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Jim Stunkard and Terry Phipps were TV station time salemen in Tulsa. They capitolized on the use of early Sony ENG technology in the late 70's to shoot commercials and national fishin' shows like Roland Martin.

Stunkard-Phipps was a cottage industry that grew. Jim now has a "paint a plate" business in Tulsa and Terry was in charge of video production for Mercury outboards the last time I heard. Beau Anello was one of the first employees and the last I heard he had a successful video production business. They were Tulsa TV folks that took a different path and made money. Maybe you could reach out to any of them for some new takes on Tulsey TV.

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It's getting a little quiet in here. I'm hoping Gary Chew will pay a visit soon and give us some background on the creation of the Mazeppa show. Also, I will try to get up the nerve to call Josef Hardt.

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The anecdotes about Channel 8 preemptions reminded me of the early days of Good Morning America on ABC. At the time, KTUL preempted the first hour for The John Chick Show. Elton Rule, then president of the ABC Television Network came to Tulsa for a visit. Pushing for a clearance for the rest of GMA, he couldn't believe Tulsans favored a show that featured local musical talent (a phrase I use loosely). When shown the ratings and the backlog of advertisers lined up for the show, he backed off and agreed it was probably the right programming.

Hey, my bro was on that show!

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Read the previous link on Chicago broadcasting. Sent an e-mail to Rich Samuels at richsam@mcs.net to see if he knew what happened to Jim Ruddle. Drink in his great webpage! Fantastic work!

I liked the page by Arch Oboler (the radio's early Rod Serling), the Kukla, Fran and Ollie page, and the one about radio sound effects, especially.

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From Ma Barker's page found an excellent link to Chicago broadcasting by Rich Samuels at WTTW - try

www.mcs.net/~richsam/

Maybe he can tell us where Jim Ruddle went!

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SNL - Don Lundy first told me about this and friends from out of town couldn't believe Tulsa was so provincial not to carry it. Same deal in OKC at KTVY. I think 2 actually started to carry it first. "Did not meet community standards" was the term.

KTUL did not carry HOT L BALTIMORE off ABC (it died any way) because of too many gay characters on it - again did not meet you know what. I think at one time SOAP wasn't carried off ABC in it's regular time for the same reason - they may have tape delayed it. Several times KTUL ran local movies and made MORE $$ than running network offerings that were questionable or "just not Tulsa". John Wayne in any form drew big numbers on Friday or Saturday nights in Prime Time in Tulsa and KTUL had the best film package with a lot of Wayne flix.

In '75 or '76 KTUL did not carry the Fall kick-off season shows 2 or 3 weeknights during premiere week because they carried Billy Graham (who paid more money than the network revenue). It was only an hour a night, but still. I think Bob Hower (as Programming Director) was mad that this happened, but Sales swayed the GM to do so. Dumb. ABC DID have a strong season that year.

McCartney's grocery hostage story - I was in Tulsa at friends when this broke and I called the assignment desk at KOCO in OKC where they had not heard of it. It was a slow OKC news night so we had a crew scream up the Turnpike. Luckily the photog was an ex-KTUL employee who knew how to get to McCartney's. I think the reporter did a "phoner" at the end of Nightline and KOCO scooped the OKC stations on this. But who was the anchor in Tulsa called by the gunman? I can't remember if I saw the story on 6 or 8 when it broke either...

Those decisions made by management were always pretty embarrassing. Sounds like $$$ had as much to do with it as "morality".

I think "Hot l Baltimore" also had a (gasp!) hooker as a regular character.

I am trying to get "wiseguy" to visit the guestbook.

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"wiseguy" in the ok.tulsa.general newsgroup commented:

What about KJRH's GM explaining why they NBC affiliate was running Barney Miller re-runs instead of Saturday Night Live.

What about the hostage guy who called the News anchor from the supermarket where he had hostages.

What about Dianna Moon getting attacked by the San Diego Chicken and having to leave the set because she couldn't stop laughing, and Bob Hower finished the newscast by himself.

Got these in your collection?

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Spoke to my brother in Wichita re last night's storm. He said he was surprised how unsophisticated CNN and MSNBC's coverage of the storm. Wichita like Tulsa has Doppler and StormTracker type radar - he felt the local stations did a bang up job in coverage DC here has Digital Doppler wars and WJLA (KTUL's sister station here)has the system - as do others - that now can track weather conditions to a 3 or 4 block area during a weather emergency. Off course the best thing to do a tornado is hide in that basem nt or wherever and use the old AM radio or a NOAA radio to monitor the storms.

KTUL used to be notorious for going off the air for a power loss either in Coweta or at Lookout Mtn. at the wrong time. In the Jimmy Leake days - we could have had 2 power feeds, from different sub-stations mile away from each other to the station from PS in the 70's - per an employee whose Dad was an executive at PSO - but mgmt. nixed it because of the cost. So they went off the air at critical times.

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For three years from about 1957 to 1960 I was a staff director at KTUL-TV in Tulsa. We rotated shifts but I worked from 4 to midnight most of the time so I directed the News and Weather at 6 and 10. In those days Jack Morris was our "ace-in-the-hole." He brought us great ratings and his secret was his "kicker" on the end of the show. Viewers sent him jokes, and nobody could resist the big grin on his face when he started to read them (whether they were that funny or not). We cut to a close-up for this kicker, and the audience got a good laugh to close the show.

Then it was time for Don Woods and Gusty for the weather. Way back then practically no weatherman on television was a real meteorologist, but Don was. And he could draw the little cartoon character he called "Gusty." Don was a great guy. So were most of the people I worked with in Tulsa. In those days it was very unusual to have a woman in the controlroom, telling men what to do and exposed to all their "bad" language. From what I have learned I think I was one of the first two or three women in the U.S. to be a television director. It was a lot of fun and hard work.

Thanks, Ma! On Ma's site (see the Links page), she tells a good story about how KTUL got the beat on the other stations.

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Just wanted to talk about the severe weather coverage we saw Monday night. In addition to the catastrophe in my hometown, the Tulsa area dodged a big bullet. I was watching KJRH about midnight as the tornado began moving into the city. I think the scariest part was when the folks at KJRH took cover in the station basement. The only people who didn't go to the basement were the 2 on air meteorologists. Goes to show why Oklahoma has the best severe weather coverage...the commitment. I think most any other person would have left their spot in front of the radar. I have a new respect from Jeff Lazalier and the other meteorologists at KJRH. One of their meteorologists even called from his storm cellar at home to describe what he was experiencing. Don't get me wrong though, I still think KOTV has the best coverage.

I agree---Tulsa was very lucky to miss the disaster that happened to OKC. During the storm, my girlfriend, who lives a couple of blocks from KJRH, said it got very quiet outside, and she could feel the barometric pressure changes in her head. Whew!

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Clarke Ingram, who created the DuMont Television Network site referenced on the Links page, commented:

I saw your mention of Daze' (the telepsychic). I had no idea she was ever on the air in Tulsa, but used to watch her on a cable channel called TEMPO. (I was in Tucson, Arizona at the time, around 1988-89). TEMPO was strange. The channel seemed to run the lowest-budget programming possible, and featured (among other things) Hawaiian baseball on Saturday afternoons, fed from one of the Honolulu TV stations, spot breaks and all!

Daze' had a show of her own on TEMPO. One day I turned on the channel, only to see a slide which said something to the effect that "TEMPO has left the air and will not be returning." Could I have been the only one watching? LOL...

I replied: Re (Yvonne) Daze'...a friend of mine worked at Tempo Television here in Tulsa at the time. I believe it was owned by a guy who got rich by being the intermediary for the Turner Superstation. As you say, I think they were unceremoniously sold and absorbed. My friend told me about a woman named Marie Vega who had a psychic show for Tempo in L.A. While visiting Tulsa, she was annoyed by insects and wondered seriously why Tulsa didn't project a psychic screen to fend the pests off.

Anyway, looks like Daze' didn't look far enough into the future to avoid having her show cancelled. She had sort of a meditation period at the end of her show...like on Romper Room, when the host looks at the boys and girls through the Magic Mirror.

Who would have thought that Dan Ackroyd's "Telepsychic" bit would come true?

Clarke replied: Yes, I remember that "meditation" period at the end of the Daze' shows! She would offer rather hypnotic-sounding suggestions, while something like a shot of waterfalls played on the TV screen. Ah, what memories you are bringing back. And I did not know the Tempo channel originated in Tulsa. That explains Daze', but not baseball from Hawaii! (maybe the price was right...)

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I am afraid I must blame you for the fact that I have rediscovered and cannot get out of my brain, "It's as easy as 1, 2, 3, and Shawnee adds the...Me!" A jingle that was annoying when I was 8, and hasn't gotten any better with age...

I remember I was about 9 or 10 when I figured out that King Lionel's voice was done by speaking while breathing in, and was the envy of the 5th grade for that one.

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Good web site. Your sound files need to be converted into wave files so that they can be used on screen savers and the like.

Has the Mazeppa Tulsa State Fair poster been reproduced? If so where can I get one? If not where can I get a good used one? Mine is in poor shape (the dog sprayed on the copy that was given to me).

How or where can I find any of the old KELI AM 1430 and 970 KAKC top forty song hit lists from the 60's, 70's, and early 80's? Have any of them been reproduced. I am wondering if any other radio stations in other cities had song lists?

Oh one last thing before I forget ,where can I find a original 7up Uncola Underground card? I haven't seen one since I was a kid. Any help would be appreciated. Anyone with any information please contact me.

P.s. My family moved from north Tulsa to Inola in August of 1972 and I am 35 years old so how did Mazeppa do Hee Haw and Mazeppa at the same time? I remember seeing Mazeppa in 73 and 74 on Channel 8 and listening to him on the "Unfilmy Can Festival" on KAKC in 75

p,s,+1 Does anyone remember the old Cathey's commercial on KRMG, "Cathey's from 9th to 10th on Main and Brookside" with the background music of Lara's theme from Dr. Zhivago.

Yes, the Cathey's commercial was remembered in Guestbook 1, but thanks for the reminder that it used the Dr. Zhivago music. I believe it was "8th to 9th, on Main", though.

The Mazeppa poster has not been reissued to my knowledge. That is just my old copy of it on the website.

On the top forty lists, I just happen to have several, so I put one of them on the site. You might try John Henry, who does oldies radio shows here in Tulsa. I don't believe John is online, but I think Karl (see my "Tulsa TV Memories visitors' sites") could get an inquiry to him.

The 7 Up card? I never had one. I have no idea where to go for those--maybe John Henry again? If anyone out there knows, please write in. I wouldn't mind having one, too.

"The Unfilmy Can Festival"---that topic has not come up until now. Yes, Mazeppa did a radio show after the TV show ended. For Hee Haw, the individual bits (e.g., the cornfield segments) were taped en masse in a few days. Then all the different bits were spliced into shows. So Gailard Sartain probably did not spend that much real time doing Hee Haw.

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Harry Volkman was THE first television meteorologist in Oklahoma. He was at WKY (now KFOR) in OKC for a little while, and joined KWTV in the early 50's. He was the inspiration for current KWTV chief meteorologist Gary England, who was recently named the #1 watched meteorologist for medium-sized markets in the nation (!). Harry is still in Chicago doing weekends for WFLD, the Fox affiliate.

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JIM RUDDLE - where is he now? Like Tulsa-born weatherman Harry Volkman - he came to anchor news in Chicago at WMAQ or WLS-TV. In the 70's he was doing stuff at WTTW the PBS station there.

Harry is still kicking - saw him at the '97 KWGS Reunion and sat at the table with him and his son who is one of the top jocks on the CBS FM there. Harry worked at WMAQ for years, used to do radio weather reports from home before he climbed into his AMC Marlin to drive to work (I remember as a kid). He also worked at WLS and WGN - think he is still a weekend or back-up talent on air there. Several of his kids went to TU.

Speaking of Gary Chew - need to find which NPR station he is at in California and get him on-line here....

Just sent him an email...maybe we'll see him soon. Here is his home page at KXPR in Sacremento:

http://www.csus.edu/npr/chew.html

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Nope - Hambrick did not make the abbreviated on-line www.Washingtonian.com issue. Checked the National Smokers Alliance at www.speakup.org and found nothing there yet. Can I get access to second-hand "e-smoke" from this?

Did ANYONE from Bokchito tune in yet??

Sadly, no word from Bokchito. There may not be many Bokchitans online, since there aren't many Bokchitans, period.

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Saw an article in the new Washingtonian magazine (they may be on line now). Mike Hambrick - formerly of KTEW and WJLA here is the new national spokesman for the Smokers Alliance - a group that argues for smokers' rights and may or may not be supported by the tobacco industry. He also will start hosting a 2 hour weekend radio show on 35 stations across the country on smokers' rights. Hey - it's a job....

"May or may not"? Mais oui!

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Just had to mention Bargainin' Bill.

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Anyone try Steve's Sundries to see if they had any copies of Betty Boyd's book still. It is a long shot but as Betty used to say, "Skeedaddle on down there!" Steve's still has one of the best assortments of Tulsa books - never miss it when I'm in town...

Question - why is it ch. 2 never had a Betty Boyd or Louise Bland type person in the 70's/80's. Ch. 6 had Carolyn Jenkins and others - but 2 never seemed to have a female figurehead/Women's Programming Director/talent like 6 & 8. Maybe before my time?

I called Steve's, and they checked, but didn't have any copies on hand. It might pay to visit in person, though.

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So Mr. Ransom...how can someone like myself get ahold of Betty Boyd's book? I checked Amazon.com to no avail.

"If I Could Sing, I'd Be Dangerous"
Erick, I'd love to buy a copy, too, but I couldn't find one. I checked this copy out from the good old Tulsa City-County Library.

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I just got hold of Betty Boyd's book. I'll probably be throwing out some names as I read it.

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Uncle Zeb - Carl Bartholomew was working at one time with Tulsa Cable - don't know if he is still there. Started doing the Zeb show again there for a while. Last time I talked with him, was doing free-lance voice/acting work, has been in a locally produced "direct to video" movie or 2. A fascinating and nice guy - he was in some totally different line of work and either lost his job or got bored with it and h red on at KTUL in the 70's. I worked with him as an audioman/announcer when he wasn't being on-air as Zeb. He later became Promotions Director at 8 and produced a lot of those neat local promos of the 70's/80's. He created a lot of 8's "image" that we knew then and loved. Hurst Swiggart might be able to tell us more on Carl....

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Where the heck is Uncle Zeb?

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CORRECTION TO GUESTBOOK 5 - I referenced Tony Waters from KTOW. Ooops - I have worked with too many guys named Tony and Buddy in this biz.

I got a great e-mail from Tony MILLS (Tonysart@aol.com) - who is a reader of this page - who works at Varitel Video in CA. Tony Waters - an accomplished musician and video engineer (here in VA) worked here with me at the same time I worked with ex-KTOW guy Tony MILLS. It was always fun when "Tony" was paged for a call here and they both were on duty....

Brother Mills, I stand humbly and embarassingly corrected! I am old and name be-fuddled, but you are fondly remembered - whatever your last name! Now send us some KTOW stories!!!

Changed Guestbook 5 to say "Tony Mills". Hope we see him here.

Actually, your memory appears to be phenomenal.

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Bodacious Bokchito-ness here. This website may put them back on the map or with a slightly larger dot. I will never get them cornfused with Bug Tussle again. My respects to both of those mini-metropolises! I was also corrected - Carl Albert is NOT dead, had him confused with Generalissimo Franco again....

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Here are some fun facts about Bokchito:

The population of Bokchito is approximately 576. The approximate number of families is 295 (small families!) The amount of land area in Bokchito is 1.029 sq. kilometers.

I sent a query to a webmaster in Bokchito about Mazeppa's reference to the town. It's a long shot, but you never know...

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According to the House of Reps website, Albert was born in North McAlester.

http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/history/members/albert/bio.htm

In other issues, I've ordered a couple of the Lost Tapes of Mazeppa. I've never seen Mazeppa, so I hope I like it!

I visited my parents last night and showed them one of the Mazeppa tapes. My mom actually laughed at a couple of the sketches, but then said you probably have to be young to appreciate some of the others. Looking at the guestbooks, my dad commented, "This Mike Bruchas sure seems to know a lot about TV!"

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I agree with Jim Back on OK trivia - we both picked up a lot because OK is a fascinating place to live and cover in the news biz.

I sometimes feel I am a true "Trivia Idiot Savant" - I can't always balance my checkbook or remember who my Congressman is -- but I can remember which female OK TV anchors now long gone who had "butt tucks", Bob Hower's military record or where folks I worked with 20 years ago at 5,6,7(Amarillo),8, OETA and 34 are at now plus nebbishy little thangs about them. Has to be a curse, not a gift I guess! If I could only make money with this knowledge!! Got to get a life before this here Millennium thing happens....

Speaking of who your congressman is...there is a picture of me being interviewed on the Origin page of this site. A KTUL reporter had stopped me downtown to ask me for a survey who my state representative and senator were. I knew my rep, but not my senator, which put me in the 1 out of 50 category!

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"You say Bokcheta, I say Bokchito -- let's call the whole thing off...".

I'm joking - but I have seen it spelled Bokchito. It may be the Okie-speak interpretation of the Indian word that gets scrambled. I think it means, "town with funny name for 70's TV show"...

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Nope - I was wrong, but Carl Albert WAS born in Bug Tussle - which I guess no longer exists. I vividly remember this from news stories about when he was about to step down.

It is down near MacAlester I am told - maybe in that area that was the Little Giant's congressional district.

Bokchito or Boka-chita in Gailard-speak was down that way, too. Thinking this was his birthplace was a brainfart on my part! Thanks, Jim - have been away from the Sooner State too long!

I wish I still had my OU Press Place Names book...

For clarification on Carl Albert - isn't there a state historical society place that we can double-check at???

I remember it as Bug Tussle, too...it had that down home rural flavor that helped get politicians elected, especially before Sputnik went up (and after, in Oklahoma).

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In the interest of proving you both wrong, Carl Albert was born in McAlester. ;-p

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Ahem. In the interest of accuracy, while Bokcheta is a real Oklahoma town, Carl Albert was from Bug Tussle.

(Pause)...You know, as I look back at that sentence I suddenly feel I have been consumed by way too much minutia.

No way!

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Let's go back to the movie,"UHF". When the set was filmed here in Tulsa, I participated as one of the many extras to take part in the movie. Two filming scences I took part in was the Warehouse Market at 62nd and S. Peoria, where the scene was people running into the store, shopping for spatulas. The fictional name, "Spatula City". The next scene took place at Rose Bowl Lanes on E 11th ST., where the scene was televising "Bowling for Burgers". I was there as also a participating extra. Everybody had a hamburger in their hand, sitting or standing. I got to see "Weird Al" in person for the first time.

I remember when that was being filmed---I wish I had heeded the call for extras. I did see Peg and Al Bundy at the Rose Bowl promoting their new series, "Married with Children".

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Hep me! Gailard always refered to "Boka-chita", OK in his bits. Maybe Coach Chuck was from there?

We learned Bokchito was the supposed birthplace of Rep. Carl Albert - then still OK's little big man in DC. Always wondered if he got this from HIS OK history schoolin'....

Glad you mentioned "Boka-chita"...hadn't thought of that in awhile. I have a hunch he just liked the way it sounded...just a guess...anyone else know?

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Ooops - that darned thing dropped the Q - it was Quay's deli (went back to Guestbook 5 and fixed it...MR). A favorite stomping ground of the late Cy Tuma.

I remember Coppola shooting stuff across the street from 7th & Delaware for one of his Tulsa movies - I had just moved away from next door to near Downtown Tulsey and 3 weeks later a film crew was working there - don't remember if it was "Rumblefish". Coppola had this Airstream mobile home parked there with supposedly both a hot tub and viewing room for "dailies" on board. At one time he was renting a ranch house out by the Bee-line during his projects in town - I recall.

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This is the start of Guestbook 6.

Previous threads at the end (the top) of Guestbook 5:

Movies made in and around Tulsa
United Video at 71 and Lewis
Radio station call letters
Spanky's show in Tulsa in the early 60s

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