Additional Silver Dollar Survey

I hope you are able to read the records listed on the survey. It's a great trip down memory lane. If you need a clearer copy just email me. This was at the start of the British envasion. The Beatles occupied 6 slots on the survey. This was unheard of at time. KAAY even sold a Beatle book and orders were received from 40 states. After midnight, the Mighty 1090 ran a lot of "PI" commercials. (the station was paid "per inquiry") Who could forget "40 combs for a $1"? The voice of most of these "PIs" was Len Carl who was the station manager at the time.

Silver Dollar Survey

This survey is dated March 30,1964.

DJs pictured: Ken Knight (Howard Watson),Sonny Martin (Wayne Moss),Buddy Karr(Bob Mullins),Doc Holiday(A.J. Lindsey),Ron Owens(Jim Pitcock) ,and B. Bruce Jenkins.

KAAY published a weekly music survey of the top 40 records. Most top 40 stations did. It was the music director's job to check with record stores to determine what they were selling and to find out from other jocks what was being requested. All this information was compiled and a record chart resulted. The surveys where then printed and distributed to the record stores to be given away. The surveys were also used to promote activities at the station. What was once free and widely given away, is now sold for several dollars on Ebay to eager collectors. At one point in time, the KAAY Silver Dollar Survey was printed on a silver coated paper. This was relatively expensive and didn't last very long. Most stations didn't realize that some day these charts would be valuable, and did very little to preserve them.

KAAY Commandoes

My long time friend Pat Walsh passed on recently. Before his death Pat shared many of his KAAY files and memories. My hope with this blog is to share this material with as many of you, who would be interested. Please copy the pictures, material, and files and share them with others. That was Pat's passion, to share with others, the knowledge he accumulated. I will attempt to share something each day, so check back often.

Today's post is a picture of the KAAY Commandoes. I thought this would make a great initial post since it includes a picture of Pat, with staff, ringers, and Bozo.

The KAAY Commandoes were a basketball team formed by me, as Emperior Holiday. We played in gyms around Arkansas to promote the station. The act was sort of our local answer to the Harlem Globetrotters. Our original intent was to use air staff but the "on the air" requirements made it necessary to bring in ringers. These ringers were often from the sales staff, transmitter engineers, etc. but they all had KAAY connections. We usually played local teams of teachers, or parents, or whomever the local school wanted to use. It was usually a fund raising event for the local school or charity.

This picture is a "second" generation team. Pat Walsh was one of the original team members.

From left to right Sonny Martin (Matt White), Pat Walsh, Bozo (Gary Weir) George J. Jennings, Steve Riggs (Tommy Riggs' brother), Charlie King (Charlie Scarborough).