KAAY Complete Ear On Arkansas 9-7-69

Sorry for the delay in posting this. I am having problems with the storage site I use for audio, so I have had to go back to Podomatic.

Many thanks to Russell Wells in Georgia for two COMPLETE "Ear On Arkansas" programs. In the past I have only posted excerpts from the two vinyl albums that KAAY put out that were excerpts of various Ear episodes. If you are new to this blog you need to catch up on what Ear on Arkansas was. Just go to upper left and enter "Ear On Arkansas" in the search box and search this blog.

On this first complete episode you will hear Barry Wood a/k/a Mike McCormick, Walt Sadler, a/k/a Ron Owens, George W. Jennings, a/k/a George J. Jennings, and several others. Also many of the spacers or bridges between bits are from Tommy Riggs a/k/a Rock Robbins. In some Tommy plays keyboard, and some he sings and plays.

Tomorrow I hope to post the other 30 minute show.

Speaking of satire which is what "Ear" was, be sure and catch "The Half Hour News Hour" on Fox News. The writing seems to get better each week.

Here's Ear:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-08-14T11_53_00-07_00

Bill And Hillary Clinton,Monica Lewinsky would have made great Ear On Arkansas Subjects

Today's politicians would have made such great Ear On Arkansas material. For new comers to this blog, Ear On Arkansas was a thirty minute weekly satirical review of the news that ran on KAAY for many years. To get the full background, type in Ear On Arkansas in the upper left search box and click on search this blog.

I have often thought how much fun it would be to do Ear again. With computer technology it would be much easier. I would need some help. If anyone would like to volunteer just drop me an email at: ajlinds@yahoo.com.

Ear On Arkansas

I've referred to "Ear On Arkansas" in some old posts and one of the Timeless Tracks has a discussion of Ear. Briefly, it was a weekly 30 minute saterical review of the news in Arkansas. This was one of the features that made KAAY unique and not just another music station. Over the years, many different individuals assumed the responsibility of putting the program together. As I listen to some of the Ear recordings, I realize how times have changed and things that were important them, can hardly be recalled. Also, in 1967 no one would have guessed that the Arkansas Gazette (the old grey lady) would cease to exist. Here are a few cuts from an album that was pressed and given away about the year 1967. There was a second album done for 1968. Listen now to about 40 minutes of Ear On Arkansas: Click Here

What ever happened to Howard Watson?

(Pictures from the KAAY record album "Silver Dollar Specials)
Howard Watson a/k/a Ken Knight was the first Ken Knight. Howard is one of the greatest wits I have even been around. Howard can find humor in any situation. His show was full of humor and inside jokes that only employees of KAAY would understand. His music tastes really went more to the jazz and "good music" side, but he played top 40 in his own style. I suggest at this point you read previous posts by going to the top left hand corner and enter "Howard Watson" in the search box and search this blog. In those posts you will find a very brief comment by Pat Walsh.

When I became program director, during a staff meeting one day, I brought up a television program "That Was The Week That Was". It was a satirical review of the weeks national news. I ask why we couldn't do the same thing on KAAY only focus on local news. Howard took the ball and ran with it. The name "Ear On Arkansas" was a satire on channel 11's "Eye On Arkansas". The theme music was "baby Elephant Walk" (the music KAAY played over and over when it first went on the air). Howard developed most of the characters and did the bulk of the writing. A weekly 30 minute all talk radio program takes a lot of script. If you had a slow news week, it really became a challenge. Some clips of "Ear" are on this blog. Do the search. Sadly all of the Ear masters were given to University of Arkansas at Little Rock by Pat Walsh with the hope they would be properly archived. Pat told me several years ago, the tapes had been erased by the campus radio station and reused. If anyone has any of the old Ear tapes let me know. The are two 33 1/3 records that KAAY pressed that are still around. Satire is such a great form of humor. Today Fox News has a program called "Half Hour News Hour". Don't miss this program if you appreciate good satire. The writing seems to be getting better each week. Over the years Ear on Arkansas had several writers. After a while each person seemed to burn out from the heavy job of writing and producing the show. Often times at 2 A.M., a frantic telephone call would be placed to Tommy Riggs a/k/a Rock Robbins, to help fill 5 or 10 minutes. Tommy always came through with a song or bit that saved the day. Sometimes we would be forced to use a lot of the theme music opening and closing to pad out the time.

I digress from "the weird beard" as he was also known. When I became program director, Howard had a difficult time dealing with being passed over for program director. I was 19 he was older. Finally Howard left KAAY for KMYO. He tried to take the name Ken Knight with him. Pat Walsh got an injunction to prohibit the use of a name that KAAY had service marked with the state. Howard changed his name to Lynn Day. Much press ensued and I regretted Howard's leaving. The inspiration and as Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story" needs to be credited to Richard Robinson for the research that netted this article in the Hot Springs Village Voice newspaper:

A setback for the 'Voice of the Village'
By VERLEE WALTER


Gerry and Howard Watson Twelve years ago, when Howard Watson became Len Day as KVRE's morning man, he quickly became the Voice of the Village. His distinctive baritone was a welcome addition to our breakfast tables.
The man knows his music, and knew we knew it, so his selections were geared to our past, awakening nostalgia for high school and proms and special dates with special girls or boys, turning our todays into yesterdays and our yesterdays to todays.
Planning retirement, he changed his mind when he heard of a vacancy at our local station and began a new career.
Watson came to us from Little Rock where he'd been night radio man Ken Knight. To the delight of his new audience, he had a speaking engagement with us between 6 and 10 a.m., presenting "Adult Standards," an expanded version of "The Music of Your Life."
His notoriety as Len Day overwhelms his persona as Howard Watson, man-about-town in its best sense - involved in Masonry and the Shrine Club, charities and foundations, the Hot Springs Jazz Society, and Village United Methodist Church.
Still he found time to stay in close touch with his and Gerry's three sons, and their seven grandchildren and one great grandson.,
For nearly 11 years he sat in his cluttered broadcast room amid the tens of thousands of records and cassettes and CDs he had collected, choosing the music we loved, interspersed with commercials made pleasant through his mellifluous voice.
He commuted from Little Rock to the Village for five years before he found a home here to hold his treasure trove of books and music without disrupting the life of his wife, with whom he celebrated 50 years of marriage in late May.
The mention of which, is the reason for this item.
This was to have been an inspiration piece for those who have survived and taken on new life following a stroke such as Watson had in 2006 after 53 years in broadcasting.
He did a few commercials for the station a month or so ago.
However, a few hours after the joy-filled anniversary party given by the Watsons' three sons, he was stricken again - this time it was much harder on him.
As Len said of his life, "Work is my vocation, my avocation and my pastime."
Sadly, at least for the present, he is deprived of this pleasure.
It is particularly sad when bad things happen to good people, but he and Gerry have much courage and faith, and are set to fight again.
Weeks of therapy will follow his hospitalization, so let him know you're thinking of him by sending mail to 40 Herencia Circle in the Village.

Several recordings of Howard are on this blog, however, I do not have an aircheck of one of his shows on KAAY. If have one please contact me at : ajlinds@yahoo.com.

Another complete KAAY Ear On Arkansas 10-12-69

Thanks again to Russell Wells from Georgia, for 2 complete Ear On Arkansas episodes. As always you are encouraged to save these or any of the material from this blog. In fact, that is the purpose to share as much of the KAAY history as possible. If any of you readers have any recordings, photographs, MUSIC SURVEYS, or other KAAY material, please contact me at ajlinds@yahoo.com. I can transfer any thing from reel to reel tape, broadcast cartridges, cassette, record, etc. to digital and return it to you with complete safety.

Here is Ear On Arkansas for 10-24-69:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-08-15T06_05_55-07_00

On Aug 9th this blog had a record download of 120. I thought that was from the fall jingle but thinking about it that was not it, because the fall jingle was hosted by a website. This 120 came from PodOMatic and I am at a loss as to why so many PodOMatic downloads on that date. The hits on the blog that day were not that high. It would be bloggers downloading multiple files or outside hits coming to the podcasts from Itunes or other podcast searches.

Magnolia from KAAY's Ear On Arkansas

This comes from the last day of KAAY broadcast. Barry Wood a/k/a Mike McCormick will introduce the bit from Ear on Arkansas. More on the "Last Day" broadcast as you scroll down but I must make a comment about Mary Smart. Mary was a copy writer at KAAY. I had worked with her at a previous station and we never got along. Mary was much older and I was a teenager. I hated her copy and we clashed constantly. However, to do Ear On Arkansas we pulled in all the voices we could find in the building. Mary had a very soft, very southern voice. Howard Watson A/K/A Ken Knight created the character Magnolia as a recurring part. This continued after Howard left and we even got Tommy Riggs to do a jingle into which you will hear on the clip.

To show you what a small world it is, Mary is buried a half mile from my house in Alma.

In the window change the green bar selection to "Magnolia"


Click here to get your own player.

Comment on Howard Watson, Ear, and more

This is also posted under "comments" but as always I don't want you to miss this comment in case you are not reading comments.

Russell W. has left a new comment on your post "What ever happened to Howard Watson?":

I've been away from a lot of my 'net activities lately, and am getting caught up with the KAAY blog.

Couple of notes: it almost sickened me to read of the old Ear On Arkansas tapes getting bulk-erased. The moment I read this, I got up and pulled out a copy of a tape which Mr. Walsh lent me many years ago - two (2) EOA programs, one dated September 7, 1969 and another from a month later, October 12. I am putting this onto CD as I speak .... I'll e-mail you, so you can respond with a mailing address.

In my young and green years in Arkansas, I spent Summers during college working parttime at KEZQ, back when Howard/Len Day was doing mornings. I didn't have much interaction with him, other than filling in for a graveyard or two. Very nice and gracious, and what I remember the most about him was the tall Razorback coffee mug, which to this day I'm convinced was actually an growth on his right hand.

I continue to enjoy the stories. If this is living in the past, keep on doing so, please.

Russell Wells
Rincon, Georgia

Thanks Russell, I hope all of you fans of satire are watching "The Half Hour News Hour" on Fox News. If I didn't know better I would think some of the "Ear On Arkansas" writers were working on that program.

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

What ever happened to Joe Dickey?

Joe Dickey was in Sales at KAAY for many, many years. Joe is also a great character voice and we called on Joe many times for various characters. Joe is also a great addlibber. Sometimes Joe would call in on the night show and do a great bit on the air. He had a long running bit about Harry McFetridge who was driving a low boy truck with a giant sparrow on the way to Nashville to appear on the Grand Ole Opry. I wish we had a recording. There is a recording of Joe playing the part of a slot machine on Ear On Arkansas. On this cut you will also hear George Jennings and Walt Sadler a/k/a Ron Owens. This is from an album of the best of Ear On Arkansas for the year 1967. This is part 1.

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-06-28T14_39_23-07_00

Rock Robbins a/k/a Tommy Riggs 6/15/43-6/29/00

Tommy came to KAAY 8PM to midnight to do something different for the nighttime. Tommy was a DJ but more important, he played piano by ear. If you could hum it, Tommy could play it. We put a small electronic piano on top of the console, and Tommy would play and sing short bits as he was inspired to do. Additionally Tommy created many songs and material for "Ear On Arkansas" (a 30 minute saterical view of the news airing on Sunday). I remember often at 2 AM being 15 minutes short of a finished program and calling Tommy who would come to the station and fill the void with great stuff.

Tommy's passion was live entertainment. Even though he left KAAY to do more with his band, he did go to Pine Bluff, AR to be program director and eventually manager of KCLA.

Tommy was living in Nashville at the time of his death and was remembered there as well as back home in Arkansas.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, saw fit to remember him in a lengthy obit subtitled "Singer, Songwriter, ŒProm King.' " The article recalled how the North Little Rock native gained local fame as the "Prom King" for performing at high school proms throughout central Arkansas. He earned a larger following in the '60s and '70s as Rock Robbins, a rock deejay on the high-powered Little Rock station KAAY-AM, which could be heard from Canada to Cuba.

A Nashville paper had this to say: Tommy Riggs (Tom Payton) is an Arkansan singer, piano and keyboard player who had several bands while performing around the state in the 1960s and 1970s. He also was working as a radio DJ (as Tom Jones) at the time, on KCLA, during 1968 through 69 &As Tom Payton on KXLR in North Little Rock in 1964, and in 1966 at KAAY]]. During this period, he promoted himself as Tom Payton and the Kingpins, Tom Payton with The Playboys, and several other names. He recorded while he was Rock Robbins from KAAY on the Little Rock label "MY Records" in 1966. Two songs from the session were released on a 45 rpm record, "My Little Girl" and "Good Lovin'"... The other songs and all tape masters are in private hands. Promoting himself as Tommy Riggs, he performed around the country From St. Louis to Las Vegas before settling down in Nashville, Tennessee and frequently playing at the Stockyards Lounge

More KAAY Ear on Arkansas

Someday I will learn the latest post turns up on top. So if you are doing a 2 parter you better work backward.

Here is Part 2 of the Ear On Arkansas 1967 album. Many thanks to Issac Wingfield who did the encoding of the album.

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/eg/2007-06-29T11_41_21-07_00

KAAY Personnel

I am attempting to put together a list of KAAY Personnel and dates they were at the station. I need your help in filling in the dates and other names. Later I will be adding off the air people who were often on the air as character voices or Ear On Arkansas characters. Transmitter engineers even got into the act on the Commandoes basketball team.

One of my most prized books is "Arkansas Airwaves" by Ray Poindexter. Printed in 1974 it chronicles radio stations and personalities from the beginning of radio in Arkansas.

Pat Walsh should have written this blog, because he had all the dates and people in his head. All of us got used to picking up the phone and asking Pat a simple "whatever happened to....." and getting a college education on the subject. Pat was quick to get the facts straight. I miss him everyday.

Most folks may not realize Pat was the third manager at KAAY. Tom Bishop was first, coming from KAJI. He was there only a matter of months before he was replaced by Len Carl,(Voth) who had been sent from Lin Broadcasting in Nashville, to be a salesman and keep an eye on the place. Len did it all. He of course managed, but he also sold advertising, voiced editorials and commercials (mostly he got stuck with the PIs because no one else wanted to be the voice of "20 combs for $1". He played on the Commando basketball team (in the publicity shot that follows in the Jeep roadster, (he is the only one in the Commando Basketball uniform) and managed to maintain a certain air of dignity admixed a staff of egotistical maniacs. When LIN Broadcasting bought WAND-TV in Decatur, IL he was promoted to General Manager and Pat Walsh was promoted to manager.

Please look this list over and email me additions or corrections to the dates and personnel. (ajlinds@yahoo.com)


Air Name Real Name Year
KAAY Personnel

Doc Holiday Dub Murray 1962
Mike McCormick Jim Hankins 1962
Sonny Martin Wayne Moss 1962
Wayne Moss Wayne Moss 1870-1976
Buddy Karr Tom Bigby 1962
Rob Robbins Tom Campbell 1962
Ken Knight Howard Watson 1962
John K. Anderson Jack Grady 1962
George J. Jennings George W. Jennings 1962
Doc Holiday A.J. Lindsey 1963
Sonny Martin Jerry Sims
Rock Robbins Tommy Riggs
Buddy Karr Richard Weithan -Aug 1967(killed
in Nat.Guard summer
camp jeep accident)
Ron Owens Walt Sadler
Mike McCormick Barry Wood 1965-1972
B. Bruce Jenkins B. Bruce Jenkins
Ron Owens Jim Pitcock 1963-1964
Doc Holiday Ray Brown
Sonny Martin Matt White
Rob Robbins Bob Spears 1972-1976
Mich Michaels Nick Markel
Jack Lee Mike McKenny 1976-1978
Jack Lee Gary Souheaver Early 70s
Jonnie King Jim Edwards
Phil North Phillip David Rowe 1969-1972
Buddy Karr Bob Mullins
Clyde Clifford Dale Seidenschwarz 1966-1972
Doc Holiday David B. Treadway 1971-1972
1976-1977
David B. Treadway David B. Treadway 1983-1985
Doc Holiday Al Eisenman 1969-1970
Michael O'Sullivan Bob Steel 1972-1973
Marvin Vines Marvin Vines 1962-1978
Linda Page Linda Pasier 1976-1978

KTHS KAAY Jerry Sims

A.J.,

First of all, congratulations on the big day on the blog! I appreciate your efforts every day, and I know that kind of encouragement helps keep you going.

I had experience with KTHS Radio back when I was about 15 or 16 years old. I wrote briefly on this about a year ago, but I thought I might fill in some blanks about it since there is some interest in pre-KAAY -KTHS.

I had a real desire to be on the radio at a very young age. I did not have any contacts in the business to even talk to about my plans. There was a radio announcer in our church (Park Hill Baptist-North Little Rock) that my Dad knew. I was aware of him only because of hearing that great voice doing narration of programs at church. He was Earl Davis on KTHS. My Dad introduced me and I immediately began to throw questions at him about radio, which prompted an invitation to visit the station, which I did a a regular basis. He had a program (I believe it was 10:30pm to Midnight) called "Razorback Round-Up".

I was amazed at the coverage that his program had. Callers from all over the mid-west, usually. He even had a fan club! He was "Pappy Davis" on his program. He did his show from a booth just off the control room (later the KAAY News room). He had his own engineer (Eddie Graham, at least part of the time), that played records and commercials for him. There was just a light over his mic that let him know when his mic was open.

Other than his country music program, they did a "good music" format they called Sonorama. They even had a newsman that prepared a fifteen minute 10 pm News for them. There was a window in the control room that gave you a view of the KTHV 11 television studio downstairs. I later was the "KTHV Weather Man" in that same studio, but the biggest kick came as I watched the radio operation then, and certainly later as Sonny Martin on KAAY. TV was fun.....Radio was exciting!

I wondered as a teenager then, how could a radio station in Little Rock be popular across a good portion of the country, when people in Little Rock did not know they existed. Well, it did exist in some more "adult" minds.

There were several of my friends, that I later worked with at KTHV, who had worked for KTHS before their television days. Among those were George Moore and Bob Hicks.

Great air-check on the Baby Elephant Walk/phone book trick. I remember we were at KXLR and were looking at trying to be competitive with the Sleeping Giant that was waking up. Later we both ended up there with them. My (our) lucky day!

Jerry Sims...aka Sonny Martin
....................................................................................
Thanks for the great memories Jerry. I remember Earl "Pappy" Davis. I never worked with him but he must have hung around the KTHV studios and The Blue Goose. He was full and overflowing with fun. Just a great guy to be around. It was also great to be in the same building with KTHV and not actually be connected ownership wise. We were always asking some of their talent to do voice work. When we started Ear On Arkansas, we needed lots of extra voices. Gary Robertson was the son of B.G. Robertson the manager of KTHV. We discovered Gary could

sustain a great British accent. As the British invasion took place we put Gary on the air doing his British stick.
I cannot remember his air name...help me out here.

The Sales Department at KAAY

Even though I have mentioned various sales people at KAAY, and rate cards, I have never devoted a post to the sales department which is really dumb.

I worked in the sales department. I was a D.J. first, then program director, then a salesman. At most stations and KAAY, there seems to be a real divide between sales and programming. Pat Walsh, long time manager, was from a sales background, never programming. However, he did have a good understanding of programming and it's people.
Len Carl the second manager, had programming and sales background. (read previous posts about Len) Len also voice commercials, especially the PI's that ran after midnight, because no one else wanted to. Len still called on a few accounts after he became manager and knew first hand how to deal with programming.

Len and Pat both knew the real money in broadcast is in the sales department. You have to be a high rated jock to make what a freshman salesman will make. Unless corporate radio has changed that too.

Joe Dickey, one of the original team,was a salesman at KAAY who was also a character voice heard often on the air and on Ear on Arkansas. I have written about Joe previously. (search this blog to read more) Eddie Graham also part of the original team, started as studio engineer, then production manager, then into the sales department. Pat Walsh was part of the original crew, and became General Manager when Len Carl went to manage a new LIN Broadcasting purchased TV station WAND, Decatur IL. Len came to KAAY as a salesman and replaced Tom Bishop the first manager.
Ray Brown (now deceased)replaced me as a Doc Holiday and then moved into the sales department. He went from KAAY to KARK-TV and became local sales manager and then became owner of Bartercard of Arkansas.

The moral to all this, if there is one, sales offers opportunity for real money and advancement.

For a Few Insiders

KAAY from the beginning was full of "inside" material. Howard Watson a/k/a/ Ken Knight was probably the biggest instigator of this. With his late night show he had a bit more freedom to go "way out". Often only Howard understood what he was saying. Much of the "bits" required you work in the Channel 11 building to understand what was going on. Anyone outside of Arkansas would have never understand the "Ear On Arkansas" program. The nighttime national audience had no idea of what our competition was in the daytime.

Radio station ratings are usually based on morning drive. As I mentioned in a previous post, Brother Hal, a/k/a Hal Webber was always our big battle. I ran across a wonderfully detailed article on Hal. It is a very long piece. It even mentions Walt Sadler a/k/a Ron Owens who did news mach later at KLRA. Those of you who worked with me at KAAY will probably be the only ones who will invest the time to read all of this article : http://www.fewmets.net/articles/cochran/hal.html

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.

"The Flying Saucer"

If you listen to the newscasts that have been featured on this blog, you understand that times were trying just as they are now. At KAAY we were always looking for the bizarre, the ridiculous and satirizing all that we could. You have seen the "Ear On Arkansas" discussions. Later, I will feature some recordings from "ear". Today, I ran across a record that the oldies stations never play even though it reached number one. And several of his succeeding records also were as big. Even in the KAAY days I don't remember playing this song as an oldie. This is a little bit of history that needs to be brought forward. Read about it and then listen to an off the air recording, for educational purposes only:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dickie Goodman (April 19, 1934 - November 6, 1989) is considered one of the earliest proponents of sampling in music, through a series of "break-in" records he created from 1956 to 1986. His first song, "The Flying Saucer," was co-written with partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a description of a news-covered invasion of earth from a Martian space ship. While Goodman asked questions of pedestrians, scientists, and even the Martian himself, their responses were "snipped" from lyrics of popular songs of the day, including tracks from Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and Little Richard.

Although "The Flying Saucer" became a major hit, it also landed Goodman in court for infringement of copyright - e.g. the songs he used to create his "break-in" records. The lawsuits were later settled out of court when the judge ruled that Goodman's records were burlesques and parodies, and were original creations in and among themselves.

Goodman later recorded other break-in records, usually based around a political theme, or having his reporter alter-ego interviewing Batman or Neil Armstrong. In 1975, Goodman returned to the pop charts with "Mr. Jaws," a break-in record in which he interviews several characters from the motion picture Jaws.

Goodman's singles often had instrumental numbers (in which his actual role is uncertain) as B-sides. These are not found on either his original LPs or his CD compilations.

Goodman died in 1989 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His son, Jon Goodman, continues to promote and administer his father's works. In 1998, Jon supervised the issue of Greatest Fables, the first authorised CD collection of Dickie Goodman's recordings, which included Jon's own tribute, "Return Of The Flying Saucer". (This included sound bites from The X-Files and Hanson, among others.)

Goodman also is survived by his son Jed and daughter Janie.

Goodman is recognized by Billboard Magazine as the #1 Novelty Artist of All Time.

Click Here

Did You Work Weekends at KAAY?

If you did I would like to hear from you. Be honest. Readers of this blog will spot a phoney in a minute. For years after I left KAAY, I ran into people who claimed to have worked for the Mighty Ten Ninety. (And I knew they didn't). I have even seen some people online that claimed to have worked for the Friendly Giant. (And didn't).
Weekends were a entirely different atmosphere. No one to answer phones. Saturday morning usually found Pat Walsh stuffing everyone's mailbox with reprints of the lastest FCC rulings or something funny he had found. A salesman or two might wonder through dressed for golf or other casual fun. Whomever was in charge of "Ear On Arkansas" was putting finishing touches on Sunday's broadcast. By noon most had cleared out and the jock was on his own. Other jocks might drift by to see what was happening.On the air was a different story. You can bet there would be a remote from somewhere. Either paid or a station event. Pat would call in a follow contest at most any time of the day or night. The fun never stopped. As night fell and KAAY went directional North and South, the fun heated up. More phone calls and the chance for a weekend jock to show his stuff. Let me hear from you if you worked weekends or started weekends at KAAY. Email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com

KAAY Studio Locations

From Sean:
I remember at least 2 of the KAAY studios - the one on 7th Street across from the State Capital (it was a couple of blocks from my dad's office at Meyer's Bakery) and of course 2400 Cottondale Lane. I remember the big move down to the river - I think either my mom worked there for a minute, or we were just helping out. My parents were friends with Pat Walsh, and I also remember C. David Hamilton too. For a LONG time, KAAY (and KLPQ/KQ94 eventually) was the only thing out there in Riverdale after the country club moved to what is now Pleasant Valley. Just on the other side of the railroad tracks - the Razorback Drive In. Those were the days.

Thanks Sean for the note. I remember the studios where it all started in the Channel 11 building. (see earlier posts). Some great memories from that location. We used the Channel 11 staff for voices on commercials and Ear on Arkansas. Steve Stevens, Evelyn Ellman, George Moore, and many others were fun to visit with. B.G. Robertson was General Manager of Channel 11. One of his sons, Gary, had a great British accent, and as the British invasion progressed, we used Gary's voice more and more. Gary even did a part time jock show. I can't remember the name he used. Guys help me out. Email me the name.
A.J.

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