The Best

The Best...

During World War II, it was very difficult to change jobs. I wanted to change jobs, but I didn't want to facilitate my job change by getting fired. My alternative was to obtain a written release from The War Manpower Commission.

I applied for my written release. Two days later, I found myself on the air at KONO with a program called "The Rhythm Express."

Jim Brown, (tall and slender, about six foot two or three) had hired me on a full-time basis during school vacation. My work status would change to part-time when school reconvened.

One evening, shortly after I started work at KONO, my replacement called in sick. I was surprised when Jim Brown came in to work the air shift.

At 7:30 pm I read all the short spots people had purchased on a penny-per-word broadcast program called “PennyGrams."

The next program was a live church remote. The preacher took his cue off-the-air, and I got to sit back and relax for a few moments.

Just then phone line four lit up. When I answered, I was greeted by George Ing, our chief engineer. He asked me to check the feed for the remote from the Copy Cat Club on Pecan Street, which was scheduled next. I turned the selector switch on the audio console to the requested remote number. I was immediately greeted with the sound of a band tuning up. Next, I heard someone bump into the microphone, hiccup and then slur, "Give me a bottle of Pearl (beer) please."

At that moment it dawned on me, that the audio board didn't provide the facilities for auditioning a remote while another remote was on air. I had inadvertently substituted the Copy Cat Club audio for the church audio. I quickly switched back to the church remote audio just in time to hear the preacher say "Amen."

I was terrified at my mistake. With Jim Brown in the control room I was uncertain about what would happen next. To my surprise, I found Jim Brown doubled up in fits of laughter in response to my actions. After a while he recovered enough to say, "Maybe we can get him to cancel his contract now."

I was relieved, but my armpits were still soaking wet. There were no phone calls hence, no ratings. Or...should it be the other way around.

Most evenings KONO had country western studio bands. I can't recall the name of the first band, but it was the beginnings of the Texas Tophands, which consisted of Easy Adams on fiddle, his wife Duchy on piano, Rusty Locke on steel guitar, Knee High Holly on bass and can't remember the rhythm guitar man.

One evening, I was in the control room mixing and "riding" audio levels. The studio was full of young teenage girls.

The announcer for the evening was Bob Alford, who read commercial spots between band selections. One of the spots was for the Fehr Baking Company, makers of “Fair Made Bread.” Bob read the spot, but unknowingly changed the Fehr slogan. With his rich resonant voice he urged the audience to buy "The Breast In Bed."

Easy's bow slid down the fiddle. Duchy's hands came down in a discordant crash, and Rusty's steel gave out an unearthly shriek. It took the band about five seconds to finally regain their composure. The girls giggled loudly, and…Bob didn't have a clue.

He rushed into the control room and asked, "What's the matter?" When confronted with the truth, Bob refused to go back into the studio. So, I had to finish the show for him.

Some years later I read in “Reader’s Digest” of a similar incident. With that slogan, I guess it was bound to happen again sometime.

Bill Kiley

Bill Kiley

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