Thank you to Charles Luce, Jr for finding this. From the 1960s through the '70s Legendary Walla Walla area broadcaster Verne Russell signed his pioneer radio station off with this audio.
KUJ carried the broadcasting of, at one time, The Seattle Pilots and the Walla Walla Minor League team, which Russell eventually purchased. It also had CBS network news and programming along with local Djs playing easy listening music. The sign-off would occur at 10:00 or whenever a game that was broadcasted, would conclude.
6 comments:
Here's a piece of trivia about the KUJ sign-off:
Everyone growing up in Walla Walla in the 1960s and 70s remembers that the station signed off with "Peace in the Valley"; which recording I have yet to discover.
But what is the haunting saxophone song playing softly behind Vern Russell's sign-off *before* "Peace in the Valley?"
It's "Laura," by Johnny Mercer.
Fantastic. Thank you, Charles for all the hard work that you did so I could publish this. It's an incredible piece.
I would like to play this version of Peace in the Valley at my mom's memorial. Who was the artist?
I'm sorry, I don't know. When do you need to know?
If you ever discover the artist in the recording I would love to know, too. My Mom said it was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but if it is I have never found a recording of it by them. Peace in the Valley has been covered many times, but I have never found this recording. I suspect if was from Vern's personal collection, and possibly an old 78 RPM.
Incidentally, I also played it at my Mom's memorial in Walla Walla in 1985. It's a simple song, so I sang it an accompanied myself on the guitar.
Thanx for your post.
Mike Purdy
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