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"When you need coal or oil, call Boyle..Fairfax 8 1521...Fairfax 8 1521-"
How easy is it to remember a telephone number these day. It's tough for us to remember our own numbers, let alone a company that you may never do business with. Ask anyone who lived anywhere in Eastern Washington, Oregon, or Idaho during the 1960s what the telephone number was to the Boyle Fuel Co in Spokane and they might say, Fairfax8-1521.
Many decades ago, it was not uncommon for TV stations to have local origination programming. Spokane's
KHQ or Q-6 had a talent show on Saturday night, sort of a local version of the "Ed Sullivan Show". Since only larger towns had TV stations, the three Spokane stations had signals that covered the entire "Inland Empire" (there were also three TV stations in the Tri Cities). The Saturday talent show was known as Starlit Stairway and featured local
amateur talent from throughout the area. The most memorable part of the show were the twins who sang the sponsor's jingle in perfect harmony.
"For every heating problem for a furnace old or new--just call the Boyle Fuel Company and they'll solve them all for you"
" When you need coal or oil--Call Boyle" Then each girl would recite the phone number
"Fairfax 8- 1521 Fairfax 8-1521." I recently contacted
KHQ to see if there was any remaining film of the storied commercial. The answer , according to current KHQ producer Lee Hite, was that the show was done live--there never was a recording except from what we remember almost 40 years ago.