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