Erick - 04/14/99 01:17:23 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments:
Bob Cooper ended his stint on the morning show at K95 last week. Supposedly,
he will stay on as program director. Mark - 04/14/99 00:41:36 Location: Jenks,OK
Comments:
I met Bob Cooper a few times out at an East Tulsa country music dance place.
Last I known, he still working at K95FM, doing his Cooper & Company show
and did weekend weather for 6. Erick - 04/13/99 20:26:37 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments:
I always loved Fred Norman. I remember when he spoke to my 5th grade class
many a year ago. Very funny guy, big nose, high pitched voice. Lost his job
at KOCO about 3 or 4 times for various reasons. He's still in OKC, I think
teaching a class at OKC Community College. Ross Dixon is dry...no kidding.
He and Fred were a great duo at 5 in it's heyday of the 70s. I remember when
his son was kidnapped in the early 80s. He worked right through it, and refused
to talk about it on the air. He still does the weather for OETA news. Mike Bruchas (again) - 04/13/99 16:36:02
Comments: Mike went on to Little Rock to report and anchor then became a press secretary to some AR congressman. His hyper-smart, hyper-mature 10 year son used to come into work with him and sit upstairs at KTUL yacking with the engineers and us on weekends while Dad was doing stories. Gary Gunter - a weekend 6 anchor in the 70's with a dry wit and who was a better producer than anchor I thought - was up here anchoring the midday & early evening news in Altoona/Johnstown, PA for years. His wife Dr. Maggie Gunter was a sociologist (I think) in Pittsburgh - so he commuted back and forth on weekends from Altoona. Haven't heard from him in 5-6 years though...
Before Gary England in OKC - wasn't Jim Williams at 4 the acknowledged best
weatherman in state? I loved quirky Fred Norman, dry Ross Dixon when I was
at 5. Ross was a producer's dream - tell him in IFB that he was cut to 3
minutes for weather due to a breaking story -or- sports was running late
and he needed to fill 5 minutes on short notice -- he always delivered. Mike Bruchas - 04/13/99 16:19:10
Comments: They came from Ohio as I recall. It's been 10 years but Judd or the third/mystery brother was head of NBC's Business TV unit here for a while in the mid-80's. NBC set this up to do corporate TV work using NBC crews, their owned but not always used satellite space or studios and I think to sell file video. It was a novel way to create a new profit center with existing resources. They would have refered downlink services for viewing satellite-fed meetings to local NBC stations like KJRH. I think they targeted Fortune 500 and lobbyists groups here. I bid on a job with them - using the space The McLaughlin Group tapes in and union rules were going to force us to set, light and shoot the same day. The price wasn't bad either for a union crew - but someone nixed the shoot at my company. When CNBC was created - some folks rolled over to that but most lost jobs. I think Mike Hambrick may have co-anchored with former Tulsan Rhea Blakey on 7 here a couple of times. It is a smaller world.
Glen Fisher - forgot all about him. I think he came from FL but had a MA
accent. Did he replace Mack Creager or come after Ken Broo at 6? M. Ransom - 04/13/99 05:56:41 Location: Tulsa
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And how about Dan P. Holmes and Highway 33? Erick - 04/13/99 05:47:48 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: I do wonder how I'm gonna match all of this Tulsa trivia. Being from OKC, I know that stuff well, but it really doesn't apply to this site. Well, let's see...
Bill Mitchell, who was at 2 and 8 was at KOCO for many years, and is back
at 8. Jon Slater, who was at 2 for a while, was also at KOCO for a few years,
then went to 8. He recently left 8 for a postion in Kansas City. Mike Morgan,
who was Gary Shore's right hand man at 2, went to KOCO for a while (replacing
the well-loved Wayne Shattuck as chief meteorologist), and eventually went
to KFOR (again replacing Shattuck). Mike is currently the top watched
meteorologist in the state. Cindy Morrison, currently on 8 came over from
KOCO. She shortened her name, as it was Cindy Wall-Morrison. Jeff Lazalier
who's at 2, was more or less the odd man out at KFOR. I don't believe he
and Mike Morgan got on too well. That's about as close of a connection as
I can make with Tulsa and OKC news. Mark (again) - 04/13/99 01:58:06 Location: Jenks, OK Favorite Tulsa TV show: 6 in the Morning
Comments:
Nancy Herr co-anchored with Jones on 2. Diane Frost was a weekend weatherwoman
on 6 in the early 80's. Her stay was short lived. I think I spilled out more
memories than a can of beans, but it'll probably fill up again. By the way,
when Bob Losure came back on the air, he thanked Diane's daughter for bringing
him a cup of Dr. Pepper. I hope I was right.
How about Judd Hambrick on 8? He is the "Judd" who creates the "Scrabble"
puzzles in the newspaper every day. I believe he is up in Cleveland
now. Erick - 04/12/99 03:38:44 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: Mark - 04/12/99 00:53:45 My Email:mjh5364@compuserve.com Location: Jenks,Okla. Favorite Tulsa TV show: 6 in the Morning How did you find TTM?: geocities.com
Comments: On KJRH 2 Newscenter 2 became Channel 2 News in 1990 then rearranged the title to NewsChannel 2 shortly thereafter. On KTUL 8 Total 8 Tulsa became News 8 in '82 or '83. I didn't know Gloria Strickland's firing from 6 was as worse as what happened to Beth Rengel when she was fired from 8 when she said a bad word on the set. Bob Stevens was KOTV's sportscaster in the mid 80's.
Anybody know why Bill (THE MOOSE) Pitcock left 6 after 1 week of anchoring
Eyewitness News with Melanie Roberts? He came back to anchor the news after
a long absence, but left again after 1 week. It was in the late 70's. Don Lundy - 04/11/99 10:14:29 My Email:dlundy@kero.com
Comments:
I wonder if Dick Campbell is on the internet? Mike Bruchas (again) - 04/10/99 20:00:38 Location: Atlantic Media Center
Comments: Paul Harvey was syndicated and semi-undated via videotape - I think at one time, every station in town ran him. I think it is like the bidding wars station do for Oprah! or Springer (yuck). Harvey's radio commentaries were very popular. Like Cronkite - he was one of the first patriotic conservatives to note that Nam was dragging on with too much US troop loss of life. He lost stations over this, too.
I think Jack Morris' closers may have been his idea to lighten up the end
of a show, though I think I heard Jan Berry(?) - a former producer at 8 wrote
some. She was a gem who went to 6 before I was at 8. She wrote good shows
at 6 - think she gave it up for Motherhood and something better than TV. Mike Bruchas - 04/10/99 19:06:14
Comments: I do not think Jack Morris was on these limbo sets. I DO remember all the promotion when he went to 2. I never watched Jack Morris - because of his insipid "closers" and hawkish attitude. I just barely remembered the laughable helicopter open on 8. As a dorm student at TU in '69 we always watched 6 and then Cronkite. Maybe we would watch Peter Jennings. 2 seemed very hawkish during its Nam coverage and anti-student and the Peace movement. NBC News had credibility, Jack Morris did not. We watched 6 for Lee Woodward razzing the Moose (Bill Pitcock) and the feature stories. 6 stories were longer and more informative. Later years I thought - sometimes their stories were too long and reporter-personal, not mainstream news. Maybe this helped an improved channel 8.
In the late 70's 2 seemed to have good photogs who visualized the stories
well but mediocre reporters. The late Jerry Webber was the old shoe that
was channel 2 - maybe the most recognizable symbol of 2, but we always joked
that he inflated his hair up before a cast because it was so tall. He was
not a bad guy - John Hudson was the most likeable 2 person in the news community
I thought. I have a dim memory of Jack Morris on 8 news, sponsored by McElroy's. This was in the black and white days.
You previously mentioned lusting after "Judi Judy" while at TU...any other
Mazeppa related stories come to mind? Erick - 04/10/99 15:00:08 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments:
Total 8 Tulsa...how long did that moniker last? Weren't those newscasts sponsered
by Safeway (now Homeland)? Mike Bruchas - 04/10/99 14:37:32
Comments: I guess the late and beloved John Hudson left 2 to try something different - maybe make more $$. Karen Keith was still pretty young as a tv pro then, too. Maybe this was her first prime anchor job... Speaking of consultant directed formats: Wichita (KARD?)and WJLA in DC were "On Your Side" station cities - the stations were to be perceived as more viewer advocative and usually had I-teams - either serious conusmer or investigative reporter units. Back to 8: The camera noise open on Total 8 Tulsa was an idea of Scott Blaker's or Carl Bartholomew's (they used John Chick's motorized Nikon I think for the sound). I am not sure if KTUL consultant Frank Magid & Associates' Richard Sabreen suggested the mouthy news name change. I think the plan was 8 was TOTAL NEWS and the name was re-worked. We guffawed at the name on reporter kiss-offs at first - but it worked. I think Chris Lincoln didn't use it though. Incidentally Scott Blaker "did" all the music for the OIL IN OKLAHOMA series - finding sources and cutting music to fit the pieces. The theme was from the movie OKLAHOMA CRUDE which opened at SouthRoads Cinema with Jack Palance appearing in town. He has one of the best "ears" in town for production. Incidentally is/was the brother-in-law of Dave Jones from KTFO - both worked at KRAV and other places in town in the 70's. Do you remember the simple but effective old news eight set? Is was in black limbo. Only 1 person in the anchor stool at a time with a toss to/from Woodsy. We didn't need a "team" to do a good show. Magid helped 8 go dual anchor - Susan Silver, a new but very good late producer and fresh from TU was elected to be on-air talent for the first time in her life with recognized Bob Hower. I guess 8 shot for an older guy, younger gal look to appeal to Tulsans. (It is still big here on the East Coast but in DC, one member of the team is always African-American because we are a city with 56% like population.). Chummy happy talk news came to 8 though never as silly as at 2 or 6's end of show banter with 5-6 folks on that green set. Incidentally at 8 0n the first Total 8 Tulsa set, an extra building was painted in on the skyline - we did the same at KOCO. Those darned artists! Now back to 6: I have a question on KOTV. Helen Alvarez - was she GM or owner at one time? Heard she owned Lassie, too*. Also remember her tied to RETLAW - Walt Disney's name spelled backwords - the Disney first foray into local TV station ownership in CA. Any old 6'ers out there remember her? I remember Buddy Allison telling me about John Hay "Jock" Whitney - when Dun & Bradstreet's Corinthian TV Corp. owned 6. This famous big rich guy from Wall Street came out yearly for meetings - but always had time to chat with little folks at 6 AND remembered staff names. Duane Harm - the GM couldn't.....
* See Noel Confer's note in Guestbook 31 for
a correction on Helen Alvarez' history. Erick - 04/10/99 07:09:22 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments:
Does anyone remember who did sports for channel 6 in the early to mid 80's?
I know Bill Teegins was there for a while before going on to a great career
(still) for KWTV in OKC. I remember seeing an ad with him and someone else
from an Oklahoma Outlaws program. Mark - 04/10/99 04:57:47 My Email:mjh5364@compuserve.com Location: Jenks Favorite Tulsa TV show: 6 In The Morning How did you find TTM?: geocities.com
Comments: Hey, remember the old tv news theme tunes. When KOTV had Eyewitness News,it had the theme instrumental for the theme from the slogan "Take A Look" used while starting the newscast? It was back in the late 1970's. Melanie Roberts and Jim Hale were anchors. Jim Hale left 6 after a short period . Melanie left later on. In the mid-70's there was a unique theme used on 6 when it was KOTV 6 Midday Report, Evening, Late Evening and Saturday News. This musical theme was used before in a public service ad for "Junior Achievement" I Wonder if any of you guys might know it. As I remember, the pictures and the old KOTV 6 NEWS logo interacted with it. Lee Woodward and King Lionel, yeah they were a fun duo on 6, I always enjoyed Lionel doing the weather before the 6:00 hour newscasts ended. On 8, when their newscasts started , their theme tune started off with the sound of an activating camera 5 times before the theme music began. That was Total 8 Tulsa in the 70's. And how about KTEW (now KJRH) when it was Newscenter 2, its theme tune was first used on ABC Evening News in the early 70's.
Great website to spill the memories. I may come back with some more.
Karen Keith has her own show now. Erick - 04/09/99 14:53:23 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: KTUL is constructing new studios on Lookout Mtn, and photos of that can be found at the KTULPHOTOG site.
On that same site, a brief history of KTUL with photos can be found. Mike Bruchas (again!) - 04/09/99 13:30:26 My Email:jmbruchas@juno.com Location: Atlantic Media Center, Alexandria, VA
Comments: Carl Bartholomew - aka Uncle Zeb - as Promotions Mgr. did "8's the Place" - I presume after he left - the "new regime" canned a successful campaign. It was 8's The Place for News, Movies, Sports etc. The lower case news eight may have come from Bob Hower and a previous art director named Gil Adams. KFMB in San Diego later "stole it" when former KTUL news director Jim Holtzman worked there and used it for years. I saw it later at ABC and other stations across the country. In fact, KOTV had a sister station on ch. 8 somewhere that we recorded KTUL off air - to send promos to - which I guess they "re-crafted" to fit their market - may have been FtWayne. It lasted a long time I guess. "When did KOTV go from being Eyewitness News to The News On 6?" Don't know when but the Eyewitness "format" became passe in a lot of the country - though in Phillie, Chicago and other big cities it still hangs in there. We used to call it EyeWeakness News. This all comes from "branding" - consultants try to find a slogan that is memorable. NewsChannel 2 would not work where a cable system parked it on cable channel 16 I guess. Amazingly KVII-TV in Amarillo is still PRO NEWS 20 years later...A prof. at West Texas State was a News Director in Houston 25 years ago and started this format, which KVII has greatly/dumbly deviated from. PRO NEWS never got far outside of Texas but a lot markets there tried it. A revelation in TU's new alumni magazine! TU has a mega-sized estate on 35th Street by Lewis for university Pres. Bob Lawless. It is bigger than Oral's home but smaller than Slovenia. Oilman Elford Beck built it on the land in the 1930's. But wait! Elford put TV station KCEB on the air in Tulsa, too! Guess what - this failed and much too early UHF station was in the custom built building that KTUL now occupies on Lookout Mtn. after moving here from Muskogee where it was KTVX.
I had forgotten what old KTUL engineers told me about "this Beck guy" that
built the building. I thought he was a contractor. He built the station before
the FCC mandated all TV's needed VHF and UHF tuners. I guess he was 20 years
ahead of his time. I like the call letters being his name spelled
backwards....
I mentioned "consultants" on the Lee and Lionel page, but I only "felt"
their presence. I don't know anything about when and how they played a part
in changing the presentation of local TV. Could you tell us a bit about
them?...(later)....There are some answers to this question at KTULPHOTOG
(see link above) in the Office of the Chief section. Erick - 04/09/99 05:52:14 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: When did KTUL end their "8's The Place" campaign, and when did they go from being simply News 8 to being Oklahoma's News 8? When did KOTV go from being Eyewitness News to The News On 6?
When did KJRH switch from NewsCenter 2 to NewsChannel 2? - 04/09/99 01:06:47
Comments:
This isn't a takeoff, but does anyone remember the Highway Patrol quiz
show on Sunday morning (I think)? Two troopers sitting at a table gave traffic
questions to high school students, and if the answer was right, pronounced
it a "true and correct" answer. If not, they would look concerned, check
their notes, then say that it was "not a true and correct answer." M. Ransom - 04/08/99 17:37:56 Location: Tulsa
Comments: Mike Bruchas (yet again) - 04/08/99 12:04:38 Location: Atlantic Media Center - Alexandria, VA
Comments: Brinkley NBC Radio story - Jeff Newman, a former BET producer (AND an attendee of Woodstock at age 10 because he lived next door to Max Yasgur's farm!) - who I worked with here and is now an exec with Polygram Records in NYC - used to be a production engineer at NBC in DC. He inherited recording David Brinkley's daily radio commentary. He was in awe - here was a giant of broadcasting and he a recent college grad was Brinkley's engineer.
Brinkley would sit down in the booth and Jeff would ask him for a level (audio
level). Brinkley did it the first few times they worked together then stopped
doing it or waved Jeff off. After a couple of days - Jeff worked up the courage
and asked the great one (who was drinking a lot then) for a level and Brinkley
chafed and said, "I gave it to you once, that's all you need..". Then Jeff
realized that it was true - Brinkley always spoke at the same level in all
of the recordings he ever did with Jeff...He and Mr. Brinkley got along fine
after that. Mike Bruchas - 04/07/99 20:09:29 Location: Atlantic Media Center - Alexandria, VA
Comments: He had a p.r. firm (Hartz/Meek Int'l) and still consults. He was talent at Nostalgia TV - now GoodLife TV - for several years. I first met him there and mentioned our common TU backgrounds. Have enjoyed working with him. He also spent several years anchoring "Asia Now" for PBS out of Seattle - flying from DC to Seattle but most often Tokyo to anchor with NHK staff several weeks a month. "Asia Now" had producers and reporters all over Asia with cultural news type stories and was on both PBS and foreign outlets. I think someone else took over the anchoring chores, but he has a lot of contacts in that part of the world I guess. The last time I saw him, he said he and his wife loved living here in Old Town in a classic house (I think not far from Katie Couric's). He also shot an episode of the series he did for several years on PBS ("Discover"?)in Alexandria from his Colonial home.
I think he is a deacon or warder at the famous church here that George Washington
attended. Great guy to work with. Us Tulsans are everywhere! Don Sullivan - 04/07/99 17:48:43 My URL:http://www.virtualtulsa.com My Email:sullivan@virtualtulsa.com Location: Tulsa Favorite Tulsa TV show: Any of the oldies How did you find TTM?: Mike Ransom
Comments:
Thanks for the memories! Mike Bruchas (again!) - 04/06/99 12:59:00 Location: Lost in Tulsey TV Memoryland
Comments: Erick - 04/06/99 06:47:30 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: WKY did premiere before KOTV. At one point I remember hearing about KOTV running ads about them being the first station in Oklahoma, and WKY threatened legal action. KFOR has their celebration page leading into their website at www.kfor.com
Jude & Jody. A formidable duo. But, now it's Jude & Jody and Sons.
You usually see the sons on the ads these days. Their showroom is down in
what I call Furniture City. It's in central OKC by the fairgrounds. The Mathis
Bros, Bob Mills, Evans, Jude & Jody and Sons, and several others have
their businesses basically surrounding White Water Bay just off of I-40. Erick - 04/06/99 04:51:45 My Email:ericktul@webtv.net Location: Tulsa
Comments: M. Ransom - 04/06/99 04:47:30 Location: Tulsa
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