Erick - 04/14/99 01:17:23
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
Yep, Jerry Park is in his mid 60's, and still doing sports for KOCO during it's Saturday morning news show. He was "da man" during KOCO's bigtime late 70s newscasts which featured him, Jack Bowen and Mary Ruth Carleton doing news, and Fred Norman/Ross Dixon/Wayne Shattuck doing weather.

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:
Is Jerry Park still anchoring sports at KOCO 5 ? About 10 years ago, he and another commentator were hosting a weekly bowling program that took place at bowling centers here in Tulsa and surrounding areas and over in OKC. Televised tournaments were taped on Saturdays and shown late Sunday. I think it was shown on KOKI 23 and KOCO 5.

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've met both Gary England and Jim Williams on a couple of occasions. Gary has always made the time to talk or answer any questions. Jim was always very short with people, from what I noticed. In fact, when the OKC weather service office was hit by a tornado in 1974, Jim proclaimed that he was taking over the warning responsiblities. Jim's been retired for about 10 years now. He does occasional local commercials. If Gary has an ego, he has good reason. He's possibly one the most knowledgable men I've ever met. He has a book called Weathering The Storm which talks about the trials of television weather. It's really insightful. Gary and KWTV had the very first television Doppler radar in the world. The book talks about the Doppler's arrival in 1981, and the fact that he had no idea how to use the thing. Gary was also the creator of the traveling weather show. I don't think he does those as much as he used to.

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 Miller was News Director at KTUL in the 70's, who was replaced by Jim Holtzman (at about age 24 I think), then I think briefly by Doug Dodd then Jeff Rosser. Mike was a TU grad - very funny - did an annual story at KTUL and again later at Ch. 8 in Dallas on a OK or No. TX nudist camp - all we saw was a bare chested mike or his socks I think in the stories. We joked Mike did ch. 6 "type" stories when not doing good spot news work.

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:
Judd Hambrick worked in Tulsa? Mike Hambrick worked at 2 in the 70's then surfaced here in DC for a year or 2 in the early 90's at KTUL sister station WJLA. He then appeared in several US govt training videos on sexual harassment but using another name. He also appeared as a DC reporter in several movies - not quite as often as Ike Pappas from CBS did. Isn't there a 3rd Hambrick brother?

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

Comments:
Hey, all you techies! Check out the new link to the DuMont Television Network site on the Links page. There is an explanation of why there is no Channel 1. The author, Clarke Ingram, sent the following comment to me: "when CBS auditioned Spencer Williams for the role of Andy on the Amos 'N Andy TV show in 1950, they sent him to KTUL to tape the audition."

And how about Dan P. Holmes and Highway 33?



Erick - 04/13/99 05:47:48
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
Yep Mike, Judd is at WKYC in Cleveland. Since Mark mentioned Sam Jones, I'll take this as an opportunity to ask if anyone knows his whereabouts. I loved the 3 different variations of call-in shows he did.

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.

Still no word on Sam Jones...surely he will surface soon.



Mark (again) - 04/13/99 01:58:06
Location: Jenks, OK
Favorite Tulsa TV show: 6 in the Morning

Comments:
I'm not in the TV or radio business, but I have a good memory of who were our past news weather and sports anchors. Some you may have never heard of. Dale Hogg, weatherman for 6 in the late 70's. Steve Mark, sportscaster for 6 in the 80's. Steve Mark left after a brief period. Dean Lewis, Newscenter 2 anchorman in the late 70's. Jean Tiernan, former newsanchor for KRAV then KOTV weekend newsanchor, Jean left also after a brief period. Glen Fisher, sportsanchor for 6 in the mid 70's. He left to anchor sports in Florida, as far as I remember. Don't know if he's still there. Ramona Huffman, Eyewitness News anchorwoman who did the noon news in the early 80's. Ramona died in '89 or '90. As I've been watching the news for years about whats going on around us and around the world, I pick up a lot of faces and they some how enter my memory , including Mike Flynn and Kitty Gibbons. I've also watched segments of Oklahoma Memories and 1 or 2 old newsclips showed a reporter named Mike Miller. Oh, and lets not forget Sam Jones, former 2 anchorman, then Open Line on ch. 41 and You're On with Sam Jones on 6.

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.

I remember joking about the Channel 2 news team, "Sam Himm and Nancy Herr". I remember Mike Miller, too, and Dean Lewis.

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:
Actually, Bob Stevens came to KOTV after Bill Teegins left in 1987. I think Ken Broo is indeed the other anchor I'm thinking of. Bob is now an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter, appearing on the 6pm edition quite a bit. Bob left channel 6 in 1990, replaced by John Walls (now at Fox Sports Net), and John was replaced by Scott Higgins.

Mike Bruchas said previously that Ken Broo is anchoring sports at WUSA.



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 KOTV 6, Eyewitness News became KOTV 6 NEWS in 1986, then in 1988, became The News On 6.

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.

Mark, you sure are knowledgable about these format changes! Are you in the business?



Don Lundy - 04/11/99 10:14:29
My Email:dlundy@kero.com

Comments:
Re: Jack Morris' closers and Helen Alvarez. Morris featured the "closers" way before the Vietnam era. At one time I had a booklet of them that the public could send in for. Am sure they were to lighten up an otherwise serious demeanor. Helen Alvarez was an owner of KOTV, not GM. She was married at one time to Jack Wrather, the producer*. I believe she still lives in San Diego (La Jolla) and was, at one time, married to C. Arnholt Smith, a prominent citizen who served time for check kiting. He was in the 60s known as "Mr. San Diego". Believe he may have owned a piece of the Padres. Until a couple of years ago, she was the majority owner in a UHF station, KTTY-TV, there. Alvarez and her partners sold their interests out to the Tribune Company. Duuring my years at KGTV in San Diego, I met and used to do business with an early day KOTV alum, Dick Campbell. He sold syndicated shows for Columbia Pictures and had great stories from the early days of Tulsa television. As I remember his apocryphal tales, he was a station manager in the 50s. Remember one tale of KOTV's "live" coverage of the Coliseum fire by putting a camera on the roof and doing voice over. He's retired and, the last time I checked, still alive and living in Southeast Tulsa.

* See Noel Confer's note in Guestbook 31 for a correction on Helen Alvarez' history.

I wonder if Dick Campbell is on the internet?



Mike Bruchas (again) - 04/10/99 20:00:38
Location: Atlantic Media Center

Comments:
Love the KTUL PHOTOG page - got back a couple e-mails from shooters there.

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:
Re KTUL's black limbo news eight set. It may have been an economy measure but it looked good with the old GE cameras. I think at the time 8 had only 2 cameras, later a third was bought at great expense. The idea was you had news/weather/sports then back to a newsperson closing. Very straight forward, almost BBC - while KOTV was chummier on the big sets. 8 seemed to want to be more serious in doing news this way. It saved on big sets - other than the weather boards which had been recycled from previous sets.

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.

Seems like the "closer" was in response to another station doing commentary at the end of the show--was it Paul Harvey? I don't know.

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:
Duane Harm...he was (still is?) station manager at KWTV in OKC. He used to do little commentaries at the end of newscasts after some big news story. I think it was an attempt by the station to be more viewer-friendly. This was about the same time that KWTV and KOCO used to show promos of their news talent in a production meeting talking about the stories of the day.

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:
Assorted info/brain MEGA dump - Melanie Roberts left KOTV to be a producer of the late 5 Alive newscast in OKC at KOCO. She then moved to Knoxville as either an anchor or news director and is happily married. The "Alive" formula was used almost all Gannett stations. Lots of live shots, happy talk, fast-paced.

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.

The dark news set on 8...was that with Jack Morris? It had a serious, spooky feel, like Citizen Kane.



Erick - 04/10/99 07:09:22
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
Great memories in the last message. About John Hudson and Karen Keith...we were wondering why they left channel 2 in the early 80's to join channel 41. John Hudson was a big loss. He was a great newscaster.

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.

Mike Bruchas mentioned Ken Broo, the Channel 6 sportscaster awhile back.



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:
Mike, you mentioned you didn't recall why John Hudson and Karen Keith left channel 2. John Hudson died of a heartattack a few years ago while preparing for an early morning news cast. I don't know what happened to Karen Keith, though I do know she still has her bed and breakfast inn over in Brookside.

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.

Welcome, Mark. I remember the old Newscenter 2 theme that sounded very classical. That must have been in the late 70s.

Karen Keith has her own show now.



Erick - 04/09/99 14:53:23
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
I always loved the Eyewitness News moniker. KOCO in OKC had it for a while in the 70's, and they've recently started using it again.

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.

Thanks, Erick, I'll check that out...Hey, great pictures of Don Woods and Gusty, Betty Boyd, Jack Morris, Mr. Zing and Tuffy and Shaggy Dog...it's going onto the Links page.



Mike Bruchas (again!) - 04/09/99 13:30:26
My Email:jmbruchas@juno.com
Location: Atlantic Media Center, Alexandria, VA

Comments:
OOPS - my cut n paste feature, I learned, DOESN'T work in the comment box! Did not mean to parrot the previous questions!!!!! OK, I removed it...MR

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....

That's fascinating stuff, Mike. I've never heard of KCEB. Was this in the mid-40s?

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:
Here are some questions I have. I'm probably the only one who cares about this kind of stuff.

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:
What other Mazeppa take-off shows on Tulsa TV can anyone remember? One of my favorites was Tulsa Teen Town Topics - a veiled version of Generation Gap on ch. 8 with the cute twin psychologists. All of the kids sat in bean bag chairs.

Judy Hagedorn and Jan...(one-syllable name)?

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:
I just put a large volume of KOTV Mazeppa/Mr. Mystery sound clips on the Mazeppa page.



Mike Bruchas (yet again) - 04/08/99 12:04:38
Location: Atlantic Media Center - Alexandria, VA

Comments:
Questions on e-mails, re the Ch. 6 bellydancer story - no idea who or where she is now. Re - Jim Hartz a Brinkley protege - I think Jim was just blessed with good timing wherever he went.

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:
Speaking of Jim Hartz - former Tulsa KOTV, long-time NBC Space Coverage, Today Show, and Washington, DC WRC-TV anchor - he's alive and kicking here in Alexandria, VA and lives about 3 miles away from where I write this.

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!

Yes, Jim Hartz, another luminary hailing originally from Tulsa. Wasn't he a protege of David Brinkley at one time? I could be wrong about that.



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:
While attending college, I worked at Channels 2 and 8 part time, then full time as a newsman at Channel 6 in 1964 (During the Jim Hartz days). I remember a lot of the things you are talking about. As I collect my thoughts, I will try to contribute some funny stories.

Thanks for the memories!

You're welcome.



Mike Bruchas (again!) - 04/06/99 12:59:00
Location: Lost in Tulsey TV Memoryland

Comments:
Speaking of mis-cues - while doing the KOTV Midday Report with Susan Bunn and Mike Flynn in the 70's - had a director's nightmare. We had a story on a nun doing something and a story on a local bellydancer who could flip quarters and dollar bills with her stomach muscles. You guessed it - on the tease, Jerry the VTR op rolled the nun video when Susan vo'd the belly dancer video. After thinking we got the story order straightened out with Jerry during the break - we rolled the nun story and up came the belly dancer again. It reached a point where Mike and Susan were NOT laughing about this and the light-hearted lead-in to the belly dancer story just sounded VERY strained....Of course as KOTV used to run video under closing credits - the belly dancer video appeared for about the 5th time in the cast....

Great story, Mike. Was that the bellydancer who owned a car body shop in Tulsa?



Erick - 04/06/99 06:47:30
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
Here are some thoughts from threads in the last guestbook.

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.

I know you've made the Jude 'n Jody fans out there very happy.



Erick - 04/06/99 04:51:45
My Email:ericktul@webtv.net
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
4th guestbook already? Yowza! You're gonna have to have a page just to store the guestbooks!



M. Ransom - 04/06/99 04:47:30
Location: Tulsa

Comments:
OK, starting guestbook 4. See top of guestbook 3 for the entries from 4/5/99...several good threads going. Also, check out the new site organization.


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