Re: [IRCA] KSLM 1390 and Robins in Spring

["John Callarman" <JohnCallarman@xxxxxxx>]

KSLM was big when I was growing up in Corvallis, Oregon ... and there are a couple of connections as well. Fellow who did play-by-play when I did statistics and color while still in high school, Ted Carlson, moved from KCOV-1240 (my first full-time job) to KSLM ... and I got my second full-time radio job when I came out of the Army in 1958 at KPAN-860 in Hereford, Texas, replacing the chief announcer/news director, who moved to KSLM. I've forgotten his name ... Terry McSomething ... and later issues of Broadcasting Yearbook indicated he had been elevated to G.M. at KSLM sometime in the '60s. Makes me a bit homesick when I think of the Willamette Valley connection. 

I did many a ballgame with Ted Carlson, who doubled as the long-time PA announcer for Oregon State Beaver basketball at Gill Coliseum. I tried a Google search for Ted a couple of years ago and was, sad to say, about two weeks too late. There was a story in the Corvallis Gazette-Times about some confusion I remembered ... there were two Ted Carlsons in Corvallis. KCOV's Ted Carlson was Theadore Gearhart Carlson Jr. The other Ted Carlson, who added his middle name to his ID -- Ted Hal Carlson -- was the long-time executive director of the OSU Alumni Association. The story reflected on Ted Hal's assurances to his friends that he was still alive. 

How I broke into radio: As I mentioned, I did statistics and color with Ted G. on KCOV and one day I complained to him about the awful sounding DJ on the afternoon shift. With no experience, I told Ted, I can do better than that guy. A week or so later, the station owner, Frank Flynn, accosted me on the street on a Thursday, said, "I hear you think you can run a radio show." "Yes, I think I can do better than (whatever his name was." "Go meet Ted tomorrow morning and learn the board. You're going on the air Saturday night." That was my first job interview.

Soon I replaced Ted Carlson as morning man so he could concentrate on sales ... but a few months later, a deep-voiced young transient walked in, talked to Flynn, was hired on the spot and Flynn fired me on a Friday. Unfortunately, Mr. Ballsy was a no-show Monday morning and I kept my $52-a-week job!  Potential future employers wanted to know my draft status, so in the summer of '56 I volunteered for the draft ... my father took a university administrative job in Texas ... and I wound up at KPAN in the Panhandle in 1958. (I wanted to work at KHAN and KDLE but never could find them, heh, heh." 

I did work part-time for a few months at a station that operated on 1390 -- KNOE in Monroe, La. -- in 1961-62 -- before they moved to 540. I had worked part-time for KNOE station manager Edd Routt at KIXZ-940 Amarillo .. my last radio job was at WMIX-940 in Mt. Vernon, Ill. (11 years as news director) ... and now I live in telephone are code 940!

And to answer a question from the CAT-man, I was city editor, managing editor and then executive editor of the Mt. Vernon, Ill., Register-News from December 1981 to retirement in June 2000. 

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying streaming audio from XEGNK-1370, "Mariachi Estéreo" as I update the Mexican log I've been doing ... and they are currently playing my absolutely favorite Mexi-song, "Malaguena Salerosa," which I first heard by Bud and Travis in 1959 ... played it often at KIXZ ... beautiful song, weird string of memories! 

There's joy in my afterlife!

Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon

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