Have heard nothing lately from or about some old Tulsa friends that I used to work with. We all freelanced out of an outfit called Packing Crate Productions. Verden McQueen held the purse strings. And took 10 percent. Bob Morris was involved but I think he went to work for Lucasfilm. Sue Belknap had some sort of Movie treatment that she and a friend were going to shop around in Holly-wood. Scratch your heads and help me out

While we're on the subject of late night experiments:

Has anyone seen or heard from Mahcoe Van Dyke lately? He worked for me as a videotape operator in the 80s at Channel 8. In the 70s he did "Machoe's Place" for KOTV.

Just wonderin' what happened to him.....

Friday ramblings - in the pre-Mazeppa days did not 6 show ROLLER DERBY late night on Saturdays????

For bro Hillis - I think Avco also had a division in competition with Airstream - making high class travel trailers.

For that writer in "Mozambique" - what I know....

"...There used to be some show that was REALLY Tulsa Teen Time Topics, hosted by a pair of twins named Judy and Jan Hagar (not the twins from Hee Haw either)?"

>>Nope really Doctors Jan Hagedorn and Judy Kizziar. Don't know what their maiden name was. Dr. Bruno Bettelheim seemed to have been a mentor of theirs as psychologists. Dr. Jan's hubby was Frank Hagedorn a US Attorney and Dr. Judy's hubby - have no idea but think she lived in Bartlesville. The show was GENERATION GAP and all sat in beanbag chairs to "rap".

"...remember Kathryn Kuhlman? She used to scare me."

>>I sat in Master Control and Matt Bunyan often on Audio on KK's show playback on 8 on Sunday mornings in the '70's. Matt's most common utterance when KK would say something space-cadet-like was "My gawd! Who watches this s---! They can't believe this!!!" Yeah she was scarey to us "adults", too!

Her pianist was Dino or as she said, "Dino, Dino, Dino". They - her distributor or production company - ran her shows AFTER she was dead for a while and never told folks.

Then later the "Kathryn Kuhlmann Evangelistic Association" told folks they WERE showing the best of KK's shows.

She had some ties to someone in Tulsa I recall also.

Dino had a show on CBN or PTL I thought later.

"One of my boss's big claims to fame is the fact that she was once a PEPSI GIRL. Championship Wrestling and Roller Derby, the Lloyd Thaxton Show?".

Hep me - I done forgot whom Lloyd Thaxton was!!!!

"Also, didn't KTUL used to have a morning movie?"

>>KTUL had a morning movie for years till 10:30am and "Bewitched" lit up the ABC network.

I used to know the rules to Roller Derby, but they are like the trig I learned, long forgotten from lack of use. Something about jammers lapping and passing blockers to gain a point for every one they pass. Or something. Anyway. Like wrestling, roller derby fit in a small space, was easily lit, and scripted enough to make directing reasonably easy.

Speaking of lost due to disuse, AVCO Broadcasting and AVCO Embassy films were in the same corporate family, I think. The Aviation Company of America bought Crosley in 1945, diversifying in the postwar period to range from aircraft engines (Lycoming) to television and radio stations to consumer lending.

AVCO sold the stations in the 70's and wound up being sold itself in 1984 to Textron, which owned Bell Helicopter and later bought Cessna of Wichita. Textron sold AVCO finance, which still used to old "A" logo to the associates a couple or three years ago. If my memory serves, the AVCO Embassy library was acquired by Orion back in the 80s.

Old-timers will tell you that WLW radio ran with 500,000 watts back in the 30's, from a diamond-shaped Blau-Knox half-wavelength tower in Mason, Ohio, that would take a lightning hit and just bounce the arcing around until the transmitter engineer shut the kettle down for a second to let the current dissipate.

In regards to the Atlas Life Building, seems like not so very long ago, there was a major remodel or refurbish done on the building and I kinda remember attending a Chamber of Commerce sponsored "Business After Hours" thangie there. Or did I imagine this? As I recall the building looked wonderful and a lot of attention had been paid to detail. I especially remember something about the doorknobs being the world that Atlas was carrying. And that wonderful clock in the lobby area. Is the Tulsa Press Club still in there? At the time, sadly a lot of space was empty. I never did understand why we keep building all the office parks and buildings and hotels with empty rooms when we already had so much to offer. Go Figure.

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Bill Blair in El Paso earlier this month, especially at the relatively young age of 66. I knew Bill at TU and at KOME in the early 1950s. He joined KOME shortly after I left to go to KOTV News and soon picked up a nice late-night following with his record choices. I didn't get to see and hear as much of Bill in his KVOO-TV projects as I would have liked, especially after I moved to Beaumont, but I'm sure he carried them off with skill and spirit (yes, he was quite an ad-libber!).

I last saw Bill at the 1994 reunion of KVOO radio and television people. At the time I gently chided him for being one of the few smokers on view.

By the way, I "qualified" for the KVOO party by working several months in the KVOO (radio only then) newsroom in 1950, under the redoubtable Ken Miller. Newscasts then were prepared by writers, but read by staff announcers: Ben Avery, Cy Tuma, Johnny Ryan (nee Trigg), Roy McKee, et al. In the newsroom itself were Charlie McKinney, Frank Muskrat, Tom Journeay (briefly), the veteran newspaperman Manton Marrs (the morning shift), and eventually, after I left, Forrest Brokaw.

I also "informally" helped John Henry before and after this period with his high school coverage. At the time I enjoyed going to the games anyway, and Central was riding high. John always turned his high school pass over to me and I called in the final score.

When John occasionally went out of town, program director Tom De Vore usually appointed himself to read John's sports. This was when the Cincinnati Reds had Ted Kluszewski, a great slugger, hitting home runs right and left--and DeVore would invariably report "Koussevitsky hit another homer today."

My apologies in advance...I'm gonna be all over the place in this one...

The calls KEBC in OKC still exsist. Well, they've been taken up again is more accurate. In '96, Clear Channel dropped the KEBC calls and country format and went with an aggressive alternative rock sound. The new calls were KNRX, and the nickname (95X) waxed nostalgic of a former rock station in OKC (96X...KXXY). Shortly after, KXXY-AM (1340) took on the KEBC calls. It was sports during the day, and Tejano at night. I believe 1340 is still KEBC.

Re Don Norton's comments on the "Spirit of Oklahoma" slogan. Its unlikely that Griffin will drop KOTV's adaptation of it, KWTV in OKC has used the same slogan for nearly 20 years. They've scaled down the use of it some recently. Also, the new KTBZ "The Buzz" is supposedly a creation of former KRMG talker Michael Del Giorno. He became director of operations with Clear Channel in July, and the slight format change took place with him hosting a new talk morning show. His promos for the show are hilarious, and most are aimed at his former co-worker and main competition, KRMG's John Erhling.

The Mayo Hotel is in such sad shape. I worked downtown up until very recently and walked down that stretch of the Main Mall twice a day. There used to be paper in the windows so noone could see inside. Some of that has been taken down, and the interior has been completely gutted. Most of the windows on the upper floors are either opened or broken, so I'm sure there's lots of water damage inside. There has also been some problems with people getting in and vandalizing the interior. I recently saw a news r...(the rest of Erick's message was lost)

Just found this site so I haven't been able to peruse everything BUT didn't there used to be some show that was REALLY Tulsa Teen Time Topics, hosted by a pair of twins named Judy and Jan Hagar (not the twins from Hee Haw either)? I remember them and some groovy set with bean bag chairs. and another thing, remember Kathryn Kuhlman? She used to scare me. One of my boss's big claims to fame is the fact that she was once a PEPSI GIRL. Championship Wrestling and Roller Derby, the Lloyd Thaxton Show? Also, didn't KTUL used to have a morning movie?

How about Judy Hagedorn and Jan Kizziar of "Generation Rap"? You can see them near the bottom of the Other Kiddie Shows page . Mazeppa's "Tulsa Teen Town Topics" was indeed a takeoff on the twin psychologists' show.

Kathryn Kuhlman wasn't local, but had a frightening amount of energy. I remember Lloyd Thaxton's lip-syncing contests. I believe he was out of L.A. Check the Links page for "Local Legends", a TTM-like web site in L.A. for more about Mr. Thaxton.

"Pepsi Girls" were featured on "Pepsi's Dance Party".

See The Rasslin' Page on this site for Championship Wrestling pictures and comments.

Nothing here about "Roller Derby", but the only team that ever seemed to show up was the "Bay Area Bombers" with Joanie Weston. Has anyone ever figured out the rules of this game?? Wes Clark's "Avocado Memories" site on the Links page has some info about Roller Derby on its own Links page. Wes' site is terrific and was an inspiration for this one.

The Channel 8 Morning Movie is mentioned in a story by Jim Reid on the Cy Tuma page. Does that about cover it?

Attn M. Bruchas....The PBR (for Professional Bull Riders), is a regular circuit, the same as PRCA, except the PBR has only the one event. I played around with the world of rodeo, long ago....even announced a few. Each city hosting a PBR event has a special name for their show. "Bullnanza" is in Guthrie at their great equestrian arena. Shows are televised on Sunday nights. I have a bad back and a limp to prove I once was a rider. A dumb thing to do?... sure. But then, I chose to be a DJ also....just as dumb.

Just a brief addendum to Don Norton: WMAQ, in Chicago, was the radio station. When television came along, RCA had picked WNBY for its TV outlet, then discovered that it sounded too much like WMBI, which stood for the Moody Bible Institute's AM radio station, housed in the Moody complex on the city's near north side. What to do? The call letters were changed to WNBQ and, in 1964, to WMAQ-TV. All the Chicago television stations, excepting WGN, went through a baffling series of call letter changes in the early days of commercial telecasting.

In July 1998, the Atlas Life neon sign on Boston Avenue was taken down after suffering wind damage. After a painstaking resoration (thanks to Pearson Group Capital Management and Claude Neon Federal Signs), it was restored to its rightful place. Jim Norton was quoted in the Tulsa World as saying that, if you see that sign, "there's only one place you can be in the world -- Tulsa, Oklahoma."

Here are 2 excellent articles with pictures from the Tulsa World: A second chance / Nostalgic neon returns in all its full-lit glory . I remember KOKI using a night shot of Boston Avenue with this sign visible as a lead-in to movie presentations in their early days.

I still like KEBC (from OKC)as a call-letter if it still exists - Keep Every Body Country - as was their format.

Rememeber when KCNW was on the air in Tulsey in the '70's- with "Country-politan" format lifted from Kansas City? Country interwoven with pop and light rock that somehow worked well then. But it confused hard core country listeners.

Call letters used to make more sense I guess....WLS=World's Largest Store (owned by Sears then), WGN=World's Greatest Newspaper, et cetera....

Got an OK e-mail today from a gal whose husband bull rides. Bullnanza is some traveling event going around the country and I guess coming soon to OKC or Tulsey. Looks like someone outta Guthrie may produce it - it airs on TNN (now) The National Network - formerly The Nashville Network. Anyone know anything about when it is coming to OK?

Wah....sorry, very sorry, to hear or read about Rocky Stegman. Sheesh, what a site this is, just became aware of it, brings back many many memories, had anyone talked about Skateland, or Magicians Theatre, Mayo hotel stories? Possibilities are endless. Makes me remember what a cool little town Tulsa used to be.

There have been some mentions of those places...the floor is open to more...

There's a tiny "typo" in Webmaster's copying of Lee Woodward's latest e-mail about north Texas broadcasting. It's WFAA, not WFFA. (Got it fixed...thanks, Don.) Think "Working For All Alike," the station's original slogan, before somebody came up with "Spirit of Texas," a slogan somebody coopted for KOTV as "Spirit of Oklahoma." Wonder if Griffin will drop that when Belo leaves?

One of the best station slogans I've heard involves the late, lamented WMAQ (radio)of Chicago. It was originally put on the air by the Chicago Daily News and The Fair, a Loop department store, in about 1922 (no, I wasn't alive then!) as WGU. However, the Daily News soon bought out The Fair and rechristened the station to avoid confusion with WGN (the World"s Greatest Newspaper, according to Col. McCormick, the publisher). The new call was WMAQ--"We Must Ask Questions."

Beats the heck out of current slogans, such as "The Buzz" for KTBZ, the new call for KQLL AM in Tulsa. Or maybe the station thinks it gives some identification with "Buzz" Peterson, current TU basketball coach.

Ken Koch- did you know Kenny Kerr - former 8 Traffic guy that went with Hurst to Tulsa Cable? Hadn't heard Bill Van Burkleo mentioned in years - where is he now? So you liked those IVC 1" machines???

We previously learned that Bill Van Burkleo was a dancer on "Dance Party" during Lee Woodward's tenure as host. Try "Burkleo" in the search engine to read about it.

What a great site. I could spend way too much time leafing through the pages.

I started out at Tulsa Cable in '73 (then owned by Livingston Oil) after interviewing with Hurst Swiggart in his downtown office before the studio was even built. The Sports remote crew (headed by Billy Van Burkleo) covered everything from stock car races at the Fairgrounds to ping-pong tournaments. One memorable event... Leapin' Larry, who jumped (or at least attempted to)a go-kart over autos. We slo-mo'ed the crash by rolling the 1" helical tape by hand, back and forth.

Lots more memories of cable and the move to KTEW (KJRH) later.

I'll be digging for my shot of Oom-a-Gog!

Thanks, Ken.

We had a 2" tape machine slide out of the back door of our former Tele-Color mobile unit here in VA about 15 years ago - the trucks were being sold, some gear going to storage to a guy down the street that thought he could make a fortune in 2" dubbing (he didn't). Editor Steve Sang (now in NYC) had a CDL and was driving the tape truck which someone had assured him had had the Ampex machines strapped down in back. He had to stop short at an incline going up to the main drag because of some yahoo coming out of the neighborhood McDonald's and not looking where they were going - ran in front of him.

Steve said they felt a weight load shift but thought nothing of it. Then cars started honking behind him and he got out. When he got to the back of the truck - an Ampex 2000 had burst open the door, fallen right side straight down and dug about a 6 inch hole in the asphalt and was standing with the left bottom end of the machine on the door opening and a Ford Escort wagon with mother and kids about 6 inches to the right of where the machine had landed.

Luckily the folks in the Escort weren't hurt but had been very scared. I think we bought them lunch and never heard from them again. Sorry - no one called a lawyer- but the idea had potential.

As this was NOT a liftgate truck - it took about 10 guys - including volunteers from the Alexandria, VA city maint. lot to lift the bent framed machine back into the truck -where it WAS strapped down. If you techies will recall - the machine probably weighed close to a half ton. It looked like a giant check mark. The side with the monitor was bent upward....

"...you can learn a lot holding a flashlight for a creative engineer..."

That's for sure, and lucky for me I did learn some things, because I still can't hold a flashlight properly ;-)

I hope you fine Tulsa folks aren't miffed at us OKC people always showing up to play in your yard, but there's a lot of shared heritage here, I think.

Anyway, the wreck of the Channel 4 Mobile Unit - over 26 years ago - still so fresh in our memories.

Lambini, click on my name and send me an email; your address doesn't show up.

...we were in a station wagon about 2-3 miles behind Haywards' ill-timed milk break...a sadder sight you'll never see as a buttless tv production unit...with its electronic innards exposed. We stopped just long enough to pick up the audio board out of the middle of the highway and throw in the wagon with the grip equipment and head on to the station. The effort and shear absurdity of us all trying to build a TV production mobile unit out of a rented trailer and the entrails of our Coke colors production trailer...in 4-5 days still amaze me. I was paid for 20 hrs OT...but, wound up volunteering more...you can learn a lot holding a flashlight for a creative engineer...I did.

Webmaster, were you with Joe & Joe on Mazeppa's live show saying, "We didn't throw any snowballs, occifer."?

That I was, with Joe Dickens and Joe Hargrove...hi, Carol! Forgot the "occifer" part. (This story is recounted here). Where is Joe Hargrove these days? I know your brother is off being a computer consultant/cult musician/father in Austin. Did you happen to catch that show back in 1971?

The mention of Pat Boone reminds me that when I was working my first radio job in Denton, Texas, he would show up on Saturday afternoons to sing on a little show we had there. Guys from the "North Texas State Lab Band" and others as well as myself would just wander in and sing or play. Many of the fellows later played with the Stan Kenton Band.

Another announcer (Charlie Beard) told me about this deal he was doing. Pat Boone was married, starving to death and with two brand new babies. He had not hit his stride yet with the Arthur Godfrey show. So, to help out, Charlie would call Shirley Boone once every week or two and tell her that on this day her name was to be something like Janet Jacobs. He would then give her the name of a song he was going to play for the free bag of groceries at the Piggly-Wiggly later that day. Charlie would then set up the scam, play the record and make a "random" phone call. Of course it wasn't random on these occasions and the Boones were very very grateful for the bag of food. I thought that was pretty nice of Charlie. Later in my career I steered some things to some real needy folks and was happy to do it.

Also, earlier someone mentioned some station switching, I remember when WBAP-AM had to give up its 570 channel because the FCC ruled that a newspaper could not have two frequencies in one market. They were actually splitting the day between 820 and 540. They would ring the "cowbell" when making the switch. "This is WBAP 820 (clang, clang, clang). You're now listening to WBAP 570 in Fort Worth."

They gave up 570 to WFAA in Dallas. No more cowbell in Dallas. Believe it or not, they originally were ringing it on FM until the listeners with high dollar sound systems complained.

That North Texas jazz band is still good enough today to make records. Mike Bruchas recalled hearing about that cowbell-ringing business from Lee back in Guestbook 20.

Yes, the Tulsa stations still cover the Porter Peach Fest, Okmulgee Pecan Fest, Jay Strawberry Fest, Muskogee's Azalea Fest, and even Sucker Day (I think that's what it's called) in Wetumka (sometimes).

Ah, but they all pale compared to Brookside Shorts Day!

Loretta, now that I'm back on the air with a new computer, I will soon Get Back to you with some pix of Shorts Day 1984 (emcee'd by Karen Keith).

You ask too many questions, Mike!!

George Kravis sold his two Tulsa stations, KRAV 96.5FM and KGTO 1050AM (formerly KFMJ) in 1996 to Cox. I don't think he owns any more stations.

Last I heard, former congressman James R. Jones was working as an ambassador or in trade relations with either Mexico or a Central American or South American country. Don't know about Olivia.

Yes, the Tulsa stations still cover the Porter Peach Fest, Okmulgee Pecan Fest, Jay Strawberry Fest, Muskogee's Azaela Fest, and even Sucker Day (I think that's what it's called) in Wetumka (sometimes).

I worked at OETA in Tulsa from 81 till 84, and we had that Chevy stepvan.

One day, Trish Popkess and I were taking a load of donated camera cable up to the transmitter to get it out of the station. On that winding road up north of Sand Springs, the van's tires hit the soft sand on the shoulder of the road. The stepvan had a generator in it and was heavy on the right side. I either had to steer off the road or we were going to turn over. I took out about 20 feet of barbed wire fence and sheered off a telphone pole. It took about a year to get the van back after that.

Karen Keith is doing a daily home and garden type show on channel 2.

Truck talk here after musing on 4's truck wreck...

OETA's tractor for the big semi-trailer mobile unit was an old Chevy back in the early '80's. It limped along for years. OETA bought it because supposedly long-time director Bob Allen's brother-in-law had one like it for a water or dirt hauling business - Bob didn't know tractors from trucks. But many a time it fell under the weather or broke down - had a big problem climbing hills, towing the big trailer. I presume the trailer is still in service - it was more of a billboard for OETA when parked at the Capitol.

We also had a smaller Chevy stepvan - called the "SPIT" van - I think Leon Holland joked it was commissioned/originally funded for as a "Special Projects in Television" truck before anyone figured out what the abbreviation stood for.

We also had a state motor pool Chrysler sedan in the early '80's for other business - back when Chrysler made crappy cars. It had a right rear door that fell off all the time and other motor/transmission/brake problems that made us use our own cars - Bob Allen refused to maintain stuff with the state motor pool because it cost $$$.

The joke was to park someone who had never ridden in it before - when going to a production site visit or meeting. They would be in the right rear seat and we'd roll on the floor and watch the reaction as the door fell off when they it opened it to get out! Hey - we worked at OETA -cheap thrills! Most often it did the mail run.

So often things ran till undriveable and Bob Allen bit the bullet to fix 'em. Very scary driving state cars and working for OETA way back when...We did have an IH Scout that folks fought over to drive - the only safe vehicle in OKC for years - saw it later with the SPIT truck in Tulsa.

Though Bob Allen ALWAYS had some kind of NEW State (but unmarked) Chevy every 2 years...Wonder if he still rates one as Director Emeratus of OETA?

It was against the law in OK to have a portable TV in the front seat of any car - might be a driver's distraction - Bob had one and told everyone that he needed it to "monitor" OETA's signal as he traveled about the state.....

I am too old - have things I wanna post here and fergit 'em too soon!

Do stations in Tulsey still cover the Stilwell Strawberry Fest or the Porter Peach Fest (we called the latter the Peter Porch Fest after an anchor flub reading an intro on air once)?

Is Karen (Garde) Keith still on air there? No she did not read it that way!

Does George Kravis own any stations in town still?

Someone mentioned Harold Stuart re-married - where is he and what is he doing?

What about former Cong. Jim Jones - thought he was with RIAA at one time - but what about Olivia? She seemed Hillary-escent 25 years ago and a brain - what is she up to?

And scarier still - was at the Kennedy Center here 2 weeks ago to see "Blast!" a new musical thing with a marching band - noticed on the program that Mike Turpen was a Clinton-appointee on a states advisory panel for the Center! What is Turpen doing today? Remember his ads, "It's Turpen Time!"???

Have been e-mailing with Trudy Ireland - the current Ms. Red River - OK women's senior bodybuilding champ in Tulsa about Tulsey TV and mused that that sport was never really covered by local TV much. She has a webpage www.trudyireland.com.

Mike Turpen and Burns Hargis do a "Crossfire"-type commentary, often heard on KRMG.

Thanks, I am gonna create a cartoon series about this. [GGG]

For those who are interested and haven't heard, there was a short article on Mazeppa (about the release of another Lost Mazeppa Tape) in Sunday's Tulsa World.

Here is the article.

[sigh] I remember going out to the Donohue remote (at the Incomparable Myriad?) but I don't think I worked the show.

Seems like they just iso'ed everything anyway... Not much of a job for a TD, which I think was my job at the time...

"...Remember when the truck was wrecked and 4 rebuilt it?..."

Ooh, a day that will live in infamy.

Somehow, they were turning onto Memorial Road from I35, and collided with a milk tanker truck. Really tore the trailer up. That was on, I think, a Tuesday. Channel 4 engineers, working around the clock, cobbled up a mobile unit in a leased trailer (our semi-tractor wasn't damaged) in time to go to Stillwater Saturday to shoot the OSU football game.

I had worked at Ch4 for 3 months at that point. I was real green, and the way I helped out was to Stay Away from the truck as ordered :-)

The wrecked trailer sat in the parking lot for a few months since nobody was sure whether it should be written-off or if it could be fixed. Finally, a Ch 4 engineer named Willard Hines went out and gave the trailer a good looking-over and pronounced it fixable. So we had the thing hauled to American Trailer Co., where they welded a whole new back end onto it. I think 4 stopped doing those kinds of remotes somewhere around 1990.

Donohue came back by 5 at least twice that week - shook EVERYONE'S hand in the station. I think sat thru a newscast in the Control Room too. Very down to earth to everybody I recall. The topics on his show that week had little to do with OKC though - which was weird.

Would have loved to have done the Oprah crew when she was in Amarillo during the big beef lawsuit - all of the shows looked like anywhere OTHER than AMA....

Lee Allen Smith -- a name from the past! Heard too many stories (bad) about him but never knew him well. Back when GM's were towering figures to stay away from.

Vaguely knew Bill Thrash, interviewed with Darrel Barton + Jay Spivey too long ago, knew "Moose" and Ollie in news talk to, and liked John Bushnell. I think I worked with one of his nephews or grandkids later in my career - Bushnell was a class act.

Re Donohue - visited the shoot but was basically a studio newscast director - still can't figure out why 5 got the call on that - 4 had the truck. Maybe 5 carried Donohue then? Somebody formerly from 5 worked on the show in NYC I recall - maybe that was the connection....Loved them "Macaroni" cameras but also remember the KTVY truck in the GE camera days of long long ago.

Remember when the truck was wrecked and 4 rebuilt it? Didn't you guys do an OU game from the back of a Ryder truck with stuff kit-bashed together while the truck was re-habbed?

...Hey - wasn't Mike (Dowd) Douglas' wife from OKC, too? I think I remember him doing a week in OKC a hundred years ago and Bob Hope was on it. Mike had taken his show on location there...

Yes, I was on that remote. A week's worth of shows on location at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Bob Hope is a buddy of Lee Allan Smith, who was KTVY VP at the time. Seems like Lee could get Bob to come to OKC just about any time he wanted. I dunno. Other guests that week included Marty Robbins and Tanya Tucker (during her Spandex phase).

...When I was at 5 in the early 80's - I recall we helped crew a week of Phil Donohue shows in OKC, too. But I think KTVY's truck was used - maybe one of "those Leslie guys" can remember some of this...Though the KTVY crew did almost all the "A" class remote stuff that came thru OK for years....

Yes, I was on that shoot, too. I think Greg Leslie was there as well, I don't remember for sure. What were you doing there, Mike B.? I was the guy who accidentally (I swear) told director Ron Weiner to "shut up". Man, sometimes I think my mouth is "possessed":-) Anyway, Phil D. shook my hand afterwards, so that was cool.

Here's another Okie-boy in DC geerzervation...

Friday - the event I worked here in DC - read my lips, No Dubya. He WAS To have been the big draw...No explanation why not.

We did get AG nominee Ashcroft - which was a surprise and no - he did not sing. I wedged past him schlepping a camera - he has no protective detail yet - just another "Seny-tor" and to tell you the truth - up close, he could be your insurance man....

Felt I was having flashbacks to Sun.morning pre-news pundit programming days on 8 in the '70's - had a fatter Jerry Falwell asking for prayers/understanding for Jesse Jackson (that story broke that morning) but he seems to have mellowed a tad; Texas' Ken Copeland; Paul Crouch - pres. of Trinity Broadcasting (KTBO-TV OKC) - who I thought had KFMJ ties way back when; Dr. Robert Schuller (who stills bounces and bounds everywhere), and a gaggle of "Texas League" televangelists plus the guy that wrote Chicken Soup for the whatever (he's franchising now..."we're doing a pilot for ABC...".).

Oh yeah - that icon of whenever - Rev.Sun Myung Moon did a long, hard to understand speech and got yet another award. He looks very old and not long for us all..Was 80 last year.

The most fun person to talk to was Dick Clark's semi-twin, Pat Boone. Several of us had worked with him before and he had the unenviable task of performing some melody-less, insipid-lyric filled song commissioned by this event. Hey, it's a living. But Pat is always good to talk to and techies/common folks like him because nothing rattles him and he is "just plain folks".

Uh, OKC was represented by Bailey Smith but saw no Tulsa badges.

Sign of the times - the headliners for the Christian Coalition Dinner that night were The Charlie Daniels Band (the soundcheck was worth listenin' to...) and Fred Travalena. Huh? Charlie Daniels Band? I guess he has had an epiphany or sumthin'.....

Hey - wasn't Mike (Dowd) Douglas' wife from OKC, too? I think I remember him doing a week in OKC a hundred years ago and Bob Hope was on it. Mike had taken his show on location there.

When I was at 5 in the early 80's - I recall we helped crew a week of Phil Donohue shows in OKC, too. But I think KTVY's truck was used - maybe one of "those Leslie guys" can remember some of this...Though the KTVY crew did almost all the "A" class remote stuff that came thru OK for years....

In our "6 degrees of separation" from Avco category....Question for brothers Broo, Hillis or Lundy - did the Avco TV holdings become Avco Embassy Pictures?

Yet I digress again here - sleep deprivation does it...Regis Philbin's former NYC co-host (and before he went "national") before Kathy Lee - for a short while was the ditzy Ann Abernathy from OKC & she was former KOCO Public Affairs Director. She married the Pres. of Embassy Pictures as I recall, so probably she never needed to work again after that. But she appeared as "West Coast" reporter ("can somebody write something for me?") on the abortive "USA Today ON TV" show after Regis dropped her.

Okay - get to the point, Bruchas....Did Avco begat Avco Embassy which begat Embassy Pictures I wonder too? (Gawd what a small world we live in...).

Okay - where is Crosley in this mix again - a car, refrigerator, a broadcaster?????

Just saw Richard Wilson's name in here. I have been looking for him for 2 or 3 years now! I am new here, so how do I get his e-mail thingy or somthin? Or he mine? I am on-line with a free 386 and am not computer savvy, but notice--it works! (with help from AOL)

Richard's email address can be found using the search engine, but I have emailed it directly to you, Edwin.

Since MGM now own the rights to UHF (they bought the Orion Pictures library in 1997), I'm wondering if there are a lot of people who would be interested in reissuing the movie on video.

Based on the prices that "UHF" brings on eBay, I have to think there is a big market for it. Might be time for a write-in campaign.

Hi...! Hey, I loved visiting your Tulsa Memories web site tonight. I remember when dear ol' G.Ailard S.Artain participated in a huge knock down drag out..."PICKLE FIGHT" at a local Tulsa McDonald's. Yep, the very same ol' dude otherwise known as Doctor Mazeppa Pompazoidi. He was a blast to watch.

Best wishes and keep up the good work here. Fer sure.

Jerry is quoted in the Tulsa World article linked from the Weird Al's "UHF" page on this site.

Sad day, indeed here in the Queen City. Local and regional legend Bob Braun was laid to rest.

Much has already been written here about Bob. He was a 'must stop' for any touring talent that came through the Midwest. In fact, his was a prototype for many of the latter day talk shows. His, however, featured much more variety (animal acts, girl singers, bands and live commercials.)

Tuesday, Jay Leno did a satellite talk back with one of our anchors about his numerous stops through Cincinnati, when he was a struggling comedian. Braun always had him on his show.

WLWT was a major producer of live, regional shows in the '50's and '60's. Three one hour shows, with live studio audiences, emanated from "T" daily. One, featuring a man named Paul Dixon, was the inspiration for Letterman.

Rod Serling got his start at WLWT. In our previous building, my office was his old office.

It's true, Bob's son, Rob, owns a company that builds ENG trucks. Rob is also a news anchor here at WKRC-TV (which launched the careers of Nick and Rosemary Clooney, Soupy Sales and others). He and I anchored together for six years, back in the early and mid '90's. I know this has little to do with Tulsa television. But John Hillis suggested I pass along some thoughts. And I've always listened to John, except when he cut my sportscast time.

Thanks, Ken.

Archived Guestbook 69... a long one, due to my home computer still being down.

We learned of the passing of Bill "Big Bill" Blair in El Paso, and of Dick Horan and Bob Braun (not "20/20"s Bob Brown). There was more about Gene Tincher, which was incorporated into his memorial page. We also heard more about OKC's Foreman Scotty and saw a picture of him from Greg Leslie.

A lot of new content will be arriving when I get my new, improved computer...stay tuned.