Alltel Corp. & KAAY

With Alltel Corp. in the news recently going private, it was significant that in a package of KAAY material Len Carl recently sent me was a 45 record that Allied Telephone Co. had pressed and gave away freely. It was an excerpt of an Ear On Arkansas
piece. How does that relate to Alltel?

First a bit of history:
The Allied Telephone Company of Little Rock, Arkansas, had been founded by Hugh Wilbourn and Charles Miller, who had worked as contractors in the telephone business in the early 1940s. In 1943, they purchased the Grant County Telephone Company, which operated a toll line that ran from Sheridan to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, connecting 275 magneto telephones. After World War II, Wilbourn and Miller put together a network of four small telephone operating companies in Arkansas. During the next 30 years a steady stream of acquisitions helped Allied expand to serve customers in six states.

Both Allied and Mid-Continent had entered unregulated areas of the telecommunications industry, and their activities fit well together. Given these factors, the companies decided to join forces. Mid-Continent and Allied merged on October 25, 1983, and the new enterprise was named the ALLTEL Corporation. ALLTEL began with assets of $1.35 billion, making it the fifth-largest American telephone company.

On this record you will hear Len Carl a/k/a Len Voth introducing the bit. Howard Watson a/k/a the first Ken Knight does the Rufus Stevens singing. When you listen to Ear on Arkansas most things have a secret double meaning that only KAAY employees get. Or some of them get it. "Rufus" was the real first name for Steve Stevens of Channel 11's Steve's Show.

Here it is:
http://kaay.podomatic.com/entry/et/2007-05-26T12_19_38-07_00