My feelings are hurt!

First let me say I worked with Billy Dixon at KDXE. We used to race each other to the bank to see who could get their paycheck cleared. I was a kid just out of high school and got to move up to the big time at KXLR. Billy stayed with country KDXE.
It was a 1000 watt daytimer. From my previous posts you can read how I left KXLR for the 50,000 watt giant and became Emperor Holiday.

Now I find an aircheck of Billy Dixon at KDXE from 1965 for sale on Ebay for $12.00.The guy selling it is from California. No one has ever offered an aircheck of me on Ebay and I can't do it because I don't have any. I didn't save anything from my time at KAAY. If you have an aircheck of Doc Holiday or Emperor Holiday, please email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com. Or put if up for sale on Ebay.

All the airchecks on this blog are free for the downloading. You might even download them, put them on a CD and sell them on ebay.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Listen to the Christmas jingles all the way through to the New Year's jingle and try to keep a dry eye. You will have to move to green bar down to the KAAY Chirstmas Jingles selection.


Click here to get your own player.

Beaker Street Comment posted on Amazon

1967 was the summer of love, and I was a naive 13 year old nerd from small town Kansas. At that time, the few FM stations that did exist played only classical music. AM radio was full of crackle and full of life. I discovered that on a clear summer night, an old tube-powered bakelite AM radio was a window to the world. Top 40 radio stations from all over the country faded in and out through the night: WLS in Chicago, KOMA in Oklahoma City, WOAI in San Antonio, and KAAY in Little Rock. I made a list of my favorite songs and the bands who sang them.

Then one Saturday night I stayed up late, past midnight, and KAAY was transformed into..... Beaker Street. Slowly, a door into a whole new world of music opened. Clyde Clifford was the DJ, but he wasn't your typical fast-talking Top 40 DJ. Clyde spoke slowly and softly over a background of eerie, spacey music that played in the background. And the music he played was definitely not Top 40, it was "Underground Music" by bands with strange names like Pink Floyd, Savoy Brown, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Clyde broke all the rules of AM radio, especially the three-minute limit. I learned that "Light my Fire" was not a 3 minute pop song, but a 7:05 guitar and organ opus. I was hooked, throughout that summer and for the rest of my adolescence I lived for Beaker Street.


My Beaker Street favorites
Pink Floyd "Astronomy Domine" The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Quicksilver Messenger Service "Pride of Man" Quicksilver Messenger Service
Savoy Brown "Hellbound Train" Hellbound Train


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My Beaker Street firsts
Big Brother and the Holding Company "Piece of My Heart" from Cheap Thrills
Black Oak Arkansas "Lord Have Mercy on my Soul" from Black Oak Arkansas
Bloodrock "D.O.A." from Bloodrock 2
Captain Beyond "Dancing Madly Backwards" from Captain Beyond
Cream "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" from Disraeli Gears
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Susie Q(unedited)" from Creedence Clearwater Revival
Deep Purple "Child in Time" from Deep Purple in Rock
The Doors "Light my Fire" from The Doors
Frijid Pink "House of the Rising Sun" from Frijid Pink
Grand Funk Railroad "Closer to Home(unedited)" from Closer to Home
Iron Butterfly "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
It's a Beautiful Day "White Bird" from It's a Beautiful Day
Jaime Brockett "Legend of the USS Titanic" (from the album "Remember the Wind and Rain" -- CD now available from Collector's Choice Music @ www.ccmusic.com)
Jefferson Airplane "Plastic Fantastic Lover" from Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Jethro Tull "Nothing Is Easy" from Stand Up
Jimi Hendrix "Third Stone From The Sun" from Are You Experienced
King Crimson "21st Century Schizoid Man" from In The Court Of The Crimson King: 30th Anniversary Edition
Led Zeppelin "Moby Dick" from Led Zeppelin II
Mason Proffit "Two Hangmen" from Come & Gone
Neil Young "Cinnamon Girl(unedited)" from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Rare Earth "Get Ready(unedited)" from 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rare Earth
Santana "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts / Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen" from Abraxas
Spirit "Prelude - Nothin' To Hide" from Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
The Who "The Acid Queen" from Tommy (1969 Original Concept Album)
Traffic "40,000 Headmen" from Welcome to the Canteen
War "Spill the Wine(unedited)" from Eric Burdon Declares "War"



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Beaker Street Lives
Clyde Clifford is still going strong! These days, it airs every Sunday night from 7PM until midnight Central Time, on Magic 105.1FM KMJX in Central Arkansas. And it is also streamed live via the internet (using Windows Media Player), from the homepage:
http://beakerstreet.com

According to an interview posted on the web site, the original background music for the show was from the dream sequence in the movie Charade by Henry Mancini! Believe it or not!

More Black Oak Arkansas and KAAY

Doc, it's funny how many great memories you've invoked by your blogsite! I first heard Black Oak Arkansas on KAAY back in the day and got one of their LP's ("If An Angel Came To See You...")- something that today's teens know little or nothing about! I still have that record AND a turntable, although the latter may not work very well. This memory was keyed by reading some of your entries from June '07....

Living in the past? No, just remembering great memories that otherwise brightened an ugly, drab life....and if I could have escaped, I would have travelled and transplanted in Little Rock, AR. Too bad KAAY didn't stay as it was- although, as a Christian, I'm glad they now have Christian-based content on the air, rather than some of the crud on the airwaves today. If KAAY had've stayed, then I might have persued my interest in broadcasting, as was an early, pre-teen goal of mine....

...but then, I wouldn't be where I was today, with a great wife & kids, etc.; "what if" isn't even an option any more. But, by gosh, as long as you and others keep up the archival storage of such great things as KAAY, as long as the Internet doesn't go down, we can relive it!

God bless you, Doc, for everything you do!

For HIS glory,

Bud Stacey

Jerry Sims……. AKA Sonny Martin, KAAY 1962-1967

Emperor A.J.,



A little bit of early KAAY history, and a dream that came true. My KAAY experience:



I too had the experience of opening that mike and having my voice blasted all over North America on KAAY “The Mighty 1090”. Forty years later, I am still thrilled by the memory.



I grew up in North Little Rock , Arkansas and radio always fascinated me. As a Cub Scout I built a Crystal Radio, all the way from winding the wire around the coil, to attaching the whole thing to a small board. Every night I would have the headphones on in bed listening to whatever it would pick up. Not much. Usually it was, for a young boy, a very boring “adult” radio station whose tower was a short distance away. The station was KARK 920. It did not matter though; it was radio and helped grow my fascination.



As Rock ‘n Roll began to grow in popularity around North Little Rock , my choices were two radio stations. There was KGHI (later KAJI- later KALO) and KXLR. They both were Top 40 type formats and were the choices of all the kids in town. My favorite was KXLR 1150. That’s where I knew I wanted to work. I did not know anyone in radio, but my Dad knew a “radio announcer” in our church who worked for KTHS 1090 (later KAAY). My Dad introduced me to Earl “Pappy” Davis and I began to hang out with him at the station on his late night shift. The radio station was owned by the same group that owned KTHV Television, and had their studios in the same building. KTHS usually programmed a “good music” format they called Sonorama. The exception was Earl’s late night “Razorback Roundup”. He played Country Music and even had a fan club which was based, I believe, in Iowa . I was amazed that this 50,000 watt for runner of KAAY could send a signal so far. I would take home old AP news copy and practice for the day when I would be there too. All the announcers had an engineer who would run the board for them while they sat in the announcers booth, which was later the KAAY newsroom, and “announce” when the light came on. The engineer would spin records and play commercials from the control room. One night Earl asked his engineer, Eddie Graham, later of KAAY, to record my voice reading news copy. It was the first time I had ever heard my recorded voice. As is the case with everyone, it did not sound like I thought it would. Now after all these years, and thousands of recordings, I recognize my recorded voice, but it still sounds more like an old friend rather than me, different from what I hear or imagine. (I sound much better in my head than outside it)



I tried every opportunity to get on the radio somewhere, anywhere. Everyone wanted experience, and I could not get experience if a radio station would not allow me the experience. I adopted the “persistent” approach. I caught a real break in my first year of college at Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway , Arkansas . Gary Weir, who later became a local favorite as Bozo the Clown on KATV, was working part time at KXLR (my dream job), and we became friends. He introduced me to the station Program Director (A.J. Lindsey, our KAAY Blog Master, AKA Doc Holiday) who gave me a try. As exciting as KAAY was for me, it could not have been any more exciting than being at KXLR was for me then. I remember we, at KXLR, listened as KAAY came to town with The Baby Elephant Walk and all their excitement. At KXLR we gave away a few records, an occasional transistor radio, or some stuffed animals. KAAY hit the air giving away Mink Coats and even a car (used). They had a saying, “it just sounds better on KAAY”. One thing that sounded, at least different, was the speed that they played their records. With variable speed turntables, they would run them a little faster than 45 RPM’s. We had listeners telling us that we were dragging.



KXLR sold and changed music formats and no longer had a need for teen aged disc jockeys, so we left. We also thought they would not have a need for all those Rock and Roll records. I don’t suppose they ever missed them.



The one competitor left for KAAY was KALO 1250. Gary Weir (John Scott) and I joined them. KALO had a very unusual owner/manager who had all the jocks calling themselves (whoever) Kay-Low. There was Jim Kay-Low, and Bob Kay-Low, John Kay-Low, etc. I did not want to be “Jerry Kay-Low”. Also they did not want me to be Larry London, my KXLR name, for some reason. I later won that one and was Larry London on KALO.



Then the “weird man” sold KALO, and again I was without a job. (Just a little richer in the record collection). As much fun as radio had been, I decided that I could use some stability in my life, and needed a real job. I got one, and was happy enough, until my old buddy A.J. Lindsay (same friend, same Blog Master, same A.J. Lyons, same Emperor Holiday) called. He was now Program Director at KAAY. WOW. His offer of a job back on the radio was going to be a tough decision for me. It took me about 45 seconds to throw the stable job out the window. He was suddenly talking to the new Sonny Martin (a station owned name).



So, this has been a long way in telling the story of the absolute thrill of opening the mike at KAAY and watching those 10 telephone lines start to blink with listeners calling from ”who knows where”. It might be from Mountain View , Arkansas , or it might be from Missouri , or Minnesota , or Canada , or Central America . Our listeners were having a great time, but not as much fun as we were. We were a confident bunch too. I remember one of our sales people coming to me when I was working the 8 pm to Midnight shift. He asked me if I could choose a record to come out of the Religion Block (6:30p to 8p) that was a little “soft”. I suppose he was thinking about the Beach Boys “Surfer Girl”, or something. I think I must have used my 45 second thought process again to think….”these kids all over the Mid-West who have been listening to “The World Tomorrow” and have lit up all these telephone lines just may want to hear a little Mitch Ryder”… so hear comes “Devil With The Blue Dress”. One of my favorite “un-soft” records.



Fun…Fun…Fun!!! And we even got paid to do it. Not much, as I remember, but a wonderful experience for a young boy who went to bed with his headphones on dreaming of the moment. I would not trade the time with anyone.



Jerry Sims……. AKA Sonny Martin, KAAY 1962-1967

Some more interesting Beaker Street Reflections

Here is another link to a blog with some interesting Beaker Street comments:

http://www.areavoices.com/bemidjimike/?page=comments&blog=2203

Another KAAY Beaker Street link

Thanks for an email from Bud with this link:

windsofchangekc.com

Interesting KAAY Beaker Street Link

Here is a very interesting site about Beaker Street complete with an aircheck:

http://windsofchangekc.com/index_1.html

More spaced out Beaker Street Comments

Go to this site and read the comments:

http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strMixID=106309

And I always thought Beaker Street listeners were hip

From a Black Sabbath message board
From: "Darryl

>> You brought me to mind an "underground" radio station from mid-70s: WKKY with a special program called "Baker Street". If i remember well it was located in Little Rock, Arkansas. It s rumoured that was sponsored by a millionaire who liked heavy metal, they used to put the best music at midnight & between songs you could hear terrifying sounds. It was absolutely great!!!!. One day, it simply stop broadcasting. Does anybody here remember "Baker Street"? <<

Beaker Street KAAY Clyde Clifford

Excerpt from the Ottumwa Courier (That's Iowa for you Arkies)
Published October 01, 2007 12:07 am -

Onward to Oktoberfest
Browsing Around

BY CINDY TOOPES Courier staff writerThat takes me back to high school summers in the late ‘60s. I used to listen to the radio while lying on a blanket in the back yard, hoping to get a tan. His voice will always be on file in my head.

Hearing about Dic Youngs reminded me of another radio voice from the ‘60s — Clyde Clifford on KAAY Radio, Little Rock, Ark. For most of the day, the station played a Top 40 format; but, after 11 p.m. KAAY’s signal was underground music with “Beaker Street” hosted by Clifford.

“Beaker Street” began late in 1966 and ran through 1972. It was the first underground music program broadcast regularly on a commercial AM radio station in the central United States.

The Internet gurus in the newsroom squawk about Wikipedia, that free encyclopedia on the Web. I’m here to testify that at least a few facts are right in the article about KAAY.

The article reminded me the station was called the “Mighty 1090.” KAAY did send the signal about the latest in rock to kids in the Midwest, definitely in Ottumwa.

I’m one of those kids. I had a transistor radio and I soaked up the music from bands I didn’t hear anywhere else. They had names stranger than Beatles or Rolling Stones, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd, Savoy Brown, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, just to name a few.


I hear Clyde Clifford is still out there on the radio waves. That’s fun news for the 40th anniversary of those late ’60s years.

So, next Sunday night I’ll search for Magic 105.1 FM, KMJX, central Arkansas. My ears are ready for a flashback.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.

Merry Christmas

Take some time today to study The Word.

Merry Christ Mass!

The Night before a KAAY Christmas

T'was the night before Christmas
and all through the station,
All the DJ's were stirring
cause we had no automation.

All the salesmen were partying
at every turn
Hoping for a big commission check to earn.

The Big K Mobile Money Cruiser was ready to click.
With a driver that could be mistaken for St. Nick.

It was Pat Walsh doing one more follow contest on the way home
The only time he allowed his voice to be known.

Out at the transmitter there was a great noise.
Sonny Maritin and the Marines gathering toys.

Felix McDonald was there in a flash.
Not wanting the transmitter to gather any trash.

(how about some help to finish this up. Email me at: ajlinds@yahoo.com

Many thanks to the current KAAY

Many thanks to the current KAAY for their mention of this blog. It is responsible for many visitors each day.

The current KAAY link is:

http://www.1090kaay.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=59

The original KTHS KTHV Studios

This is downtown Main Street in Little Rock in the 1959s. Look closely in the upper left and you will see KTHS on a building. When KTHS was moved to Little Rock from Hot Springs, this is where it was located. When KTHS put KTHV, channel 11 on the air it was done in this building. KTHS was purchased by Lin Broadcasting and the call letters were changed to KAAY. For a complete history, put KTHS in the search box and click search this blog.

Did you work at KAAY?

Here is the link to the personnel roster that I try to make as complete as possible. If you worked at KAAY and are not on this roster, please email me with your air name, real name and the years you were there. If you notice a mistake or omission please email me also at ajlinds@yahoo.com http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/2006/09/kaay-personnel.html

KAAY, Beaker Street, Mighty 1090, what else can I say....

...to get your attention. I don't mean to complain but I guess all of you are out shopping today. Only 6 visitors to this blog and one of them was me. I am noticing a lot of the new visitors to this blog are only looking at the first page. I've been at this a couple of years. I have written a lot and don't like to repeat myself. So if you are new to the blog, look at the archives or do a search on this blog. (upper left) There are lots of airchecks and audio you can download. What I enjoy most is hearing from you about where you were and what you were doing, when you heard KAAY. If you are a previous employee I would really like to hear some comments from you. Email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com.

This link will take you to many of the audio clips that have been posted (but not all):
http://kaay.podomatic.com/

Welcome college research

Someone at Creighton University spent 5 minutes with this blog and viewed 7 pages. Hope you found something worthwhile if not email me and I will see what I can do. ajlinds@yahoo.com.

Someone looking at Corvette Stingrays found this blog. (all because I mentioned I had a 1963 Corvette stingray.)

"We will have these moments to remember"

I guess I am so intrigued with the internet because the coverage is so much like KAAY only larger. I am also fascinated by the visitors to this blog and why. The counter that I use to find out how many visitors there are to this blog (over 10,000 now) supplies all kinds of statistics. Yesterday I discovered a visitor to this blog from South Africa who was looking for prisons in Oklahoma. I'm not sure how Google made the connection but I'm sorry we didn't have much info on Oklahoma prisons.

Somehow though, surfing on a computer is just not the same as having an old tube type
bakelite radio, with the lights out, in bed under the covers, tuning the AM radio band
and landing on KAAY. Imagine for a moment being on the other end of this senerio. You
are a kid in college, working full time at possibly the greatest job of your life. You throw the mike switch, the on the air light goes on, relays click, and you are going to talk, but you have no idea who, if anyone is listening. Almost 50 years later you hear from someone who shared that moment. Thanks to all of you who have emailed. You are what keeps this blog going. For those of you who haven't written, please understand how important it is to hear from you. Email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com.

Beaker Street Theater Remembered

You know, Doc, I also remember when I was a kid, keeping that ol' Bakelite green Zenith table radio's volume 'way down, especially when that spooky creaking door opened on the Theater at 2:00AM! I'd be snuggled right at the edge of the bed, with my head as close to the radio as possible, while having the covers over my head! Of course, I knew that old tube radio generated heat, so I didn't put the cover on it! But, this was during the summer, while I was out of school and I could sleep a little late in the morning, until I got yelled at to go feed the chickens & cows! Heck, it was worth it! Lotsa spooky fun!

Oh, to have some of those recordings and airchecks of the Theater! Are any available?

Some interesting things I learn doing this blog

Someone from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania spent 7 minutes on this blog reading about reverb. They had googled building a reverb from a garden hose.

Some KAAY Night Music

It's been a while since we had some music on this blog so here is something appropriate:

KAAY & The Fouke Monster

There were three movies made about the Fouke monster. Such a great story. Charles B. Pierce was a local film maker that jumped on the news reports of a hairy monster lerking in the swamp near Fouke AR. You can rent "Legend of Boggy Creek" and the sequel on Netflix. (Fouke is near Texarkana a far piece from Little Rock) I have been trying to remember KAAY's involvement. I must have been gone from the station when the promos were done. I vaguely remember a tee shirt and now I find documentation that KAAY offered $1090.00 for proof of a Fouke monster. Read the article at:
http://www.texasbigfoot.com/tex_gaz5.html
(If only Pat Walsh were still with us, he could tell the story with great gusto)
If you can add to the Fouke story, please email me at:ajlinds@yahoo.com.

KAAY Control Room Pictures

A recent comment asked for control room pictures....so here are some that have been previously posted.

The first picture is in the second studio location on W. 7th Street across from the state capitol. It is me as Emperor Holiday showing the North Little Rock Mayor at the time, Casey Laman how to work the board to do my program since he lost an on the air bet. Note the microphone was still an RCA 77D. The cartridge racks take up a lot of space.

This picture is from the original control room in the Channel 11 building. This is Jim Pitcock, a/k/a Ron Owens with recording artist Bobby Vee and record promoter, Stan Lewis. Note the RCA 77D as the announce mike.


The is Dale Schidenswartz a/k/a Clyde Clifford. It is photographed again at the 7th Street Studio. That is not where Beaker Street was broadcast from. The photo shows the mike has been changed to an E.V.

Ratings & KAAY

I have written often about ratings and KAAY. If you have an interest, type "ratings" in the search box in the upper left corner and click on search this blog.

When I first started in radio, Hooper was the primary rating service. When I started at KAAY, Hooper was on the decline and Pulse was the rising star in ratings.

Pat Walsh was a ratings finatic. He subscribed to statewide and national Pulse ratings. He lived to catch a DJ bragging about his ratings. Pat would reach down in a file and pull out the book and start quoting actual numbers to put the DJ in his place.

I found an interesting website that traces the history of ratings. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6266/

KAAY & Christmas

There still hasn't been enough written about the Toys for Tots program at KAAY. Unfortunately I can not pick up the phone and call Pat Walsh for a complete history of Toys for Tots. It was one of his favorite public service efforts of KAAY. It may have been the first Toys for Tots marathon broadcasts in the nation. It started as a marathon effort of the disc jockey to stay awake as long as possible at the remote location of the Toys for Tots drive. The Marines did all the work. The disc jockeys, Matt White or Bob Robbins did cut ins 24 hours a day for as long as they could stay awake. The Marines, unloaded the toys from listeners cars and put them in semi-trucks. The Marines distributed the toys. The Marines kept the disc jockey fed, watered and awake. There were plenty of civilian volunteers. All the volunteers should get the recognition for making these campaigns a huge success.

KAAY Fun Moblile

Hi AJ -



Speaking of the FunMobile (pronounced Fun Mo -beel), there were two of them during my time at KAAY. They were used extensively during the Christmas shopping season, and the FunMobile was the focal point of the US Marine’s Toys for Tots drive each year.



The first FunMobile was a rehabilitated travel trailer, painted blue, with large yellow KAAY signs on the roof. It started life at WAKY in Louisville , and was sent to Little Rock when KAAY was still part of LIN Broadcasting.



It had a large glass window in the back, and the DJ booth was built onto the rear window so that people could come up to watch the DJ through the windows on three sides. There was a small audio mixer and two turntables, one on either side of the DJ. There was also an intercom so the DJ could talk to people outside. Inside the other end of the FunMobile had a small table arranged like a diner’s booth and visitors usually sat there when the DJ was busy. The finishing touch was a set of loudspeakers mounted outside on the roof that loudly played KAAY music to anyone nearby.



Visitors to the FunMobile could watch the DJ work, making announcements and talking on the air, selecting the next record. Lucky visitors could make requests on the spot and hear their favorite record played on the air.



The blue FunMobile trailer was retired in the mid-‘70’s and replaced with a more modern motor home / studio. This one was painted bright yellow and had the KAAY “Sunshine” logos. It was equipped with a UHF link that transmitted signals from the remote location back to the studio, and could be seen all over Arkansas at a variety of events. We drove it to Greer’s Ferry Lake and parked on a mountain top while the DJ’s broadcast from a party boat that roamed the lake. It went to the Arkansas Prison Rodeo. It broadcast from all corners of Central Arkansas , and its bright yellow color made it visible from miles away.



Both FunMobiles, the blue one and the newer yellow one, were fixtures at Toy Hill ( War Memorial Park in Little Rock ) at Christmas, collecting toys with the Marines. The FunMobile was as much a part of the personality of KAAY in the ‘70’s as were the radio personalities themselves. Every DJ at KAAY ended up at some point spending time in the FunMobile. It could be blazing hot in the summer and ice cold in the winter, but it was broadcasting in its most public sense. A listener could walk right up and talk to the DJ, get an autograph or prize or bumper sticker, and go home listening to his new friend on the radio.



After I left KAAY in search of my career, I heard that the bright yellow FunMobile was enroute to a remote broadcast one day, had an engine fire, and burned to the ground.



People loved the FunMobile. DJ’s would make all sorts of contests on the spot to draw a crowd. Usually the DJ would take some T-shirts and a stack of albums to the remote site. Then he would announce something like this:



- The first car with a KAAY bumper sticker on the outside will win two KAAY T-shirts

or

- The first 2 girls in a bikini will win two albums of their choice

or

- The first 2 girls driving a convertible will win two movie tickets

or

- The first person to show up - - - well you get the picture



The FunMobile was a great place to meet girls! Guys would cruise by or just hang out just to check out the girls that would show up. Little did they know that the girls were really there to meet the DJ and get some free loot! An on the spot romance was possible but rare.





Regards, merry Christmas



Dave Montgomery

Snapshot of a few of our visitors

Cuba Habana, Ciego de Avila
12
United States Hattiesburg, Mississippi
13
Cuba Habana, Ciego de Avila
14
United States Martin, Tennessee
15
United States Tanner, Alabama
16
United States San Antonio, Texas
17
United States Huntsville, Alabama
18
United States Van Buren, Arkansas
19
United States Memphis, Tennessee
20
United States Sulphur Rock, Arkansas

"Spin it and win it"

Hazel Dillehay has left a new comment on your post "From the "Timeless Tracks" KAAY 40th Anna. Pgm":

I listen to Tony on "Timeless Tracks" every Sunday night before leaving work and in the car coming home from work. It's my treat for working every weekend to end with the best music ever. I remember in the early 60's listen to KAAY and playing the "We spin it...You win it." I picked up lots of 45's during that time. Of course living in Jacksonville at the time I had to ride the bus to Little Rock to pick up my 45 record. It was worth every minute to get the record from KAAY. I still have some of my collection from the 60's but not as many as I used to have. Tell Tony Warner to keep up the good work. It makes me feel as if I was living my teenage years all over again. I love "Timeless Tracks".

Christmas & KAAY

This comment from Bud:

Hello again, Doc! This time of year (Christmas) reminds me of KAAY even more....I always will remember the Toys For Tots going on in Little Rock. One of my plans was to take as much vacation as possible, drive up and stay in Little Rock during Christmas. Alas, due to my family (I was the oldest, holding things together, in a broken family) and my work ethic, I hardly ever took time off, so this dream never took place....

Nonetheless, just listening to KAAY during the Christmas season bolstered my spirits and fueled my imagination! Thanks for the memories!

And this previously from Dave Montgomery:

Also, remember the "Funmobile"? The big blue remote broadcast trailer? We did hundreds of remote broadcasts from all over central Arkansas, including the annual Toys for Tots broadcast from Toy Hill at War Memorial Stadium. Sonny Martin (Matt White) did this for years, and was taken over by Bob Robbins (Bob Spears) after Sonny moved on.
If you are interested in any of these stories, let me know, and I will pass them along. Best regards, and am enjoying seeing the stories and history lessons.
Dave Montgomery

KAAY, Elvis, and me

I live in Alma, AR a bedroom community for Fort Smith AR. Elvis was inducted into the Army at Fort Chaffee, AR just outside of Fort Smith. Just the other day my Grandson visited the barber shop where Elvis got his first G.I. haircut. See the visit on my Grandson's blog at: http://www.davisjim.blogspot.com/

Oh yea the KAAY connection. I played Elvis records at KAAY.

My oldest Daughter, Holly's first concert was Elvis in Pine Bluff, AR.

Writer's strike continues

I have asked for former KAAY staffers to write their Christmas memories. I am still waiting at ajlinds@yahoo.com. Soooooooooo while I wait here is a recycled post from last year:

My Best Christmas Memory

It was Christmas Day and my wife and I had only been married a few months. I was doing the Emperor Holiday stick on KAAY. We decided to put on the Emperor robe and crown and my wife wore the Daphnie get up. (short cheerleading skirt and white go-go boots). We spent Christmas morning at the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Understand that every child who could possibly be sent home, was gone. The remaining children were very, very sick. They gave us so much more than we could ever give them. Through all their pain, they was excitement and joy on their faces. To this day, its one of my best Christmas memories.

Beaker Street Comment

Bud, Thanks for your Beaker Street comment. This is exactly what we are looking for. your memories triggers our own great trips to the past. Here is Bud's comment:

A. J., I just found your blog today! I previously asked about recordings...looks like there are some on your site? I'll investigate more!

I listened to Beaker Street when I was a youngster...in fact, I listened to KAAY probably more than I did to local radio stations here in Mobile, AL! Radio became my hobby when I was nine, 40 years ago this year...and I found KAAY shortly after and still have a radio log on notebook paper, where I DXed AM radio stations. Later, when I was old enough to drive, I outfitted my '66 Dodge Coronet 440 with an extra-long antenna and a bullet antenna amplifier...KAAY came in louder and with better fidelity than most local FM stations!

I would almost always drive 'way out of my way going home from work, just to listen...radio after midnight around the house was a strict no-no! Of course, on weekends, I almost couldn't wait until sundown...KAAY would almost always come into the clear about 30 minutes before dark, they were so strong.

Needless to say, KAAY was a large part of my radio life....

"Safety-Courtesy-Responsiveness-Accuracy-Efficiency"...Service Is Our Passion!

For HIS glory,

Bud Stacey, Parts Advisor
Cummins Mid-South LLC

Bud,
To hear the Beaker Street airchecks and previous Beaker Street material, just go to the top of the blog and type in "Beaker Street" in the search box and then click on search this blog.