THE LATEST NEWS FROM JIM ROSE REMEMBERS RADIO APRIL 15, 2013

ALL THE NEWS THAT IS NEWS

MAUDE FRICKERT TAKES A BREAK One of America’s most groundbreaking improv comics, Jonathan Winters, dies at 87 on Thursday evening, April 11, 2013 in his home in Montecito, CA. Jonathan’s rubber-face is a grab bag of eccentric personalities and facial expressions that inspires generations of comics. Winters uses facial contortions, sound effects, plus tall tales to get laughs. Probably his most famous Main Street character is sweet-seeming grandmother Maude Frickert who has a barbed tongue and a roving eye. In 1988 Jonathan tells U.S. News & World Report: As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a detective, a doctor, a test pilot with a scarf, a fisherman who hauled in a tremendous marlin after a 12-hour fight.

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VETERAN TEXAS TV VET BIDS FAREWELL For 34 years Brad Watson is an anchor, reporter and political observer on WFAA TV ABC CH8 in Dallas, TX. On Friday morning, April 12, 2013 with the last taping of Sunday’s Inside Texas Politics, Brad ends his WFAA TV career to join Dallas based Luminant’s corporate communications department. Watson remembers: I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when Marty Haag hired me in late 1978. It was Dallas-Fort Worth, it was WFAA. Brad Watson recalls memorable news events: October 1987, Jessica, toddler, down the well in Midland; Delta 1141 went down at D/FW International Airport on August 31st 1988; burning of the Branch Davidian Compound in 1993 and April 1995, the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

WLS TURNS 89 WLS-890 Chicago, IL 50,000 watt clear channel blow torch turns 89 on Friday, April 12, 2013. The Big 89 helps launch the careers of Gene Autry, Larry Lujack and Bob Sirott along with Windy City personalities Dick Biondi and John Records Landecker, plus legendary Texas radio air personality Charlie Van Dyke. On Friday evening, PM Drive co-host Roe Conn emcees a star-studded array of the biggest names in Chicago radio, past and present, in a special broadcast from historic Navy Pier to celebrate 89 years of WLS Radio entertaining Chicago. Joining Conn at the event are some of the biggest names from WLS’ past: Dick Biondi, Larry Lujack, Jeff Hendrix and Notre Dame Football Coach Brian Kelly.

REASON WHY CABLE TV BILLS SO HIGH Ever wonder what causes our cable TV bills to be so expensive? Can it be the high tech coaxial transmission lines? Is it the friendly cable TV roustabouts who install and repair those lines? The Philly Post may have a solution as to why our cable TV bills are so high. The fourth estate rag lists what Philadelphia’s most beloved corporate overlords take home last year. In 2012, Brian Roberts, Comcast CEO receives $29 million which is up 8% from 2011. Steve Burke, NBCUniversal/Kabletown CEO corrals $26.3 million which is up 11.3%. David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive VP grabs $15.9 million which is up 5%. Does your 2013 cost of living increase percentage come near those of those cable TV honchos? Do you even receive a cost of living increase for 2013?

TRIVIA QUESTION:

How does Chubby Checker’s 1963 song Loddy Lo come to be?  The answer appears below.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

•HAPPY BIRTHDAY! on April 13, 2007 to Carla Springer and on April 15th to my sister Shirley Ann Repass plus Albuquerque, NM newscaster Frank Haley.

•TIM CARR former Minneapolis Tribune music critic who as A&R executive at Capitol, Warner Brothers and Dreamworks is instrumental in the signings of groups like the Beastie Boys and Megadeth is found stabbed to death at only 57 in his Pattaya, Thailand apartment.

•KFWB-980 News/Talk Los Angeles, CA adds CBS Sports Radio Network and NBC Sports Radio Network programming.

•ED KILGORE WGRZ TV NBC CH2 Buffalo, NY Sports Director retires after 40 Years.

•GARY LYCAN longtime Orange County, CA Register radio columnist who battles prostate cancer for several years dies in his sleep at 68 on Tuesday, April 9, 2013.

ENTERTAINMENT AND NEWS MILESTONES

•1955 RAY KROC former DJ on WGES-1390 (World’s Greatest Electrical School) in Oak Park, IL begins to build his massive worldwide chain of McDonald’s fast food restaurants in Des Plaines, IL on April 15th.

•1963 PATSY CLINE’s fantastic single Sweet Dreams (Of You) releases on Decca records on April 15th only five weeks after she dies in a plane crash.

•1970 WMGZ TV CH16 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico begins broadcasting on April 15th.

•1981 RONNIE MILSAP records his single I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For The World on April 15th.

•1994 WMMS FM fires Jeff and Flash Buzzard Morning Zoo team on April 15th who help bring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland.

•2008 LADY ANTEBELLUM’s self-titled debut album releases on Capitol records on April 15th.

EMAILS YES WE HAVE EMAIL

JOE MARTELLE (Grand Junction-Mesa, CO) Subject: Re: your help is needed in promoting my book, Radio Pro. Hi Jim I’m writing to ask your help in spreading the word about my book, Radio Pro–How to be a “real” air personality and what it takes. Please find attached a press release. Any help in posting it or part of it, on your web-site would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance for your time and consideration, I remain, Respectfully, Joe Martelle (www.bearmanormedia.com)

WHERE DO YOU READ JRRR? Tell us how far away from Houston, TX that you read JRRR. Got a news tip or a question? Send your full Name, City, State and Country of residence to Rosekkkj@earthlink.net.

GARY DELAUNE (San Antonio, TX) Thanks for the info on Celeste. Weetzie often came by when we were doing our recording sessions. Too bad she died so young. One of my mentors to get me in with Celeste was a great character actor named Will Wright. He and his wife, Nell, took me into their home after I was critically injured in a horse accident. They nursed me back to health. Jimmy Wakeley offered to do it but CBS doctors said I had to be isolated and Jimmy had a 13-year old and a 17 year old. Will took me on several movie locations and I got to know Dale Robertson pretty well since he was from OKC. GD (www.garydnews.com)

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DUKE GILLELAND (Belton, TX) Subject: New KTON In Temple… Jim, In my world the biggest example of the call letter changing was KVOO in Tulsa! LOTS of Western Swing music history lost there went the change was made! Sad state of affairs. We can have a cat 4 tornado in Bell county today and when you turn on the local radio for info, all you gonna hear is rush limberger! Duke

BOB WILLS – Today, music for the most part vacates AM radio for FM but now Talk radio moves from AM radio over to FM while listeners find their music on satellite radio plus new devices such as iPods. In the 1930s and 1940s, Bob Wills Western swing music is tops in TX all the way up to Tulsa, OK. Take me back to Tulsa where Bob Wills is still the king! During the Depression, Bob Wills Western swing music is so huge in popularity that he books 3 shows each night. In 1934, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys begin to broadcast noontime shows on 50,000 watt KVOO-1170 in Tulsa, OK. At midnight, May 15, 2002 legendary Country KVOO-1170 signs off after over 75 years to become News-Talk KFAQ-1170. It’s so sad that in his last days, Bob Wills is bed ridden in poor health. In 1969, I co-host a Bob Wills benefit dance at my dear friend Bobbie Barker’s Farmer’s Daughter in San Antonio, TX. The place is jam packed with fans from all walks of life.

JOAN PATE-DAY [late KLIF-1190 mobile news reporter Sam Pate’s sister] (Cedar Creek Lake, TX) Subject: Wire recorders. It was early fifties. Looked like one of those old portable record players. It had two reels on it. And the reels had wires. Used a stand microphone and as the reel turned, it was recorded on the other one. My mama won it on a television show called Welcome Travelers’ which was in Chicago. They would find out from family members what the person always wanted but could not afford and that was their prize. It was a show about common folks who had done outstanding things. mama won recorder and an electric vibraharp because she had taught over 350 children to play different musical instruments free of charge. Which is why I play so many instruments.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Chubby Checker born Ernest Evans on October 3, 1941 in Spring Gulley, SC gains fame with his 1960 #1 hit record The Twist. This starts the worldwide Twist dance craze. In 1963, Chubby Checker writes his #12 hit song Loddy Lo about Miss World, Catharina Lodders, who wins the title a year earlier. In 1964, Chubby Checker and Catharina Lodders are wed.

JIM GOUGH [‘Mr. Texas’-movie actor-voice actor] (Austin-Liberty Hill, TX) Subject: Jim Rose Remembers Radio (#1188) April 08, 2013 [Monday] I forgot to tell you we hired Rod Tanner in Houston to do the KOUL live morning show before switching to automation. I did the line…”a cool front just hit Corpus and the Coastal Bend…cool country KOUL”…good memories! Jim Gough

GERALD R. FORD [U.S. President August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977] I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.

Jim Rose and Lacy
Houston, Texas – Laus Deo