Check out those NPR links! My company transfers most of the video clips that NPR (right across the street here in snowy DC) puts on their website.

As we would say in OK - a Kissin' Cuzzin arrangement - they DO pay us to do so but not at "street rate" and often on little turn-around time....

The NPR link below now has RealAudio clips of the interview, so you don't have to catch it on the air.

So you're right across the street from NPR!

In case you missed Sputnik Monroe on NPR yesterday, or just didn't get enough, part 2 of the interview can be heard today (Friday) around 6:35 a.m. and 8:35 a.m. CST.

Time warp - sitting here watching a Tony Orlando and Dawn show on air from 1975 - talking about the upcoming celebrations of 1976! Ex-Tulsan Tony Randall with longtime Tulsa visitor Minnie Pearl were guest stars....Probably ex-Tulsan Mike Denney was running camera on it then!

Ah - a simpler time.....

Just heard - Jerry Gouin - long-time KOCO audio and tape man in the 80's - who had a later, much longer career in corporate TV at Halliburton in both Duncan, OK and Houston - died in January due to heart complications. Halliburton dedicated their last corporate TV project to him.

A good tech, a good photog who blossomed in corporate work.

He will be remembered and missed.....

On the subject of radio groupies: I confirm the comments of Frank Morrow et al, that generally they were responding to the image, the voice and music selection of the DJs. My one and only exposure to the phenomenon came during my younger KRMG days, I was working late one night and had finished up some news stories I was recording for the next day and went into the control room to chat with the DJ. He said one of the hangers-on had been bugging him all night. When I asked why he didn't pursue her he said he had met her once before and wanted no part of her.

Sure enough the phone rang again. The guy asked me to answer it and tell her he wasn't available. I saw this as my chance to see what this side of radio was like. So in my best radio voice I answered the phone. The woman paused and said, "Is (So-And-So) there?" "No," I said hopefully, he's busy right now, but maybe I can help you."

"No," she said disappointedly, crushing my ego, "You're just the newsman." And she hung up.

I hadn't thought of LYLE DEEEANNNNNnnnn (full slapback reverb) in eons. One of the giant-voiced top-40 station newsmen of the 60's that did 20/20 news and the like from what sounded like the back of a bear cave. In the early 70's I did that (with such meagre vocal equipment as God game me) to the unsuspecting people of Augusta, Georgia, and learned how much a Fairchild reverb cranked waaaaay up can hide...one little intake of breath sounds like a hurricane.

Mr. Bruchas may know that here in our little shop we have ex-WCFL jock Ron Riley doing AM weather for us. Ron's a great guy and does a heckuva job schlepping in from out near Ballimore every morning for a show that starts at 5 am.

Not Ron, but an ex-Tulsa (among many other places) anchor, who will remain nameless, about whom a news director once said: "he's been in more markets than The Greengrocer."

"I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them (the U.S.) get kicked around..." Remember this stirring speech set to a musical background and read by Mr. McGregor? It was a top 40 hit back in 1974! The full text can be read and heard here.

Re: Jim Back's comment on jokes about the Cox name. My bestest lady friend is a native of Massachusetts, so obviously Oklahoma in general was a big shock to her. I remember telling her once that I "had to pay my Cox bill". I'm sure you can imagine what sort of statement she made. I think she was slightly offended when I told her that it was a legitimate bill for a legitimate company and not exactly innuendo.

I've always felt bad for people associated with companies that had such names. That is, names that could be seen as vulgar or sexual. I had a friend in high school whose father was an instructor at a school in Texas, the Texas Institute of Technical Training. Of course, that's "TITT" for short. I believe they changed names. They may not be around anymore.

Here's probably more than you want to know about Cox as referenced by John Hillis a few messages ago) but since Cox now signs my paychecks I have picked up some knowledge of the company. (BTW, whatever joke you can think up involving their name, chances are the employees have already heard - or made up themselves!)

The company was founded by a guy named James Cox in the late 1800s who started with a newspaper in Ohio. He was a three term Ohio governor and ran for President in 1920 (with Franklin D. Roosevelt as his VP running mate). He lost to Warren Harding. Don't know what happened to FDR but Cox went back to publishing newspapers.

There have been various groupings of the company's different components over the years, but currently the parent holding company is called Cox Enterprises. Something like 90% of ALL of the company is owned by the three surviving grand-daughters of Mr. Cox. (They are in their 80s or 90s).

The companies owned by Cox Enterprises are Cox Communications (which includes the cable and local telephone operations), Cox Broadcasting (Radio & TV), Cox Newspapers, and Manheim Industries (Manheim Auction, Car Trader, etc.). Only Cox Communications and Cox Broadcasting are publically traded, and again, only about 10% of THAT stock is outside the control of the Cox "sisters."

The companies are run entriely seperately and if Cox Cable wants to buy ads on a Cox-owned radio station it buys time like everyone else. It's kind of like when Gannett owned both KOCO in OKC and Multimedia Cablevision (in the suburbs of OKC). During the first go-round of Must Carry/Retransmission Consent negotiations, the head of Gannett told the Broadcasting Group to get the best deal it could from Multimedia and told the head of the cable group to get the best deal he could out of Ch. 5. "Whichever way it goes," he said, "the company will get the benefit. But how well each team negotiates will show up on their respective bottom lines." I hate it when management comes up with clever strategy like that!

Gerry Harris is now Gerry Bonds I believe. I think she initially left KOCO to teach journalism at OKC Community College. She may still do that.

I'm not sure if Jack Bowen's contract with KOKH includes a hair clause. That is, the station is responsible for purchasing and maintaining his toupee's. I remember that being a sticking point when he left KWTV. Either he sued them or they sued him. Whatever the case, his hair became an issue. Another issue about that time was when he returned to KOCO. To publicize this event, KOCO adopted the "Jack's Back" campaign. They would show some guy (alleged to be Jack) with his back turned to the camera while the Beatles' "Get Back" played. It was discovered that this person was not Jack Bowen!! Oh my! I think they also felt some heat over using that song without permission. I think his first major assignment after returning to KOCO was doing live coverage from OKC's Opening Night, a big downtown New Year's celebration. I was there, and listening to the drunks yell "Jack's Back!!!" while Bowen tried to maintain a straight face was comical.

Mr. Sexy Voice - as previously mentioned here - Dave Duquesne then Howard Lane at last surfacing - was a kid with a high voice who died to be a Top 40 Boss Jock. TU's Fred Graves worked with him to deepen his delivery and he sounded a lot better (maybe late puberty?). Howard probably weighed 100 lbs. wet and had suffered from bad acne still in college. But as sited here before - when at KOFM in OKC in the '80's, women thought his voice "tres sexy". I had to chuckle at women at 5 in Traffic talking about this guy on the radio. They never knew....

Though I, too, should have had Fred Graves voice coaching - at age 50 now - I still sound like puberty is a'comin' soon + am "very nasal". This wrecked "my radio career", maybe a lot of my love life and hopes of being the next Lyle Dean (famous WLS radio DEEP VOICED newsman). Only when I have a sinus infection with gook draining into my voicebox, do I get a deeper voice. Oh, baby! Gack!

Just heard that former pro wrestler Sputnik Monroe is going to be interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition today (Thursday) between 5am-9am. Read about Sputnik and see him on NPR's site. You can also read about him here on the 1st Mazeppa page; he was once on the show!

One night when I was driving to work (while listening to KTUL-Radio in Turley), I noticed the deejay had inadvertently left his microphone on while he chatted with a female caller. (This girl may have been one of Frank’s rejects.)

Anyway, the conversation got quite graphic. After a couple of minutes another line rang and the announcer put the heavy breathing girl on hold. Over the music you could clearly hear the deejay exclaim: “It is?..... I am?.... Oh God!”

After that I was extremely cautious about talking with “lonely women” on the phone. Although some of the more expressive callers were taped for others to enjoy.

Anyway, most of them were attracted to DDT….the deep tones of Bob Gregory. My late night show seemed to draw mostly those women who were still at the bar following “last call.”

I worked for Cox in Atlanta before I moved to Tulsa. It was always a good company, but less focused on radio (though its WSB-AM did 40 and 50 shares in Atlanta and it had a few other flamethrowers like KFI, WIOD, and WHIO) than on newspapers, TV and cable.

The first big cable property was Cox's in San Diego, where they imported L.A. over-the-air signals. It was the biggest system in the country for about 20 years until the early 80's. It also still owns the biggest chain of used car auctions in the country, and bought Bing Crosby Productions from der Bingle, making it producer of "Hogan's Heroes."

Over the years, it went public, went back private, and went public again with cable and a separate radio stock. I think the Cox family (the scion was James L. Cox, the Democratic candidate for president in 1920) always maintained voting control.

I'd be interested in knowing if Cox uses its radio properties to promote cable or vice versa. Back in the 70's it held the daily newspapers, top radio and tv stations and the cable franchise in Atlanta. Somehow, cable never took off in that town until the FCC made them divest it.

When I worked for it, Cox was an old-line broadcasting company. I got to work with some of the upper level management during a talent strike in '74...these guys left the big desks upstairs for the anchor desks and they weren't half bad, if a little rusty. Don't think today's radio or tv execs could do that.

As recounted here before - I worked with Jack Bowen very briefly in Tulsa at his 2 week (?) turn at 6 and later at KOCO for 4+ years.

Funny how he grew dark hair over 2-3 years' time. And that while his face is agin', his hair ain't!

Seems like 4 & 5 back then had not as many anchor changes as 9 in the early '80's. I still can't figure out why later - 5 would hire anchors cast off from other stations with lower TVQ's - unless they were desperate for the money.

Reporters yes - anchors with "losing books" - no...If folks did not like them on 9 - why would they be liked 4 channels away?

Ditto Gerry Harris (Whatever she is now on OETA)- she was a Yankee with a CT/Noo Yawk accent, Mary Ruth Carleton was an ex-Dallas-ite. Gerry was nice but distant from us at 5 - Mary Ruth could be tough to work with but a professional that often stuck up for little folks with Management. She was well-regarded by all of us troops.

5's then drunken management also told us repeatedly that Gerry's then husband WAS a producer/director and intimated that we (Jim Rankin, Mark Ferguson, myself) could be axed for him. They never did - he some free-lance work for 5 but I believe worked for agencies in OKC or tried to.

Gerry was a shock for a choice - not a bad lady but whom in KOCO management or what Gannett TV Corporate VP of News Jim Sieger was thinking about the audience in a OKLAHOMA market when she was hired????

I had a big laugh at Frank Morrow's (slick Frankie's) posting. We've all been there. I used to remind young guys that the caller must have something wrong if they had to telephone a complete stranger to hit on. I worked the same show at KAKC as Frank did. I wonder if anyone ever listened except lonely women. Later, in "top-40" stations, they were usually too young and, still later, in "country", they were too drunk.

I haven't heard any mention of groupies or lonely female callers to the hosts at night disk jockey shows. This was something I had not anticipated as a very callow eighteen-year-old TU freshmen with a night music program, "Music for Listening," at KAKC in 1951.

The first call I got, a woman said, "I'm just lying here in bed, listening to your show."

I didn't know enough to take the bait. I merely said, "Are you enjoying the music?" She replied that she did, but that she didn't like to listen by herself. I still didn't know what she was implying.

After a few weeks I got a call from a little girl, probably not more than six or seven years old. She wanted to meet me and "do the things that mommies and daddies do." I advised her to find someone who was nice and close to her age to do these things with.

This was followed by a girl who was a little older, perhaps in early junior high. She was very graphic as to what she wanted to do to me. "I love you," she kept repeating.

All this seemed strange to me. These people didn't know me at all. All they knew was my voice and the music I played. Furthermore, no one had ever given me advice as to how to handle these situations. So, to play it safe, I just humored all the callers.

(Parenthetically, I noticed that I could manipulate the moods of the listeners and the nature of the calls I got by the type of music I played. If I played happy, up-tempo music with some funny songs, people who called would be in a good mood; if I played love songs, horny women would call; but, if played sad songs, callers would be depressed, and I might hear some sad stories. The listeners' record requests would also reflect this.)

Once, a woman called and was wanting to meet me. I perceived that this was an older, experienced female. This was a little scary to little, virgin me. I told her that she certainly sounded nice, but that I was only eighteen years old. She replied, "After I get hold of you, you'll be thirty!" I excused myself. After I hung up, I kicked myself for not having sufficient confidence. Added to the complexity of the situation was the fact that I had been going with my first serious girl friend, Shirley Barbour--the current Miss Oklahoma--for about a year.

The next caller sounded like another grade schooler. She wanted to meet me. I parried the question, and asked her what grade she was in. She laughed and said that she was in her late twenties. I swallowed hard, and invited her to come down to the station.

Soon the buzzer rang for entrance to the front door. Looking down the long hall, I noticed a shapely, attractive, redheaded woman standing outside. I immediately unlocked the door. After sign-off we went to her house. We danced closely, and I got enough courage to kiss her on the cheek. After an hour or so, I excused myself, saying that I had a nine o'clock class in the morning, all the time kicking myself for not being more assertive.

John Doremus never had this problem.

Ralph Combes came to KWTV at a time when television news was thought to be quite serious, and there was to never be any light, happy stories or happy looks on the set. He and Gary England changed that. Gary just seems to ooze giddiness sometimes, and he and Ralph were a riot together. Gary relates several Ralph stories in his book, "Weathering The Storm". It's at the Tulsa Central Library in the Oklahoma Collection if anyone wants to take a look. I believe Ralph was relieved at 9 by Roger Cooper. I think he came around about that time.

Jerry Adams is one of a few anchors to have been the male news lead at all 3 major OKC stations. After he was let go by KOCO (He, Jane Jayroe, and the McCain bros all got the axe about the same time), he did some car commercials, and ended up in legal hot water on drug charges. Jack Bowen did a story on him for KOKH, and he was washing houses and mowing lawns for a living. I thought someone told me he was doing a hunting show for an outdoors network.

Action 4, 5 Alive, Big 9. Puke. The sad part is that KOCO carried the "5 Alive" moniker into the early 90s!

Beth Rengel is still very good looking. I know someone who used to work audio for those Riverside commercials, and he said she could be quite the firecracker if technical difficulties held up filming. I suppose some things never change, but I'm sure she bites her tongue more now.

Hmmm... The Big 9 logo reminded me of a Jerry Adams story. Shortly after 4 hired him away from 9 to anchor "Action 4 News", Jerry was doing a live update from the newsroom, and ended it with "We'll have more tonight at ten on Big........Four........Action News."

I believe Beth Rengel came to Tulsa in '78. I remember it was right after we did election coverage because Barbara Allen stayed for that.

The mention of Beth Rengel on Channel 41 prompts me to suggest an award for "the best genes". I just saw a current new spot she did for Riverside Chevrolet and she is still gorgeous. I have been off TV for seventeen years and I know she was around Tulsa before that for at least ten or fifteen years. Amazing!

This makes me recall a query to "Lionel" as to why he and "Granny" never aged. He stated that it was all in their genes.....which were "latex".

Channel 9 in OKC has a nice tribute to Bill Teegins, with a RealVideo clip.

Ralph Combes footnote - Ralph was the first TV person to sue an employer for age discrimination in OK.

I believe he was at 9 (maybe 4?) for years as anchor or a second-tier anchor and they let him go "because he was too old" at age 45. This may have been on Duane Harm's watch at 9 or before his posting there. I need one of "them Leslie brothers" that read TTM to pick their minds to see if they can remember more on this OKC story.

This may have also been prompted by that pioneering suit for the same reason in KC at the same time by the female anchor - Christine Craft.

Anyway, I heard Ralph got some money out of the deal from his previous employer and also the Autry folks liked him enough to be their main anchor. Wonder where he is now - in his retirement? That was about 18 years ago!

I had forgotten all about Chris Davala!

Oh yeah - did we ever find out where former 9 reporter Vicki Monks ended up at? She had a breathy deep voice......

Patrick must've just got his message sent before mine. I was going to mention Bob Barry, Jr. I believe he was still in college at OU when he was hired by KAUT. He's still at KFOR, along with his dad, but Junior succeeded his dad as sports director a few years back. Does anyone remember KAUT's meteorologists? I'm trying to remember and I'm drawing a blank. I do remember their ad campaign in the newspaper. They would find someone who watched their station and get some cheesy quote from them about why they watch. They'd place the quote next to a picture of that person giving a thumbs up, and their motto was, "TV-43's For Me!"

Question for Jim Reid...wasn't KGCT's studios at 819 S Main? I can't remember if it was there or the building next door. It is sad to see that there are no more retail stores downtown. The Renberg's building still has a sign on it, and one might think it was still open, if it weren't for the fact that the city is tearing out that section of the Main Mall for traffic.

I remember KAUT in OKC. I think they called it NewsWatch 43, and they had live news from about noon until 3 and replayed they same broadcast from 3 to 7. After 7, they were pay tv. I'll never forget Chris Davala and Ralph Combes. Ralph was an OKC TV veteran, and I think Chris was used to radio news. Their styles didn't blend well.

Yeah, I remember KAUT channel 43 in OKC. They had a scrambled pay-tv service called VEU in the evenings, and did all-news during the day.

They had Ralph Combes as their main anchor. They also brought Bob Barry Jr. back to OKC to do sports.

When their news operation folded, Bob went to channel 4 to work for his dad. He's still there, I believe.

I worked at channel 41 when they became a pay service after 7pm. We had a live newscast from noon to 7pm.

The studios were on the main mall in the old Lerner clothing store. It was actually a fun experience for the three months it lasted.

I was the director, our anchors were John Hudson, Beth Rengel, and John Erling.

Karen Keith was a reporter there and holds the distinction of being the only person who worked for both KGCT in Tulsa and KAUT in OKC. LeAnne Taylor worked there as an engineer.

While I was working there I ran into Don Woods one day. He told me he had seen our show and it looked like a telethon without a disease.

RE Slick Willie's origins. I defer to Mike Miller, who was in LR at about the same time I was but recalls the details better. Greenberg did take credit for inventing the moniker. Starr picked it up after that and ran with it all the time. He got the credit in a lot of folks' minds since he had a statewide editorial page at his disposal and his daily column functioning as a personal blaring megaphone. He once invented a Slick Willie mythical award and announced in his column that he had selected as the recipient some Clinton staffer whom he believed had committed some governmental boondoggle. The staffer apparently didn't see the irony in it and called Starr asking when he could come pick up his award.

As for Fast Eddie, that was Eddie Powell, the mayor of North Little Rock. But another fellow in Arkansas then was also known as Fast Eddie -- then-Razorback coach Eddie Sutton, now of Stillwater. That was in Eddie's leisure suit days before he permed his hair.

Don't forget "STV" that KAUT in OKC fed NATIONALLY VIA SATELLITE at night - if you had an "authorized" receiver box via your normal home antenna. Subscription TV.

Wasn't ch. 41 in Tulsa that - way back when?

Erick - there was TVQ and also I think THE - That's Home Entertainment. The latter had a transmitter on the same big downtown OKC bank that KOCO had our tracking microwave antenna. THE had a lot of reception problems and I remember my OKC apt.complex having 2 dishes on the roof - left by previous tenants. THE never came back to reclaim their dishes!

Bro Hillis can probably also tell us about Cox. He spent time in Hotlanta. As I recall Stanley Mouse (no relation to Mickey but HE MADE $$) ran Cox's WSB for a long time and was Pres. of the TV station group. Cox seems to be changing revenue streams a lot - used to be very conservative in spending but a very good company to work for.....

You make an interesting point, Mike. KAKC was at 970 for many years, but KCFO took over that freq several years back. The KAKC calls have been at 1300am for about 10 years, and it's a Spanish language format! KEBC in OKC used to be at 94.7fm, when it was sold to Clear Channel. Now, those calls recently resurfaced at 1340am, another Spanish language station. KKNG was at 92.5fm ever since I can remember, and after nearly 10 years of belonging to a station in southern Oklahoma, they've resurfaced at a new freq in OKC, 93.3fm. KOFM, another set of familiar OKC calls from 104.1fm, now belong to a station in Enid. I guess if if they have any name value, any station will take them.

I think Cox Radio has been around the southeast for many years. They're based in Atlanta, and own several stations there. When I returned to Tulsa in '97, they only owned KRAV, KGTO and KJSR. They doubled that when they bought out Great Empire. I don't think they own any stations in OKC, Clear Channel and Citadel are the big conglomerates there. Cox Cable (now Cox Communications) recently bought out TCI Cable and now run the Tulsa system. When OKC first got cable, I remember it being later than other cities. I want to say it was the very early 80s when cable came to town, but I could be wrong. I remember having something called TVQ, which was a paid channel service. You had to put this big ugly antenna thing on your roof that had a small aluminum thing that almost looked like a satellite dish. I think they changed the name at AntennaVision. Geez, I hope that's not around anymore. The reception was horrible on a clear day, and it was next to impossible to decipher during bad weather.

I went thru the mega-list of OK radio stations - there must be twice as many on air as was when I left OK 16 years ago! What's confusing is that call letters from my days in Tulsey and OKC are now affixed to stations not in those domiciles. And I presume there may be more internet radio sites???

Cox was always big in cable - when did they go big in radio?

Paul Greenberg, Editorial page editor, Arkansas Democrat Gazette is generally given credit for coining to the term: "Slick Willie."

Greenberg is quoted in an interview:

"As best as I can determine, thanks to the help of the Pine Bluff public library, it had it's origin on September 27, 1980, shortly after Bill Clinton gave a speech before the state Democratic convention in which he depicted himself as in the tradition of progressive governors in this state, an assertion that offended us at the Pine Bluff Commercial because we thought of him as more of a trimmer who had broken this succession of reform governors, from Winthrop Rockefeller, to Dale Bumpers, to David Prior. And so we used the sobriquet, Slick Willy on that occasion and it caught on."

However, I'd like to set the record straight. When I was news director at Channel 7 and Channel 11 in Little Rock in the late '70s, Clinton was already well-known by that name. (He was Attorney-General then.)

In fact, I recall our reporters had nicknames for a number of Arkansas political types. The Mayor was known as "Fast Eddie" (can't recall his full name) and the Attorney-General was "Slick Willie."

The Pine Bluff newspaper merely published a name that had been making the rounds for several years.

New picture of the 1962 Radio-TV baseball squad (including Mike Miller) now in the Photo Briefcase.

I think Griffin wanted any changes to KOTV to be very subtle and gradual. I wouldn't say there have been any major news format changes that you wouldn't normally see stations make. Of course, changes behind the scenes (new news directors, general managers, et al) could seriously alter the on-air landscape at KOTV. KWTV and Griffin have historically made drastic and hasty behind the scenes changes on short notice. We'll see.

Is Western Farmers Electrical Co-op in Anadarko still around? My uncle worked for them for years in the 80's. He was laid off, and I assumed it was from a buy-out. And I vaguely remember hearing something about it. Well, I guess that's not really an on-topic issue.

Here's an interesting side story. I was downtown earlier, and there was a glass truck outside of the Mayo, and it looked like they were trying to replace glass panels in the ground level windows. Could we be seeing the beginnings of a renovation finally? I understand Coury Properties have taken control of the building. They were reponsible for renovation of the old Ambassador Hotel a few years back. If the Mayo ever does reopen, you can go ahead and book my reservation. Same for the Skirvin in OKC.

What is new about 6 since Griffin TV control happened? Are you Tulsey-ites seeing more OKC coverage? Any anchor changes or format changes?

Did ORU ever put a broadcast radio station back on air after KORU-FM signed off and was sold. It became KKUL. Was wondering if later campus regimes got back into radio...

Any other university or TJC running stations besides TU's KWGS these days? What about OSU? Does Rogers State have a radio counterpart to their TV operation?

Way back when OETA's Bob Allen wanted to ring the state with OETA-FM stations and make all the OKC-based on-air TV talent pull daily radio shifts too - kind of an "anti-NPR" with zzzzz boring call-in shows and zzzzz boring Capitol C-SPAN-like radio coverage. Did this ever get funded?

Here is a list of Oklahoma radio stations on the air. This and a similar list for TV are near the top of the Links page. Rogers State University's KRSC-FM operates out of Claremore; we have had several visitors to this site from KRSC.

Thanks, Sonny - the fog is clearing - yes, Dean Kelly WAS really Dean Jenkins. Had to look it up in an old TU book to confirm it. I fell for the old "Kelly" moniker ploy!

Another TU compatriot of that era Mike Parnell is out there somewhere. He worked at KELi at night. He may have also been Mike Nelson if I recall - not Mike Kelly...He was there just before or maybe concurrently as Dean Jenkins was.

Former long-time Tulsan Dale Phariss is now a long time Anadarkoian(?). To pay bills to go to TU - he was the janitor at KELi at night in the '70's. Dale is a great still shooter and good video hand. He lucked into a job at West Farmers Electric Coop in Anadarko as a video production specialist back in the '80's and I believe is still there. They were a small but well managed "co-op" and very progessive in video use for staff and clients.

TU classmate Mark Daugherty - brother of KOTV/OETA/now Wiltel's Rex Daugherty also worked with him for years there. Someone said Mark might be back in Tulsa doin' corporate video now.

MB...Dean Kelly was Dean Jenkins' moniker while at KELi. He had worked at KTOW prior to that. He later worked for Clear Channel in sales, and was last heard on the air at Bill Payne's Classic Country KTFX (102.3...Sand Springs) before Payne sold the station to Cox.

Dean's son is local country vocalist Brandon Jenkins.

Don't know where he is now, but at least one of his old KELi buds would like to talk to him again. If anyone knows his whereabouts, email me or write back on the guestbook.

Jim Bouton praised the view afforded by the bleachers at Oiler Park in his classic baseball book, "Ball Four".

In response to Mike's question about Slick Willie's in Little Rock -- it's still there. I was there about a year ago. It's near the Capitol and the legend is that it was named for Clinton. It wasn't. It was founded before he became governor and the name Slick Willie hadn't yet been coined by Arkansas Democrat columnist John Robert Starr. I'm not sure if Clinton ever hung out there. He never was a beer drinker and that's the main offering there.

Help me - is the Chuc Wagon still on 11th Street across from what was Lynn Hickey Dodge? Had forgotten all about it...

When in Little Rock - have any of you ever been to "Slick Willie's"? Is on the lower level of big AMTRAK depot there. I heard it was a Clinton hang-out many moons ago. Was wunderin' if it was still there.

The Chuc Wagun is long gone from 11th & Lewis.

Anyone remember DEAN Kelly from KELI? I think for once Kelly WAS his last name. He went to TU with so many of us after an Army tour. Great set of Top 40 pipes. Anyone know of his where-abouts?

Also where did "Jeff Peters" go - was on KXXO and elsewhere. Real name Jefferson Peter Leughanbuhl - same as the family with several funeral homes in NE OK. Radio was not a "dead" subject with him. Anyone hear from him?

I just added a couple of photos to the Photo Briefcase, courtesy of Noel Confer and Bill Hyden. If you can ID some of the unknowns, please write in the Guestbook, or send an email to the webmaster.

To best view both these ID's and the pictures, open a 2nd window by going to File/New/Window on your browser (if possible).

The first telethon on Tulsa TV was in 1954. Maybe Noel can tell us what the cause was. Here are the ID's Noel provided:

(Front row, seated, L to R)
Bill ???, photographer (???)
Ray Klinge, director (advertising/production, Tulsa)
Noel Confer, announcer (40 yrs in SoCal, radio/TV, retired in Tulsa)
Bill Borthick, camera (teacher, Palm Springs)
Ed Rickey, camera (director, KABC, L.A., retired)
Bill Sadler, program director (deceased)

(Back row, L to R)
Gene Taylor, camera (worked at ad agency in CA, still in CA)
Ellison Stambaugh, director (Channel 5, L.A., deceased)
Verdell Sexton, camera (KTUL director, deceased)
Tad Allen, film (pilot, sales, deceased)
Fred Koma (sp?), director (OKC, retired)
???, floor crew
Art Scott, floor crew (barber, L.A.)
Roy Dieterlin, camera (???)
----------------------------

Radio-TV Night at Oiler Park (circa 1954-56):

Bat boy - Mark Finnerty

(Front row, L to R) Tom Jenkins, Ken Vandever, Mack Creager, Hugh Finnerty, Bill Hyden

(Back row) Tony George, ???, Perry Ward, ???, John Turner, Ed Neibling

"Dream of Olwen" was used as a theme song by Isabelle Ronan for Central High's "Experimental Theater of the Air," the weekly 30-minute program over KOME.

By the way, Miss Ronan's masters thesis, which was written in the early 1920s, was entitled "Radio." All there was to know about radio at that time was contained in it.

Catching up on the newspaper, I just read that in 1920, there wasn't much to write about radio, but that by 1922, it had already become a popular medium.

Just read Bob Losure's book, "Five Seconds to Air" (man, I hope I got the title right). What a great read! Lots of stories and pics from his days at KRMG and KOTV. Bob also has a website at, ironically enough, www.boblosure.com.

...where you can order an autographed copy of the book.

A link to visit the Tulsa library online (and many other Tulsa resources) can be found on Gaye Brown's link page.

Welcome Back WebMeister!

Thanks...THE Carol Doda?

A great discovery for me - thanks to Don Norton. I might never have made it into the business without his help back there in 1949 at Tulsa University.

At the 50th KOTV anniversary in November of 1999 I don't recall anyone mentioning that we had a signon and signoff theme song over which the announcer read the standard messages that were made in those days. The theme song was a beautiful piano rendition of "Dream of Olwen" (you can hear the music at this link...webmaster). We always signed on and off in those days with our national anthem. It's too bad we aren't patriotic enough any more to continue that old tradition.

I've got a lot of catching up to do with reading all your wonderful letters of memory from one of America's greatest cities - Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Best Regards,
Harry Volkman,
Weekend Meteorologist at WFLD-TV in Chicago.

Welcome, Harry, glad you found us! Harry can be seen on the TTM Weather page.

Just recalled a bizarre KTUL-TV coverage incident in 1980.

Mud wrestling was going strong at Cain's Ballroom, promoted and managed by Mark Hine a.k.a. Mark Mason, who had worked at Channel 8 when I was doing 8's The Place stuff.

I knew it (mud) was a big thing then and tried time and time again to get the news department to do a piece on it, but no dice. Tried the same thing with the sports department, but they also declined (too hot to handle).

Finally, I decided to get it shot myself and asked cameraman T.C. Clark, better known as "T", if he would be interested. That did it!

So on a given night in 1980, "T" shows up at Cain's along with another production cameraman; I think it was Dale H., "Heits." Then surprisingly, Becky Dixon from sports shows up with a cameraman. Then news also decides to send a cameraman. All in all, we had four cameras there to catch all the action, more than ABC Sports would have used for regional football.

The coverage was somewhat slippery, but EVERY angle was captured. True soldier that he has always been, T.C. found his way into the girls' dressing room and returned to say, "That's where the real action is!" All of the footage was carefully viewed by us many, many times.

And interestingly, one of the girls turned out to be an engineer's girlfriend or something and he did not appreciate her being shown doing what she was doing...go figure.

But the thing I remember most about that night was during one of the bouts, a girl's boob pooped out of her top and Mark Hine shouted over the PA system, "There's one lookin' at ya!

That was Uncle "We'll be lookin' fer ya!" Zeb, ladies and germs!

When Mary Rose was anchoring at KTUL, her husband Charlie was doing a local talk show at KXAS-TV in Fort Worth. Mary was a very nice lady and a pleasure to work with.

Archived Guestbook 71 after returning from vacation.

We learned about the tragic OSU plane crash which took the life of Bill Tietgens (Teegins). There are multiple links and TTM reader comments.

We saw Mike Miller today and Noel Confer both yesterday and today. Frank Morrow weighed in with some radio memories. Don Norton relayed a message from Harry Volkman, Tulsa's 1st weatherperson. We heard from Bokchito, OK! A new book about CNN, "Me And Ted Against The World" by Reese Schonfeld, mentions TTM contributor John Hillis. The Tulsa band "Rubbery Cargo" was recalled.

We heard from KOTV newsman Jim Bunn and Tulsa radio's Dick Loftin for the 1st time. Lee Woodward and many other regular contributors paid visits. There were stories about the John Chick show, Teddy Jack Eddy, "Jonathon" and other topics destined for the main pages of the site.

This Guestbook was long, but full of content...be sure to check it out.

I just discovered that all links to Tulsa World stories on this site are now broken. You can search the World's archives for free, but you must pay a fee to read any story in its entirety.