Just an emendation, not necessarily a correction, to Don Norton's account of TV stations in Tulsa. In 1949, KOTV was owned by George Cameron. It may well have been "Helen Alvarez' station," she was, after all, the General Manager, but she and Jack Wrather did not become owners until 1952. Helen was a phenomenal character who was not, as most supposed, a latin lady. Her maiden name was Harmon, and she had married a fellow who worked in radio sales in Tulsa named Joe Alvarez. That was over by the time she went to KOTV. She eventually married C. Arnholt Smith, a west coast millionaire who later did prison time for some sort of peculation. As far as I know, she still thrives in California.

Gene Allen's "Voices on the Wind" is indeed an excellent reference on early RADIO in Oklahoma, but I never recommend it without mentioning what to me seems to be a huge "hole" in what the author should have reported.

There's a certain logic in mentioning radio stations that have continued their service to the public by installing television transmitters. The trouble with "Written on the Wind" is that Allen mentions WKY and KVOO--and NO ONE ELSE! (It's only a coincidence, of course, that WKY and KVOO executives sponsored the book) And, as anyone even slightly knowledgeable knows, WKY-TV went on the air in the summer of 1949, only a few months before Helen Alvarez's KOTV. KVOO-TV got caught in the "permit freeze" and didn't get on the air until 1954, FIVE YEARS LATER! (Griffin's KTVX made it earlier in 1954) Meanwile, station personnel trying to adapt to a new medium came to KOTV to volunteer to put on programs for the experience, about as they would had they had TV studios available at their radio locztions.

But don't let this diatribe keep you from enjoying this thin but informative volume!

John Hillis is right - the farther one is from DC or NYC - the more folks tend to forget about last year. So I guess I will stray from TTM TV talk, if you'll excuse me.

When I first moved down here from DC last October - there was still a lot of solidarity with the folks up North. Folks were still in shock at the enormity of it all.

NC has a lot of military bases -- so many folks were worried for their loved ones about to be sent off to Afghanistan.

MSNBC and Fox News Cable also were on the air in most restaurants and hotels - both seemed a little sabre-rattling at the time but now they are video services for many over local news outlets.

NASCAR has been very red, white and blue and following that lead NBC,TNT and Fox all have run "we support the USA" patriotic show opens on air in their NASCAR coverage stints and covered all the tributes at NASCAR tracks for fireman, cops and the military.

But sadly later in the year - heard nay-sayers on talk radio here grumping on how NYC was getting too much national attention. You hear talk in the coffee shops here (no not of Starbucks type) along the same lines sadly.

Others - of more religious nature - felt that the Apocalypse was drawing nigh and "we" had better all get ready for it.

My own parent company (who owns INSP - I am a contractor to Fox TV's Speed Channel venture)) did a 9/11 tribute show - without ever going to NYC/DC and is sponsoring prayer and remembrance shows.

I'll stop on 9/11 with the multitudes and remember those who lost their lives in this disaster.

Sidebar to NC - Bank of America folks from Charlotte were in the TWC on 9/11 in NYC on a some kind of meeting - not sure how many never returned home...one would think it would be a bigger local story one year later.

Sidebar #2 - Down here this "National Day of Service" thing this week is semi-luke-warm. Movie theatres are running trailers for it the last few weeks - would be curious to see if this does catch on nationally.

Saw at the PO today that one can pay 45 cents for a new stamp that will help add to the fiscal relief coffers of the families who lost loved ones. I may have to buy some - but they also have a similar one for cancer research this week...

Lastly - for you readers - earlier this month I read Dennis Smith's "Report from Ground Zero" narrative on 9/11 and the aftermath. Smith wrote "Report from Engine Co. 82" about 20 years ago and though retired from the FDNY and now a writer/publisher - he was an early volunteer with many retired firefighters - who responded to help at the TWC on that fateful day and stuck with rescue efforts. His narrative also shows what an extended "family" the FDNY (and for that fact, the NYPD)is with fathers, sons and brothers who lost their lives on that "job" at the TWC. Buy it from amazon.com or check it out at your local library.

I drove past the Pentagon tonight. The HMI lights were up and blazing on the A Ring that was hit by the plane a year ago, the bleacher seats that will hold an audience of 12,000 on Wednesday were up and topped with dozens of American flags every 10 feet or so.

The sun was setting as I crossed Memorial Bridge, rolled right past the Lincoln Memorial, and headed up the Potomac toward Rock Creek Parkway. The western sky was stunning—royal blue blending into rich scarlet against the skyline of the office buildings that rise up beside Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial. A motorboat bobbed silently on the river. Lights twinkled in office windows. The red obstruction lights near the top of the Washington Monument winked. It was almost breathtaking in its quiet beauty.

Then, the little light flicked on. And, even before the mind can process a conscious thought, the rush of fear. Landing gear lights switched on, not on the normal river flight path, but inbound over the Pentagon. An intake of breath, an instant's unspoken prayer, and the commuter airliner flies over and lands on the short runway at National. Exhale. Pilot must have had quite a view on that final approach tonight, with all that candlepower. A flicker of a smile. Henry Lile would have liked to shoot that approach.

Many of us who live around here have our own stories, and our own thoughts. And the fear that seems less tangible the farther away you get from here and from New York becomes very, very sharp-edged when things happen like the landing light blinking on, or the fighter jets fly over low late at night, or the helicopters that disturb even the pandemonium of kids’ soccer games.

I was going to chime in on George Jacobs and his wonderful plethora of marvelous little inventions, but after my little drive tonight, it'll have to wait for some other time.

The book Don Norton refered to is "Voices On The Wind - Early Radio in Oklahoma" by Gene Allen. It's a fairly quick read, especially if one is interested in the subject.

The book provides some old studio locations in Tulsa. If I remember correctly, one of Tulsa's early radio stations was owned and operated by one of Tulsa's downtown churches (First Christian?).

On a hot day - here is a "cool" link.

If any of you served in the Military in Iceland - AFRTS Iceland has a nice small web page on the history of AFRTS in Iceland.

BTW -The very first TV station in Iceland was from the US base.

Go to http://www.nctskef.navy.mil/media/ and be patient as you click thru the sub pages...

To Don Norton.

Thanks for information on the early stations. I think it was WLAL that I was referring to, but it never crossed my mind that in the "Oil Boom" era, Tulsa would have had more than one at the time, even though there was not half the paperwork and the frequency allocation on the spectrum that we have nowadays. (This was after what, the mid 30's when they set up the frequency allocations and the clear channels? Federal Communications Act of 19--?)

If it costs $15 today to have two pizzas delivered in around 45 minutes to Tulsa in the size that it is, how much would it cost and how long would it take a girl on a bicycle, leaving downtown Tulsa from 4th and Main on a hot summer evening, and pedaling fast to deliver a pint of ice cream to your house, say, two miles away before it melted?

You're right about the Crown Drug location, too. Again, memory circuits are dim.

I have the book that mentions that somewhere in the South Wing in the library, I'll see if I can find the mention and post it here.

Many thanks, Don.

For Chuck Fullhart and anyone else interested:

At least THREE radio stations operated briefly in Tulsa before KFRU ("Kind Friends Remember Us") even got on the air in Bristow, later to become KVOO Tulsa.

I know almost nothing about these fleeting voices, but they were: WEH, authorized March 29, 1922; WGAF, authorized June 19, 1922; and WLAL, which took the air in September 1922. Of course I wasn't there at the time, but I vaguely remember reading something about WLAL in one of the books in the public library's small radio collection.

I think the location you mentioned, Fourth and Boulder, might have been Fourth and Main, where the Crown Drug Store (in the Channel 8 station wagon: Louis "Bud" Blust Jr. by Loe Gillette of the Tulsa Tribune, courtesy of Bud Blust...webmaster) stood on the southwest corner prior to "installation" of the parking garage ("A Call to the Crown Saves a Trip Downtown!"). (This of course in an era when a young lad on a bicycle would deliver a pint of ice cream--anyone under the age of, say, fifty, remember that?

My thanks to Lowell Burch for his kind remarks vis-à-vis my vocalizing.

I am also happy to see a photo of Jim Ruddle and if current, proves that we can age gracefully.

M. Bruchas mentions an encounter I had with an automated camera (near the bottom of the page...webmaster) whilst plying my trade (?) at KOTV. I think this thing was purchased by the Bean Counters in N.Y. because it would get rid of Camera Operators. Most of the time they worked but on the night in mention it went berserk! It was like R2D2 on speed! I was close to it for some reason and all at once it started whirling around, jerking this way and that. I felt like a Bull Fighter! Happily it went away.

Now it gives great pleasure to speak of the aformentioned...George Jacobs. One of the finest men I have ever known. He did not suffer fools easily but did possess a great sense of humor and was very self deprecating. He was also very very smart. Yes, he came up with some ideas that seemed loopy at the time but if he had had the yet to be discovered ingredients he needed, he would have been in the headlines. I am sorry for my lack of knowledge of his early years but I think he was a mover and shaker in early Network TV etc. I really got to associate with him after I retired. Dinner etc. Well-informed and highly opinionated and most gracious at the same time. I believe he would be close to ninety if he were still alive. I am pretty sure his wife Nadja is still with us.

I know he built a lot of things for KOTV and other Corinthian stations but one I will never forget was the Automatic One Minute Station Break Gizmo. To be brief; It was a "Rack" about six feet tall. It had two rails on which a metal bar between the two would travel from top to bottom in sixty seconds.It had in back of this a flat board or plate with hundreds of holes drilled in it. Evenly spaced at intervals that would represent one second. Into these holes, a programmer would insert round headed bolts from left to right at intervals representing what to turn on or off.(Film chains, audio, video tape etc.) As the bar traveled down this maze, it made contact with the bolts which formed an electrical circuit and this performed the deed. It ran the entire one minute break...in theory! The problem was; It took about two hours to figure out how to program it. It worked like a charm in any case.

Now, a true story about George. At an early KOTV Christmas Party at the Mayo Hotel, we were standing in line for the buffet or something, talking to George and Nadja, Wayne Johnson and some other people. George had a mixed drink in his hand and was talking and then someone asked him what time it was? George looked down, flipped his wrist over like one does to look at his watch and of course..poured his drink on the floor. The laughter lasted a long time and his was right in there too.

When I started to college, I wanted to go to TU but when Bill Shellenbarger called and told me what was going on at ORU, and offered me an attractive incentive (they were trying to build the school up back then), I had to go and try it out. The TV equipment was as good as any they had in Burbank at the time and the celebrities occupied the campus like a Hollywood backlot. Stars like Johnny Cash, Pearl Bailey, Jerry Lewis, and Doc Severinson (just to name a few) would show up on campus on a regular basis to do Oral's shows.

I really liked that part of being an ORU student. Otherwise, I didn't really fit in. My hair was always too long, I didn't speak in tongues and I missed too many chapels. I finally gave it up and finished at a state school.

So what was the highlight of my career at ORU? Without a doubt, it was the time we played back up for the illustrious star of stage and TV screen, singer extraordinare and King Lionel's right-hand-man, Lee Woodward!

Now, that man could sing. (He still can; hear a couple of songs here...webmaster)

We started talking about technological changes here tonight - midst yellow and red flags in Richmond. Tulsey may have really been more advanced way back when than I thought - from what I was hearing here tonight. Told a younger associate about "splicing on the pulse" - the way tape editing was physically done - just as I entered the business.

It brought to mind many stories that I heard about 6 back in the late 60's/early 70's and experiments/ideas by then KOTV VP/Director of Engineering George Jacobs. Half the engineering staff (and more of some of the awake production staffers) was divided on Jacobs being a genius or mad TV scientist in some of his ideas. Would love to hear from some 6 almuni in engineering on working with Jacobs.

Need Lee (from the talent side)to tell us his version of the infamous Evershed Power-Optics camera going amuck on-air on him....

Totally unrelated to Brother Oral, but in the back of my highly cob-webbed and ancient mind, it seems that I remember reading somewhere that the Lortons, vis-à-vis The Tulsa World, took over and ran a failing radio station in downtown Tulsa in the early to mid 20's, that I think, underline think, pre-dated Bill Skelly's moving KFRU to Tulsa, and redubbing it KVOO.

The station was set up by some entrepreneur and his son, and they quickly or slowly starved to death because of lack of business and receivers, and The World took it over and ran it for awhile before folding it. I'm not even sure that it had a call then, other than just Xsomething.

Seems like it was located at 4th and Boulder, in either the old Orpheum building or right on the corner in the building where the drug store on the SW corner used to be, and was later torn down for the now "modern" parking garage.

I won't ask if anyone remembers this, don't want to embarass anyone, but anyone have any knowledge of this?

Most of Oral's early TV stuff was done under the direction of former KOTV director Herb Lightman. Herb also did a full-length color film for Roberts called "Journey into Faith," or "Venture into Faith," or something like that. He probably has access to some of these things. He said that lighting that 16,000 seat tent was one of his biggest challenges.

At the bottom of the linked page is Herb Lightman at the 2001 Worldfest in Houston. (I was there in 1994..."Clerks" and "The Last Seduction" were screened. Julie Newmar was also in attendance.)

The comments about Oral Roberts reminded me that Richard Roberts was on my baseball team when I was in elementary school and Oral used to come to the games sometimes. Oral's brother, Baden (I believe) owned a group of dry cleaning establishments (La Mode, I believe was the name) which my family frequented. Baden never mentioned Oral, until my father became terminally ill with cancer. When I was picking up some cleaning one day, Baden asked if I wanted him to call Oral and have him pray for my father. A really nice gesture.

I also remember in high school there was a coffee house on 15th street, just west of Peoria, called the Dust Bowl. Several people who made it big later played there, including Michael Martin Murphy and B.W. Stevenson. (I played there also, but never made it big, primarily because of lack of talent.)

The reason I mentioned the Dust Bowl is that, in all the times I was there, only once was someone removed from the stage in the middle of a set and asked to leave for playing music that was too "gross." That someone, you may have guessed, was Richard Roberts. I guess everybody has to rebel a bit.

Peace, llk

Now we're rocking! Speaking of Early Oral Roberts. I recall seeing the equipment used at the Tent Revivals. Nothing was any better in Hollywood. I believe "Mitchell" 35mm camera's were used. The lighting, mike's, crew...all top notch and that's the way it's always been. I believe that Jerry Lewis made the comment that there wasn't a studio as good as that at the "Baby Mabee" in Hollywood. I remember doing the voice over for the promotional film for the soon to be built ORU. I recorded in the fabulous studio at the old White Diamond building, on South Boulder I think? The recording Engineer had come from California to work there. Some of his former talents were Ella, Frank, Tony etc. I don't know if that film still exists? I doubt it. I did a concert with the ORU Brass under Bill Shellenbarger at the Mabee and also along with Jane Sneed, David Howell and others, a Broadway tribute at the Mabee. Again, everything top notch and as far as I know, it still is.

On a totally different subject. My wife and I were introduced to a couple sometime in the late fifties who I seem to remember might have had something to do with Channel 8, because I think Vic Bastian introduced them to us. They were; John and Michelle Weeks. She was German. Soon after,I think they moved to Calfornia. Years later I heard he was a top Luxo car Salesman in San Francisco and that's all I know. Anyone know anything?

To Mike Bruchas. Saw your posting on Oral's early B&W crusades.

If you are back in Tulsa anytime during a weekend or late night, I think they still air those on Oral's "53" as time-fillers.

You're right, it was a different time and place for us Rednecks back then.

After watching this summer's offerings, American Idol really seemed to stand out. I agree with the Lion's slave, this show, compared to Fear Factor, and yes, forgive me if you are a fan, Survivor, and Dog Eat Dog, actually turned out to be a "talent" search and show. Still makes you long for the days of the Gong Show. But come to think of it, Fox resurrected that one too, just with a different name. Fox's offerings make me want to turn off the TV and pull the 8 track out of the closet.

Saw Oral on TV today - sometimes now they refer to him as Chancellor of ORU; I remember a brouha when Oral was being called Dr. Oral Roberts years ago and I believe besides getting honorary doctorates he may have worked time in a to get a real doctorate from some seminary. But he was pooh-poohed for calling himself a doctor for a while there...

His current red hair pompadour is kind of a shock.

I still say the best vintage "Oral-tv" any one could watch would be his b&w films of tent crusades in the 50's/60's - which are fascinatin' looks at folks of the Southwest back then. Then his early COLOR stuff in Tulsa at ORU in the early 70's with the NBC/Burbank, KTUL crew and later ORU "pro" staff - directed by Chris Miller and others with "big time" guests is another snapshot of American "TV religion" of that era...

Looking through the lost cultural icons for the 50's, I noticed that "SpudNuts" donuts made from potato flour were missing

It seems the MDA Telethon has lost the magic it once had. Maybe it's just that I'm grown now and realize that the telethon is an effort to fund research for horrible neuromuscular disease, and not just entertainment. Although Jerry Lewis looked bloated, he seemed in better spirits than last year.

One of the problems with these great charities is that there are so many, most people only give to a couple of them, if any.

I make an annual donation to the Make A Wish Foundation, and will always "Fill The Boot" come Labor Day time. I do this not only because I feel bad for those afflicted, but because myself or someone close to me may need assistance from one of these charities someday.

These telethons we see do provide great entertainment, but they're there for a purpose, and I hope everyone who watches makes a generous donation.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Thanks Lee, I agree Kelly C is great, seems like a great kid & I hope she has a great career and doesn't get eaten up by the business.

It's come a long way from Ted Mack, huh?

I remember playing the Ventures "Walk Don't Run" at the Channel 8 talent show at the Fair in about 1964. One of the fellows in the house band was a guitar player named Roy Ferguson. A very fine young singer named Candy Noe won the show that year.

Memories......pressed between the pages of my mind.......

The Tulsa State Fair is coming right up, as is a page about it here.

I found the "American Idol" show to be most excellent and the selection of Kelly Clarkson as the winner most appropriate and well deserved. How someone that young (20) can be that good and get better through the many grueling weeks is quite remarkable. The replay of the five worst "losers" was priceless.

Now consider this: since someone mentioned Jerry Lewis Telethon, what do you think "American Idol" judge "Simon" would have to say to Nancy Sinatra after her "performance?"

Re MDAA - a TTM reader who will remain nameless (and used to direct a lot of these beasties) - has always maintained that one of these years JL may die on the air and public outpouring will be so great - that THE funds to fund MD's cure will happen.

It's probably gonna be stranger than fiction if it happens that way - but you know MDAA, March of Dimes, Cystic Fibrosis have all been around a long time.

Sooner or later there WILL be a cure found for these plagues on mankind.

Don't forget the hospitals for sick kids with the St.Jude and Children's Miracle Network telethons. And NEVER write off the Shriners and all the good work they do - a friend here has a child who was badly burned in a car wreck and the Shriners' hospitals have done fantastic physical work for.... Also without these groups - any cure might be dependant on government research monies and we all know how thin this stuff is spread!

Hey Lionel, Sorry bout the sis's name. That would be Willya Bee Big Carl

Mike, I was in Tulsa over the weekend and channel 23 carried the telethon. I didn't recognize any of the talent, who I assume were 23's news anchors. Actually, I've been gone so long I don't recognize any of the anchors on 2, 6 or 8 either.

To Mike Bruchas. Mike, I think the MDAA took in something like $58 Million in pledges and coin of the realm this year.

Just makes you wonder what they are going to do when Jerry is no longer among us or just can't physically do it anymore, even though he is the trooper that he is.

Did 8 or 23 carry the MDAA Telethon this year?

Anyone have any idea what MDAA did thsi last weekend - "tote" wise?

RE the King's comment: "Mayhaps my Pasadena Juice can lend a balanced opine?"

Ever since watching my beloved King in the early 60s, I've never known any man nor beast who could defeat him!! Only a fool would try! ;-)

And though retired, Lionel will always be my one-and-only King. His keeper ain't a bad sort, either.

I played DANCE PARTY several times back in the mid-60's with my all-girl band, FOUR FACES OF EVE from Bartlesville. Lee Bayley was the host and we had big fun! I'm still rockin' after all these years!

Added Becky's comment to the Dance Party page. Today, Becky is a very successful songwriter and performer. You can read more about her at her web site: http://www.beckyhobbs.com.

The Ford Of Tulsa spokeswoman is known as "Brandy Cox". Whether that's her real name, or just something guys like to hear her say, I don't know.

I like hearing her say her name, though.

First, Chris Kelly tells me the worst news of all; She's a Ms. Then in typical L.A. fashion, her own Brother (Big Carl) misspells his own Sister's name. It's "Willyah!" Another rejoinder; Will a 50 gallon drum of "Whip-Ass" trump an L.A. curb stompin?

Mayhaps my Pasadena Juice can lend a balanced opine?

I grow tired now and must retire.

Let me tell ya there little Lionel, you been cattin around Tulsa since before I was even a sorted thought in my daddy's mind.

I member watchin you when I was a little boy livin in LA (lower Arkansas).

Anyways, that little girl would be my sister Williah. Now you better leave her alone before ol Big Carl gives you a good ol LA curbstompin!!!!

It is my understanding that the gal Lionel speaks of is from Arkansas. One of the guys who works for me went to school with her and tells me she is a former Ms. Arkansas. The agency for Ford of Tulsa is in Arkansas.

Happy Labor Day to all of you still in the media field - from your fellow holiday worker!

I have made a clean sweep of working all Summer holidays this year unhappily but I am happy wallet-wise this year.

My employer has our remote truck up in DC doing the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon for one of the stations up there. I am here in Charlotte recording feeds for Speed Channel.

Many of us worked the MDAA hoop-de-doo sooooo long for so many years at KTUL way way back when.....

But on another note - I guess as time-line note of reflection of our lives - really we should all think of where we were this time last Summer.

Unknowing, unhurting and unprepared for Sept.11 horrors that came shortly ahter Labor Day 2001.

May we not have another day like Sept. 11 again. I think we all were changed by that horror...Life changes fast....

RE:King Lionel HRM's comments

hahahahahahahahahaha

Always on the alert for attractive new talent on the Tulsa TV screen, I have spied a newcomer with an interesting new visual sales trick. I know not her but she is the "Spokeswoman" (Notice I did not use the politically correct "Person") for the "Tulsa Auto Collection" TV ads. What she does is; For emphases, she flashes her eyes, that is, she makes them real big. Being from the Cat family, this really stirs my chili because in the animal world this is seen as an attack mode. (I should be so lucky.) It's kind of like what one automobile feels like when another flashes it's "Hi-Beams" in passing. What a rush!

I wonder if she's an "Okie Gal?" I wonder if she would cotton to a furry feline for a dinner date? Some imported Meow Mix and a nice bottle of Ke Anti.(As Hannable Lecter would say) And some Fava beans. Afterwards, I could invite her up to see my Scratches.

Who can tell us about this fair maiden with the electric eyes?

Archived Guestbook 113.

"Oh no, Mrs. Burke! I thought you...you were Dale!" The guy who uttered this timeless line ("Dennis") sounds a little like Teddy Jack Eddy (Gary Busey). Hear him at the Burke Family Archives.

Discovered this at PopCult, where TTM is under consideration as People's Choice Website of the Week.