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).