Long-time friend Rudy Pylant is celebrating his 80th birthday (for the third time) with a big blow-out in Kennett this coming weekend. Lots of beer, BBQ and old friends. Event HQ is the Super 8 Motel. Back by popular demand is Willie P. Richardson. I’ve never heard him perform but his website appears to have all the info you need until I can post some video here. Previous Mr. Rudy Day’s featured the Red Neck Rhythm Rangers. One of those bands where the name is the best part of the experience.
Tag Archives: kennett
Tom Colvin
One of the things I enjoyed most about my days in small town radio was co-hosting a daily, one-hour talk show (Grapevine) with Tom Colvin. The station owner thought it would be a good place to talk about community issues and events (seems quaint today, doesn’t it?). I like to think that Tom and I had chemistry. I could say “refrigerator” and Tom would laugh hysterically. It was intoxicating for someone who thought he was a funny guy. I must say nobody since has found me as amusing.
We had guests some days, took calls every day (live, no delay). Our Trivia Bowl seemed tdo be a local favorite. The show lasted about twelve years, right up to the time Tom and I left in 1984. I came to Learfield and Tom went to KTTR, Rolla, Missouri. Fast-forward nineteen years. Tom is returning to Kennett next week to take over as operations manager at our old station. Sort of. Many years of call letter and frequency shuffling has left me completely confused, but Tom says he’ll be programming 6 radio stations. We wish him well. I know the listeners to those stations will be well served.
You might be from Kennett if…
A friend of mine, who happens to live in Kennett, Missouri, received a call from a woman this week but couldn’t hear her because of the chainsaw in the background. She said “Excuse me, I’ll go outside.” When he asked about the chainsaw in the house she explained “I needed something fixed and his skillsaw was broke.” Makes a guy homesick.
A blank and flat canvas
“It’s no secret that Kennett is Sheryl’s home town. In all my previous visits I had stared in wonder at the place and wondered how a personality like Sheryl could come from somewhere that is essentially a blank (and flat) canvas.”
From the September 12, 2002 entry in Chris Hudson’s Tour Diary. Not quite sure who Chris Hudson is but he (she?) made the trip to Kennett when Sheryl Crow went home to recognize the efforts of some local first graders who won a contest with their book about September 11.
Couldn’t find any bio on Hundson, so I don’t know if he’s part of Sheryl’s band, her web guy or just someone that travels with her. But it was interesting to get his take on the old home town. I’m guessing that –like Sheryl– he rubs elbows with the glitterati. Unlike her, he ain’t from Kennett and it’s a long way from L.A. and N.Y. to Kennett, MO.
July 19, 1947
Radio station KBOA went on the air on July 19, 1947. Today, 55 years later, that station doesn’t really exist anymore. Frequencies have been sold and shifted, call letters transferred. But the station’s early days make a great story. Five years ago I created a website in an effort to preserve some of that history. My father worked at the station for 30+ years and I worked there for a dozen. I recently came across recordings of jingles, old commercials, and oral histories by the men who put the station on the air.
It was a time when radio shows had names (Noonday Serenade, Rise and Shine, Old Camp Meetin’ Time) and commercials were read live or recorded on huge discs. The recently unearthed interviews offer a unique insight into the time, the people and the communities they served.