The Day The Pulse Book Arrived at KAAY

Well rather than relate a story just look at a clip from WKRP. Obviously the writers have been there, done that. Anyone who has been in radio has lived this moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqRybYxygw

Also watch some of the other WKRP videos from thw person who posted them on You Tube. Watch quick. I have previously used You Tube links to WKRP cuts and they have been removed.

Black Oak Arkansas - KAAY Concert

Today I am happy to be able to post a brochure done for sales purposes of a Black Oak Arkansas concert at Barton Coliseum on June 23rd. Unfortunately I don't have the year. I am depending on a reader to email me the year so I can make this post complete. The brochure is about 7 inches square and done in black and white. I don't know who selected the font. I guess they were trying to be arty. The excellent photographs are by David Conrad.

Be sure and double click on the photographs to see them large and print it out so you can have a copy too. If you have the date or comments to add to this post, email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com.

KAAY Remembered in a Comment

Hello A.J.:

I just saw your post regarding replies to your blogs.

First of all, let me say that your page is one of the pages I check on a daily basis. KAAY was one of the most influential radio in my life. It was one of the few reliable stations from Arkansas I could receive in St. Louis (KLCN in Blytheville and KLRA were two others). I have relatives in NW Arkansas and have a soft spot in my heart for the state. Besides that, KAAY was one of those stations that had a magic all to itself--a 50 thousand watt station that made a personal connection to its listener (WLAC and WWL's "Road Gang" show had that kind of quality too).

I know I'm not the only one who felt this way.

If you have a direction for this site, here are some suggestions. All over the web are tributes to the past history of great radio stations--WLS, CKLW, WABC, KHJ, reelradio.com, and NBC Monitor come to mind. KAAY definitely deserves a page to itself, with a history, airchecks, and photos. I'm sure this is a labor of love, and I'm grateful you have put this site together. If you want to take a site like this further, you may want to contact the individuals who have put these other tribute sites together. They may offer some insights for you. Also, Clyde Clifford and Barry McCorkindale (sp?) (who hosted KAAY's "Radio Yesterday" show)might be able to help you as well.

For several years, WABC has hosted a Memorial Day "Rewound" show featuring hours of old airchecks, and since December 2005, the station hosts a Saturday Night Oldies show. This year, WLS hosted their rewound show, featuring live talent (most notably Larry Lujack and John "Records" Landecker). These shows came about, without a doubt, because of those who cared about these radio stations, during their Top-40 heyday.

Best Wishes/73

Paul Harner

Still Waiting

I am still waiting for comments from you the reader on any subject relating to KAAY. This gives me a direction to take this blog. I am getting hits from all over the world about 24 per day, but I get very few comments. So let me hear from you: ajlinds@yahoo.com.

When I first started at KAAY, the memos, the hot clocks, the contest formats, news formats, all were printed on an old Ditto machine. Those of you old enough will remember those purple print copies that (if they were freshly run) could almost give you a high from sniffing. I guess kids today are still looking for a high to sniff.

Shortly after I came to KAAY, we got a NEW, MODERN, Thermofax copy machine. You ran an original in and got out a toasty, brown copy that deteriorated rapidly if exposed to heat or even time.

See how badly I need you to give me a change of subject and direction.

Technical Difficulties

Yesterday (Monday) and even this morning Pod-O-Matic, the service I use for audio and video clips has been experiencing problems with congestion and the feeds have not been downloading. I hope they correct this problem. If you are not able to view or listen to a clip please try again later.

Now to the main issue of this post. I am getting great hits on this blog from all over the world. Thank you for your visits and for posting my blog address on websites and other blogs. What I really need to continue this blog is your comments. I get very few comments lately. I like to post your comments and how you remember KAAY.
Please email me you reaction to posts on this blog. My email address is: ajlinds@yahoo.com .

More Memorial Day

Radio stations used to sign off so much more than they do today. KAAY was 24 hours but it did sign off Sunday at midnight for transmitter maintance. It was the custom of most stations to play the National Anthem. At movie theaters, the program started with the National Anthem. I wonder if there is any movie theater today that does this. On this Memorial Day here is a look back to a movie screen in 1942 (the year I was born).
I really enjoyed seeing the WW2 military.

Click on:

http://kaay.podomatic.com/entry/et/2007-05-27T16_29_43-07_00

On This Memorial Day Weekend...

(double click on the picture to see it larger)

Please go to the search box at the upper left and type in "Day For Decision" and listen again.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

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

KAAY #1

We almost never talked about ratings on the air. With all the heavy production, we always felt it was better to not yell about the ratings, just in case we slipped. Hooper (telephone) Ratings were on their way out and Pulse was becoming the big rating service. One of the main strategies for keeping the same names for disc jockeys was to help build ratings. We stopped saying K Double A Y because we thought that might create confusion in the listener's mind. The night jock sometimes got embarrassed when the religious block from 6 PM til 8 would pull higher ratings than his show. Pat Walsh was a ratings nut. He had a huge file of ratings going back to the late 50s.Before he passed away I helped him find a home for his ratings collection. We felt it was a part of history that needed to be saved. After the bad experience of giving Little Rock University all the Ear on Arkansas masters and having them record over the tape, we felt they needed to go to someone who would copy and pass them on to the next generation.

Today's clip is very short. It is one jingle that few of you who worked for KAAY have ever heard. It was rarely used, for the reasons I mentioned above. Enjoy:
http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-25T05_57_29-07_00

KAAY Skunk Festival

Loudon Wainwright, III is best known for the 1972 novelty song hit "Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road)", with pianist Teddy Wender and for playing Captain Spalding (the "singing surgeon") on three episodes of the American television show M*A*S*H in its third season (1974-1975), but his musical reputation is much deeper. Using a witty, self-mocking style, Wainwright has recorded over twenty albums on eleven different labels. Two of his albums have been nominated for Grammy awards.

Well the Columbia record song inspired George J. Jennings and Sonny Martin to hold a Skunk Festival at War Memorial Stadium. Loudon was there (even though he was very late). Mark Lindsey of Paul Revere and the Raiders was a judge and appears on this cllp. There is a newscast on the clip with newsman Michael O'Sullivan there are some items about the Viet Nam peace talks and cease fire. There is a commercial for Dixie/Yellow Cabs which may sound strange, however, this was a trade to give KAAY sign advertising space on the back of the cabs. Jim Ray Toyota sponsored the festival. At the end of the clip you will hear the inspiration for all of this. It is included for educational purposes and was recorded off the air.

Here's the clip:

http://kaay.podomatic.com/entry/et/2007-05-23T14_12_34-07_00

Another City Song

A few days ago I posted the city song by Pams for Little Rock. It was from KVLC. If you haven't heard it and you're from Little Rock, you are missing a treat.

Jim Pitcock, sent me some time ago the WNOE city song. I'll always remember comments that in New Orleans at night you could hear KAAY playing on radios at drive-ins. I never could understand why. with stations like WNOE and WTIX would push buttons on car radios be set to KAAY. I heard the same thing in Chicago. With WLS and WCFL why did KAAY have such an audience at night?

Enjoy the New Orleans city song:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-23T05_43_21-07_00

KAAY Cow Chip Documentary

I have posted some previous entries about the KAAY Cow Chip Throwing Contest. Please go to the top and type "cow chip" in the box and click on "search this blog". All of this is to set up today's short clip (2 1/2 min) The Cow Chip Documentary. Here it is:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-21T14_02_52-07_00

KAAY Editorial Comment on the Channel 7 for 2 trade

A recent comment said:

This was a few years before my time. They were wanting to trade channel 2 for 7? What was that about and why? Did KATV want to transmit on channel 2?


Yes, KATV wanted channel 2 because it could cover so much more area than channel 7.
I think there offer would give the channel 7 transmitter site and transmitter to the state. It was a short stick at the time. The legislature was about to make the deal.
KAAY editorialized against it. Claiming that channel 2 was a valuable state asset that shouldn't be bargained away. Len Carl, General Manager at the time did the editorial. I believe he reads this blog and can give us more detail.

Did we play Waylon Holyfield on KAAY?

First Waylon Holifield is mostly known as a songwriter. I knew Waylon in Little Rock in the 60s and I thought it was from the campus at Little Rock University, however, the bios I read on Waylon don't mention L.R.U. I'm a big fan of Waylon's writings and even though he skews country, KAAY still played many of his songs. The real reason for writing this is to see if any of you have "Arkansas You Run Deep in Me" in digital form. If so please email me. I just figured out a few days ago, Waylon wrote it. For those of you who don't know who the heck I'm talking about, here's his bio:

Wayland Holyfield is a native of Little Rock, Ark., where he attended public schools and completed his formal education with a marketing degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He moved to Nashville in 1972 and had his first # 1 song, "Rednecks, White Socks And Blue Ribbon Beer" in 1973. Since then Wayland has been honored with 37 ASCAP and BMI awards and has written more than 40 Top 10 hits, including 14 # 1 songs. "Could I Have This Dance," "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend," "Till the Rivers All Run Dry," "Only Here For A Little While" and "Meanwhile" are but a few of his almost-four decades of hits. He also wrote "Arkansas You Run Deep In Me," adopted in 1987 as the official state song of Arkansas. Long active as an advocate for songwriters' rights, Wayland was the first Nashville-based writer to be elected to the ASCAP Board of Directors. Wayland has also served as President of the NSAI and as Chairman of the NSF. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.

Razorbacks and KAAY

The Razorbacks were always a promotional vehicle for KAAY. The station did everything to promote the Razorbacks, i.e. bumper stickers, store signs, records, contests, pep rallies. I've written about early Razorback records on this blog. (check the archives).
One reason KAAY backed the Razorbacks was that General Manager Pat Walsh was a big supporter. Some of my fondest memories are going to Razorback games in Fayetteville with Pat and friends. He always took anyone who wanted to go from the staff. In those days you could take anything you wanted into the stadium. Pat would have a portable TV (rare in those days), a bar, radios, a drop cloth big enough to cover several rows of fans in case of rain, and any thing else he could think of for fan comfort. Going to a game with Pat was an experience regardless of who won.

Today's audio treat is a personal tape put together for Pat probably by the production department. He used this tape for parties and any occasion for inspiring the hogs.

I'm sure Pat would want to share this with you, even though it relates mostly to the Southwest Conference.

Enjoy: http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-19T14_19_43-07_00

Long before KAAY there was KVLC

As top 40 goes KAAY was a late comer to the Little Rock market. When KAAY went on the air Sept. 1962, there was three other top 40 stations: KXLR, KAJI, and KVLC. KVLC was the first to bring top 40 to Little Rock, but it had a major problem. It was a daytimer. It ran down at sundown. None the less, it was highly successful when it was on the air. The original owner was Lenord Coe. That's where the call letters came from: "The Voice of Lenord Coe". Mr. Coe sold KVLC and bought KLRA, where Brother Hal was always a rating thorn in KAAY's side. I found a 45 record in my collection on the KVLC label called "Little Rock My Home Town". One of my rules for this blog, is to limit it to KAAY material but I can not resist sharing this record which is actually a Pams jingle. You will recognize it immediately. No telling how many cities Pams sung this for. In fact, one of the problems we had at KAAY, is that many of the good jingles had been taken by other stations.
Those of you from Little Rock will really appreciate this jingle. Listen closely they did a poor job of making the call letters stand out and they are only mentioned once:


http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-17T14_41_47-07_00

WAKY call letters return!

What am I doing talking about WAKY on a KAAY blog? Well, first WAKY was owned by LIN Broadcasting as was KAAY. Many of the original employees came from WAKY, like Mike Hankins, George Jennings, and Jack Grady. The big news WAKY call letters return. Here's the item:


79WAKY.com would like to welcome WAKY back to the Derby City! On May 11, 2007, WASE-FM in Elizabethtown changed their call letters to WAKY, while maintaining their popular oldies format. Now much of the Louisville market can enjoy the music and jingles that made WAKY famous on the all new WAKY 103-5.

On the www.79WAKY.com website you can check out Mike McCormick a/k/a Mike Hankins that I write about often, under "DJs".

On the site Mike writes about George:

George J. Jennings WAKY News Director in the '60s (right before Bob Watson). He also worked at KAAY in Little Rock, Arkansas and WOIA in San Antonio, Texas. Died March 15, 2007 at the age of 67 due to renal failure. Mike McCormick wrote in 2005:
"George Jennings was my second news director at KAAY/Little Rock. He was later transferred to WAKY/Louisville, another LIN Broadcasting station. He also served as our News Director at Storz's WDGY/Minneapolis, but later returned to KAAY."After a couple of changes in Little Rock he accepted a position at WOIA/San Antonio and retired around a year or so ago. [JQ notes: He retired in 1999 after more than 20 years at WOIA.]
"We plan to get together soon and drain Austin of its beer supply...and tell radio lies all evening long.
"George is a great broadcaster and super gentleman. I'd hire him again...probably!"

I guess Mike forgot George doesn't drink. The one night he did.......well thats another story.

Kennedy Editorial on KAAY

KAAY frequently editorialized. The editorials were usually written by the General Manager. Len Carl started that tradition. He editorialized on everything from urging the state legislature not to trade educational channel 2 for channel 7. They didn't and that's a story all it's own. Len even editorialized when rumors were going around about the dirty lyrics of Louie, Louie. Len read the bland lyrics is a very formal style. It was great. This editorial is about the Robert Kennedy shooting. George J. Jennings reads the editorial but it is unsigned. Since both Pat Walsh (the General Manager at that time) and George J. are gone, I cannot verify who wrote it. But the style is very definitely George's style and I suspect he wrote it. There are a lot of commercials in this aircheck from 6-5-68. This was before the days of the stop set. Records were never played back to back. You will notice a lot of talk between records. Ratings with all this talk were at an all time high. Everything from Prep. H (openingly talking about health issues) to Channel 11 promoting and hour of black and white programs. Lots of history in them there spots.

Enjoy: http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-15T09_02_10-07_00

Robert Kennedy Shot 6-5-68 Geo. J. Reports

It's 6:30 AM, Marvin Vines wraps up his Farm Report, and George J. Jennings does KAAY Comex News with complete details of the 4:30 AM, Little Rock time, Robert Kennedy shooting. Clyde Clifford, of Beaker Street does a police report. We all did "phoners" or newscasts. Notice the farm commercial that runs in the newscast. More information than we want to know about flies.

Here's the link:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-15T08_24_43-07_00

Broadway Drive-In and more great commercials on KAAY

This aircheck of Ron Owens a/k/a Walt Sadler has a great spot for "Big Daddy" showing at the Razorback Drive-In Theater. Also "The Wild Bunch" is showing at the Arkansas Theater. Southwestern Bell's spot plays off the "only phone company in town" joke and Frank Woods does Comex News. Walt passed away several years ago. We worked together at KAAY and when I was Manager at KOKY Walt was sales manager. A great guy and good friend.

Enjoy about 24 minutes:
http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-05-14T12_15_05-07_00