Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Sunday's Final Warning

So much has happened since then, but do you remember that urgent advisory from the National Weather Service on Sunday morning?
I, in all my years in radio and radio news, had NEVER seen anything like it.
I, sincerely, hope I never do, again.

Here it is, and, remember, this was strictly for the immediate New Orleans area...

WWUS74 KLIX 281550
NPWLIX

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005


DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Come, Sherman, step into the WayBack Machine...

Here are a few more from the Meeks Collection...
This is where it all started. I was the very first voice on KSLU-FM in Hammond, in October of 1974. That would've been before I started my Baton Rouge radio career.
Look at that old Gates board, with the color-coded push-buttons.
The radio studio was located in the Humanities building which also housed the big theater.
On the other side of that glass was a TV studio. The equipment had not been used, in a while, and was all disconnected, piled up in a corner and covered with sheets. Several of us, including Ya' Pal Al Nassar, resurrected that TV equipment and had a lot of fun with it.
I remember doing a comedy version of "Superman" with a hispanic Clark Kent, for a final exam in a broadcast lab class, and got an A for it.
I wonder if that tape still exists? That was in the days before VCRs, I would've loved to have gotten a copy of it.

Here I am relaxing between records at WFPR-AM in Hammond.
I remember our top-of-the-hour station identification.
"This is WFPR, AM 1400, in Hammond, America located in beautiful Kin Tally Estates, a development of Quick Realty. At the tone it will be 8pm and time for A.P. Radio Network News."
Whew, it was a mouthful.
I did a mid-day country show on WFPR (FPR stood for Florida Parishes Radio), for a few months, in 1976.
We also had a "Swap Shop" where people could go on-the-air with items that they had for sale, kind of like an on-air garage sale.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

In Seattle

The bluest sky you’ve ever seen, in Seattle.
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle.
Like a beautiful child
Growing up, free and wild.
Full of hopes and full of fears,
Full of laughter, full of tears,
Full of dreams to last a year In Seattle.

When you find your own true love you will know it
By his smile, by the look in his eyes.
Smell of set pine trees in the air
Never knew a day so fair
It makes you feel so good to be alive
Look out everyone, here come the brides.

(Theme from "Here Come The Brides"
by Jack Keller, Hugo Montenegro & Ernie Sheldon)

It was 12-years ago, this week, that my, then-morning show partner, K.C. Jones, and I, went to Seattle, Washington.

Our radio station had done a contest where the winner could pick any destination served by a particular airline. He chose Seattle, and K.C. and I were supposed to go with him, but when it came time to actually take the trip, a few weeks later, he said that he could not go. K.C. and I still went and had a great time.

Here are a few pictures from that trip, including these of, and from, the Space Needle, probably Seattle's most famous building.
It doesn't really go into space.

(Click pics to enlarge)

The Space Needle

Downtown Seattle
from the Space Needle. Look closely and you can see the monorail track. You can catch the monorail, downtown, and it will take you to the Space Needle, and back.


Puget Sound seen from the Space Needle.

In Seattle

K.C. and I took in a Mariners game in the, now gone, Kingdome. Before the game, pro-golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, Mariners manager Lou Piniella, and a local TV newsguy had a long-drive competition, hitting golf balls from way out in center field, back toward home plate. I think the deal was that the ball that ended up closest to home plate won. Piniella hit a screamer, right into the Oriole dugout. It was hilarious. Chi Chi won, as I remember it.


It is not a very good picture, but above is the inside of an underground bus terminal in dowtown Seattle. I was standing on a walkway above the roadway. Look at the cool-looking ceiling. Remember, this is underground.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

A Quick Look Around The Station

There is Sharon McFollins, at the front desk.

WJBO News anchor Alex Taylor & afternoon guy Bill Profita

Below is WJBO Newsman Damon Sunde in the WFMF control room.

From Lite Rock 96.1 The River it's Sam North of Murphy, Sam, & Jodi.

Just a few of the faces you might see if you come and visit us here at the ol' radio station(s).
More to come...
(As always... click pics to enlarge)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Balloon, ho!

Here are a few shots of the hot-air balloon, that Matt & I talked about on the Tuesday morning show.
These were taken from the WJBO studio window.
(Click picks to enlarge)



Monday, August 08, 2005

Greg Dumas

In 1976 & 1977 I worked in Thibodaux at KXOR-FM. At the time the station's manager was Greg Dumas. KXOR (XOR spells ROX, backward) had a great staff, Al Nassar (Ya Pal Al) did the morning show and I did afternoons and evenings. Gayle "Boom-Boom" Callahan answered the phones (none of us will every forget you, Gayle) and Greg was the manager. Greg taught me, in the early days, that radio should be FUN! One of the contests we did, once upon a time, was a guessing game. Al and I rode a mini-motorcycle around town for 30-days. The person who came closest to guessing how many miles we would put on the odometer won it. We rode that little thing all over the place. I wonder if it still exists?

One of my favorite, old radio stories involves Greg Dumas. It was Mardi Gras and Greg had recently bought a new Corvette. He was very careful with it, but decided it would be cool to drive it in the Thibodaux Mardi Gras parade. He was on-the-air, doing a live update during the parade "line-up" when a horse tripped and fell on his new Corvette! Right across the hood! Greg, in a moment of extreme calm, yells, on-the-air, mind you, "Oh SHIT!!!" Today FBI and FCC agents would've come out of the wordwork to carry him away, but, that day, nothing happened. It was funny, though. No one, including the car, suffered any major damage.

These pictures were taken a couple of years later, in 1979 at a WJBO/WFMF pool party at the Hilton Hotel. Greg was working in sales, at the time. In the top pic Greg is with Terri Lynn (she did the news) and, in the second that's Ron Casey on the left. Ron also did the news on WJBO, back in those days. He had also done a top-forty music show on WIBR.

Card-Carrying Radio Listener

I knew that, if I looked hard enough, I would find this gem from around 1968 (I was 12), I think. I was a card-carrying member of the Early Bird Club, signed by Brian Wilson, when he was on Brand X radio. You won't catch me listening to them today, though, and I don't think I am in very good standing with them, anymore. LOL.
I never worked at WIBR, though Brian certainly did work at WJBO, in the mid-70s. He and Ross Brittain made quite a splash as the Ross & Wilson show in 1977-1978 on WJBO.
Their show also featured David Hartman (not that David Hartman) & Beverly Lauren doing tag-team news, Andy Leopold on sports, before he was on WBRZ-TV, and Mike Graham did the weather forecast. He, too, was on Channel 2, at the time. Yours truly was Kevin McKay in the Skywatch plane.
Somewhere, around here, I have a tape of the show when Brian got arrested by Mike Graham. In addition to his weather duties, Graham was also a Baton Rouge Police Officer, at the time. It seemed that Brian had been seen tossing litter out of his car window. It was all in fun, and kicked off a new, anti-littering campaign.
Does you remember when WJBO gave you gas? In 1979 gasoline prices were skyrocketing (sound familiar) and, in order to give Baton Rouge drivers a break, WJBO sold gasoline for 11.5 cents-a-gallon (get it... 11 50) at Simple Simon's place on Airline @ South Choctaw. We had cars lined up all the way back to Florida Boulevard.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

OLOL! (Click pics to enlarge)

One of my favorite features, in the Sunday Advocate,is the Remember When picture. Here are a couple of Remember Whens, for you. The old Our Lady Of The Lake Hospital (top).
This was in the late-seventies and the new OLOL on Essen (bottom) had recently opened. The top picture was taken late at night, using floodlights on the State Capitol building, across the lake, for illumination. Kind of eeeeeeeeerie looking, isn't it? It is one of my all-time favorite pictures and was taken after work, one night, back in the days when I worked the 7pm to midnight shift at WJBO.

Trivia Question: Who pushed the button that ignited the dynamite and imploded the old OLOL tower?
A: Edwin Edwards. (I was there and videotaped it.)


This picture, of the new OLOL, on Essen, was taken from the WJBO/WFMF Skywatch plane from an altitude of about 1,500 feet around 1979.
With all that as built up around it, it is hard to see that building anymore, but it is still there.
I remember taking a media tour of the new hospital just before it opened. I wish I had some pictures of that.

Look at Essen Lane, it is nearly barren!. That was quickly becoming some expensive real estate.

Look closely (click pic to enlarge) and you can see Channel 33's studio just to the south (right) of the hospital.

Trivia Question: What were Channel 33's call-letters, in those days?
A: WRBT-TV. It stood for Rush Broadcasting Television, the original owner.
33 was, originally, an ABC affiliate. WBRZ was the NBC station, but they switched networks in 1978. Before 33 went on-the-air, WBRZ (NBC) and WAFB (CBS) shared ABC programming.

Cool, Man!

On-the-air at WJBO in 1979. (Click pic to enlarge)

This would have been around the same time that Marc Truelove and Rex Russell were doing the morning show, I was on in the mid-day, Gary King in the afternoon and Julie Tate at night. Overnight we ran The Larry King Show, from Washington. This studio was right, slap in the middle of the 1st-floor at the studios on Florida Boulevard, downtown.
At that time all operations were on that floor, on the 2nd-floor were dusty, empty rooms that were once WJBO, going way back into the 30s.
Lots of ghosts, up there.
We only had two stations, in those days, WJBO and WFMF. Today, in the Xerox Building, we have six!

Jim & Kev At The Continental Divide

Here is a picture of my old friend Jim Miller standing at the summit of Monarch Pass through Colorado, more than 11,000 feet above sea-level. This was in August of 1979, 26-years ago, this month. Jim was doing evenings (7pm-midnight) on WFMF, in Baton Rouge. He and I were on a trip to Salt Lake City. Actually, he was going to California and I was turning around and catching a plane in Utah, because I had to come back to Baton Rouge and go back to work. It was just a weekend thing, for me. Jim lives in Hawaii(!) now and loves it.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Johnny Rivers @ Paragon

Here are a couple of shots from the Johnny Rivers concert on Saturday night at Paragon in Marksville. He dedicated his show to the late John Fred. He played all of his old hits, "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "Poor Side Of Town," "Memphis," "Secret Agent Man," "Swaying To The Music (Slow Dancing)," and many more. It was a great night. If you haven't
been up to The Mari Center for
a concert, yet, you should go.
(Click pics to enlarge)

Senor Puppet

I was fortunate enough to be present for Buckskin Bill's final "Storyland" weekday program, way back in the 80s, I don't remember the year. Buckskin handed out Senor Puppets to everyone there. Here is mine, on permanent display in my living room. I thought it seemed appropriate to show him off, with today's word of the death of Senor Puppet's voice, Sid Crocker.
(Click pic to enlarge)

Sid Crocker Passes Away


An entire generation of Baton Rougeans loved him as the voice of Senor Puppet on "The Buckskin Bill Show" and many knew him as The Voice of Tiger Stadium on Saturday nights, and The Voice of "The Tiger In The Sky, WAFB-TV Channel 9, in Baton Rouge." More than just a voice, you could see him doing the sports and weather on WAFB-TV.

Sid Crocker has passed away at the age of 82. Here is a link to his obituary on WAFB-TV's website.

Oh, BTW: The picture, above, was taken at some sort of promotional thing that Sid and I did at McDonalds on South Sherwood Forest, years ago. Probably around 1981.
(Click pic to enlarge)