Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 34

I now own the 60 plus year old calendar shown in Part 13 and also Bygone Walla Walla and Puget Sound Media blogs.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered--Part 31 Old KTEL Mike Insignia

This piece of radio history was on the mike at the downtown studios of KTEL many decades ago.  It was sent to me by former KTEL DJ, Lee Michaels, who bought the equipment when the station moved it's business offices and main studio to the transmitter site, which had served as the night studio.
Instead of being on a mike, it is with a Mike.   The letters are backwards due to this being a self taken picture better known as a selfie.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered 25--The Walla Walla Men's Garden Club

The Walla Walla Men's Garden Club radio program ran on KTEL for decades.  Although my grandfather, Ed Granek, is not pictured above, he was often on the panel, another reason I may have developed a love for radio.  When my grandfather moved overseas in the mid 1960s, he would join the panel whenever he was in town.  Upon moving back to Walla Walla, he again would be on the radio with the Garden Club.
The Men's Garden Club Show would air Tuesday mornings from Spring to Fall and be sponsored by Long's Garden and Pet.  Listeners would call in questions, which radio personnel would write down and hand to the panel.  They would use their gardening expertise to answer the questions.
Thank you to the Bygone Walla Walla blog for this picture.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 21--Old KTEL Newspaper Ad

This ad ran in the UB in 1952.  Beven  Roth, 2nd bottom on the right, was still at the station when I worked there in the late 1970s.  He left after a disagreement with management.  Jack Keating, bottom center, still owned the station.  He was known to everyone as Mr. Keating.  You can also see the ad here or for more pictures, click here.

Old Walla Walla Radio Rememembered 19--KTEL Newsman Terry McConn

Terry McConn was the newsman, morning show personality when I was at KTEL.  At the time, it was exclusively Country music with news and sports. The station owner had grown old and for the most part, ran the station over the phone.  The motivation had to come from within. 
McConn was a hard worker.  He was amazingly focused and always delivered. 
I worked at KTEL twice and both times, McConn was there.  I remember his work on the story of  a local elderly woman's murder by a local teen.
It was a pleasure working with Terry. We were always on friendly terms. 
After working at KTEL, McConn would begin a 30 year career with the local Walla Walla paper, the UB.   After I moved to the Seattle area, I saw him on the news, being interview after he witnessed an execution at the State Penn.  It was at the local paper that Terry probably got the recognition he deserved. 
Terry was recently featured in an article by UB columnist Annie Charnley Eveland.  After 30 years on the city beat, he is retiring.  We wish him well!

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 18--Mariner Crew Gets Sack Of Onions

KTEL carried the Seattle Mariners games in the their early days.  They also carried the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Super Sonics as well as Wa-Hi sports and occasionally, maybe WWCC sports.  When I worked at the station in the late 70s, Bevan Roth was the salesman and engineer. 
Bevan had been there since the 50s and he was a huge sports fan.  He would get his name (and the station's name) on the Mariner network by bringing a bag of Walla Walla sweet onions (known as Walla Walla Sweets) to the team  broadcasting crew(at that time, Dave Niehaus and Ken Wilson) when attending a game in Seattle. 
I think that he continued to do that after he left the station. 
In 1980, I worked for KNOI in Pullman and they also carried Mariner Baseball, Roth, at that time, worked for KEXI, a Milton-Freewater Oregon station.  Once again, I heard that Roth had brought the Mariner crew a bag of Walla Walla Sweets.
Many years later, I got to meet Dave Niehaus at the Fred Hutchinson Luncheon.  I asked Dave if he remembered Bevan Roth.  He sure did.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 16--Bill Vollendorff Tribute

At a time when local radio people were celebrities in their own communities, Bill Vollendorff was news reporter at KUJ in the late '60s.  Vollendorff had a beautiful radio voice and perfect cadence.  He had previously worked at KTEL.  Vollendorff would eventually work as voice talent at KHIT.
Vollendorff had just finished his work at KUJ when I worked with him as a volunteer for Democratic Congressional candidate Mike McCormick in his successful bid to unseat Catherine May in the fall of  1970.  He told me about how his job entailed going to the Walla Walla Police Station, County Sherriff's office, and other visits and phone calls in the very early morning hours.
Probably figuring that radio talent did not pay the bills in a small town, Vollendorff  got into real estate and tax assessment, but he was no stranger in town.  He was seen in productions at The Little Theatre.  He did voice work for commercials and was tied in with local service groups. He did announcer work for Walla Walla Community College basketball when they played in the gym on Park Street.  When I briefly returned to Walla Walla and considered joining Kiwanis, it was Bill who came to talk to me about the organization. 
Bill was married to Maureen Stewart who worked for my parents as a baby sitter and house cleaner while she was in high school.  Maureen made a real impression on me after she left town to would attend school at the U-W, she would write to me.  I was 7 or 8 years old and those were probably the first letters  I would ever receive.
Bill would eventually run for Walla Walla County Assessor and win as a Republican.  Bill was one of the last of his era in Walla Walla radio and I was able to converse with him on Facebook about local history.  Bill Vollendorff passed away on December 5th. He apparently had been in bad health for a while.

Puget Sound Media Blog Features Barers Of Maple Valley

 

Seattle's top media blog, Puget Sound Media (formerly Sea Tac Media), is not only links this blog, but also my memory posts on Eastern Washington radio history.  Thank you to Puget Sound Media!

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered 15

More from Walla Walla DJ Dave "Rockin" Cochran....

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 14

Walla Walla teens needed to get a "Hi Fi Card" to be eligible to win a 6 pack of Coke on the nightly local contest, "The Hi Fi Show."  Each night, the DJ would explain how to acquire the card, usually a trip to the KTEL studio "high atop the Book Nook Building".  Native Walla Wallan Jaynie Jones, who carved out an outstanding radio career in Seattle provided this.
When I got my card, in the early 70s, it had a number.   Eventually the station vacated the Book Nook and moved their offices and studio to the transmitter site at 2nd and Tieton.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 13

Thank you to Hank Unck, who as Lee Michaels, worked at KTEL in the early 70s.  When the station shut down it's downtown office, to move to the transmitter site, he bought the old equipment and found this in the mixer board.

Coming Soon! The Lost Voice Of Walla Walla Radio Icon

Jeff Reynolds, himself a former KTEL night time DJ, has sent a CD with the voice of Walla Walla radio legend Dave "Rockin'" Cochran.  We should have Rockin' on the blog and every social media outlet known to man in the next week or so.  So put on your crash helmet and buckle your seatbelt, he may be gone, but he's not done with us yet!

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered--Part 6

The late Jack Keating, owner of KTEL in Walla Walla, Washington, can be heard in this commercial.  Thank you to Hank Unck, who used the name "Lee Michaels", when he worked at the station. Mr Keating passed away in the mid 1980s.  Another thank you goes out to Joe Drazan for the historical print ads.
The owners of the Leading Fur Shop, Sadie and Gordon Paris were friends of my family.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 4

Ex radio personality Hank Unck was kind enough to send airchecks (recording of shows) from when he worked at KALE (Hank Simon) and before that, KTEL (Lee Michaels).  You can click here to hear both his KALE audio which I have previously posted and his KTEL, which is special in the fact that it was done in 1971 and has features commercial spots from familiar voices as Bevan Roth, Dave Dirks, Singing Restaraunt owner Joe Denny, and Rockin' Dave Cochran (doing Pantorium Cleaners spot about 8 minutes in).   Hank also worked for KXLY radio in Spokane as well as some other radio stations.

Old Walla Walla Radio History

Two Walla Walla radio stations had downtown business offices and studios before moving to their transmitter sites.  KUJ was well before my time and I'm not sure of the exact location, although the sign was up well after it's departure and I have faded memories of it.
I remember KTEL in the Book Nook Building (officially known as Die Brucke Building), the station would broadcast it's daytime programming downtown and it's evening and weekend programming at it's tower and transmitter site.  In the early 1970s, the station added on to it's transmitter studios and moved out of it's downtown location.

Walla Walla Teen Memories--The Hi-Fi Show

Contests and rock radio go hand in hand, KTEL had a daily contest that was somewhat unusual.  The Hi-Fi Show, I remember from 1970 on.  Hosted usually by Dave "Rockin" Cochran, it started with the Coca Cola jingle (it's the real thing).  Then Cochran would introduce the show and instruct everyone that a Hi-Fi card was needed to play.  For those too young to get a driver's license or a credit card, the Hi-Fi card was a must have for the wallet.  Each card had a number, many cardholders still incredibly remember their number.  My first was 1572-B.  Cochran would tell the listeners how to get the card.  The KTEL offices "high atop the Book Nook Building". Back then, KTEL had a downtown office and studio, while the transmitter and tower were on 2nd and Tietan, the night broadcasts were at the transmitter site.  The contest was usually to name the song and the artist of a song that he played.  When someone would get a correct answer, Cochran would cut in on the record and say "No more calls please, we do have a winner"  The winner would get a six pack of Coca-Cola, but I think some people just enjoyed getting their name on the radio.

Union-Bulletin Does Feature On Late Walla Walla DJ

Annie Chernley Eveland wrote a full page piece on Dave "Rockin" Cochran in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, bringing back memories to Walla Wallans coming of age when he dominated the town's evening airwaves, some excerpts...
"WALLA WALLA — The sound of a prop plane roaring in for a landing at the Walla Walla Airport opened the 1970s Night Flight radio show hosted by local rock ’n’ roll DJ Dave Herbert Cochran, recalled Richard “Rich” Greenwood, who as a teenager caught his broadcasts. Cochran died Nov. 27.

Burial was Friday at Pine Grove Cemetery in Hood River, Ore.

Variously known on air as “Rockin’ Cochran,” “Dynamic Dave” and “Sebastian,” among others, the Hawaiian shirt-clad Cochran was part of area radio activity from the late 1960s into the 1970s. He died at age 62, shortly after Thanksgiving, and was found at his Walla Walla home at 11 E. Chestnut St., said Greenwood, the Walla Walla County coroner.

Despite being a bit of a loner, Cochran reached thousands over the airwaves. Some of his first audience was captive.

It started in his early teens when he built a transmitter. He lived near the Washington State Penitentiary and had a pirate radio station in his basement with a six-block range. “His broadcasts hit the pen and inmates listened to him,” Greenwood said"

The article continues to speak of his KTEL days as well as after radio life in the town he loved.  There were rememberences from family and friends as well as excerpts that I provided from this blog. 

Walla Walla Radio Legend Cochran Dies

Word has been received that former Walla Walla Rock DJ Dave "Rockin" Cochran has died.  Cochran worked for KTEL in the late 60s and early 70s when the station played Rock and Roll at night.  At the time, employees at KTEL were basically "day laborers", the full timers would put in an 8 hour regular shift while taping programs off the network feeds, cutting commercials, etc for a seemingly laughable wage, all in hopes of getting the big break.  For Rockin' Cochran, being on KTEL seemed to be all that mattered. To the listeners, he was bigger than life, to the management,  from what I've pretty much heard, he was a major headache.  His talent and rebellious spirit came really came across on the air.  Much of the music that I've come to love over the decades was introduced to me by listening to Rockin' Cochran. 
Cochran was let go from KTEL towards the mid 70s, he did voice over  commercials on the local cable TV channel and even a Yakima/Tri Cities station before reappearing again in the summer of 1976 as a rock DJ on KUJ, which had recently been purchased by out of town interests, it was a short lived engagement as management there grew weary of Cochran's free form ways. 
Dave Cochran may be gone, but former Walla Walla teens who wanted to be part of the scene, decades ago will never forget him.

Dave "Rockin" Cochran And The Voice Of Thunder

If you were a teenager or a young adult in the late 60s or early 70s and a fan of hit music
growing up in Walla Walla Washington, you would be perfectly happy turning your radio to a scratchy fading in and out station in the Tri Cities,(KALE or KORD depending on the era). If you had a good summer or night job, you could go down to the "Record Center" or later "Hot Poop"(Walla Walla's Hippest Record Store) or "StereoBird"to buy enough records to satisfy your hunger for the hits, as night fell and the Tri Cities stations followed FCC guidelines and broadcast in low power, you could turn on KTEL. KTEL,at 1490 khtz, was one of three local AM radio stations and one of only two that were allowed to operate at night. It was also the only one to play rock and only at night. Dave "Rockin" Cochran was prime time night Disc Jockey. He was actually working in the daytime as well playing country music and what not. Dave Cochran had a voice that would boom into the radio and as such you would think that he could shout from one end of town to the other without benefit of a microphone. The station consisted of a fly and spider infested ramshackle hut under the big radio tower on the outskirts of town, but to listen to Rockin Cochran, you would have thought it was a palace on a hill as you could hear some of the greatest music ever played. His lifestyle was a topic of frequent discussion at schools. Cochran would play teen music from 8:00 until 10:00 and hard core FM style rock from 10:00 until 11:00, I would hear groups like "10 Years After" and "Quicksilver Messenger Service", it is no wonder that I was bitten by the radio bug. Dave was assisted in the hour off that he got for dinner by first Steve Lloid and then Mike Turner. At 11:00, it was time for the Star Spangled Banner and sign off. This was, afterall, Walla Walla.