The Emperor's Club

Sorry, in yesterday's post I mentioned the New York Mayor in connection with the Emperor's Club instead of the New York governor. My apologies to whichever I might have offended. The Spitzer story makes me long for the return of "Ear on Arkansas". Even though it was a national story, we would have probably devoted half of the show to the events. We could have done a fake commercial for the "HO" Depot. Wait, on second thought Imus got in trouble for "hos".

Then the democrat primary offers daily humor potential. Sorry, the republicans just don't seem to offer much humor potential.

In Arkansas, things are equally humorless. I'm ready for another raccoon story. That brought and still brings dozens of folks to this blog. The reference to the Gillette Coon Supper and the killing of a raccoon on a school parking lot with a nail gun, were good for days of posts and new readers. If you missed any of that, just do a search in the box in the upper left for "raccoon" and search this blog.

Maybe my adopted city of Alma can add raccoons to our spinach festival. Our "event" each year is a spinach festival because we are "the spinach capitol of the world". A claim that Del Monte disputes. (a competing brand to Popeye spinach that is canned here in Alma.) We also have a company that cans pickled watermelon rinds. They get truck loads of watermelons cut out the good part and give it away, while pickling the rinds. I understand they export most of it.

Emperor -- Bad Name?

I'm sorry The Emperor's Club and the New York governor has given Emperors a bad name.
For those of you new to this blog, I worked at KAAY twice. Once as Doc Holiday and we played it for the western hero, yes I had boots and a hat. The second time, we bought "The Emperor" package that was syndicated nationwide. I had a robe and crown and was working to take over Oklahoma. There were hourly comedy bits that ended with "Join now, become a Lt. in Emperor Holidays Komandos. Send a self-addressed envelope to KAAY, ....etc." Recently, I reproduced those cards and offered them again to readers of this blog. They are now all gone. I suppose I could always print more. But with all the news around the emperor's club, I fear the name is tarnished.

Time Out

This has nothing to do with KAAY. I would like to ask a personal favor. Please go to this website and sample some of the songs of Mark Pope. There is a player on the left.
Then buy his CD. http://www.markandrewpope.com/

Comment from reader on XM

I was surprised to hear a couple of weeks ago when XM was airing an old American Top 40 episode from the mid-70s on its 70s channel, Kasey Kasem mention KOTN. It was in his regular segment mentioning that AT40 is heard around the world on "great radio stations like..." and one of the three or four affiliates he mentioned then was KOTN, Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Pretty cool to hear those call letters mentioned!

------

I think its great that XM is airing a lot of the syndicated elements on the decades channels. Chickenman, ATF, Wolfman Jack, to name a few.

KAAY Updates from a reader

Beaker Street started back up on The Point 94.1 Sunday night. The first song played was Circle of Friends by Joni Mitchell, which was the last song played on old KAAY. He started with that because KAAY was located in the Cottondale building where The Point currently resides.
For people that used to work at KAAY in the Cottondale building here is how things have progressed.
When KAAY moved out, Phillip Jonsson bought 94.1 and moved KLRA in. After Brother Hal retired, changes to AM 1010 occured.
About fifteen years ago, SignalMedia bought KKYK and eventually turned it into a talk station. Westinghouse bought 1010 AM and shut it down.
The building has been renovated over the years and the old KAAY studio has been converted to offices.
2400 Cottondale Ln. is currently home to The Point 94.1 ( a classic rock station), and 103.7 The Buzz
(a sports talk station).
The Point studio is at the NE corner of the building and The
Buzz studio is at the SE Corner.

KAAY's Redesigned Website

The current KAAY has redesigned their website:http://1090kaay.com/default.asp

Lot's of content....take a look.

Interesting that someone has the domain name KAAY.COM and has been holding it for years and done nothing with it. It is for sale for $4700 plus escrow.

KAAY Mustang

Thanks Doug for the quick photo. Read the post below for details.

Now I need you KAAY staffers help. Who knows the details about this car?

Email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com.

KAAY Logos

We never seemed to have a good consistant one. The logo that you see on the top of this blog, is the first logo. It seems like each program director developed a different logo or change to the current one. It's a shame because a station like KAAY deserves a good logo. Early on Jim Hankins (Mike McCormick) used an elephant, but we never seemed to develope a good elephant drawing incorporated into the logo.
Over the years it evolved into plain jane type with no particular style of theme.
Here is a comment regarding logo stuff:

There is a website where you can buy old radio station memoribilia.
Go to radiologoland.com and look over the radio station memoribilia from the late '50's through the '70's. There are different radio stations across the country,the logo KAAY used in the mid to late 60's and another in the early 70's is available.
They sell shirts, stickers, coffee mugs,etc.
I found an interesting find at an estate sale last summer. It was a toy '65 or '66 gold fastback Mustang with KAAY written on both doors.

It should be pointed out that the merchandise on Radioland is reproductions of station logos. The two for KAAY are OK but they are not the ones I remember fondly. The second one in particular is unfamiliar to me.

The comment on the Mustang toy is very significant. There were very few of those given away and my guess is that it was a George J. Jennings promotion during the time when the mobile unit was a Mustang. PLEASE take a photo of it and email it to me to share with everyone.

Small town talk

The last several posts have been about small towns. Even though KAAY was in the capitol city of Arkansas, we loved the small towns. We played KAAY Komando Basketball in Havana, AR and dozens of other small towns. We went to the Gould Turtle Durby and any other small town event we could find. By night we went into small towns in 40 states. (Even though we were on push button car radios in New Orleans and Chicago). This song came along after top 40 KAAY. Too bad...we would have played it.

KOTN

I have written of KOTN, Buddy Deane and my Pine Bluff, AR connections in previous blogs. If you arrived here recently and are interested in these subjects just type in the "word" in the upper left search box and search this blog.

In the entry below Paul Perdue mentions a Pine Bluff Postcard site. This site is quite extensive and any one interested in Pine Bluff will enjoy searching the scenes.

There are two postcards from KOTN I would like to feature here. The first is a reception verification card that is very old. I don't have the date on the card, but it was when LOTN was only 100 Watts on 1500 KC. In modern times it was 1000 Watts on 1490 KC.

The second Card is a studio shot probably when they were in the Simmons Bank building.

Enjoy all the cards at:http://www.pinebluffpostcards.com/

Double click on the photos for larger views.

Comment worth sharing

AJ:

Happy as I was to find your KAAY blog I was sad to read about Willie Oates and Larry Hart.

I'm Paul Perdue...born & raised in PB. I've lived in Dallas, TX for 21 years.

Didn't you work at KCLA for a while? I remember they were Top 40 for about 15-minutes once, and quite good, too. And if you worked with Larry you must've worked at KOTN too. Your name and face are as familiar to me as thirty years ago because I was a big, big listener of PB radio then. I remember meeting you somewhere, too.

I've been trying to track down Duane Haman to see if he has any old KOTN tapes he can copy for me. Buddy Deane's wife died in the last year so I missed my chance to contact her for some.

I just can't believe what has happened to Pine Bluff. The railroad pulling out certainly didn't help. There are more ex-Pine Bluffians now than current ones. I still stay connected with a lot of people there. I even have a website featuring old PB postcards (www.pinebluffpostcards.com).

I didn't know you worked at KAAY, maybe because of your alias. Hearing the jingle on your blog sure was nice. Hoo-boy, the late nights spent listening to Clyde were magical. They left such an impression on me that I am a hardcore collector of 60's psychedelia to this day. Thanks to the magic of the internet I probably now have a bigger psych collection than Clyde ever did! Do you have any old KAAY tapes?

I remember calling KAAY one night to request D.O.A. by Bloodrock and the DJ said no because he was alone at the station and the song was too scary.
I can relate lots of PB & LR radio moments but it's almost 1:00 a.m. but I'll certainly come back here.

Living in Alma, I'll bet you've got some good Tony Alamo stories.

Let's chat later!
Paul

Last Day for the all Led Zeppelin Channel

Today, Friday is the last day for the all Led Zeppelin Channel on XM radio. Also, the 60s on 6 channel featured KOIL one of the early pioneers of top 40 radio. The snow is all gone.sort of a depressing Friday. I spent all day trying to clean up a video and keep a guy from looking green. Thought I had it looking great. Burned a DVD and he looks green again. Take me back to the reel to reel Ampex, grease pencils, and splicing blocks. Wait, am image of Jim Hankins, (Mike McCormick) just flashed in my mind....he's made a bad spice and is beating the reel locks with his fists. Spring can't be far behind.

Will we have school tomorrow?

At KAAY we always dreaded snow because everyone would call to find out if school was open. Because of our almost state wide coverage, that's a lot of schools to report.

I notice television has taken over the roll of school closing information. In the 60s TV had not really moved in the weather and school information.

Here is a video of the snow in Alma, AR. Thursday at 4:45 PM.The first scene is the back of the ABC Extreme Makeover house that is directly behind my house. Look quick it changes to just street, and kid shots.

The Hat Lady is Dead

The story will mostly be important to those who have lived in Little Rock:

http://www.kfsm.com/Global/story.asp?S=7973104&nav=menu151_2

Comment on Cindy's Cryin

Dear A.J.,

This video is great --- it brings
back a lot of memories.
(And the comments contributed
at the Youtube site are
touching.)
There is no way I would
have ever found this on
Youtube myself (too much
out there) --- thanks for
posting it!

Finally, check out
that wall of LPs behind
the group --- I wonder
what happens if they ever
have to move the shelves?! (I am familiar
with this problem....)

Best regards,
Dave Schmidt,
Manhattan, KS

Larry Hart Passes

Even though Larry Hart never worked for KAAY, I did work with him in Pine Bluff. Larry could do it all; D.J. Production, Play by play. Mostly he was great to work with. Larry was a true professional that will be greatly missed in Pine Bluff, and central Arkansas.

(news item)

MAGNET COVE - Mr. James Larry Hart, age 66, of Magnet Cove, Ark., died Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. He was born July 1, 1941 in Bauxite, Ark., to the late Henry and Dorothy Hart. Mr. Hart was a retired radio personality and play by play Sports Announcer. Throughout Saline County he was known as the voice of the Bauxite Miners and the Benton Panthers. He was a member of Trinity Baptist Church.

Survivors, wife, Gail Hart, Magnet Cove; son, Scott Hart, Benton; daughters, Amy Cook and Christi Tiner both of Magnet Cove; brothers, Lynn Hart and Jack Hart, both of Benton; one grandchild.

Graveside services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Magnet Cove Cemetery. Ministers will be Bro. Kim Hammer and Dwight Fite. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Ashby’s. Pallbearers: Dwight Fite, Tommy Hart, Ricky Hart, Warren Coston, David Coston, and Jon Watson. Memorials may be made to Alzheimer’s of Arkansas, 10411 W. Markham, Suite I30, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205-1409.

Cindy's Cryin Beaker Street

Hello, Doc! I've seen some requests on the various message boards for this, so I thought I'd pass on the link:
Bud




Be sure and read the momments on the Youtube video.

It's always interesting

It's always interesting to see where and why people come to this blog. For example someone from Helsinki, Southern Finland came to the blog reseaching "hot clocks". I have no idea what kind of "hot clock" they were looking for. Only DJs will understand.

Clyde comments on comment below

The irony was not lost on me either, A.J.

Clyde

New home for Beaker Street

Beaker Street has found a new home.
It will start next Sunday March 9th
on THE POINT 94.1. For out of area
listeners,you can listen live at KKPT.com.
The ironic thing is that THE POINT
is located in the Cottondale building where Clyde signed off old
KAAY.