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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 187 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
Any engineer anywhere in the RCA building could "ring" the chimes simply by pressing a button on any control board. The button activated a cart tape machine somewhere in the bowels of the place. There seems to be a modern-day reincarnation of this. The last of the old time NBC announcers, Howard Reig (in his 80s), retired to Florida a few months ago, but I still hear him every night introducing Brian Williams, or a substitute, on the Nightly News. I’ve got this eerie feeling that before he left NY Howard recorded every word in the English language and it’s all on a computer somewhere in the bowels of the place, ready to be programmed for any contingency. Any engineer can just push a button.
I worked in Tulsa Radio in the 60s, some of the 70s and early 80s. My first Tulsa job was in 1967-68 as a 19 and 20 year old news writer and afternoon anchor on KVOO Radio. Yesterday I was exchanging emails with Alan Lambert and he reminded that I needed to contact you to share stories and more importantly, tape of KVOO, KRMG, KELi, and KRAV. Quick resume: KVOO Radio News – 1967 thru April 1968. Let go just before they sold the TV station. KOME (on South Harvard just past 81st Street) as a R n' B jock for one month, April 1968. KTOW, Sand Springs May, 1968 to Jan, 1969 (when I was drafted and joined the Marine Corps). I replaced "Country Bob" Losure when he left to go the KAKC to do news. KELi 1973-74 Weekend jock, overnights (with Bill Cox watching the meters because I didn’t have a 1st Phone license from the FCC) KRMG 1974 to March 1976 – Public Service Director, weekend jock, fill-in for all dayparts except for Watson Jelks morning show. Filled in extensively for Johnny Martin when he was diagnosed with cancer. I replaced Dick Van Dera when he left to go to KTUL-TV I left for McAlester when Ed Montrey, who had been VP of the Swanson FM division bought KTMC and moved down south. I was his Sales Manager, he and I did an hour along morning newscast 7 to 8 a.m. and all play-by-play sports. I returned to Tulsa in April 1981 as Sports Director at KRAV and stayed there until August 1982. I left Tulsa for Kansas was News Director at KGGF, Coffeyville, KSAL/KYEZ, Salina, and KFH/KBRA/KLZS/KXLK Wichita. Following the death of my mother in 1986 I moved to Oklahoma City and was music director and "Dean of Rock 'n Roll" music director at KOMA when that station changed format to oldies. I worked there full time from 1988 to 1993 when I left (sort of) to work for the state was the PIO at the newly created Department of Environmental Quality. Three years ago I moved to the Oklahoma Historical Society as the public relations and marketing director. I work for Dr. Bob Blackburn, son of Oklahoma City’s Ida B. Bob grew up in the television business so he has a particular appreciation for broadcast history. We are opening the new Oklahoma History Center November 16th. I have been collecting and editing airchecks from OKC and Tulsa as well as smaller markets around the state. Yesterday I sent this clip of a KVOO News open to Alan. It is from March 1968. The newscaster was 20-year old Michael Dean. (March 28, judging from this link about the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike...webmaster) I have some KRMG, KELi, and KRAV I can share with you, if you’d like. And as you might gather, I also have lots of stories and memories I can share.
The title of his opus that has the NBC chimes is "The Man Who Invented Music." It is about an Adam-like man who stumbles onto various natural phenomena and finds that they can make music. He bangs on three rocks that sound the notes of the NBC chimes. As the narrator says, "He then went ahead and invented radio."
Here is a bio of Don Gillis at Amazon.com. "The Man Who Invented Music" is the sole piece on the 2nd CD of "Symphony No. 5 1/2/The Alamo/Portrait of a Frontier Town etc".
But that is just a guess. I really don't know for sure why they are up there. I was hoping one of the top ten movies quotes would be, "Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers!" Maybe next time.
Also, I was in an Explorer post sponsored by KELi radio in the early seventies. I used to call in the hockey scores. My biggest thrill was being the gofer that got to go and find fresh shrimp for Loggins and Messina when they played the Old Lady on Brady. I also got to explain why their beer was warm, since I was instructed to get it at the liquor store. Apparently, they knew about the 3.2 thing, but not that six point would be warm. I was only 16, but the little liquor store on 15th Street was none too conscientous about that sort of thing.
I don't know whether I've mentioned this before, but in my home, in Glenview, Illinois, the doorbell--which I won in an NBC auction--rang the good old tones when the doorbell button was pushed. There's a group of Chicago WMAQ and WMAQ-TV retirees who meet once a month. They constitute The Old Chimers Club.
It will be good to see Mazeppa back on the silver screen in a new release. It's been way too long. Lawzee!
Angela - what a wonderful feeling to come here and see you're still a part of the world. I feel as happy as a first grader to see that! (heck, much happier - I was one maladjusted 1st grader.) Nice to see the spelling of John's name corrected. I spent about a happy, albeit, strange year working at OJ's while I was in college. I spent so much time browsing in the racks that they finally hired me - I was there all the time anyway. John cooked the first GREAT steak I ever tasted. John put me on the front row for several shows that remain among my favorites of all time - Todd Rundgren at what became the "Old Lady of Brady," and Johnny Winter / Nils Lofgren in the first rock show at the new PAC, waaaaaaaay back in '78. John got Todd & Utopia to autograph copies of 2 of their albums for me - I still cherish those. The "magic bus" trip to see Pink Floyd -- John and I trying to sell our 4 tickets to the long-sold-out show in front of Kemper Arena, for face, because we were, mmmm, too shy to be aggressive. (how embarrassing - what was the guy's name that organized those magic bus trips? I was on one to see PF and one to OKC to see Yes. That was about as crazy a thing as I've ever participated in.) Let's see - the crazy day selling tickets for the Willie / Skynyrd thing at the raceway, the repainting the store for the "Animals" LP release, all that stuff. Great memories, and things that set the course for what's been a lifetime of great musical fun. My family and I all apply those early lessons I learned from John and others I met around that store to our concert-goin' lives today, and all for the better. I have the only 11 year old in town that has pre-approved entrance to the rock clubs we frequent in our city. Just a few weeks ago, there we were, flailing around, my wife with me and my daughter with her HS senior buddy at the front of the stage, the singer standing in the middle of the club on top of our table...did I mention how much I miss Cain's Ballroom? Happy times, y'all. The good old days aren't just then, they're now. Make the most of them & see ya at the show! Ron "Ronnie Dean" Everhart
PS: dang if John didn't turn out to right about AC/DC. I thought it was the
dumbest thing I'd ever heard, he told me that sometimes simple and fun beats
the heck out of complicated and meaningful. He was SO right about that, and
a lot of other things. Thanks, John.
This letter from Bill Harris was recently received by the school: "Over the last few years I have been doing research on the chimes that NBC used for their audio identification in the early days of radio and television. When NBC started using the chimes they were hand struck by the announcer at each affiliate station, later the chimes were automated and hand chimes were no longer used. Tulsa radio station KVOO was an early affiliate of NBC and I have information that the hand chimes that were used by the station are now in the Hale High School Library. Could you verify if this is true, and if so I would like to attempt to detour by Tulsa sometime on a future trip to see and possibly photograph the chimes, to add to my web site about the chimes." Yes it's true, the original KVOO NBC hand chimes are in the school library.
Bill may have picked that up from Lowell's note here awhile back. Lowell had also spotted Bill's site as a good source about the chimes.
I am heading straight down to Der Wienerschnitzel to celebrate!
Need some audio engineering help. I am trying to copy some of my old LP records onto CD, for my personal enjoyment. Here's the situation and the equipment I have (presently). The Situation: I tried copying via turntable through receiver into CD Burner. The sound was muffled, or at least very bassy. It even varied in recording levels at times. My Equipment:
Onkyo TX 2100 Receiver
Thanks.
I believe some of the movies repeated, but I don't recall the Mazeppa part of the show being a repeat. Anyone else have an opinion?
Thanks, Tom. One of the neon signs is Sheridan Lanes (animated).
I also almost forgot to mention Split Enz's "I Got You" video - that video really tripped me out at first and I grew to love it (hats off to the Finn brothers)! Simply put, Video Concert Hall was playing the strangest music a kid in Tulsa in the late '70s had ever been exposed to, this also coming from a guy whose parents had a huge cache of psychedelic in their collection and who had cool babysitters.... I would get up at 5 AM every day to see if that show was on (it ran on Eastern time schedules and was never listed in any printed program guides) and would watch it as late as I was allowed if it was on in the evening. I cannot tell you what I might pay to get some Video Concert Hall archive videos, even if they contain the disco/soul stuff I did not like at the time, being more musically open-minded as an adult.
Almost forgot to mention that Video Concert Hall would also play David Bowie videos and they blew my mind every time - especially "Ashes to Ashes". Imagine seeing that kind of imagery as a pre-teen kid in the late Seventies. Talk about screwing with a young and impressionable mind! Same with Gary Numan's "Cars" video. Damn glad they played that stuff though and what a strange and wonderful time in rock music history that was. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to have heard Hendrix for the first time when his music was first emerging upon the world, but my experience hearing "Cars" and "Message in a Bottle" by the Police for the first time as a kid developing his own musical tastes is how I imagine it must have been.
Now, when you mention ARS' "Spooky", it's coming back to me.
And look for-- Gross Misconduct (IMDb) The Tulsa connection is that Spinner was playing for the Ice Oilers when he was called up to Toronto. He came back for a few games before he went to Toronto full time. Hal O'Halloran watched him play many times before Hal had to race to the studio to do the late sports. Tom Lobaugh wrote that part of the story in the Tribune at the time. The best hockey site (www.nhl.ca) is down now because of the strike and it has a lot more information. They did take some small liberties with the story in the movie.
In 1951, I used to play his records on my evening music program, "Music for Listening" (How about THAT for originality?) on KAKC, and later on KRMG's "Music 'Til Midnight." Jim Ruddle had hosted the same KAKC program a year or so earlier. Bob Griffin did it after I moved to KTUL. Freburg showed his courage by putting out a record about Little Red Riding Hood being hauled up before the McCarthy Committee during the Red Scare days. I'm sure that record alone was enough to get Stan's name placed on the Senator's bad-boy list.
According to the IMDb's bio of Stan, his birth name is Stanley Victor Freberg.
He was born John Wesley Foutz Jr. It is so amazing to think that John was the master of high tech, always having the best turntable, and the speakers are still in Starship, he knew quality, and bought the best. However, it's unfortunate that John never saw a CD! We wrote down every LP and cassette tape by hand, the man would so have loved computers. At our wedding, which was HUGE because John wanted it that way, he had four best men. They were Matt Bunyan of Starship, Leon Newton of OZ, Larry Shaeffer of Cain's and Little Wing along with John's brother Rudy Foutz. Not many people know that John so loved Elvis, that when Elvis died, he postponed our wedding for a whole month. LOL Yes it's true. I have only pictures to show of this motley crew, but they are a sight to behold, these "hippies" cleaned up quite nicely in their white tuxedos that John chose himself. Thank you for listening...HONEST ANGIE
Was wrong..."Foutz" has replaced "Fautz" on all pages. Mike, you making a mistake is pretty rare!
Hi, Tim. We corresponded a couple of years ago about "chillout" music group, Momma Gravy, and your excellent online radio station (link above). I think I have a dim memory of VCH, but I'm sure some out there remember better than I do.
But then again, I still can't believe they ran all those C-movies, either. George Montgomery, et al. I do remember what the big prize was...$666.66. I think that we had three or four winners for it. However, I could be wrong about that. I do remember we did have some "big" winners, though. What I always recall most clearly about the show was our elderly viewers taking a dim view of any antics that might seep in on the live breaks...and all the TU students already home from their classes, watching, being very supportive of the goofy stuff, for which Mr. Sartain was most responsible. And I hasten to say, in a very creative way. His being my cameraman is what kept me awake. George Montgomery just couldn't do that. "Go For Dough" had some truly funny moments for me, and apparently lots of other people too, given Zeppy's local success there on Six, as well as Eight. Yes, indeed. There's no bidness like show bidness. (P.s., I don't remember what replaced "Go For Dough," but I'd bet it was an improvement. There has to be someone out there in cyberland who remembers such trivia.)
Zoli was mentioned by Mike Bruchas in Guestbook 15.
If any of you are rail buffs or model train buffs and Yahoo members - please visit this group: Trains_Of_The_OKC_Area at Yahoo. We are looking for rail pictures but also folks from Eastern OK to share information. Question of "Doctor" Chew....I was trying to remember what YOU gave away as prizes on GO FOR DOUGH on KOTV *IN THE EARLY '70's*. I recall sometimes it seemed to be like gift certificates for 6-packs of RC Cola or Diet Rite Cola. Did you ever have any BIG prizes on that show? We used to joke that every movie that GEORGE MONTGOMERY had ever made - seemed to be in the KOTV film library then...KOTV showed enough OF THEM as your movie! Do you remember what eventually replaced GO FOR DOUGH????
...such as Weezer, Billy Idol and The Pixies. More about John's DAGG CDs in the TTM Gift Shop.
Former KAKC jock Scooter Segraves checked in. We heard from Tulsa Radio Icon Ed Brocksmith for the first time. A question was posed about an "Edge of Insanity" (EOI) sound bite. "Zippy The Pinhead" visited the Golden Driller. Rob Bowe told us about his radio career. Jim Hartz and John Hillis contributed to a tech discussion of microphones. The Tulsa Tribune's columnist, "The Rambler" (Roger Devlin), was mentioned in the course of a discussion of media-reported "cock and bull stories". Mentions of Kelly's, Boots and Sandy's fueled the perennially-favored topic of Tulsa burger stands. That and more in Guestbook 186.
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