Category Archives: Personal History

KBOA 830

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In an earlier post I wondered about some recent move affecting the radio station I worked at many years ago. Our friend Jeff pointed us to a post on a radio message board:   

"Eagle Bluff Enterprises has received FCC permission to move KOTC from Kennett, Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee.  KOTC (830 AM) signed on in July 1947 as KBOA.  KOTC went silent on 6-1-08.  The justification for the STA was "The station has been temporarily turned off pending format changes and equipment repairs".  After the move, KOTC will diplex its 10 KW signal from a tower shared with WHBQ, 560 AM, in Memphis."

When I worked at KBOA the frequency (a daytime clear channel) was 830. When consolidation hit there was a series of call letter/frequency shuffles I was never interested enough to try to sort out.

I think they moved the KBOA calls to a frequency (105.5) licensed to Piggott, Arkansas, but operating in Kennett, MO. The 830 freq was assigned some newer, local (Kennett) calls (KOTC).

The KBOA I knew and loved died long ago. And it was nice to read some kind words about KBOA830.com. Thanks to all.

KBOA 830 no more?

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I keep getting sketchy reports that the radio station where I worked 25 years ago, is no longer on the air. Not sure what that means since call letters and frequencies were scrambled and shuffled years ago.

The station that I worked at for a dozen years (and my father for many more than that) ceased to exist for me long ago. It was gutted during The Great Consolidation frenzy following deregulation.

Whatever this latest "news" is, it apparently wasn’t big enough to make the local paper. So, if anyone has details, drop me a line.

Coffee Zone Radio

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Coffee Zone proprietor Tasir Yanis has an amazing mix of songs on his iPod. That’s what we listen to here at the Zone. Maybe it’s just the ambience of a coffee shop but the former radio program director in me often thinks Taisir’s mix would make a great radio format. Except for all the commercials you’d have to jam in between the songs.

CoffeezoneradioOr we could just download this little app for our iPhones. If I understand this correctly, it enables you to tap into your entire music collection on your home PC via your iPhone – and the music collections of your friends, too – and stream all of the above to your phone, wherever you go. [YouTube demo]

I found this on Mark Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 who describes it as being able to “create our own radio stations from our own content and share them with friends who are mobile.”

So I could listen to Coffee Zone Radio wherever I am? Or Planet Nelson Radio? Or Scott Brandon’s Friday Funk?

Okay, the iPhone is starting to look more and more like something I’m going to have to have. But I really want the thing to stream video, too. I’m getting close.

Web specs

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I stopped buying/reading newspapers a long time ago. But there are times –breakfast, for example– when it is inconvenient or impractical to open the MacBook. My solution has been to print articles I find online and take them with me.

KowonvideoglassesI’d really love to have a pair of reading “glasses” with some flash memory to which I could Blue Tooth these articles, including photos and video. I don’t see why that would be technically difficult and damned handy. This is close but likely to get my ass kicked at the local diner where I have breakfast. I’m thinking more along the lines of Clark Kent glasses.

No, I don’t need wifi access. That would be cool but would add a lot of cost. And, yes, I know there are all kinds of portable readers out there but I don’t want to tote around even a book size device.

What I haven’t tried is saving the text to my iPod. Not a great reading experience on the nano but it would work fine on the Touch. Hmmm. And if wifi was available… I suspect this wheel has already been invented.

Biography

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Mom was a farm girl. Dad was a city boy. The war was over and they met in St. Louis. I was born in 1948 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and grew up in Kennett (about an hour to the south). Dad was a “radio announcer” and mom worked for the “welfare department.” Job titles that –like my youth–vanished years ago.

A little piece of shrapnel from the Baby Boom, I watched a lot of TV. In the early 50’s I sat two feet from the Motorola, staring at the Indian-head test pattern until the afternoon programming got underway. The spirit of Norman Rockwell hovered over me through a near-perfect childhood.

The Beatles released I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND in the US just after Christmas in 1963 and it a very big deal by February of ’64. Hard to imagine a better time to be a high school sophomore. We weren’t paying much attention to Viet Nam, yet.

By the time I started college in the fall of 1966, getting and keeping a draft deferment was top of mind. I quickly switched my major from Business to Theater. Guys were coming back from Viet Nam and bringing good drugs and great music and protesting was catching on, even in the Midwest.

I was part of the first draft lottery and drew number 210, just low enough to be dangerous. Following graduation in 1970, I goofed off all summer before –at my father’s suggestion– entering law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I attended classes and kept my deferment until Nixon froze the draft (in December of 1970) at lottery number 195. I quit law school the following week, just before finals.

In the spring of 1971, I went to work for the U.S. Postal Service as a Postal Inspector. After three months of training in D.C. I was sent to Pendleton, Oregon, where I audited small post offices in Oregon and Washington. I counted stamps and money orders for almost a year and investigated exploded rural mail boxes (a federal crime). Like law school, not what I had in mind.

In early ’72 I returned to the Midwest and hung around Memphis for a few months before returning to Kennett in early summer. In July, I started working at KBOA on the overnight shift and found my true calling. For the next dozen years I spun records and MC’d the Little Miss Christmas Belle Pageant.

In March, 1973, I met Barb at Tommy’s North-End Cafe and fell in love. We dated for six years and married in 1978.

In June, 1984, we moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, to work for Learfield Communications. For the next 15 years or so, I handled affiliate relations for the company’s various radio networks. When the Internet came along, I got the bug and slowly started migrating in that  direction. I now spend most of my waking hours online –with periodic breaks for Barb and the dogs–and look forward to every day.

March 8, 2003

Email is yesterday. Maybe the day before.

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If you want to glimpse the future, spend time with those that will live there. Back from a weekend with my brother and his family. The kids are 18, 16 and 12. They’re back in the states for 6 months to help Ryan get settled in college.

RyanspencerUncle Steve was a big hit with his belated graduation present, but after giving Ryan his new iPod Touch, he was a little distracted the rest of the weekend. I also miss a lot of birthdays so we did a little catch-up with the other two. They opted for PSP’s (Play Station Portables).

The family is international with friends all over the world. But the kids do not use email to keep in touch (“Uncle Steve, please!”). The primary comm tools are SMS (texting) and Facebook. I had read that but it was interesting to hear it straight from the teenage horse’s mouth.

I’ve had a Facebook page for a while but never use it. If I want to keep in touch with my nephews and niece, that has to change.

Oh, and those PSP’s? Wifi ready so when they’re not gaming (or while they are), they can keep in touch with friends.

PS: On Saturday we stopped by the local Apple store. Packed. An iPhone class was underway and there were more gray heads than mohawks.

Sputnik Monroe

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Long before the glitz and glamor that is “professional wrestling” today, Memphis, Tennessee, was something of a mecca for the… let’s not call it a sport… for the business. Some of the big names of the day would also appear in small town venues, including the VFW in Kennett, Missouri. From here, I’ll let Michael Spooner share his Brush With Near Greatness:

Sputnik250“For those who may not know, Sputnik Monroe was a celebrated Memphis wrestler in the late 1950’s and 60’s.  He, along with many other wrestlers, came to Kennett to fight.  I recall, at least in Kennett, no one seemed to like Sputnik since he had this ‘bad guy’ reputation.  And for a couple of seasons we, too, did our share of booing Sputnik. Until the day, one Saturday afternoon, when he came to our home as a guest for dinner.  This wasn’t a complete surprise since we were warned of his visit.  Nevertheless, my sisters and I were shaking in our boots, while at the same time, immensely excited that an ‘almost movie star’ was coming to our house.

Well how did this happen, you ask?  First of all, Sputnik and my mother never dated. My mother, however, did date a wonderful guy named Skip Pepper from Memphis for a few  years in the late 50’s.  At the time Skip owned a Dollar Store in Kennett, located on the north west corner of the town square.  Skip knew Sputnik as a friend (we didn’t know this until we learned of his coming to dinner).  It was Skip who arranged the visit.”

It’s a shame Michael’s mom never dated Sputnik. A guy could do a lot worse than “My Mom Dated Sputnik Monroe” for the title of an autobiography.

From Sputnik’s Wikipedia entry: On May 4, 2007, HBO announced they would make a movie based on Monroe’s life. On September 6, 2007 Julien Nitzberg confirmed the first draft of the Sputnik movie had been completed. A Los Angeles-based rock band is named after him. More on Sputnik Monroe. And I found this tribute to Sputnik following his death.

If you were with me here at the Coffee Zone, I could demonstrate the Man’s signature “Sputnik Strut.”

Fez of July Webcast Special

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Brother George (Fez #14) and I will fire up the webcam for an hour this Friday morning, webcasting from the Coffee Zone in downtown Jefferson City. Should be lots of traffic in the Zone along with colorful carny folk and swarms of strangely dressed Americans celebrating Independence Day.

We’ll get started around 9 a.m. Central. Join us if you can.

Skinny jeans, fat jeans

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Oldjeans

If you have an “issue” with weight, skip this post. You won’t find it amusing, insightful or nostalgic. It will only piss you off. (Are they gone?)

If turning 60 was a  milestone, this week I passed one of far greater significance. I outgrew my Levis. First time.

I’ve weighed 155 pounds since high school. I’ve worn the same size Levis –34″ inseam, 32″ waist– for more than 40 years. And I have some jeans that are 20 years old. The same age as some of our summer interns.

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

I’ve gained about 5 pounds in the last 6 months, enough to make all of my comfortable, fashionably warn jeans just a little too snug. Oh, I can lie down on the bed, like some supermodel and get them buttoned but they just aren’t comfortable any longer.

So this weekend I purchased some new jeans, with a 34 inch waist. Talk about Passages. On the up side, it’s a hell of a lot easier to find 34×34 jeans than 32×34, although I’m not sure why.

Still in the last stages of denial, I came home and tried on –one final time– all my dear old jeans. Only a couple made the cut. The rest are in suspended animation in a big Tupperware crate in the basement.

I have no doubt they could fetch a couple of hundred a piece on Rodeo Drive (assuming straight leg jeans ever make a comeback). But you can’t put a price on knowing Jessica Alba’s little keester was packed in a pair of my old Levis. Sigh.