NEWS HEADLINES
5TH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION BIG SUCCESS…..HOMER POPE INDUCTED INTO THE BROADCASTERS HALL OF FAME…..CASSETTES OF 90 AND 91 CONVENTION READY…..WHO’S DOING WHAT…..PIONEERS PASS…..NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS SOUGHT…..MEDIA WATCH…..CHUCK HERRING KEYNOTES CONVENTION…..NEW MEMBERS SOUGHT.
HOMER POPE NOW IN THE HALL OF FAME
HOMER POPE, who stayed his entire broadcasting career at one station: KJR, was inducted into the Broadcaster’s Hall Of Fame at NPB’s 5th Anniversary Convention at the Sea-Tac Hilton Hotel.
Homer was inducted by last year’s honoree, GEORGE FRESE. George noted Homer began his broadcasting career 62 years ago in 1929 at KJR. During all those years, Frese recalled, nobody had a bad word about Homer. “Now that is a supreme accomplishment”, Frese said, “in any business but particularly notable in a business of emotional, temperamental and sometimes even unstable talent. That took class, and Homer had it”.
Homer accepted the coveted plaque from George Frese and recalled the days when both KOMO and KJR were owned by the Fisher Flour Company. Both studios were combined on the 7th Floor of the Skinner Building. If you turned a switch one direction you were on KOMO. If you turned it the other direction you would be heard over KJR. “You guessed it”, Homer remembered, “some announcers blurted out ‘This is KOMO Seattle’ only to discover that they were broadcasting over KJR”.
Following his induction into the Hall Of Fame, MERRILL MAEL, former KOMO announcer who nominated Homer, gave a short “roast” of his longtime friend and co-worker. He told how Homer phoned VIC STREDICKE after he had written a story about Homer’s 50th year in broadcasting. After inquiring if Vic had written the story, Homer blurted out, “Well, he wasn’t that good”. The near capacity crowd howled with laughter.
Congratulations to Homer Pope as this year’s honoree.
Keynoter for NPB’s 5TH Anniversary CONVENTION, CHUCK HERRING, told the Saturday afternoon lunch session what is was like working for KUJ in Walla Walla in the early 40’s. Chuck’s family lived on a near-by farm so he naturally applied for work at the closest station: KUJ. It was owned by HERB STUDEBAKER. As an early pioneer owner, Herb was known for being very tight with the dollar. In fact, he was tight with the cents, Chuck recalled. You should order the cassettes of the convention to hear some of Chuck’s KUJ stories.
At the SATURDAY banquet at the Hilton, Chuck continued his story of how he moved from KUJ after the war to KJR in the Puget Sound area. This was the “hey day” period for KJR. Chuck’s main subject area at the banquet was his early television news experience at KING-TV, Channel 5. He told fascinating stories of how news was done in those early television days and recounted a number of outstanding news events of the era and how he covered them for the infant medium.
A highlight of Chuck Herring’s talk were actual films which had been transferred to video tape showing early television coverage of now historical Puget Sound news events along with the tape of his final newscast on Channel 5. TED BRYANT, who replaced Chuck, was also seen on the final newscast clip.
NPB thanks CHUCK MORRIS, a Hall Of Fame inductee, of KIRO for furnishing a large screen projection system for Chuck’s video tapes.
At the Sunday morning breakfast session, Chuck concluded by telling of his leaving KING-TV to purchase a small daytime radio station in Port Angeles. His stories of small town radio were MARVELOUS.
One of the SATURDAY afternoon convention sessions featured former ABC announcer, LEN BEARDSLEY. Len was introduced by DON McCROSKEY who worked at ABC during much of the same time Len was with the network. Don recalled playing pre-recorded commercials on KJR which were cut by Len during his “free-lance” announcing days.
Len reminisced about how he started with little theater work in Spokane and gained experience in early radio at KFIO, which was started as a non-commercial school station at North Central High School by one of its teachers. The station was later sold, became commercial, and moved to the Zeigler-Fidelity Building in the heart of downtown Spokane. (KFIO became KSPO in the 50’s and is on the air today in Spokane as a local Class 4 station on 1230 AM known as KSBN. The tower is an old self supporting structure on top of the old Realty Building, just a few blocks from its former location on top of the Zeigler Building.)
After Spokane, Len went to Alaska and worked for Ed Kraft’s station. He said there were always three staffs at Alaskan stations. One coming, one working, and one going. Ready for a larger market, Len came to Seattle and worked for such key stations as KIRO and KXA. His TUBBY QUILLIAM and SAUL HAAS stories were classics and kept conventioners laughing. Again, you need to order the convention tapes just to hear these stories and the details of Len’s fascinating career including his years in Hollywood.
BOB CONCIE HIGHLIGHTS KWSC YEARS
Bob Concie began his radio career in Spokane at KFIO before going to Seattle where he worked for KXA, KOMO, and KING.
Bob, who is considered to be the premier classical music announcer in the Northwest, spoke at a Saturday afternoon session. He shared the most detailed information NPB has had to date of KWSC, the radio station that NPB is planning to re-print his talk. KWSC played an important part in the history of Northwest broadcasting because so many NPB’ers attended WSC and worked at the station on 1250 AM.
Bob’s talk has sparked interest in our steering committee for next years convention to feature former KWSC’ers and invited former KWSC’er KEITH JACKSON as our keynote speaker.
MORRIS, PORTIN, AND MAEL HIGHLIGHT SUNDAY SESSIONS
At the Sunday morning sessions, JERRY MORRIS, HENRY PORTIN, AND MERRILL MAEL told of their careers and anecdotes.
Jerry explained how he changed his real name, MORRIE ALHADEFF, to Jerry Morris for air use. He was at KJR, KVI, and KOL during their best days.
Jerry brought several well mounted pictures, one of which showed him at the KOL master control board announcing the end of World War Two. (NPB would like a copy of that for the permanent archives, Jerry).
It was mounted next to a picture of the outside of the Northern Life Tower Building which housed the KOL studios in those days.
Jerry knew long time Washington State Senator Warren G. Magnusen and did speech writing for him. He also told NPB about the famous Victory Square broadcasts in downtown Seattle and his coverage of the United Nations for MUTUAL. Broadcasting lost a true gentleman when Jerry retired to operate Longacres.
HENRY PORTIN started his broadcasting career as an announcer at KAST in Astoria, Oregon in 1939. In early 1941 he came to Seattle and went to work for KEVR in the Smith Tower at the same time Merrill Mael worked for the station that began as KVL, owned by Art Daily and later had the call KEEN. Henry told some great stories of his days at KOL under then owner Archie Taft. He joined MAX BICE at KTNT in 1953 and helped wire the new television studios then under construction.
MERRILL MAEL, former KOMO staff announcer, shared what it was like working for the Flour Mill station after they built the grand radio studio at 4th North and Denny and some experiences he had in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
NPB thanks all of our speakers who added so much to the 5th Anniversary Convention and for the addition they made to the permanent archives with their invaluable history of the industry.
WHO’S DOING WHAT
MAX BICE (KTNT) at the last moment could not attend the 5th Anniversary Convention due to a foot problem. He phoned to say a bone sliver was causing him pain and making walking difficult, to say the least.
GEORGE FRESE was featured in an article for the local Wenatchee Business Journal. Commenting on the article, JIM WALLACE, Sr., for whom George worked at KPQ in Wenatchee, said George was the best all around engineer he knew, the all.
TOM McCANN, stricken with illness while in Mexico, had to cancel his talk at the convention. Tom attended Seattle Rep and Cornish Radio School in 1942-43 before joining KOMO-KJR from 1943 to 45. For the next two years he worked at WLW-WSAC in Cincinnati. In ‘47 he returned to the Puget Sound to join KXA at 770 and the next year returned to KJR. Tom went into sales in the 50’s and retired in 1980. We hope to have him on the speakers platform at our ‘92 Convention.
Tom Read Interviewing Pageant Director Jacque Pederson
TOM READ, (KBRD original owner) was drafted by his wife Melinda and the new state director for the Miss Washington Teen USA Pageant in Seattle as MC/Show Producer-Director for the stage and statewide television show. NPB’er HAL SIMMONS was the pageant voice over announcer. Tom is no stranger to stage work as he started in theater work and was the “in house” MC for all official events of the World’s Fair held in Spokane.
DON McCROSKEY, retired engineer with the ABC TV Network in Hollywood, installed a new master control board at KTBI – 810 AM (Wenatchee-Moses Lake-Ellensburg-Yakima) a week following the NPB Convention. Each year after the convention, Don has visited relatives in the state and then worked on a “project” with Tom Read. Last year the project was installing an RCA audio board in time for sign on of Wenatchee’s newest FM station, KXA.
What is especially interesting about Don installing a new console this year at KTBI is that Don built the original control board for KTBI (1490 Tacoma, owned by Tubby Quilliam) in the late 40’s. Don moved the board to Center Street studios of KTBI when it went from 250 watts on 1490 to 1,000 watts day on 810 at Center and Pine. Don built the KTBI board from scratch. It was the first console that Tom Read ever operated. In fact, Tom met Don while researching the construction of KTBI’s Center Street facility and they became fast friends.
Don built KTBI’s original board in the late 40’s and just finished installing a board at the current KTBI. Small world, Don.
DICK WEEKS, (KMO, KTAC) wrote to say he has retired from the travel agency business but could not be at the convention because he had to host a tour. Dick sold his agency but continues to work for the new owner. How about getting “Personal Choice” back on the air over CLAY HUNTINGTON’S new 1180 Puget Sound station?
