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Whoops! Wrote Larry, meant Neal, who I think enjoyed watching the radar sweep hand go around and around.

Correction made.

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Tower locations. As long as the towers weren't too high, Sand Springs was ideal. High ground, close to center of population (and out of airport flight paths) equals good reception. When you get into real tall towers, like KTUL's 1909-footer in Wagoner County, your siting decisions are more driven by the FAA than any engineering factor--for some reason, there is an unusual level of hostility about putting up big steel poles where airplanes hang around. I managed the siting and construction of a 2,000-footer a couple of years ago, and they are remakable beasts. Literally a million pounds of steel sitting on top of a pin the width of a pie plate nailed waaaay into the ground. Talking about remote places..this one was an hour and a half drive from civilization and the last three miles were mining and logging roads that had to be graveled and straightened so the trucks carrying the steel could get to the assembly site.

I remember driving into Tulsa to go to work at KOTV on the Muskogee Tpk and seeing the KTUL tall tower all by itself and saying to myself, hmmm, the competition has a bit of an advantage here. I think I remember Radio Shack selling "Tulsa Special" rooftop antennas, with elements oriented to pick up 8 to the SE and 2, 6, and 11 to the NW.

When KOTV got the first color radar, (SpectraScan6!) it was installed up at the xmtr, and Neal could watch the storms roll in before they smacked into him there. The two-way repeater was up on that stick, too, as I remember, which made it tough sometimes to talk to mobile units in far BA or Jenks, as they sometimes didn't have enough juice to trigger the repeater, a problem that KTUL didn't have up on that monster stick.

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The "Attack of the Flys" was the broadcast static which played all night prior to the airing of the test pattern which featured, as we know, the chief's profile (aka the Indian show). The only thing more exciting was "Moments of Meditation", since my pastor made occasional appearances.

Lowell Burch - 07/15/99 03:02:32
My Email:j9z1b95@aol.com
Location: Big T
Favorite Tulsa TV show: Dr. Pompazoidi 4ever
Favorite Tulsa TV personality: Ditto
Stupidest local commercial: Linda Soundtrack was bad

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I'm not sure that Linda was local, maybe regional. Anyway, I used to get up and watch that crazy indian show every Saturday morning (right after "The Attack of the Flys") and I loved to watch the sign-off and listen to "Moonlight Serenade".

Did you know that the old Golden Drumstick sponsered a kiddie show? The owner of the place wore a captain's cap and hosted cartoons (early 50's).

Jim Back informed us about Linda (Verin) Soundtrak in Guestbook 3:

"I tracked her down last fall and got her to come to OKC to make a series of campy commercials for us (along the lines of 'I sold a lot of TVs in my day, but if we'd have had cable back then I could have sold even MORE TVs!'). Got lots of feedback on putting her on TV, most of it positive. Anyway, she is currently working for a 'Thrifty Nickel'-type paper in Birmingham, Alabama."

The reality-impaired Native American show? Could you tell us more about that?

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All stations did testing before sign-on and after sign-off on power irradiated and other kinds of mumbo-jumbo set-up of the transmitter (called xmitr).

KTUL did major work on the studio plant and xmitr after Midnight on Sunday.

As I recall both 2 & 6 had old stand-by transmitters in the 70's but both may have had dual systems with newer transmitters on-line with back-up klystrons or switchable a/b sides. Where the a or b side could be on air the other side on standby.

Need an engineer to tell us more - sorry the little gray cells are fading on this.

KOTV for years also ran the OETA transmitter in the same building in Sand Springs before all bailed for Oneta.

There was a dedicated phone line to the transmitter and engineer Neil Willits used to drive us nuts some nights - calling KOTV about video levels and such. In retrospect this WAS good - kept KOTV at the top of their game (he may have also missed BEING a studio engineer and wanted to talk). His son Larry Willits also worked at KTUL as a cameraman I recall.

KOTV could boast a father son team too - Brad McLaughlin was a studio engineer and his Dad, Gordon was a transmitter engineer - both on the same watch!

You remember when towerful powerful 8's stick collapsed. I don't remember if a staffer was hurt. Coweta was way out back then and I think 8 had a cot there in case an engineer got snowed in!

It was worse at KVII in Amarillo - to get the stick and xmitr - it was 13-15 miles out of town then of that distance the last 11 miles were on a ranch road easement inside some rancher's land. No people for miles. The studio talked to the xmitr via 2 way radio. They also had the dubious record of not 1 but 2 xmitr engineers dropping dead of heart-attacks on the road to the site!

These places in the West are isolated - that KOTV and KJRH were conveniently in Sand Springs for so long and practically in-town WAS unusual.

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Gawd - Ken Broo stirred my brain cells - it WAS Denny Delk on sign-off at 6, now a long forgotten announcer.

Cy Tuma did sign-off forever at 8 on tape, but often the announcer/engineers would do it live and tag the next day's sign-on time and program as we had slide back-ups loaded for this.

Tuma and the now deceased Cal Clopton (we called CLOMPton) - the KTUL transmitter engineer used to "violate" FCC rules by having 2 way conversations over the color bars test time a half hour before KTUL officially started it's broadcast day some times in the days of 8 live doing the John Chick 7am show. The engineers at the transmitter in Coweta had a small audio board - for testing and in case of emergencies - so Cy would say howdy to Cal and he would burble something back.

Or we would play jazz or classical music over color bars in "test time". "Bars" replaced the indian test pattern in the onset of color tv and most stations had their call letters burnt in to the bars. A lot of stations ran tone over them - a bit hard on the ears, though I worked with a guy that had a Sony b&w TV set with a built-in timer to switch it on and he used it as an alarm clock!

Mike, what is supposed to be going on technically during the showing of the test pattern? (Actually, I just discovered an in-depth answer to this question at this BBC site:)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/enginfo/tech/testcard.htm

It also features a download of the high-resolution version of the BBC test pattern, which makes a nice Windows wallpaper.

Here is a British site that has pictures of test patterns from around the world, and some history:

http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/index.html

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I believe the name of the announcer on the KOTV signoff tape was a man named Denny Delk

Thanks, Ken!

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Great Channel 2 photo album. Looked at all the pictures. I'm gonna check back and see if there's more.

BTW, late at night in the early to mid 70's when 6 signed off its broadcasting for the night, there was an announcer that began the sign-off with "the first one you turn to-KOTV channel 6 Tulsa. He then ended the sign-off message with," this is your announcer_______________ saying, Good night and Good morning. Help me with this blank answer. what was his name? There was music in the background while sign-off was commencing. Title of that song was "Moonlight Serenade" which was performed by Glenn Miller. The old 6 logo and the microwaves KKV-45 and KLO-73 were shown.

That's a good one...I sure do remember "Moonlight Serenade" now that you mention it. Who was that announcer?

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The worst thing about me working in Tulsa then Amarillo then OKC was the radio codes used by the cops and FD were all seemingly different in each town! Some response 10-codes were the same but a lot weren't.

If you didn't speak the radio lingo - you might NOT be able to determine if it was an exploding dog or call for HAZMAT assistance and that could let the competition smoke ya. And any of us stuck in a newsroom while an assignment editor was on a bathroom break - were supposed to "cover the desk".

We would get thrown when a green officer might be on a chase and burbling stuff at high speed over the 2 way. You had to discern if it was a real story or your normal daily chase of some hot-rodder.

When I moved to DC and saw the plethora of all kindsaband radios here - I stopped trying to listen in - even as an arm chair scanner aficionado.

Okay - OK trivia - cause I forget. Help me Okies! Were squad cars in Tulsa called cruisers AND scout cars in OKC or was it the other way around????

The first time in Amarillo I refered to newscruisers (a la KOTV and KTUL news cars) - the folks laughed themselves on the floor!

I'm 10-8, 10-19 now! (was 10-17 - buy me a fish sandwich or call the coroner???)

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Lowell contributed a couple of new G.Ailard S.Artain pics...now on the 2nd Mazeppa page.

Thanks to John Hillis for more about the "exploding dog".

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KKY-615 was the KOTV 2-way base station. Mike was right, when the temperature inversions were right, you could talk to somebody in OKC, it was probably KOCO, who of course traded turnpike tape with KTEW, while KOTV traded with KWTV and KTUL with KTVY.

I think the exploding dog story was born of a too-hot summer afternoon (never many of _them_ in Tulsa!) and the knowledge that KTUL was monitoring the two-way. Somebody decided to see how far we could string them along, so Losure and his tyro photog were dispatched to a scanner report of an exploding dog at about 121st and Memorial, or however far south we thought might realistically be able to lure 'em off Lookout Mtn. It was hot then, and streets were buckling, so dogs exploding might not be a big stretch.

Reporter Bob Duff was the king of two-way parlance. He wasn't done with the story and on the way home, he was "10-8, 10-19." I think Broo made up random 10-codes just to drive Bob to distraction, which oftentimes wasn't a long drive.

Bob was also an aviation nut. Once, I went along with him on a story where the airport authority borrowed some corporate Lear-type jets to do noise testing at TIA. I've never seen a face so beatific as Bob's when he got to sit in the jump seat for a 20-minute hop.

One thing I did for amusement in those pre-internet days was get stupid pictures off the wirephoto and write allegedly funny captions, generally about how cheap Corinthian was or the home-brew nature of a lot of our engineering for them, and stick them to the windows between the newsroom and the wire machines. One I happen to have in front of me is probably no better or worse than the rest:

PICTURE: Dog sitting on a motorcycle.
CAPTION: (TULSA)--Officials of KOTV today released this photograph of the new KOTV live microwave unit. Competitive pressures in the Tulsa market forced the design to be rushed to completion. The new unit is the end product of several minutes of painstaking research conducted jointly by KOTV engineers and graduates of the Tulsa school of welding and veterinary medicine. The meeting was broken up when police raided the studio and seized the joint as evidence."

Another one I remember, during one of those ratings sweeps when we were touting SpectraScan6 color radar and the like was the Corinthian development of the technically advanced tricycle for news coverage outside WISH in Indy--the Eastern Indiana Electronic Independent Operation--the EIEIO. It was the SuperDopplerSkyCam2000 of its day, doncha know?

KKY-615, clear, over'n'out.

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Did anyone ever own one of those cool all-terrain cars that travelled along the moat during the Lee and Lionel main title?

Hmmm...like the toy Aqua car that DX gas stations sold? I had one of those once.

(Added 10/15/2009) Lee Woodward answered our questions:

"It was different from the one you refer to. Mine was metal and also had a stack or tube in the middle of it, that blew air from a little fan that kept a small Styrofoam ball suspended just above its tip. I'm not sure the one I had could actually float, but it could have. I haven't seen that filmed opening in years. Soooooo long ago. By the way, I think mine was two-tone green."

(10/14/2009) It looked less cheesy with its chrome in place. Also see the DX Getaway Chase game.

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Sorry, Rev. Menleaux Park. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote the wrong name. After all, I have been a practicing the principle of the potato for over twenty-five years!

I have done a dozen Lawzees for penance.

Perhap$ the be$t way to do penance is via a $incere love offering.

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The GE (or was it RCA?) KVOO cameras that were in the b&w pix - were given to TU in '69 or so.

2 had gotten some new GE cameras like 8's along with having a big old RCA TKP something or other color camera - which was their first. They also gave TU scoops and a good starter kit of TV lights (which TU had no money to "lamp").

Ed Dumit used them in TU TV production classes in the old KWGS large basement studio for a year or so before old Kendall Hall was torn down.

Don't know where they went after that. TU's School of Nursing opened with color cameras and tape decks and for a while classes in studio production occurred there but there seemed to be bad blood between the School of Arts & Sciences and School of Nursing - so that ended.

All the while this was happening KTUL still don't 13 weeks a year for doing production of TU Telenews at 8. Students ran cameras; did lighting under a KTUL staff member tutelage; and did almost all except run 2" recordings of shows.

I think at one time KOTV did something similar with Monte Casino seniors. The stations all - at one time - helped to foster the training of the next group of broadcasters.

Alan Lambert! Wow - he was the boss at KVOO for several of my friends who worked there AND liked workin' for him. They are Demi Rosenthal (now a successful CA attorney), Dave "Tex" Irwin (now a Communications Director at major university back East), and Wayne McCombs (still workin' hard in Tulsa). Good to hear Alan is okay!

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Does anyone remember a UFF&CM skit involving a Latino singer dressed in blue lip-synching some goofy pop song whilst Sherman Oaks and Mazeppa danced away in the background? I have this vague recollection of finding the whole thing somewhat surreal and quite hilarious. I do believe it was at KTUL, but it is not on either "Lost Tapes" volumes. What was the song, who was the singer?

Why do I have to know this?

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Why, the very idea that I, The Reverend Dr. Menleaux Park, would be confused with a journeyman actor with the unlikely name of Lazlo Mimne! Is there no decency!!?? Harumphhhhhhhhh!!!

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I have a couple of questions for Mazeppa fans out there. Does anyone remember the name of the robot Mazeppa had on his show during the time of Judy judy and Yahootie? It was cardboard and reminescent of Oom-a-gog. Also, what was the name of the character Mazeppa played in his parody of Wild Cargo? (The character always seemed to be talking about the poisonous jumping spider found in the southern reaches of Oklahoma.)

Helpful hint: Avoid CHINchillas because of possible injury to the face and thorax.

MITCH

Wasn't that "Mort L. Wound"?

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After much phone and email tag.. here's those Channel 2 memories from Lambert.

As I recall it.. Bill Bill and OOM-A-GOG was on the air in the late 1950's and early 1960's. When I began working at Channel 2 (KVOO-TV in those days) OOM was played by camera crew chief, Dick Cardwell. After Big Bill left for Texas...OOm had a new sidekick named "Professor Dingle" (played by Dave Moore, I last heard he was working for a station in Kansas City).

After a few years of gathering dust... OOM-A-GOG was brought out of storage for a new show: Captain Alan and OOM-A-GOG.(1966-1967) I was Captain Alan (I'm not making this up.)The show aired each weekday afternoon at 3:30. We did the show live Monday through Wednesday. We videotaped Thursday and Friday shows on Wednesday nights (this complimented my work schedule as part of the TV announcer's staff. Yes, all Tulsa stations had a live announcers staff into the late 60's.)

We also pre-taped a kiddie movie show that aired on Saturday mornings at 9:30. We did a bunch of appearances around town for Sears (This included helping open the Country Club Plaza Shopping Center on the Southeast corner of 51st and South Harvard and a Santa helicopter fly-in at Sears parking lot at 21st and Yale.)

OOM-A-GOG, The robot, was played at that time by Buck Clayton. (Buck was a part of the Channel 2 floor crew and I heard he later joined Greyhound Corporation.) I wore an orange flight suit similar to the one's the astronauts wore with black flight boots. Spiffy!)

The set for "Captain Alan and OOM-A-GOG" was designed by Jerry Winn. It was made to look like the inside of a spaceship.(Jerry also designed some of the the most honored floats for KRMG's Great Raft Race. One of those was a GREAT replica of the Star Trek spaceship.. The Enterprise. The last I heard, Jerry and his wife Priscilla work for Pepsi designing large grafic creations. He is truly gifted.)

I have been interviewed by Channel Two's Jack Frank and will eventually be a part of his series on OOM-A-GOG , currently under development for his Wednesday night "Oklahoma Memories" (It repeats on their early news at 6:30 on Thursdays and the Karen Keith how at noon on Thursdays, per Jack.)

It was all positive being Captain Alan...welll mostly. There was the time I was trying on some great new casual summer shorts at a local department store. I turned to check how the looked in the mirror only to discover I had drawn a small crowd of smiling little faces, all yelling "He's Captain Alan, he's Captain Alan!" I did the correct marketing thing: paid for the shorts, went to my car for some publicity pictures, signed a few autographs and left my shopping trip a bit early. Those were the days at TV-2.

After more than 20 years as news director for KVOO Radio, I'm now the station manager for KRSC-FM at Rogers State University and instruct some broadcasting classes here. Our radio station by the way has been live to the Internet since August of 1997. http://www.rsu.edu Click on the pulsating "wave" radio.

Alan Lambert, 343-7670 or ALambert@rsu.edu

Great stuff, Alan...we really appreciate you taking the time to share your memories.

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The "It's 10 o'clock - do you know where your children are?" phrase I was told was an NAB + PTA + National Chiefs of Police Assoc. initiative.

I heard it in Chicago on some stations growing up. In the old old days a lot of cities had curfews for kids under 18. They were supposed to be home in bed or at home studying. I think it was used more in the Summer when school was out than the rest of the year.

I also remember hearing a 10:30pm version at the end of one of the local newscasts there - hint folks, if your kids ain't home AFTER the late news - where are they???

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The Channel 2 page is GREAT! The pictures really add to this site!

Thank you, sir!

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Thanks for your comments, Hoss. You are right. The Milkman was a cartoonist during the Golden Age at Disney. I remember Mazeppa and Lee swinging on ropes in the studio on one of your earliest shows. The girl I refered to earlier was a secretary, I think, and was only on 6 early on. By the way, my brother, Jerry, shot the old Tulsa Zoo commercials (You belong in a zoo) with G.Ailard S.Artain. He said he met up with you again at this year's New Year's party at the home of Steve (The Tractors) Ripley. Jerry still has his Uncola Card.

Lorenzo was a mime and his announcer was Charlie St. John on Channel 6. I don't think they had live audiences, ala Lee and Lionel, but we slipped in for a taping one day.

Other kiddies shows included Capt. Hal , who hosted Popeye cartoons. He was a national celeb (WLS Barn Dance) who moved to Tulsa after retirement since his son, Hal O'Halloran, lived here. The commercial from Charlie's Termite Control was Call Charlie's. His daughter would come in with a book and say, "Daddy, Daddy! Look what the termites did to these books!" The line was delivered so poorly that it was hilarious! Once the my sister, Ne a, had a teacher who asked the students which commercial they hated the worst and they all agreed it was the Call Charlie commercial. As it turned out, the poor girl was in their class! They felt pretty bad about that.

Finally, I read the Fantastic Theater page. You are right! I remember now that Peter Hardt (Good evening, meine freunde) was the host for that show, not Shock Theater. This is a great website!!!!

Good to hear from the Rev. Lazlo Minloe.

That may his full name, Rev. Dr. Lazlo Menlo Park. ;-)

Sorry, the darn guestbook dropped a letter from your sister's name.

Thanks for the info, Lowell.

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I think WKY-TV (channel 4) in OKC used "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" on it's first newscasts in the early 50's. I think they used it pretty much continuously until the 70s. They were using it again in the early 90s, up until about '93.

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I still have my Mazeppa 7up card!

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I saw the article in today's (7/11/99) Tulsa World) about Jack Morris retiring from Nordam. I thought it was interesting, but I question his claim to have thought up the phrase "It's 10 O'clock; do you know where your kids are." That was so commonly used in those days, he just HAS to have heard it somewhere and then started using it on his newscast. Anyone?

There is a link to the story on the Newsmen page.

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Praise be to Lowell for conjuring up the Meadow Gold Man!! A bright memory: as I recall he was a cartoonist, who I think, worked at Disney during the Golden Years. Am I right or wrong?

Does anyone have any information on Lazlo Mimne? Hopefully my memory is correct: John Baker? I swear I've seen him over the years, on Jerry Springer-type shows, posing as different people with strange ideas. I know he went to New York to pursue acting but who knows?

Re: the Great Lee Woodward. Sometimes during the taping of Mazeppa, Lee would be preparing his weathercast and I would invite him to participate. His talent and unique sense of humor were always a welcome addition. To my knowledge none of the Channel 6 tapes exist.

Re: the audience shots used in Mazeppa. They were from the Horn Brothers Show.

Re: The name Lazlo Mimne. I just found it in the air.

Lawzee, G.Ailard S.Artain

Karl Soliday commented in Guestbook 2: "Does anybody recall a Meadow Gold milkman by the name of Richard Ruhl who would draw cartoons on Saturday morning? I believe Richard worked for Walt Disney before he was a milkman. Circa 1956?"

Then Don Lundy said: "Re: Richard Ruhl...wasn't he renamed Richut and taught sketch drawings in his Meadow Gold route sales/delivery uniform?"

Once again, thanks, Mr. Chopwright, for the fascinating details!

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I was raised in the area so I remember early 1950's Tulsa tv. Woman's Page, the Meadowgold man who drew the Disney characters, and about all of the others up until now. I did not know when I was 3&4 years old that there was local and national tv, consequently, when I found out the difference, I was surprised at how well we matched up to the big shows. I loved Lee and Lionel (with the 3 Stooges) and went down to watch them tape. I was a little disappointed that I could not watch the Stooges shorts in the studio because they were on tape, but I did learn a lot how tv works. I was fascinated with Big Bill and Oom-a-gog, as well. Not as witty, but very fun. The Mazeppa show may be my favorite because it was so far ahead of its time. I was about 19 when it came out and I was addicted immediately. The earliest few episodes had Lee Woodward and a cute girl that was Sartain's sidekick. He wore a strip of black tape on his lip for a mustache. Of course, we best remember the fully developed edition with Teddy Jack and Sherman. I have to mention Lorenzo the Clown. I liked him, for some reason, but never hear of him. I also enjoyed Peter Hardt's Shock Theater. He showed the same films I would watch in the afternoon but once he came on and said "Welcome to Shock Theater" I was out of there! -In bed and shivering. Maybe more later but this is a great site!! Thanks!!

Hi, Lowell...maybe you could help us out on 50s Tulsa TV...all I have about that is on the page with Lee & Lionel. Do you remember the kiddie shows mentioned there?

Lee Woodward on the Mazeppa show? Maybe Gailard Sartain can fill us in about that. You can see a picture of the black tape-mustached Mazeppa on the 2nd Mazeppa page. You must be referring to Judy Judy (Judy Owen) as the sidekick.

Lorenzo the Clown is a new one to me also...which station was he on?

There was a mention of Shock Theater in the 1st Guestbook as having been hosted by Egor (Bob Mills). Peter (Josef) Hardt recently did a "Fantastic Theater" voice-over for David Bagsby's upcoming Tulsa Project CD.

Please visit again, Lowell!

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Here are some comments from Ken Broo that he intended for the guestbook:

Glen Fisher is working for the Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL) in their marketing department. He got out of the biz about five years ago.

Jerry Johnson, who replaced Larry Burnett at KOTV, has been a sports reporter at WTSP-TV in Tampa-St Pete since 1982. I hired him to do my weekends there, as he did at '6'.

Burnett was doing play-by-play for the LA team in the WNBA. He came to town last summer, but I missed him.

Incidentally, Larry is the brother in law of WCW star "Goldberg". Larry married Bill's sister, Barbara, who was on the KOTV tech staff.

I saw Carl Arke at an NCAA playoff game a few years back. Look about the same as his days at KTUL and was still working in the Salt Lake City market.

Chris Lincoln came thru Cincinnati a few times while I was there. doing his ESPN racing series. He has remarried and his new bride was a horse trainer, I believe.

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Seems we just get started, and before you know it...it's Guestbook 14!

I made a trip to KJRH last week, and Jack Frank was kind enough to introduce me to Alan Douglas, production manager. I was able to look through Channel 2's archives and get scans of quite a lot of interesting pictures that probably have never been seen by the general public.

The Channel 2 photo album has been started... look for many more pictures out there soon.

At the end of Guestbook 13 (see main page for a link to it), we were discussing Sam Kinison, Donna Reed, Eric Clapton and other celebs with a Tulsa connection. We also heard from Gailard Sartain again!