Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 97

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Date: December 17 2001 at 19:22:34
Name: Don Lundy
Location: Indianapolis
Comments:

As I remember, the Kon Tiki on Admiral had some pretty good coney dogs. Now, not in the class of the Coney Island downtown or even Jim's Never On Sunday, but pretty good nevertheless.



Date: December 17 2001 at 17:12:46
Name: Billy G. Spradlin
Location: Lost in the Piney Woods Of E-Texas
How did you find TTM? With Swollen Nasal Membranes
Comments:

Forgot to mention this - What 92K/14K did to keep them out of FCC trouble simulcasting was use seperate jocks at the AM and FM and only simulcast the morning/afternoon drive. Later when the stations started "going down" in the summer of 1984 they used some satelite CHR programming.



Date: December 17 2001 at 17:09:44
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: Charlotte, NC (NC=no charge)
Comments:

For years - Walt Brewer WAS Mr. Lighting Grid in Tulsa and often OKC.

Walt built grids and did electrical work for stations and every TV installation that came along.....



Date: December 17 2001 at 17:07:47
Name: Billy G. Spradlin
Location: Somewhere In East Texas
How did you find TTM? With a brand spankin new Cable Modem!
Comments:

Hey Gary - I remember 14K/92K (KELI AM & FM) very fondly, It was a excellent radio station but only lasted a year in 1983-4. The thing I admired about the station was they wern't afraid to take chances with new songs. It took KAY-107 several weeks to add songs that 14K/92K had already played for a month. (they really kept them on their toes for awhile)

Also 14K/92K's Jock squad was far better than KAY-107 with more personality and they sounded like they were having fun on the air.

The main reason why the station was short-lived was the FM just didn't have the signal to compete against other stations and KAY-107. At the time 92.1 was only a puny 3000 watts from Broken Arrow, and younger listeners didn't want to switch to the mono AM. It was fun station while it lasted.

I still have some cassette tapes of the station and a Bumper Sticker (their logo wasnt nearly as cool as KELi's in the 1970's)



Date: December 17 2001 at 09:29:33
Name: Charles
Location: Fargo
How did you find TTM? Aisle three at Jubilee City
Comments:

Webmaster: I remember the Tiki on Admiral (although I thought it was a burger place not a bar). As an child East sider from the 60's-70's, it was one of the landmarks I remember when we went up Admiral to go Downtown. We also often used 11th St. to go Downtown. The main landmark I remember on 11th was the neon Meadow Gold sign that was on the roof of a building at the corner of 11th and Lewis (or was it Peoria). the last time I was there the sign was still standing. Is it still there? It would be nice if they could get it lit up again.


You may well be right about it being a burger place. And yes, the Meadow Gold sign is still there. I need to take a photo of it for this site.

As a former Admiral/11th Street habitué, you will probably enjoy the Tulsa Motel/Restaurant Photo Album.



Date: December 17 2001 at 07:59:06
Name: Sonny Hollingshead
Location: Sand Springs
Comments:

I read in the morning paper that Walter Brewer passed away over the weekend. He owned a studio lighting company here for many years.

Graveside services are Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Memorial Park Cemetery.



Date: December 16 2001 at 23:35:32
Name: Bob Duff
Location: Tulsey
How did you find TTM? somewhat spicy but pretty good
Comments:

Webmaster, you are still in Kansas. There was indeed a tiki lounge complete with thatched roof and that statue you mentioned. It was on Admiral between Pittsburgh and Yale on the south side of the street. Don't know how long it was there.


And Toto, too...and Toto, too...



Date: December 16 2001 at 23:30:25
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: Bible Belt - Eastern Division nexus
Comments:

Re John Hope Franklin - we covered him doing an NCAA or some other group speech in my day either in Tulsa or OKC - but we never stressed the fact he was a native Oklahoman. Our reporters may have NOT glommed on to that.

In my time in OKC news - they were all gaga about Admiral Crowe or Jeanne Kirkpatrick as "famous living ex-Oklahomans"...

My aunt here in NC - formerly a big county politico type near Durham, knew John Hope Franklin was in the state but a lot of Carolinians presumed he is a native son....


Jim Ruddle is right, we should be tooting our horn about Daniel Boorstin a bit louder, too.



Date: December 16 2001 at 13:45:27
Name: Mike (still shoppin') Bruchas
Location: Economically "hearty" Charlotte, NC
Comments:

TTM calendar note - the shortest day of the year is of course 12-21.

It's also Bob Hower's ??th birthday. How is Bob doing and anyone have any idea which numerical natal day may be coming up for Bob?

I know this is TeeVee site but I am getting addicted to Chicago Public Radio-produced "Wait, Wait - Don't Tell Me!" show on Sundays on NPR on current events and the week's news.

Any of you a fan???



Date: December 16 2001 at 10:27:47
Name: Jim Ruddle
Location: Rye, NY
Comments:

For another view of the riot--and a lot more about Tulsa's 20's and onward--I suggest "My Life and an Era" the autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin, who practiced law in Tulsa, in the Greenwood area, and reared his family in the city. His son, John Hope Franklin, former head of the history department at the University of Chicago, and emeritus professor at Duke, has, with his own son, edited the autobiography his father worked on for much of his life.

An interesting sidenote: Tulsa produced two of the nation's premier historians--one black, one white--John Hope Franklin and Daniel Boorstin. Franklin is truly a towering figure in the writing and teaching of American history, particularly the black experience. His "From Slavery to Freedom" is the standard volume on the subject and is now in either its sixth or seventh edition. Boorstin, formerly Librarian of Congress and winner of numerous awards for his books, including "The Image," "The Discoverers," "The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson", etc. has examined the ideas that marked the beginnings and development of America.

They are both alive and relatively well, both bright and gentlemanly--in the best sense of the word.

Oddly, most Tulsans know about neither of them.


I saw Dr. Franklin and his son on CSpan recently.

Jim, your fame as "Zeta, On Satellite Six" continues...I posted a "squeal" at kpig.com (in the Bay area) this evening, and the DJ immediately responded, "ZETA LIVES!!" I happen to know from previous correspondence that he remembers you very well.



Date: December 16 2001 at 08:33:53
Name: Webmaster
Location: The Shell Bar of the Hawaiian Village Hotel
Comments:

Anyone remember the Kon-Tiki(?) on Admiral near Yale? A big tiki statue with lit-up eyes stood in front of a thatched tiki hut/bar. This would have been in the early 60s during the general exotica craze. Does that sound familiar to anyone?



Date: December 15 2001 at 17:18:01
Name: Dave
Location: lights to the east
How did you find TTM? by following the trail of decorations
Comments:

As to whether there are any new books out on Tulsa, there is one that I didn't see listed on the Steve's Sundry page. It's a new one on the race riots called "The Burning" by Tim Madigan, a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I just got it and haven't read it yet.

Madigan says in the preface that he hadn't ever heard about the riots until he saw an article on the AP wire in early 2000. He wondered how something that big could have happened without being better known in American history, so he headed north to investigate further. By 2000 most of Tulsa had known about the riots for at least a few years. I recall that it was omitted from the Tulsa history unit I had in the sixth grade. Our teacher said something one day about a huge race riot that had happened about 1920. We thought he was crazy. Later, it all came out.


Tulsa TV tie-in with this topic: Bob Hower's grandfather came to Tulsa as Director of the Red Cross victim relief effort. Mr. Hower wrote a book on the race riot from his grandfather's material.



Date: December 15 2001 at 10:55:42
Name: Mike (last second shopper) Bruchas
Comments:

Okay kids - any new books on Tulsey this year that warrant gift-giving?

I seem to have a lot on Rt.66, OK Ghost Towns, and several good tomes on Tulsa history plus Bob Hower's account of the Race Riots - but are there any NEW Tulsey books? Anything that may have popped up at Steve's Sundries?

Hey if you like mysteries - use the Amazon link on this site and get former Senator Fred Harris' 2 paperback mystery novels set in SW OK in the 30's!


Here is Steve's web site: http://www.stevessundrybooksmags.com. There is a new book or two on Oklahoma. Nice pics of the store, including the cafe.



Date: December 13 2001 at 19:00:32
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: CHAR-lot, Norf Caryliner
Comments:

I am handling dubs of existing shows and feeds for SpeedVision - to be re-launch SuperBowl Sunday as The Speed Channel.

I am getting addicted to Aussie racing and now Women's Bobsleighing. We call it Bobsledding in the US. No BOBS were slain in the course of these events but the US Women's team is rocking and rolling in Europe this year. May be a good Olympic year for this new sport in SLC. Though the German dominate the World Cup - the US is a close second. American women are normal-sized but Suzy Erdmann - the German ace is typical of the euros - about 6ft. tall! I was going to give ya'all the link to bobsleighing.com, but the site now seems to be dormant....


Yes, it does. We had some good commentary around Pearl Harbor Day. Nice to hear from John Hudson's daughter, too. Now that I'm back from vacation, maybe I can get more new stuff out here.



Date: December 12 2001 at 22:13:48
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: Pinin' in NC.....ain't got no other trees...
Comments:

Okay - it's a bit late - but how many of you dragged yourselves out to the annual lighting up of the tree at Utica Square this year?



Date: December 11 2001 at 22:49:04
Name: Mary Marder
Location: Houston
How did you find TTM? friend



Date: December 11 2001 at 15:06:41
Name: Webmaster
Location: In a sad place
Comments:

The world lost George Harrison on November 29.

Here are a couple of stills from a home movie I shot at George's concert in the Tulsa Assembly Center, November 21, 1974. You may view it on this new George Harrison in Tulsa page.



George Harrison in Tulsa, 1974 (courtesy of Mike Ransom) George Harrison with Leon Russell in Tulsa, 1974 (courtesy of Mike Ransom)



A rumored appearance by Leon Russell did indeed occur as you can see.

This was George's "Dark Horse" tour. Ravi Shankar was the opening act.

May the quiet Beatle rest in peace.



Date: December 11 2001 at 00:20:06
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: Charlotte, NC - drenched as Winter cometh in...
How did you find TTM? Very good with cheese on a stick from the Fairgrounds
Comments:

Radio in Charlotte sucks. Morning drive-time is good, afternoon lesser. A LOT of Christian radio here on AM and few news outlets.

You should appreciate your good Tulsa stations - though like there - Clear Channel is buying all up in radio. Last week they laid off 20 - across 3 stations as "cost cutting" - including a popular female urban contemp music/talker.

For example tonight we have had very heavy, very cold rain. Drivers coming to our plant around 4pm told us of snow in the mountains 90 min. away. TV covered the heck out of it but so much of radio is automated at night (or "network") in this town - near nothing was heard after afternoon drive time. WBT - the strong AM news/talk station spent tonight on a basketball call-in show from Denver - no weather locally. WFAE and WDAV - our 2 good NPR stations mentioned rain once in about 3 hours but we got hours of BBC coverage and NYC theatre reviews. My bro called from Wichita - on CNN there he saw powerlines HERE in Charlotte covered in ice and was worried about me. Disheartening for me in an electric heat apt.

Bad radio says bad stuff about a market BIGGER than Tulsey.

Now for a personal radio plug - if you like FM radio and mono is as good as stereo to ya - get ye a Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One Table Radio. It is a speaker with a tuner built-in - regrettably now Chinese-made but well made. They are to introduce a new stereo model with outrigger speaker this month (see www.tivoliaudio.com).

I can remember the original KLH radio being an office standard in most Tulsa doctors' offices 30 years ago. My opthamologist in VA still had one after 30+ years and retired it to his home last year when he retired.

Now I have one of the smaller, next gen models and have given 3 as gifts. Normally about $99 a model - I got mine for less for a volume buy. It's great for NPR listenin'....Amazon.com may have it...

While working on my PC tonight - spent 4-5 hours with it on while cruising local stations....


Speaking of cruising, your webmaster just got back from a great Caribbean cruise.



Date: December 10 2001 at 22:37:14
Name: Gary Thompson
Location: Joplin, Mo.
How did you find TTM? Suggestion of Steve Suttle a couple of years ago.
Comments:

I've looked around the site a bit and haven't seen much (if anything) about the early to mid-eighties top 40 giants 92K and 14K. I guess 92.1fm and 1430 KELI were simulcast for a couple of years??????

I work part time for Mix 96 (KRAV) and I hear my PD Steve Hunter talking about the stations. Apparently, Mel Meyers and "Wavy" Davy Michaels were a huge part of the thing.

I have two questions about 92K and 14k. ONE: Why did they sign off???

TWO: How did they work the simulcast thing? Weren't there simulcasting regulations back then? Did the two stations split off for a few hours everyday or what?

I am really inerested in anything I can find out about these stations and anyone who remembers them. I wasn't in Tulsa when they were on the air, but apparently they made a huge impression on a generation. By the way, how long were they on the air and where can I get some airchecks? Thanks.



Date: December 10 2001 at 15:29:59
Name: Don Norton
Location: Tulsa
How did you find TTM?  
Comments:

A few more specific memories of the 1940s and "Pearl Harbor Week" in Tulsa:

KTUL probably got the news of the Japanese attack on the air first. The station had a local "rip-and-read type" newscast on the air at 1:15 p.m. Sundays and this "news junkie" almost didn't tune in December 7. About 1:25 came the first "flash" from Hawaii. All three stations (KVOO, KTUL, KOME) then picked up their networks cutting in and out of regular programming as news bulletins dictated before news people took over entirely.

A newspaper "extra" appeared in my Tulsa neighborhood (and others) by early evening. Realizing many people were staying home instead of going out (although downtown Tulsa was a lot busier then than it is now) the Tulsa World sent its carriers crying the papers into neighborhoods (Tulsa was a lot less spread out then than it is now). This was only a few months after the World and Tribune had approved the marketing agreement that lasted until 1992. So only the World published until the next day.

The next day at Theodore Roosevelt junior high school teachers herded students into small groups to hear and discuss President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress and speculate on the situation. The big maps were brought out so everyone would realize Pearl Harbor's strategic location. One Roosevelt teacher had recently visited the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) and she discussed one obvious Japanese objective--Asia's oil.

That night (December 8) NBC broke its ban on "recorded news" for only the third and fourth times to repeat FDR's war message and correspondent Bert Silen's blunt report from Manila describing how Japanese "moonlight" bombers had destroyed many of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's aircraft just as Gen. Walter Short's planes had been caught on the ground at Hawaii's Hickam field (censorship hadn't moved in yet).

A few months later I paid my first visit to a Tulsa broadcasting station. As a ninth grade reporter/editor for the Roosevelt Record, I decided to interview Eddie Coontz, then the popular M.C. of "The Morning Watch" on KVOO from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m. (In those days, discs were not "jockeyed" by "disc jockeys"--the 78.26 rpm records were played by a studio engineer (or "control room operator"), usually from a list provided by the announcer or the "continuity" (script) department. Management felt its announcers had enough to do delivering convincing commercials (Can you believe some announcers actually STOOD to sound better reading the commercials?).

Anyhow, I got off the Philtower elevator at the 22nd floor and found NO guards or policemen or even a receptionist to greet me and a friend (but both of us knew that the KVOO transmitter east of the city was under armed guard). And we took the stairs unchallenged to the 23rd floor from whence the broadcasting actually originated.

Coontz reviewed certain restrictions on broadcasters: One, stations were forbidden to carry weather forecasts. This was a plausible restraint on KVOO, whose 50,000 watts were heard fairly regularly in the South Pacific. But farmers and others had to rely on newspapers for weather predictions-or their own eyes.

"Dedications" and other personalizations were forbidden--which meant Bob Wills' manager O. W. Mayo could no longer read Bob's fans' requests over the air and was reduced to just giving the band's schedule.

Coontz, an obviously healthy male, mentioned he was already enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and was only waiting for his unit to be called up. That call came in the summer of 1942.

Eddie left behind a wife, Evelyn Lynne, a former singer on NBC's Club Matinee and the Breakfast Club. She began doing a five-nights-a-week singing show from 10:15 to 10:30 called "In the Blue of Evening" (the name of the theme). She was backed by "the KVOO Orchestra" led by Joseph Anthony ("Joe") O'Neill. (O'Neill roomed with Cy Tuma at the Hotel Tulsa until Cy married Monty, the manager of the hotel's coffee shop).

After the war, Eddie moved to Oklahoma City. Our friends there may be able to add to this account.

Incidentally, I think it was NBC (John W. Vandercook, anchor) that got caught with that early evening report from Paris referred to by Frank Morrow in which a "live" air raid siren wailed (I think it was later called a "false alarm"--but it sure didn't sound like it then!). And as Jim Ruddle notes, it's been sixty years--but it sure doesn't seem like it!



Date: December 07 2001 at 11:08:24
Name: Frank Morrow
Location: Austin
Comments:

Jim Ruddle’s account of Tulsa and the media after Pearl Harbor bring out a lot of wartime memories to me. December 7th was a strange experience. A new and serious quietness descended on families. Listening to the radio, new words popped up: Oahu, Hickam Field, Pearl Harbor. And, the next day: Manila, General McArthur. The world suddenly not only had changed, but had expanded, and quickly continued to do so: Corregidor, Bataan, Guam. (I could never have imagined that sixteen years later I would be in the Navy, stationed in Guam, and later in Hawaii, living at Pearl Harbor.)

My parents took us on our routine Sunday afternoon drive in our ’41 Ford, after stopping at J.D. Sullivan’s Phillips 66 station at 11th and Louis, diagonally across from Hawk’s ice cream store, from which we kids knew that a treat would be coming later. However, our attention wasn’t on the scenery, but on the radio as more reports were broadcast.

Soon, everyone’s lives were changed. People entered the service; people changed jobs; women suddenly got good jobs; rationing started; and people moved to other parts of the country. “Hoarding” became another word that was added to my third grade vocabulary.

We had been listening, of course, to the radio accounts of what had been going on in Europe for a few years. The broadcasts of Hitler’s mass events were frightening, and the accents of some of the foreign newsmen (and, rarely, women) were fascinating. But, the most horrifying broadcast occurred when a newscast in France was interrupted by a German air raid. The mikes were inadvertently left on as the sirens blared, and you could hear people running for cover, including the announcers. The images were so much more vivid than they would have had there been TV, because you produced the pictures in your mind.

Network newsmen, who had already become very visible, became celebrities. We have talked about them previously: Ed Murrow, Raymond Gram Swing, George Hicks, Raymond Clapper, Richard C. Hottelet, Eric Severeid, H.V. Kaltenborn, Walter Winchell, Lowell Thomas, H.R. Baukage, Robert Trout, and William L. Shirer.

My father enlisted in the Army, and was sent to Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. I had to leave my beloved Tulsa and move into a completely alien world. Although the natives were difficult to understand in speech and culture, the radio announcers were much easier to comprehend.

Not only did we have blackouts or dim-outs, but, the cars had to use only their dim lights, and street signal lights were blacked out except for a small cross on the center of the bulb. The reason became clear when we took a trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where we saw oil washed up onto the beaches and the red glow of the torpedoed tankers on fire.

After a year in Augusta, and suffering through the searing heat and humidity without air conditioning (even a fan for me), we were transferred to Atlanta, where I heard something else that was new: a woman radio announcer. In my memory I can still hear her non-nonsense voice reading a commercial for Brock candy bars. (She was the only female broadcaster I heard until 1960, when a radio station in Hawaii hired an all-female announcing staff as a way of getting an audience.)

But, it was the Japanese in December 7, 1941, that tragically jerked Americans out of their isolated lives, not only in relation to the rest of the world, but within the US as well. Radio played a significant part in the process of making Americans one people.



Date: December 07 2001 at 08:18:12
Name: Jim Ruddle
Location: Rye, NY
Comments:

60 years ago today, the world changed, just as it did three months ago.

The cliche of everyone remembering where they were when certain events occurred is validated by December 7th, 1941. It was a Sunday afternoon when we got the news in Tulsa. No radio was playing in our house, but my father was outside tinkering with the Chevy and heard about the attack on the car radio.

The Blue Note in TulsaTulsa quickly altered its former style, with the expansion of the Douglas bomber plant into one of the largest single structures in the world, with women in coveralls waiting downtown at four A.M. for the cattle-car type Hugh Breeding Company buses to take them to the plant, with bars like the Trocadero, St. Moritz, and the Blue Note suddenly busy with soldiers in town on passes, and young women, fresh from places like Oilton, Dewey and Turley coming into town for war-time jobs and entering such "beer joints" for the first time in their lives. Cain's was thriving.

In retrospect, it's hard to imagine how a place could have been less vulnerable to attack, in those days, with the level of technology, then, but air raid drills were carried out and Tulsa school children were issued small ID buttons, made of something like pressed cardboard, that were to be worn around the neck. The school board that had planned to retire aging teachers, suddenly found that there were few replacements--younger women could make much more in private jobs--so, many classs were taught by older women (there were few men among their ranks) thus benefiting the tag end of a generation that had to operate under strict rules of classroom discipline.

News broadcasting didn't begin with Pearl Harbor, but the formal entry of the United States into the war accelerated the formation of large divisions of radio news reporters. Censorship restricted much of what was broadcast, but many lengthy careers were born in the effort to bring news from the front back to the families at home, nearly all of whom either had a relative in uniform or knew some kid from the block who was. Local station staffs were depleted of talent and were forced to accept some who would never have made the cut in peacetime. Others who had the necessary qualities got the break that had been denied them previously.

The calendar tells me it was a long time ago, but it doesn't seem like it.



Date: December 05 2001 at 07:32:36
Name: John Hillis
Location: Washington
How did you find TTM? I remembered Pappy, and there it was
Comments:

Heather, I left WRAL for primordial CNN in March, 1980, so I didn't work with John. I can attest to what a great shop it was in those days. Lots of great talent, a lot of imagination, and quality ownership and management.



Date: December 04 2001 at 22:48:26
Name: Lowell Burch
Location: Abbey Road Studios, Tulsa Branch
How did you find TTM? I have a strange computer virus that brings it up automatically.
Comments:

I love The Beatles and I am sorry George is gone. I will never forget seeing him in concert here in Tulsa, with Leon, back in Tulsa's Magical Mystery Days of the early 70's.

Even though George Harrison inspired me as a guitar player and composer, it is men like John Hudson who really make an impact on this world. He was a great guy, a man of solid faith, selfless, talented and a fine family man. Many of us still miss his presence. I am glad his lovely daughter wrote in to Tulsa TV Memories.



Date: December 03 2001 at 00:31:10
Name: Heather
Comments:

I'm an idiot!! I just posted a comment and then read on and found something interesting. I hope John Hillis (?) sees this again b/c he didn't leave an email. John Hudson (my father) also left Tulsa for a few years in the early 80's to work at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Just wondering if he worked with him...what a weird thing to find a link back to NC.



Date: December 03 2001 at 00:26:22
Name: Heather
Location: Tulsa
How did you find TTM? search
Comments:

I just wanted to just praise this site. It has been so much fun to read stories of TV times. My father is/was John Hudson from Ch. 2 and so many have shared stories that have brought a smile to my face. I love hearing of his humor that we all knew so much. Thanks to all of you who share the memories.



Date: November 30 2001 at 22:30:45
Name: Lani
Location: badlands of NM
How did you find TTM? I fell off the caprock again!!
Comments:

He was my first crush...I mean really BIG crush that I never stopped having.

I watched Help! at the Bowman Twin; helplessly in love with a crush on the man with that jean shirt on... George Harrison.

I spent a LOT of hours listening to his words and his spin on life, one which we all might not have agreed on, but he gave some of us an influence of tenderness when all around us was something totally different.

He once stated "going from 17 to 57 doesn't take all that long.".... my going from 6 yrs old (the age I received my "Meet the Beatles" LP from my parents) to 45 has gone way too fast.

I was spending my afternoon at the Eastland Cinema Theater in Tulsa, watching the Concert for Bangladesh in '72, witnessing George Harrison and others like Leon, EC, and Billy Preston make music history, while man made his mark on history landing on the our closest neighbor, the moon.

He leaves us a little sad, but leaves us some of the best da@# music ever made.

Thanks for letting me ramble about such a gentle guy we all knew, thanks to him for all the sounds in our heads.



Date: November 30 2001 at 21:36:47
Name: Andre Hinds
Location: Headin' out to Coyote Trail
Comments:

I recall that in the mid-1970s KAKC-FM was one of the first automated stations in Tulsa, with songs alternating from one tape drive to another after a few seconds of silence.

This proved to be a problem when Bob Seger's song "Night Moves" was added to the rotation. The song has a few seconds of silence in the final third, which automatically kicked off the other tape drive. Suddenly, KAKC-FM would be playing two different songs at the same time.



Date: November 30 2001 at 18:04:34
Name: Mike Bruchas
Comments:

Here's to George....thanks for the Beatles...

George Harrison died of cancer yesterday in L.A. at age 58....it leaves Sir Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr....



Date: November 30 2001 at 08:53:08
Name: John Hillis
Location: Unseasonably Warm, Virginia
How did you find TTM? On the film leader (Tails Out) of an Early Show pic
Comments:

Actually, the KOTV Tarheel brigade was from WGHP, the (then) ABC affil in Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem. It was led by director Karen Miller, and included some others she brought on as she became management.

There was outflow from KOTV to WRAL. I moved there in '79, and suggested Rex Daugherty to them. He was on board at WRAL briefly before returning to Oklahoma, I think as an assignment editor.

WRAL was a regional powerhouse back then. The six o'clock news regularly drew 50+ shares, and a local magazine I produced out-drew the Winter Olympics in '80. The lead-in at 5:30 was black and white Andy Griffith reruns, and they got 50 shares.



Date: November 30 2001 at 07:29:27
Name: Jim Ruddle
Location: Rye, NY
How did you find TTM?  
Comments:

Re Mike Bruchas A former Tulsa broadcaster, Jerry Peterson, is (or was) in Charlotte. He was a weatherman who went to Tampa. where I reencountered him, then came to Chicago for a stint at WBBM-TV. Jerry then moved to Charlotte, did weather on one of the local station, and wound up going into business with a client who was in the heating and air conditioning game. That's when I lost track of him, but he's probably still around.



Date: November 29 2001 at 16:37:25
Name: Mike (my tarheels hurt) Bruchas
Location: NC
How did you find TTM? Got stung by a Charlotte Hornet - or is that a LOUISVILLE hornet???
Comments:

John Snyder! Formerly - I think Sports in OKC - is a longtime news anchor here on WBT in Charlotte. I did not recognize him - like all of us is a bit more "porcine"...check their web page....

FBI here in town - en masse - raiding a water treatment company - all very mysterious - they were selling some kind of anthrax test kit we were told - no one knows what is really going on...



Date: November 29 2001 at 03:32:44
Name: Billy G. Spradlin
Location: Lost in the Piney Woods Of E-Texas
How did you find TTM? At Best Buy's early morning November 26th sale (and in a 10-pack to boot!)
Comments:

Just popped in to give another 2-3 Cents on KAKC's powering down, now that my memories have been rattled around by some of the guestbook entries.

KAKC used to simulcast with KAKC-FM (which later became KBEZ) after 6pm. The thing I remember most was they used the theme music to "The Good, Bad And The Ugly" to crossfade from the automated oldies format to the AM. KAKC-FM had the best signal into Bartlesville in the mid 70's, its a shame they never went full-time simulcast then (I think there were FCC laws that discouraged it at the time).

I also remember fondly listening to WLS and John "Records is my Middle Name" Landecker from Chicago! I think most of my freinds listened to him more than Jonathan Apple on KELi 'cause he was pulling some crazy on-air stunts that nobody in Tulsa radio was doing(making fun of records and commericals he didnt like - and mocking teenage girls who requested Shawn Cassidy during his "Boogie Check").

I also recall WLS didnt play too much "Bubblegum" in the mid 70's and into the early 80's - it was basically a Top 40 station playing Album Rock hits.

I also remember listening to Top 40 blowtorches like KOMA, KSTP, WHB, WNOE, KAAY and many more I can't recall offhand. I miss the days when AM Radio rocked at night and you could hear stations from all over the midwest and southwest.

The closest thing I have heard that matches the high energy approach of Top 40 is Radio Disney's "kids-only" format (with stations all over the country in major markets, most of them are AM). I gotta admire a station that has the guts to segue from Britney Spears "You Drive Me Crazy" directly into the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"!!



Date: November 28 2001 at 16:19:09
Name: Greg Leslie
Location: hiding behind the Wheel Of Fish
Comments:

Program note:

UHF (shot here in Tulsey) tonight at 8pm (central) on VH-1!


Thanks...set those VCR's!



Date: November 27 2001 at 16:59:44
Name: Ray Haas
Location: www.HighFlightProductions.com
Comments:

I am producing a biography/documentary on the life of John Gillespie Magee, author of the poem HIGH FLIGHT. I have collected many video clips of where the poem has been used. I remember seeing a video of HIGH FLIGHT being recited while scenes of a jet were shown. This was used during television sign-offs all over the country.

I am trying to find a copy of this clip. During my Internet search, it appears that KOED in Tulsa may still use this spot. If so, I would be very interested in getting a copy of it! Plus any information on who produced it, when it was made, etc.

Thank you for any help you might be able to give me.


I will help Ray out on taping the clip from KOED, but does anyone know more about its origin? It's been around about as long as I can remember.



Date: November 27 2001 at 13:55:28
Name: Erick
Location: Tulsa
Comments:

Mike McCarthy is back on mornings at KTSO 94.1, FYI.


As is Jan Dean, whom I remember from KELi in the early 80s.



Date: November 26 2001 at 20:07:55
Name: Andrea
Location: Seattle
How did you find TTM? Search
Comments:

I was a radio groupie in the 70s (76-79). I was only 14, but I knew most of the DJs in town. I was a terrible flirt, but I actually keep in touch with a couple of my friends from over 20 years ago.

My superhero radio god was Dr. Don, KAKC (Tulsa's "resonant reason for rock n' roll"). Other radio heroes were Jack Daniels from KELi, Steve Cassidy from KRAV (aka FM96), and Dick Loftin, who's still around in Tulsa.

I actually did want to get into radio, but wound up staying with my music studies. I appreciate, however, these disk jockeys putting up with my contant annoying calls. I also appreciate all the loot I "won", heeee, including 2nd place in Mike "Morning Mouth" McCarthy's Name the Bear Contest (unfortunately, because I was known they knew I wasn't old enough to take 1st place, which was some Cessna flying lessons). I still have my backgammon set I won!

Yes, I was a die-hard. I still have a cassette that I made where I was taping the radio show, but cut out all those classic songs, and just recorded the DJs.

I'd like to send a "hey" out there to all of you 70s jocks who I used to bug. You were all my heroes.

Andrea


Dick Loftin wrote in Guestbook 71...and he may write again.



Rocket Radio by Hearever Co. Inc., Castro Valley, Calif Date: November 26 2001 at 15:56:44
Name: Webmaster
Location: on the Heaviside after Thanksgiving
Comments:

Here is a good site about crystal and transistor radios: galaxyM31.com, which was previously mentioned in Guestbook 62. You will also find lots of crystal radios in this eBay search. One of them is this Rocket Radio from the 50s/60s, mainly good for picking up KVOO (maybe Herb Jepko after midnight).

"The original Crystal Rocket radio first became a craze in the 1950's just as the race for space became an American obsession. Rockets, missiles, and the mystery of radio waves pulsing through the ether...heady stuff for young girls and boys."



Date: November 26 2001 at 10:26:28
Name: Mike Bruchas
Location: Stranger in a strange land
Comments:

Was in Raleigh/Durham for Turkey Day - some grey-maned Toyota dealer is all over the airways there. George "Goober" Lindsay is in a spot of many that they air - lookin' very old and wearing his Goober hat....TV news up there very good compared to the much bigger Charlotte market...watched a lot of WRAL the CBS affiliate that is also in HD....where Karen Miller and several former KOTVers came from 20+ years ago....



Date: November 24 2001 at 16:50:20
Name: Kevin Koloff
Location: Tulsa
How did you find TTM? search engine
Comments:

How I remember the highlight of Saturday night (TV) in Tulsa back in the late 60's and early 70's. Glad there is still something to remember it by now besides the only VHS tape of Mazeppa I have.


There are three tapes available at Mazeppa.com. Here is a review of the third and most recent.



Date: November 23 2001 at 13:54:23
Name: Webmaster
Comments:

Archived Guestbook 96.

Some of the highlights: AM radio stations KAKC and KELi were discussed in detail. Several new contributors, as well as regulars, weighed in on this topic.

We saw Karen Keith hosting the Brookside Shorts Day of 1984. We learned that Tulsan Wilma Jeanne Cummins (of "UHF" fame) appeared recently on the Leno show. A Leno producer had inquired about local talent several Guestbooks ago; looks like she found some.

Lee Woodward, Bob Duff and Gailard Sartain wrote in. Mr. S. settled the "Little Darling" controversy that had been raging, with the help of several other readers. We heard again from Brummett Echohawk's nephew, Rodney, who remembered "The Unfilmy Can Festival" radio program in detail.

An easy (and free) way to acquire a Tulsa TV Memories screen saver/Windows wallpaper creator was revealed.

But don't take my word for it...check it out yourself!



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