Gosh, talk about time warps!

I worked for a short while at KAKC back in 1948 or '49? Glenn Condon was News Director and Manager as well as part-owner, Buzz (can't remember his last name) was Chief Engineer, and the studio was in the basement of Sam Avey's old Coliseum. Mack Creagar did sports, and we strung a mike all the way upstairs to do the regular Monday night wrestling.

Never will forget the day Buzz what's-his-name burst into the control room while I was playing the Georgia Tech fight song. The one that celebrates being a "hell of a hell of a hell of an engineer." He grabbed the record from the turntable, smashed it and informed me and the audience that if I ever played profanity on the station's air again I was fired!

Went on to work for Lawson Taylor at KFMJ, played records and made dedications to virtually everybody in northeast Oklahoma as "Willie the Hillbilly." Eddie Lyons did the news at that time .. Eddie was back briefly after a not very successful tour of Hollywood .. he made $500 a month, almost unheard of in the late forties, and I made $300. Not too shabby, either. Then, one day Taylor called us in and cut those salaries in half. The next day I was on the road, and never did work in Tulsa again.

It's a real pleasure to find others who still remember the Glenn Condon's of this world.

Happy New Year to you all!

Now that I have had a chance to peruse the guestbook, I plan on contributing regularly.

Read in one book about some spoonerisms. My all-time favorite was from Glenn Condon, the news director at KRMG. He sounded just like Walter Winchell. His wife was a former Ziegfield girl and had been badly maimed by someone throwing acid in her face.

You could NOT break up Condon. However, he did it to himself one afternoon. Reporting on a police arrest in Shawnee, Oklahoma....he stated "the Sawnee Shitty police".....pause...a slight smile....again. "the Sawnee Shitty police"......large grin now, and thinking he could get out of all this by changing the phrasing, said, "police in the Shitty of Sawnee"......laughter, cut to music.

Any of you old radio engineer types remember what happened to the "studio" engineers than ran the board for the likes of Marvin McCullough (who I think ended up in Ft. Smith). One was named Cecil, I believe, and was a submariner in WWII. He hailed from someplace here in Arkansas.

A Happy New Year to all!

Mike, this site has been a special treat for me, having served time in both radio and TV in Tulsa.

Let's all do what we can to help keep Mike keep this site going. Thanks to all for the great stories!

Someone asked about Larry White. Are you talking about the radio engineer?

Oh...Happy New Millennium too! (I think I spelled that right...)

I enjoyed the Dance Party feature. I played Bass Guitar in the Rogues V with Randy Ess, I.J. Ganem & Jamie Oldaker. Terry Burcham's comments about the band are accurate. I was very fortunate to know and play with these guys. They're all still full-time musicians and I'll treasure the work we did in the mid-60's.

"...anyone who has lived, or lives, in that sorry red-mud pasture (OKC), deserves extra consideration..."

That's awfully charitable of ya, Sport! ;-)

Warm Feelings to all, at the true start of this Millennium thingy. Be well, and be safe!

Like many others, I am so very happily tickled black and blue to find what seems like a very friendly old bar, where people who have experienced Tulsa TV, on either side of the camera, lived to tell about it, and are now finding a nice place to sit down and make up true stories all about the lives of all of us who were there.

Mike R, I don't know ya, but it's possible I did, and we never shook hands.

In any case, Thanks for this forum. Ya done good.

Regards, Peter D Abrams, former T-Town TV guy.

Happy New year to one and all.

Anyone know where Larry White went? Was in radio then last heard running Daylight Donuts for family or in-laws but he also did a stint as an insurance agent and sold a lot of Equitable policies to TU classmates in radio/tv after graduation...

We need to get Richard Dowdell of KRMG here on line, too...

Go see the NEW George Clooney movie, "Oh, Brother..." A take-off on Ullysees (re-set in MS in the '30's with Clooney trying to look like Gable) but also has some small market radio station humor in it.

Happy New Year, folks - here's to a good 2001 and all of our old friends re-found!!!

Gee I wonder if Dick Clark will be in Times Square tonight????

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that Larry Strain at one point actually became a dispatcher with the Tulsa Police Department. 10-4?

Wow, what a cool site. Thanks for reminding us of a much better time for TV and Radio.

You know, I think economics played into this a little as a lot of these shows appealed to those of us in the "NEW" economic middle class. We lived by the traffic circle, we hung out on Admiral or 11th street. We bought furniture from Horn Bros. Our shopping mall of the day was "Sheridan Village". The Brookside group had Pennington's and we had "Wynn's drive in, The Airview Theater, McClure Park. Most of our dads worked and moms stayed home. That allowed an audience for Betty, John, etc. A Saturday afternoon around our house ALWAYS included watching Billy Parker, Rocky Caple and the Shotguns, Johnny Stills, Billy Dozier, and Clarence Boyd on the Horn Brothers show.

And don't forget that Safeway gives Gunn Brothers stamps!!!

Thanks again for a great site.

David

Who could forget:  

I'll try to find a picture of those fun-lovin', blunderbuss-totin', vision-impaired-by-Fudd-cap Gunn Brothers.

Added 12/18/2010: Only took me 10 years to find it, but here it is:

Thanks to Mike for your efforts and Happy '01 to all. My resolution is to stop grumbling about so much OC news on a Tulsa website. If it's OK with the webmaster, who am I....??? Besides, anyone who has lived, or lives, in that sorry red-mud pasture, deserves extra consideration.

Graciously said, Noel. Happy 2001 to you, too!

Hearing from Larry Strain again has been great. I'm looking forward to hearing what happened in Tulsa radio after I left in 1957 for the Navy.

Larry's enthusiasm and initiative knew no bounds. As part of the KRMG Newsmobile duties we had to interact a lot with the Tulsa police, and got to know some of them pretty well. (An older man, Sgt. Haddock, was particularly nice. He later was elevated to lieutenant after the huge scandal that resulted in the indictments of the Tulsa Police Commissioner, Police Chief, and a couple of detectives.)

Larry became enamored with police work. He went so far as to buy a white Ford that looked a lot like the police cars. After he added a long, whip antenna to the rear of the vehicle, Larry’s car could almost pass for an unmarked cop car.

Tulsa’s new “uncommissioned police officer” would cruise the streets, with his antenna flapping ominously in the wind. With a grin on his face he told me that he would pull up behind a car, then cup his hand over his mouth to make it look like he was transmitting over a police radio. Upon seeing this, some cars would pull over and stop. Larry would insouciantly continue on his way.

I spoze that’s about as close as you can come to impersonating a police officer without violating the law.

Me, again. I misspelled millennium. Concerning the movie 2001, it is a really good one. I am not disappointed with our space travel as in we do have regular flights and a space station. On the other hand, we do not have deep space travel at all. We don't even go to the moon anymore.

But think about TV! Who would've thunk we'd have cable and hundreds of stations? Amazing. Such advanced tech. I used think the Big Brother TV, where "they" could see us was impossible, just like I thought PCs could never exist. Now, thanks to cable and computers, I see it could happen!

I had to look up "millennium" myself to accept that it has 2 n's. Oops. Unmanned space exploration has been pretty interesting. Arguably, the Hubble telescope (whose launch I witnessed personally) has contributed more knowledge than the entire manned space program. But where is the HoJo in the sky, or the moonbase or the intelligent homicidal computer?

Mike B., great minds think alike. I was just pondering the same thing you were pondering - Does this site has enough good material to make a really nice book of about the golden years of Tulsa TV or does it? I bet it would sell upwards of seven or twelveteen copies (Is that more than a hundred?).

I'll look into that grant money sometime next year, or maybe the next millenium.

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and also thank our webmaster for a job well done. Good luck with the site in 2001. Wow, can that really be the year?

I also wanted to put in a big thumbs up for "The Lost Mazeppa Tapes, Vol III." Great bits. Even my wife (who is among the uninitiated) was caught digging the opening 'Johnny Donut Dialing for Dullards' bit. Great stuff throughout the tape. If you don't have it, get it. The odd thing is I REMEMBER all the bits.

And my kids insisted we rent "Ernest Saves Christmas" a couple of weeks ago, and we all enjoyed the very funny performance in that. Jim Varney wasn't bad either. Audios.

Thank you, Mr. Boydston.

Michael, what a blast reading our past history. Have already heard from Frank Morrow and Mike Miller, and will email them today.

Couple of old KRMG facts: Doc Hull used a rubber squeeze toy duck he called "Gertie". He would "talk" to the duck and he always had a glass of water there and when Gertie would get mad, he would put the nose in the water and make a terrible gurgling sound.

What ever happened to Joe Knight, "Your Knight of the Spinning Roundtable"? Lyn Higbee went north to Kansas City at the Meredith station, I believe. Our then News Director, Glen (sounds like Walter Winchell) Condon, taught me to edit with the biggest damn pencil I ever saw.

I'll pass on some more stories later, I've been thinking about the more funny ones for days now.

Happy New Year to all !!

Noel Confer from Guestbook 32: "Lynn Higbee left Tulsa to go to a PD job in Kansas City...Lynn left (there) to go with a chain in Topeka as station mgr. He passed away after a series of heart attacks several years ago. His widow, Jan, and his daughter, Cristi, live in the Kansas City area."

I would just like to add my wishes for a Happy Birthday to Tulsa TV Memories.

Karl was the 1st signer of Guestbook 1! Thanks, and Seasons Greetings to you.

Here are some that got left out: Leroy McGuirk's Championship Wrestling and who was the lady who did the daily cooking show for Oklahoma Natural Gas co.?

Miss Peggy Shaber. I think I have a picture of her somewhere. There is a Rasslin' page here for your reading pleasure.

When I was 14 I played in a (bad) garage band. We were on the Mazeppa show a couple of times when it was on channel 6 (KOTV). I think Sartain just had us on because we were so bad that he could use us for humor!!!!! What fun we had.

Okay kids - I still say there is a book in the hatching here with all the anecdotes - need more stills though. And more ways to get our un-computered brethern (like "Pierre" Pickett, Buddy Allison and Ed Dumit) in to tell us more stories....

Since Betty Boyd did her li'l book 20 years ago on her career in Tulsey this might be a companion piece on Tulsey broadcasting from all those that lived the radio/TV life from back when....

But knowing Mike Ransom's busy workload/lifeload, can't figure out when HE could write it! Maybe we need to get him (or ANY of us!) one of them MacArthur "genius" Grants for about $250,000 for a year's sabbatical to study and write it all up...

Then again, this may be the best form for all the information. We would be talking some serious "narrowcasting" as a book. But get me one o' them there grants and I think it could be arranged!

I would like to chime in with the others thanking Michael for this website. Not only has it brought me back in touch with some great people I worked with 25 years ago, but I've really enjoyed the other stories from other stations and other times. Keep up the great work!

I appreciate the favorable comments, everyone. The site is really made by the contributions from readers, whether TV insiders or not. So thank you, too, and here's to a great 2001!

Speaking of 2001, it is probably my favorite movie of all time. I saw it at the Fox Theatre (in Cinerama) back in 1968 when I was 15. I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in that year, when I would be 47 (gasp!) I am disappointed in where we are with space travel, but who really foresaw that we would all have computers of this power, and be using them to remember the days when we didn't have them?

Happy Birthday to TTM and Happy New Year! I too join in congratulating Mike Ransom for his great site that (as new visitors discover it) gets even better each day.

As one who left Tulsa a quarter-century ago, I feel I’ve moved back, or at least much closer, thanks to your great web site.

Your efforts are greatly appreciated, especially by those of us who have reached the age of reason. Again, thanks for the memories, Michael.

Mike

Just can't thank you enough for this amazing site! It has much more significance to me now that I'm not in Tulsa anymore. All the best and Happy Birthday!

While we are looking back at the old year of 2000, I think we should stop and give a silent--or maybe not so silent--thanks to Michael Ransom, who has brought so much joy into our lives with all his long hours of work in making this web site possible.

Thank you, Frank, and we all appreciate your many contributions to the radio side of the site.

This is a cool website. I just found it tonite. Going down memory lane as I was reading. I remember Lee and Lionel, Mazeppa, watched him on Saturday nites, I believe, at home, which at that time was called "monster manor" by all of us kids. My sister and I would bring our friends over to watch him, and we always had a great time. Christopher Lewis was a friend of a close friend of mine. Don Woods and Gusty, Don went to the same church as my family, but I do not remember him real well, I am sure my dad does though. My sister and I did get a Gusty from him, that I do remember. I used to go to Pennington's Drive In for their Onion Rings. KAKC was my radio station. My hang out was Brookside. I adore Tulsa. Thank You for the trip down memory lane. It is awesome, and I will return to this site as often as I can. If for nothing else but the fantastic memories.

Diane, I see you still live on Route 66. I'm happy that you enjoyed your visit. We need a Pennington's ad here, don't we?

2/22/03: Here it is...        

In Guestbook 9, someone was wondering about KTUL and the use of the package, "Move Closer To Your World." Tom Goodgame, GM, bought that package. I had just become the promotion manager and Tom handed it to me and said, "Here, do something with this."

One of the first spots we produced using it started off with the line, "Let's take a ride to the top of Channel 8's tower." Using time lapse photography, Bob Welch (Welsh) went up and down several times, both inside the elevator, and on TOP of the elevator to he very top of the tower to get what we needed. Bob is an incredible person who is alive and well at CBS today.

I sure remember that one, Carl.

This is wonderful to hear from two of the best television directors in OKC. Patrick Bryant and Greg Leslie. Thanks for the times you helped me stretch or cut out copy...hah. No one has mentioned Mary Hart, who is now on Entertainment Tonight. She was on "Dannysday" for several years. Gene Shouse, yeah, some of this information isn't quite right, but I'm sure "The Moose" wouldn't mind. Steve and Pat Shocky went to Europe. He directed a show for her and she became quite big I understand. Later found out she had breast cancer...I had great respect for Pat. She knew fashion, that was for sure.

Howard Neumann, was first with Lowe Runkle Ad Agency, when I landed upon the scene. Later struck out on his own. Here's to you, Howard...forever a nice guy.

Howard went back at least as far as "The Chuck Fairbanks Show" in my memory.

Here is a page from Louise's site with some pictures from her earlier TV days.

Thanks for all the efforts, Mr. Webmaster, in keeping this site alive. The number of memories cached here over the last year plus is immense, and will doubtless be extremely useful to some future scholar attempting to reckon what local television and radio in a typical American community was like in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. (Little dough, lotsa fun, some wild stories.)

I know I have a few ancient neurons fired by others' recollections that would have otherwise been lost to the ages.

There are other sites I've seen that attempt similar goals, but the all seem to drift into screeds for (or against) some program or individual or wind up as flame pits. It is a measure of the town and the people who worked in broadcasting in it over the years that the discourse here is so warm and affectionate.

Thanks again, sir, and Happy New Year to all.

You're very welcome, sir, and thanks for so many great contributions over the last 2 years. Incidentally, tomorrow is TTM's 2nd birthday. What an eventful 2 years for a web site!

I bought one of those expensive used copies of Weird Al's "UHF" on eBay. Very funny movie! I sense a UHF page coming soon...

Hey if OK and AR are shut down by this killer storm - why aren't we hearing from mo folks? Duh - betcha the power is dead. STAY HOME - stay warm, folks!

Flew back from Chicago yesterday where we had had 2 little snow dustings - but had 3-6' high piles of snow on the curbs. Am worried what hit ya'all is gonna hit here.

RE the MOOSE - I remember him telling us on location someplace whomever the GM was at 4 helped him get video financing. In the Gaylord years 4 paid low but had good bennies - like low cost car loans arranged somehow for staff as I recall.

KTVY had the first color mini-cam in OKC a Fernseh from Germany. Wish Darrell Barton was on-line - he could tell us more about 4.

Firstly, I'm saddened to hear of the death of Howard Neumann, who produced and co-hosted the OU coach's show for so many years. Greg Leslie and I worked with him a lot during our independent TV production years (80s, early 90s) and we considered him a good friend. I wish his family the best in this time of loss.

Regarding the Moose, he started freelancing with a film rig back in the 70s; I don't think KTVY helped him buy his video gear but rather he remortgaged his home to raise the capital. Oh, well, I could be wrong ;)

Wasn't Spec Hart a Channel 9 guy? At least he was during my career(?).

Scotty Comstock is one of those few guys I call my "best friend" and he's still at Ch. 4. I haven't written to him in a few months but I'll see if he knows about this site.

Happy Holidays and Keep Warm, everyone.

Gene Moose Shouse I knew from OKC days as a free-lance shooter with 1" portable gear when not at 4 and loved him - he bought the video assets of Steve Shockey who was also doing free-lance work and went bust. Pat Shockey - his Mom was a minor OKC Betty Boyd "type"."Moose" had his gear backrolled by KTVY! Back then he offered back-up services to the production dept. I guess but whatever the deal was- KTVY co-signed his note for an Ikegami HL79 and Ampex portable 1" deck.

Also mentioned previously and still missed is Spec Hart of that KTVY crew. Alas we have not heard from Scotty Comstock at 4 either...

For more about chicken-fry, read this Tulsa World story of a few days ago.

I'm yet another OKC teevee veteran, circa 1975-94... Spent a stint at KTVY/KFOR, worked with greats and near-greats, was the last director of "Dannysday", ran a post house for a while (with Pat Bryant), now I'm an online editor for Winnercomm, working with folks like Chris Lincoln.

Great to see (former client) Louise Bland on here (hey, Louise!) and reminisce about the Tulsa stations I got to see growing up in Ponca City (too far from anywhere for good antenna reception, so we got early cable -- stations from OKC, Tulsa and Wichita). I was particularly inspired to get into the business by watching a taping of the "Ho Ho Show" and "Ida Bee" at KOCO, and seeing how much FUN they were having!

Great site! Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

I read someone's earlier post about finding a tape of the Uncle Zeb show. When I directed it in the late '70s, we did tape it on 3/4 inch tape every day. Too bad it was always the same tape. At the time, (and I think this is still true) you actually have to tape live shows in order to have a valid copyright. We taped Zeb everyday and then taped over it the next day. If there's any shows still existing, I'm sure Carl has them.

What a blast finding this site! Stayed up almost all night, last night, reading about stuff and people I used to listen to and watch when I was growing up in Tulsey Town and Owasso. I still think that Lionel and Granny "I'm only a hundred and six years old, Honey!" Lion are the best.

Had to leave in '67 when Uncle Sam found me and sent me to that So. Pacific vacation paradise, Viet Nam. But got back in time to enjoy a couple of years of Mazeppa before moving up here. I still remember his "Expando Spit Wad" routine. Funny then and still funny now. Thanks for the great memory jog. I plan on continuing the trip.

I apologize for this indulgence but here is a quick list of media-related Christmas gifts I received: Beatles Anthology book (2 of 'em!), and videos of Universal's old Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc. movies (Lawzee!). I've enjoyed this white Christmas and hope everyone else is enjoying it, too.

I just wonder if Lee W., G. S.Artain, Lee Bayley, the tech staff and the other contributors to this site have any idea how much enjoyment they have brought to Tulsa television viewers throughout the years. Thanks to each one of you, and to you, Sir Webmaster, for bringing these precious times and people together.

Merry Christmas and have a prosperous and successful New Year!

You said it, Lowell.

Ah, Nite Owl Movie, brought to you by Trust House Jewelers, with Jim and Gloria Berkey. They used to bring the biggest, glitteriest diamond rings out to the station. "Paved in diamond property".

I'm glad to hear that Louise Bland is doing well. I used to see her quite often in her OKC ad-agency days. She was always pleasant and gracious, and the only ad-client who ever called me "honey". :)

Excellent stuff. Brings back lots of memories. I was never in broadcasting but I had a lot of friends in the business. Great site. DC

I was never in broadcasting, either, but that hasn't stopped me. Thanks!

Pretty nice web site. Sure would like to see Don Woods and a few others I worked with. I've never been away from the TV business. It only got better upon leaving ole T-Town. Check out my web site when you have time. I'd like to hear from Bob Gregory, if he's still around...louisebland.com - or send an email - take3@airmail.net

Louise has a well-done web site based around her book, Art of Charm. She worked as a model and had a talk show on both KTUL and KOTV before starting her own advertising and PR firm. See her web site for some interesting pictures and biographical information. She was previously mentioned in Guestbooks 5 and 6. Welcome, Louise!

Santa brought something very good this year...I am listening to the old OKC Trust House Jewelers' "Nite Owl Movie" theme , "Dreamsville" from Henry Mancini's "Music from Peter Gunn"...as we speak. Good period for Mancini; a year later was his theme for the TV show, Mr. Lucky".

Well, no sooner than I checked out your guestbook. Another page revealed comments about the wild "Wheel of Fish" that was used in Weird Al Yankovic's "UHF".

Well, Lawh-Zee....ya got me on that one! I worked as an "extra" in that movie and was involved in that particular scene a lot. It was hilarious and funnier than a bag of chicken bones. I tried and tried to tell one woman...."Choose the Fish!"...but she just wouldn't listen to me. Weird Al was a momentous blast to work with.

Yeah, I'm still kicking myself that I didn't try to become an extra on that movie, too.

Hi. Just surfed onto your nice web site regarding Tulsa Memories. All I can say is...Well...Lawh-Zee..! This is a Sock-O-Boff-O web site! I remember when a great bunch of friends Dominy Donovan, Marcia and her brother Danny and I used to stay up late on the weekends and all watch Mazeppa Pompazoidi. We scarfed down literally tons and tons of hot buttered popcorn and Teddy Jack Eddy and Judy Judy made us all laugh. Those were the days and Mazeppa was definitely a KEWL DUDE. Best wishes and thanks for the memories.

Glad you're liking it!

Christmas Eve: just archived Guestbook 66.

Our last visitor remembered being on Uncle Zeb's show...added her comments to the Zeb page. We heard from TTM regulars and many new visitors. Gene Tincher appeared for the 1st time. We may have received a visit from Dweezil Zappa. Larry Strain also visited for the 1st time after numerous mentions of his name in past Guestbooks. Lowell Burch was a satisfied buyer of the new Lost Tapes of Mazeppa - Vol. 3.

We heard all about the giant "Wheel of Fish" in Weird Al Yankovic's Tulsa-shot movie, "UHF" from the man who actually attached the fish to the Wheel: Ricardo Wilson. (By the way, there is a new closeup of the Wheel in Guestbook 66 that you may wish to go back and look at!) There was more about St. Michael's Alley.

For those wishing to track Santa tonight, Steve Smith of Seattle supplied a URL: www.noradsanta.org.

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. There is a Christmas card for you on the Bulletin Board.

From Hugh Martin and Broken Arrow native Ralph Blane:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
From now on our troubles will be far away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore (Yore WHAT?)
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now