr. Hultgren is at left...thanks for writing, Jerry.

Machine died.....just now throwing bits and parts together to do what I am doing...when I get thru...it will be mucho beano! (And I directed Spanish programs for TPS for more than 12 years!)

I tell you - We don't "hear", we "see". I think the word is .. inflection? (sp) We may have NO idea what is going on, but we may present it in a manner that all may see what they need to.....

Which brings us back to MAINTAIN...

High School Highlights...indeed if anyone has copies of that show, please post. My brother Steve and I represented Nathan Hale High School with our first band, "The Hosejobs". I was also on the Tulsa Public School Channel with various plays from Hale. Donna Nance was our Drama teacher. The productions were pretty spare but they were a lot of fun and got us all a privilege pass out of school for the morning shoots.

Saw "The Producers" in New York last Tuesday...really wonderful even without Nathan Lane. A must see if you get the chance.

Postscript - MNI - Metro Networks Inc. is now doing NASCAR radio "news" coverage. Have no idea where they play their "actualities".

Now there is a word for you old hands. Remember when it was "voicers" and "actualities" in radio?

Smaller world department - one of my co-workers worked for 20 years for CBS and did race coverage of NASCAR/USAC et cetera.

Mentioned today of my Tulsa roots and she knows and worked with David Finch (Wayne Tuffy Johnson called him "LD" for Little David when at 8 in the early '70s'). David was one of the bunch that went West to L.A. and CBS after Mike Denney. She said he is now something of a legend as a sports cameraman at CBS...Nice to know I worked with a legend-in-the-making at 8!

>Shari, I worked at Tulsa Public Schools in 1976 and helped to
>produce the weekly live show, High School Highlights.....

Hey, I was on that show, or I think I was. It was my first time speaking before a live camera. If I remember right, you did your bit once a week for a month, then another student from your high school would be on the show. But that was the 70's and my memory might have faded a bit.

I felt like I did alright except the time I decided I could promote a school event from memory. I stumbled all over the place. It took what seemed forever to regain my composure.

At the time I wasn't sure what I wanted to do once I was out of school. I thought broadcasting might be fun so I gave it a try. I don't know if that experience helped or hurt, but I ended up as a computer nerd baby sitting networks. I hung around a few people in radio after college, but that was just for fun.

What Mike Bruchas notes is, sadly, the final degradation of Communication Law in the United States. Now, the very idea of local broadcasting, in the local interest, is nearing the end of its existence. Music is canned and fed from who knows where, with inserted bits that refer to some local club or event voiced by some guy who is a couple of thousand miles away and who has never been close to the place. News is next, although because the FCC doesn't require news from local stations any longer, this will hardly be noticed. Traffic and weather are a joke. Shadow Traffic has people using different names to give their bogus reports on four of five stations in the same market, with staggered times so they can continue the dodge. Next, we may expect that this, too, will be farmed to some central computer bank in a faraway place where "Susan" or "Brett" or "Leslie" will tell of tie-ups on Interstates and local roads.

How this was ever permitted by the FCC remains a mystery, or would, if I didn't believe in the corruptive power of money. The argument is advanced by advocates of Clear Channel, Infinity, et al. that economies of scale brought about by conglomeration of all broadcasting entities will lead to better service to everyone. And that is so patently false that it would bust a shame meter.

I am forever grateful that I was able to work in the years I did, when there was a vestige of restraint on the pigs who eventually overcame the entire broadcast spectrum, both radio and television. Even Brother Conley had to meet a few requirements.

We would open with a wide shot and then focus on the individual students, most of whom did a nice job. Others were a bit dry. Besides opening music, credits, supers, etc., I think that was all there was to that show.

Back then TPS had two cable channels, usually showing the same show on both at the same time. We did most of our productions from the studio on the top floor of the Education Service Center. Back then we had two producers, five of us directing, running cameras, sound, editing, etc., and three full-time graphics men. It is my understanding they have about three people doing it all now. I doubt they have the old video tapes but you could check with the Media Department at the Education Service Center. They may have archived some of it.

Back then it was a great showcase for local kids but now a school can equip a pretty decent studio for very little money and do some very nice in-house productions, if they want.

Lowell said: "Eugene Lynn has been at TPS for about 25 years and still helps out with transmitting of board meetings, etc. I took this picture of him sitting at the console of the TPS studios in 1976 when I was working there."

Anyone hear the story NPR Sunday on "local radio news"? Turns out MNI (Metro Networks Inc.) who does traffic reports in so many markets is now doing customized local news inserts for stations without a resident news staff! They have a local newswire too. So the next time that you listen to "local" radio news - you may wonder... NPR played audio from the Phoenix market, where 1 announcer is heard on 3 different stations doing local market news.

MNI is all over the dial in Chicago and DC with traffic at places diverse as gospel and NPR stations in the weekday mornings/drive time.

Isn't MNI in Tulsa now, too?

"Turista note" - 20 years ago - in Chicago - if you went to the tip top of Sears Tower - there was a radio booth for some station with scanners on the observation level floor. Now I think manned by MNI.

Often years ago - when "touristing" at the Tower - one would see a guy or gal race to a window with binoculars to spy on traffic tie-ups on Chicago's many expressway junctions - really spot tie-ups from the Sears Tower's lofty heights. Then beat it back to the booth to voice a traffic update. Hey - it's cheaper than a 'copter though just as easily fogged in...

Happy to hear about "the Governor's" nuptials - bet he outlasts us all. His late wife was a sweetie. Didn't he attend and later teach at OSU many moons ago?

I need information on all Tulsa TV stations broadcasting in 1976-1977. Specifically looking for the cable station that would have carried a program for Tulsa Public Schools called "High School Highlights". Reported to have been a cable company but perhaps it was a UHF station. Thanks.

Anyone?

For Mike Bruchas and anyone else interested:

Former Governor and U. S. Senator Henry Bellmon has remarried, to longtime family friend Eloise Bollenbach, Saturday in Perry. Bellmon's late wife, Shirley, died in 2000. Ms. Bollenbach is the widow of Kingfisher rancher Irvin Bollenbach. The Tulsa World says grandsons of both Bellmon and Bollebach, students at Oklahoma State University, live in an OSU house where the bride has been a housemother and they "got the two together."

Archived Guestbook 105 a bit early in order to return to this best Guestbook format: no ads.

In #105, I felt compelled to share a link to Steve & Eydie's version of grunge/metal/psychedelic/pop song "Black Hole Sun". This was in tenuous connection with multiple mentions of "Purple Overdose", a new psychedelic band with Merritt Woodward (Lee's son).

Wilhelm Murg told us that a recent Purple Overdose/Billy Joe Winghead concert was surreal...how else would you describe hearing Winghead's raucous version of Bobby Goldsboro's bathos-drenched "Honey" with Lee Woodward in attendance? Thirty years ago, the song's line "...and I surprised her with a puppy" was made unforgettable to Mazeppa viewers.

We saw a recent picture of Lee, Bob Hower (a recent visitor to this site), and Bob Mills, who had hosted "Shock Theater" on KOTV.

The power of radio as a dramatic medium was discussed. We heard from Leslie Swiggart, son of Hurst. Hurst worked at both KOTV and KTUL and can be seen on the main Lee & Lionel page. Dave Jones checked in...he was one of the Big 97 DJ's back in KAKC's heyday.

Check it out, then read on!