I've seen almost nothing in these books about Tulsa's SECOND television station. I can't add much because I didn't have the equipment to watch, but here are the basic facts:

Oilman Elfred Beck, impressed by Helen Alvarez's promising start with KOTV, applied for and received UHF channel 23 (his first mistake). The call letters were KCEB ("Beck" spelled backward). And he built nice studios on Lookout Mountain.

Unfortunately, nearly all receivers on the market then offered only the VHF channels, 2-13, and any others cost significantly more. A few years later, Congress mandated that all sets be manufactured with both VHF and UHF channels, but Beck was losing too much money to wait, and the station went dark.

When Griffin received FCC permission to move Channel Eight from Muskogee into Tulsa, the company took over the Lookout Mountain studios from Beck (and since has enlarged them).

The only previous mentions of KCEB here were in Guestbook 4 by Mike Bruchas and in Guestbook 19 by Mike Reynolds (just corrected a typo there: "KBEC" instead of "KCEB"). Channel 8 had the call letters KTVX in Muskogee. Thanks for the addition, Don.

For Bill Bowers:

I have no desire to embarrass or humiliate anybody; I've made too many "misteaks" of my own. What I AM trying to do is to help Mike Ransom maintain as much accuracy as possible because TTM seems to be rounding nicely into a "primary source." Example: The New York Times is called the "newspaper of record" for the United States (though it has a few blemishes, too). Your contributions are very much needed and appreciated, especially because so many of our contributors are much younger and don't have much grasp of the early days.

True. We welcome your contributions, Bill.

Everyone's help in maintaining accuracy is appreciated. Don't hesitate to let me know if you see something, even "trivial", you believe needs correction.

Lowell, don't get me started about those classic Popeye 'toons! They are my all-time favorites, and I've managed to acquire a host of them (the color and the black-and-white shorts) over the past two decades. The Sinbad two-reeler was Fleischer's first foray into color, followed by two others, "Popeye Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" (almost as good) and "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" (somewhat weaker). Alas, Fleischer's first long feature, "Gulliver's Travels", while strong in some ways, fell flat when pitted against Disney's "Snow White" and pretty much ended the battle between the two studios. For humor, though, I'll take the old b/w Popeye shorts over anything Disney produced during the thirties. Feel free to contact me at the the above link if you'd like to touch base more about the Fleischer 'toons. They're "strong to the finich!!"

The surreal and fully-rendered B & W's with Popeye's witty muttering are some of the best cartoons ever made.

In Guestbook 46, reader Joe Langley recalled being on "Popeye Theater with Captain Hal" on KTUL. Captain Ben can be seen at the top of the Oom-A-Gog page.

I bought "Popeye Meets Sinbad" at the dollar store. The old Fleischer animation (aka New York-style) was the best. The 3-D landscapes and characters that were always moving are too expensive to do these days, I suppose.

I was just watching Letterman. Perhaps some do not realize that Chris Mulligan is from the Tulsa area.

Mike, I have some friends in your neck of the woods right now. They said it has been hard getting around in traffic. I hope to get up this summer for vacation.

Bluto: "Who's the most remarkable, extraordinary fellow?"
Chorus: "Sinbad!"
Bluto: "That's me."

On the subject of food franchises, when I lived in New Orleans, Popeye's Chicken was everywhere and that is what everyone ate. Besides fantastic food such as spicy chicken, red beans and rice, etc., they have a great jazz theme and cool commercials.

Back in the early `80's, after I had moved back to Tulsa, one was put in at 58th and Sheridan. It was a pale shadow of those found in New Orleans and soon folded. The good news is that Oklahoma City has one now. It is excellent and does a booming business.

According to their webpage, Popeye's would like for someone to put one here in Tulsa. I am sure whoever does will make a handsome fortune within the year.

If one of you decides to do this, you owe me a free meal. Thanks.

Yeah, Popeye's chicken is great. We could sure use a franchise here in Tulsa. I'm not sure what "Popeye" has to do with Cajun food, though. I could see it with a spinachburger (hold the sprouts).

Remember that live action Popeye cartoon where a little kid is being bullied, but gets a can of spinach from Popeye and kicks butt? And the mini-musical with Bluto as Sinbad? The Fleischer Popeye cartoons are still great from an adult perspective. Seems like Channel 8 had all those.

Re: the George Raft promo. Some of Carl Bartholomew's work circa 1973; the memorable spot promoted the Channel 8 Morning Movie, a collection of black and white titles.

It's amazing how much of Carl's promotional work has stuck with us after such a long time.

Yeah, Mike, I remember "Apples" as well, and the outlets they moved into were (justifiably) called "Gag in the Bag" up here several years ago, due to the e-coli scare. The food at Apples was pretty good, but they had a granolahead tendency to put "healthy" sprouts on their sandwiches, which gave them a rather "earthy" flavor...in other words, like dirt. I ate at the one by Woodland Hills Mall often, but always said "Hold the sprouts!" when ordering their chicken club sandwich.

Do not forget Jack-in-the-box (aka Jack-in-the-crack per Matt Bunyan) at 21st and Harvard. Gimme them cheap tacos.

Then all in OK shut down or the company kept a few the stores and made them into "Apples'" with "healthier, heart healthy food" which I think meant they had salads and no mo Jack at the drive-in....too far ahead of the healthy food craze I guess.

Mike, I remember an ad like that as well, but it must have been a rehash of the same idea, because the one I saw was well into the seventies (I moved there in '72). It had the Channel 8 voiceover (Cy Tuma, was it?...same guy who did the "signoff" stuff I sent you) saying, as a hodgepodge of classic movie scenes flashed over 3/4 of the screen (with Raft's dance occupying the remaining portion), "A Raft of great movies on Channel 8, by George!" To this day, whenever I play "The 'In' Crowd" (great tune), I think of that ad.

I'm sure you're right about the date. I was trying to remember how I knew it was George Raft, and the catch phrase you mention makes it clear. Thanks for the amplification.

You can hear it on the link at left.

Just remembered a promo for Channel 8 back in the 60s in which Ramsey Lewis' version of "The 'In' Crowd" was played over a sequence of old film clips. One particular shot was of a young, full-trousered and tailed George Raft executing an odd, graceful stepover dance step (possibly some form of tango) while conducting with a baton. The shot was used several times, including at the beginning and end of the spot...this was probably from the 1935 movie, "Every Night at Eight" (the movies being promoted were shown "every day on eight!")

When I'm back home in Jax Fl, I occasionally drive by one of the original Krispy Kreme repositories, located on Beach Blvd. You can see all of the Kremery-making-machinery as you pass by. It's 2 stories high.

It's a piece of history.

When I heard from a friend of mine that they had opened a KK in Manhattan (NY, not KS), a small part of me died.

I'm looking forward to reading that the next NASCAR Track will be built on Lon Gisland.

later,

pda

They are on a Der Wienerschnitzel building spree down here in Dallas. I know of 4 new ones that have gone up in the last year. Same watery chili. It's nice to know some things never change.

I remember that some of the Der Wienerschnitzel locations in Tulsa (including the one at 21st and Harvard) became "Biscuits Plus", selling them all day. They lasted several years, which surprised me, as I didn't think very many people would want a biscuit for lunch or dinner. D.W. is still hanging on here, with its last location in the state near my workplace. When I was single-digit age in Texas, my family would go to D.W. and get hot dogs for 18 cents each. Of course, they were no match for Tulsa's own Coney I-Lander, which I still enjoy whenever I make it back. Some of those would hit the spot right now!

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts...been hearing about these since I moved here and finally had some last weekend. They are great...especially hot off the line. Certain to be a hit...if you can get them hot.

Ah, but Mr. Bruchas, Tulsa has also been targeted for Krispy Kreme expansion! I remember reading in the paper sometime last year that they hoped to have one opened in Tulsa by 2003. I can only hope.

I am shocked to see Der Wienerschnitzel franchises still available - the ones I remember in Tulsey and Chicago are something else now - usually non-food-related. A lot of them became places where illicit drugs were sold (not by me) or had the drive thru boarded over.

Last year my brother said Krispy Kreme had targeted KS for franchises and is on a national expansion craze. I am sure THEY would be ones to compete with Tulsa-standard "Daylight Donuts".

Oh the grease! Dunkin Donuts was 150 times BETTER than Daylight Donuts!

Here most Krispee Kreme places have kids or retired teachers selling dozens for school fundraising projects.

PriceClub sells "locally baked" Krispee Kreme donuts "undated" here - must be hermetically sealed under a varnish of industrial "honey dip". Scarey.

John Hillis - last time I bought Dr. Nut was in Corpus Christi, TX about 1977 when visiting Don Lundy and family when he ran KRIS-TV operations. Think I saw it at a N. Dallas Piggly Wiggly again about 2 years later....

Was talking to some Las Vegians working here - Lucky Stores is gone. But Ralph's remains. In Chicago - Dominick's is a Safeway sister company and weird seeing Safeway Select there but here in DC we see MORE Chicago products that I grew up with!

IGA stores are dying out, Kroger re-launching in the South and A&P masquerading under about a half dozen regional names (SuperFresh in DC). Giant here - not Giant Eagle in PA and MD - was sold to first a British group then the Dutch and is now a sister company to my beloved Stop and Shop (in CT) but not related to StopN Shop of Chicago (if still in business). Confused? Safeway here great after figuring out their market but Europeans like buying American grocery chains. Good investments.

Sipes and McCartney's were big dogs in Tulsa in my years there with Wolferman's from KC at Utica Square THE gourmet place to shop. Safeway was in its nasty period then and Sipes/McCartneys stole the best managers to their chains.

Any of you still remember the Piggly Wiggly on 15th East of Peoria in Tulsa? Or going to "Whorehouse" Market as we called it....

Don't you be talking about the Market that way...the one on South Peoria served as "Spatula City" in Weird Al's "UHF"!

It's been a good 40 years since I had a Dr Nut (no period, one "t"). It was a home-brew knockoff of Dr Pepper, heavier on the cherry syrup, bottled upriver from New Orleans around Baton Rouge.

It has, to the best of my knowledge, gone to the great ice-block cooler in the sky, along with hundreds of local sodas as well as Cragmont, as I discovered while visiting the Safeway recently. I struck up a Cragmont conversation with the manager, who said the Cragmont marque passed away some years ago, and now Safeway's store bland sodas are sold under the moniker "Safeway Select." The Ice Cream and milk are still Lucerne, however, and Mrs. Wright's bread lives on to this day.

Community Coffee, which featured tv ads in the late 50s starring Jim Henson's Muppets before they got famous, also still lives, as does its chicoried competitor Luzianne. The Yankee blockades of Southern ports in the Civil War meant coffee shipments were few, far between and costly, and resourceful Louisianians ground up chickory, a bitter weed, to stretch the brew. When the war ended, the acquired taste stayed on for more than a century. I'm not sure how chicory is faring in the age of Starbucks, but Louisiana broadcasting friends occasionally send a Christmas gift of a pound of Community.

It is difficult for me to realize that I began this post "It's been a good 40 years..." The descent into geezerdom has begun. Next: "Sonny, when I was your age...." (the correct conclusion to this sentence is always: "I was just as stupid as you are now.")

Check out Nesbitt's, Cragmont and other denizens of that "great ice-block cooler in the sky" on this site.

Courtesy of Frank Morrow

Apologies are due...Memory is faulty.. Don Norton is right...Don't know how things got so screwed up.

Boy that's humiliating..Bill

Who wants to sponsor one of these?

http://www.wienerschnitzel.com

I'd like one of those "Frank's Pig Stand" franchises.

Good to hear from Don Norton. If KTUL wasn't in the Philtower...I gave a heckuva lot of illegal Station breaks.

Anybody remember "Frank's Pig Stand?" 15th or 18th and Boston I think. Must have eaten a ton of "Beefers" there.

Jim Ruddle is correct in stating that Ben Grauer was primarily a news reader, duties which he mixed in with other announcing efforts including the New Year's Eve ball-dropping party in Times Square. Didn't he also do the announcing and commercials for the Walter Winchell commentaries? And, if my memory is correct, he was the host for the NBC Symphony broadcasts conducted by Toscanini.

With some people the line was blurry between news and commentary. (Of course subjectivity is always there in the selection, length, placement of a story in the newscast, and vocal nuances.) Murrow always planned his newscast so that his commentary came last. Some newsmen/commentators sprinkled subjectivity throughout a newscast, while others, like Fulton Lewis, Jr., performed almost all commentary. The right-wingers were not so punctilious as the liberals and middle-of-the-roaders in the demarcation between commentary and straight news.

Kaltenborn's most embarrassing moment, perhaps, came after he had proclaimed Dewey the winner against Truman in the 1948 election. (How many remember Truman's speech at Skelly Stadium during the campaign? We were all let out of school to see him.) The next day, as a jubilant Truman held up the Chicago Tribune with the infamous headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman," Harry also made fun of Kaltenborn by mimicking his voice and imitating H.V.'s broadcast.

There was another factor that made these years unique. The newsmen and commentators performed with a great variety of voices and verbal techniques. Each man was instantly recognizable. It wasn't until the Cronkite years that we massively got the boring, "objective," flat voices and dull speech techniques that made every newsman sound like a teletype machine. This, by the way, is what the executives preferred.

Did KAKC move into the same studios that KOME vacated in the American Airlines Building?

Great to hear from Bill Bowers, and all other "old timers"--especially those older'n me!

Nevertheless, the mind does play tricks. KVOO, "The Voice of Oklahoma," used to have studios atop the Philtower. KTUL (radio only then) was in the National Bank of Tulsa building a block away down Boston Avenue.

Anyone from Lewziana, remember Dr. Nut or Dr. Nutt soda? Had a squirrel on the brown can.

Or have ya tried Community Coffee - they have a website now in case ya wanna get some coffee with CHICKORY and don't live down dere no more....wooo wah.

Sorry about the long windy story trying to find out about Red McKim. I didn't realize he had passed away. I loved the old wrestling shows and went to school with Red McKim's brother Roger McKim...we used to imitate the bolo in high school wrestling class Nathan Hale l963- 64

The Great Bolo?

I was wondering if anyone remembers the Toca Cola commercials on Lane Pitcock's old talk show. He wore real thick glasses and his pants somehow didn't seem to fit right. Anyway he would have this little kid sing the Toca Cola song. The cola they said was invented accidentally by some women who used to chew up these toca leaves and spit in a big old wash tub and they found out that it helped keep mosquitoes away. One day the popular TV wrestler back then was "Red" somebody. Can't remember his name... anyway, he had been eating a hot pepper at that house where the spit was and he reached down in there and got a handful of what he thought was an herb of some kind. It was delicious to him and he bottled it up and made a cola out of it and called it Toca Cola. Anyway, the point is, I was wondering if anyone remember that wrestler's name? It was Red somebody

Focusing on the part I can deal with, how about Red McKim? You may wish to check out the Rasslin' page on this site.

We just saw the tribute to Gene for the first time and just wanted to let you know that we appreciate knowing that he is remembered by all of you.

Doris

I remember that daddy (grandad) always worked nights. When I was young, we mostly got to see him on his nights off, and we would all sit down to dinner together. Inevitably, he would glance at the clock on the wall and then proclaim "Well, it's 8 o'clock (or whatever time it was), I wonder what time it is?" Not to mention the story about his grandfather being an old indian fighter.....his grandma was an old indian...and on and on.

My grandad raised me, and I must say, I am very lucky that he loved me enough to do what my own mother wouldn't.

Your fond remembrances made me laugh and cry.....and I go home tonight feeling a little lighter.

Thank You
Stephanie (the Grand Daughter)

I have added the Tincher family comments to Gene's page.

To answer Jim Ruddle's question, Greg Chancellor died quite a few years back. I last saw him in Grand Junction, Colorado while on my way to Oregon. Bill Taylor too passed on about 8 years ago.

Greg was indeed a wonderful guy. I worked with Greg at KTUL when studios were in the Philtower building on the 21st floor.

A fond memory of Greg is when he was reading a Betty Crocker commercial on the Southwest leg of CBS and the wind blew a page of the script from the stand. Greg ad-libbed a chocolate cake recipe and the ingredients were nothing like what was printed in the copy. He concluded the spot with, "Look for the GOLD REDAL MESSIPIE" on the box."

I wonder how those cakes turned out.

People...

Elvin Bishop playing gigs around DC and Baltimore but I keep missing him. Last time I saw him was in Tulsa 25 years ago!

WMAQ's Len O'Connor - BIG guy with his own unique and often wry delivery. I can remember him doing news cut-ins as a kid and early newscasts on channel 5 before he assumed role of commentator at WMAQ-TV.

In 1967 or 1968 - was at WMAQ for "It's Academic" show try-outs (I didn't make the cut - was an alternate) and saw him in the hallway and did a nervous "Hi!" to him.

He was a Chicago news icon!

"..and I am Len O'Connor..." was his kiss-off.

Great to hear from Bill Bowers. Hope he trolls the archives to see what we've had reported on many of his contemporaries. I remember the KOME studios in the American Airlines building, on Boston. Howard Engel, who was an opera nut, worked there as a salesman. The later KOME was all shine and polish compared with the AA building's digs. One additional feature at the "new" KOME location was its proximity to Borofsky's Delicatessen, across the street and a few doors south. This may have been the only delicatessen in Tulsa, at the time. They sold the best chocolate eclairs I ever ate.

Maybe Bill knows what happened to Greg Chancellor, one of the nicest people ever to work in Tulsa radio. Last I heard, (posted elsewhere) was that after he got married he moved to a job in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Anybody know more?

Frank Morrow's list of commentators includes some I was not aware ever did commentary. Ben Grauer, for instance. All I remember him for was occasionally reading the news, but mostly being the commercial announcer for such long forgotten programs as "The Battle of the Sexes," starring Frank Crumit (an old vaudeville singer) and his wife, Julia Sanderson, (who introduced the Jerome Kern song "They Didn't Believe Me," in a Broadway show, in 1914.)

A friend of mine worked for Cedric Adams and said he and another kid--they were both very young and very underpaid--wrote every word that Adams uttered. He did his broadcasts from his home and they teletyped his scripts, seldom seeing the great man.

Len O'Connor, who WAS a great man, in my opinion, was a Chicago street reporter for NBC in the forties. He later got into television there. He told me once that some big national story broke while he was still working radio and that he was told H. V. Kaltenborn, in town for a speaking engagement, would be coming to the studios for a broadcast. O'Connor was told to help him prepare. Len said he gathered all the wire copy, made phone calls, and picked up some additional material on the subject. Kaltenborn came in, ignored the copy and the notes, and off the top of his head did thirty minutes of detailed analysis of the story.

Don Norton mentions Everett Mitchell, of National Farm and Home Hour fame. His son, Jerry, later worked as an announcer at WMAQ-TV when I was there. According to old timers on the radio side, each day when Everett delivered his "It's a beautiful day in Chicago!" line, he cued the program's director by flipping him the bird.

I don't believe Pegler, "Iron Pants" Johnson, or David Lawrence did radio. It's a pity Mencken never did.

But I go too long.

In 1970 I was 12 yrs old, I'm 43 yrs old now. I was in 7th grade at the old Lewis and Clark on Admiral and Garnett. Every Friday night the school sponsored a "Fun Night" and MAZEPPA came one night in his wizard hat and cape. I have never forgotten it. One of my best memories!!!!!

Hey, that's my old alma mater, too.

My favorite Paul Harvey story occurred a few years ago when I was talking with some Central graduates of 1936 and 1937. I asked them what their classmate Paul Harvey was like back then. They looked at each other. Then one of them said, "He was a little snot!" They all nodded in agreement.

Here are some of the old commentators, some of whom were mentioned earlier: H.V. Kaltenborn, Gabriel Heatter, Edward R. Murrow, Raymond Gram Swing, Fulton Lewis, Jr., H.R. Baukhage, Walter Winchell, Ben Grauer, Cedric Adams, George Hicks (who made perhaps the most famous D-Day broadcast), Alex Dreier, Bill Henry, Lowell Thomas, and Raymond Clapper (who died during the war). Kaltenborn was remarkable in that during one broadcast from Germany he gave a simultaneous verbal translation/interpretation during a speech by Hitler. How many of today’s “newsmen” could ever do something like that? Some other reporters at that time were also linguists. William L. Shirer spoke German. Newspaper reporter George Seldes knew the languages in every country he reported in.

Were Westbrook Pegler, Gen. Hugh Johnson, and David Lawrence on the radio as well as in the newspapers?

Boac Carter also had a daily newspaper column that could be very emotional and erratic. It was carried by the Tulsa Tribune. Carter was an arch-isolationist who actually saw the real world pretty clearly at times, especially the “isolationist” policies of Stalin before the war. (My TU Master’s thesis in history was about American reaction to the Soviet Union as reflected in the very conservative Tulsa Tribune and the very liberal New Republic.)

The Ed Murrow proteges: Alexander Kendrick, Robert Trout, Don Hollenbeck (who committed suicide during the McCarthy Period), Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Larry LaSeur, and William L. Shirer. Murrow recruited all of them. He was criticized by the bosses in New York because some of them, particularly Shirer, didn’t “sound like announcers.” This didn’t faze Murrow.

Your descriptions of Mayfest sound like fun. When we were in Tulsa, we went to New Orleans for one of the early Jazz Fests...likewise a do-it-before-it-gets-too-hot event. It was just a few performances and a hot dog stand, not the giant production it is now. Hope Mayfest continues to maintain a human scale.

I note that Paul Harvey's been absent for the airwaves for a long spell, apparently with laryngitis. I heard him croak through the last 15 minute broadcast before he went on sick leave, and it was pretty torturous--I was really wondering if the old guy would make it to the end, or whether Junior would jump in midstream. In that condition, 15 minutes can be a loooooong time.

They've been subbing Doug Limerick of ABC here in Washington and Gil Gross from KGO in S.F. for Paul, and playing recorded commercials, some of which are voiced by Paul himself, others by Paul Junior.

Over the last six months, I've noticed a growing number of gaffes and stumbles that would have been most unusual in earlier Harvey times. I was a bit surprised to hear that he'd signed a contract renewal that would have him on the air to age 95, given that the last time I read something about his renewing, he included a remark about the actuarial tables. I guess big money on the table beats the actuarial tables any day.

I am told that Harvey may be the highest paid talent at ABC, including Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters.

Is that so! I'm sure he does a better job selling product than either of those high-priced talents.

Heard a radio tie-in at Mayfest this evening. Headliner Buddy Miles (of "Band of Gypsies" fame with Jimi Hendrix) mentioned Dale Wehba (Skandor Akbar's cousin) and KOMA in one of his breaks between songs. He said he had worked at the National Guard Armory back in the 60s; couldn't tell if he meant Tulsa or OKC, probably the latter. Thought I was having a 60s-style auditory hallucination there for a minute when I heard "Wehba" and "KOMA".

The younger talent at the Pepsi stage was pretty entertaining. Billy Joe Winghead's lead singer asked if there were any Duke Ellington or Bobby Darin fans out there, then proceeded to play a none-too-respectful version of "Caravan", the melody being rendered on a theremin. You don't hear that very often. The next tune was dedicated to lovers, but it proved not to be an appropriate time to bring out the hankies; it wasn't exactly a Captain and Tennille cover. Then Freakshow played some pretty good neo-funk.

People were watching one of the Mazeppa tapes on a TV in the souvenir shop window.

"That's all!"

By no means am I part of the Golden Age of Tulsa radio. For goodness sake, I started at KNGX in Clarmore in '89. I bopped around the Tulsa market doing stints at 970 AM KCFO (Formerly KAKC), KQLL 1430 - formerly KELI (now the Buzz, sports), KOKL 1240 in Okmulgee, and several FM's here and there.

Even though I'm too young to have been on the air at these legendary signals when they were in their heyday, I count it a privilege to have had my voice emanating over the frequencies that blessed the lives of so many. At times I find myself wishing that I could have been a part of the teams and times that made these stations great! You've got a rich radio heritage, Tulsa! I'm proud to have been a part of it.

Thanks for stopping in, Gary.

Just wondering how many of us are left who were in radio in Tulsa during the war years. (WW-2) My first venture into radio was as a member of "The Junior Playhouse" on KVOO on Saturday mornings. It was a dramatization of fairy tales similar to NBC's "Let's Pretend" only with local talent. Allan Hubbard put the group together.

Later I worked for KOME when it was in what was then the "American Airlines Building" KTUL with Glen Condon and Jack Morris. John Esau was Manager and Karl Janssen was PD. Among those troops were Ed Neibling, Bill Taylor, Greg Chancellor, George Overton, Gerald Johnson, Roy Pickett, Betty Barber, Pat Breen and Clara Ann Fowler (Patti Page.)

When Glen Condon and Sam Avey joined a fellow named Kellough (Don't remember his first name) started KAKC I went with them.

At nearly 75 years old, chronology gets a little confused but I started with KOTV in 1946 when Helen Alvarez was manager and Ronnie Oxford was PD. I remember Bob Hower.

Those are days I will always treasure and I wonder how many of us are still around.

Welcome, Bill. I think you will hear from several regular readers.

Re: "Ancient" radio newsmen:

John Dunning in the "Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio" spelled him (in several places) Hilmar Robert Baukhage (with an "h"). But he used neither that (full) name nor his initials; he always came on with a curt two words, "Baukhage talking."

The "Encyclopedia" says he started in 1932 with short news summaries on the National Farm and Home Hour. About all I remember of that show (much later) was Everett Mitchell's inevitable greeting, "It's a bee-eeu-ti-ful day in Chicago," which he used, as Dunning notes, whether it was raining, snowing or sunshiny.

Experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage has a similar name formation.

To All,
I grew up here in Tulsa in the 70's. The shows were great and this web site is just amazing. Thanx for the memories and the laughter. I'm a Brookside baby always. The restless ribbon has and will always be my home..TULSA RULES.......

Thanks, Mark.

Archived Guestbook 79, right in the middle of Mayfest (see the Bulletin Board for more). During this Guestbook, Gailard Sartain appeared with Phil & Brent on KMOD-FM, and on KJRH-TV's "Oklahoma Living" with Karen Keith in association with his painting for this year's Mayfest poster.

We heard from Gene Tincher's daughter, who saw the tribute to Gene here for the first time. Radio commentators of the past were discussed. Tulsa movie theatres, both drive-in and walk-in, Tulsa eateries and used record stores came up. Tommy Crook, a great Tulsa guitar player, was again mentioned. Havoc-wreaking Chinese hackers led to some links about Civil Defense radio.