The Goodwill Family

 

Let's start at the SHSM - State Historical Society of Missouri  [LINK]. The few images I can find of the Goodwill Family all seem to originate there. On one post card they stand in a row: Uncle George, Little Eddit, Slim, Aunt Martha, and an unnamed person titled merely "yours truly." In another picture, they pose with a couch, with a note from the Busy Bee Department store of Springfield, IL. The text at the bottom reads "Heard over KWTO every Monday - Wednesday - Friday 6:45 - 7:00 AM." This one is a smaller group: Martha, Slim, Junior and George. In that one Junior looks old enough to drive, it's maybe 5 years later or so.

Springfield News-Leader 2019

Little Eddie, grew up to become Herschel "Speedy" Haworth Jr., a cast member of ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee from 1955–1960. He died in 2008. More here. From George's biography we can learn more about the more obscure Goodwill Family. George was an Earle and was no relation to Slim and Aunt Martha. Martha was not his Aunt, but his mother, Vancie Martha Haworth (née Wilson). Slim was her brother, Clyde aka Slim Wilson. Yes, that Slim Wilson. Slim appears in the first issue of the KWTO Dial in August of 1941, playing with a trio, the Hoakum Boys. But the Goodwill Family appears on the schedule, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:15 AM.  [SOURCE]

George Earle and Speedy were the first to get on the radio. Speedy played guitar and George read the funny papers aloud. It was a thing back then. Martha, Speedy, and Slim formed the first Goodwill Trio and began performing on KGBX-AM in 1932. KWTO-AM had the same owner at the time and they moved to the more powerful station after it signed on in 1933. In 1935, Guy Smith joined the trio as "Uncle George." With that addition, the Goodwill Trio became the Goodwill Family. Rev. Guy Smith didn't fit the musician model though, he was a  fundamentalist minister and he didn't stick around long. More here. He later turned up at KCKN and KANS, Cactus Jack Call got him a gig in 1963. More here.

Sources conflict sometimes. Little Eddie was also called Junior at one point which is confusing. Some sources clearly say that Junior grew up to be "Speedy." But the Springfield News-Leader says the "little boy" in that image above is Speedy. They cannot both be him. Speedy (Hershel) was born in 1922. If that image was taken in 1934 then he'd be 12 years old. Little Eddie is not 12, Junior might be so let's go with that theory and assume the image is just poorly labeled. This is consistent with another solo image of Speedy at the age of 12 that calls him a "Yodeling Cowboy." He's a little young to herd cattle but he'd already won a yodeling contest at the age of 10 so he was on his way.

That hymnal at the top has a single page of background on the troupe. It cites the 1932 date, but it makes some claims I find dubious. Firstly it states "...it's personal, with one exception remains the same as the day it first sang over the air on radio station KWTO..." Just between the two images we have an extra member and we know it began as a trio, not a sextet. Confusingly it describes them as "four people, a brother, sister the sisters son and a friend." That should be Martha, Clyde (slim), Junior and probably George (Guy) at that point in time. But it goes on to name them "Clyde "Slim" Wilson, "Aunt Martha" Baty, Junior Haworth, and George Rhodes" A PBS documentary on KWTO also cites Rhodes, specifically as a bassist. [SOURCE] But I'm lost again. Martha was a Wilson, like her brother Clyde (Slim). Her married name was Haworth. Where does the name "Baty" come from?

Let's go back to George for a moment. George was George Earle when the story started and was Guy Smith in the middle. That skips the third George, George Rhodes. That George played on KWTO’s Ozark Farm and Home Hour going back to at least 1944. Prior to KWTO he played with a band, Lonnie and His Cornhuskers. In 1947 he was part of the "RFD Round up" with Ozark Red and Goo-Goo Rutledge. He was performing at KWTO at least until 1951 with Buster Fellows. But he is the George most often remembered in print. They all played together on the barn dance program "Korn's A-Krack-in'." Those barn dance style programs were happening as early as 1946, and there was at least one in 1949. A general article about Ozark county musicians [LINK] casually mentioned that George Rhodes became part of Slim Wilson’s family group, the Goodwill Family during the 1940s.

Martha opened a restaurant Aunt Martha’s Cliff House in the late 1940s. It was destroyed in a fire in 1958. By the time of the fire, she was married to the chef, Charlie Hicklin. It was her second restaurant. In 1948 Martha operated the Corn Crib Cafe at 302 South Jefferson in downtown Springfield, and after the fire, she ran Aunt Martha's Pancake house. Martha died in 1966. [LINK]  The obituary names numerous family members and in-laws, but not the date of her marriage to Hicklin. More here.

But a contemporary description of the old Cliff House restaurant property, the Springfield News-Leader again refers to her as Aunt Martha Baty. [LINK] I had thought this was a typo, or bad AI. But even the original 1958 article about the fire referred to her as both as "Aunt Martha" and "Mrs Baty."  I found the answer in the June 1949 issue of the KWTO Dial. Mrs T.M.D. of Birmingham Alabama wrote in to ask "How long has Aunt Martha been married to Mr. Baty?"  The answer was "A little over a year and a half."  Mr. Baty was pictured in the May issue and named as Everett Baty. His story arc is short. The October 23rd, 1954 issue [LINK] of the Motion Picture Herald includes a small obituary.

"Everett Baty, Jr., 62 years old, identified with theatres at Springfield, Mo., and husband of Martha Baty, radio entertainer, died recently in a resort cabin at Kissee Mills, Mo., just after he had returned from a fishing trip on a lake."

It's hard to say when the show was over for the Goodwill Family. Their time at KWTO wrapped up in the mid 1950s and Martha became a restaurateur. They recorded a few 78s, and a few 45s. But that pancake house outlasted everyone. It didn't close until October of 2015, lasting a full 55 years. That's longer than the Goodwill Family program, Aunt Martha and all three of her husbands, her famous brother Slim Wilson and even her most famous son, Speedy Haworth, who passed in 2008.

Testing a 1913 Deforest Sperical Audion Radio

 I only found this video recently but it's excellent. I've never seen a radio engineer go thru the circuit component by component and explain how it's working at this level of detail. He has several other videos all worth watching but this one is really something special. If you've never seen someone make a resistor with paper and a wood dowel this is a must-watch.

Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6ZVqr0fPo4

PDX to SFO

It's about 650 miles from Portland to San Francisco, that's a full day at the wheel. The plan was to spend as much of the drive on the coast as possible so instead of heading down I-5 or Route 99 I drove north west up Route 26 to join 101 in Seaside, OR; lost some time but gained some road miles.

The coast of Oregon is mostly rural, small towns separated by miles of forest. KXJM is located in Banks, along route 26 but at 68k watts is just another Portland station. KMHD petered out and I started looking for local stations. The Classic rock station 102.3 KCRX in Seaside was the first and their license is held by "OMG FCC Licenses, LLC" which is the best LLC name I've seen since "The Dude Abides LLC."  In this area OMG also owns 1230 KKOR and 1370 KAST-AM in Astoria which is too far north to receive here. (They also own a cluster of station in Alaska.) OMG sadly only stands for Ohana Media Group and not the exclamation "oh my god." Ohana's website has been down for quite a while and is excluded from the wayback machine so they're running dark online.

KCRX is classic rock if you think The Offspring is classic rock. It's fine but it's not all about Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Further down the coast in Cannon beach there's a whole cluster of FMs to check out. The best option was 94.9 KBGE an actual AAA format station: Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine, Blur, Genesis, Live etc. Nothing unexpected but at least it's not new country. Down the road Manzanita has a local Classical stick, KQMI and then down around Bay City  we have another cluster of FMs now audible from Tillamook. Two are public radio: KTCB and KTMK. But down on the AM band I can now clearly get 1590 KTIL. My info said that it was classic rock but all I heard was country music... Slim pickins' out here. Bay City next door has an actual LPFM station 92.9 KAYN. [LINK] They had a bluegrass program and it's the best thing I've heard since KMHD faded out. 

Route 101 swings inland and I can briefly hear Portland stations again before heading back to the coast. In Newport is Lane Community College and their stations 89.7 KLCC and 90.5 KLCO. It does have some local programs, notably Eye 5, a Saturday roots music show but it's not Saturday today so I get an NPR zombie. Another hour south, in Lincoln City there's another classic rock station KCRF. But they're silent today. That went dark in the Pacific West foreclosure. [LINK] and [LINK].

Around Newport, more Eugene stations came in range. It didn't add any great options, further south Reedsport and then Coos Bay there's even more NPR zombies; KLFO, and KSBA, and yet more classical: KZBY, KWAX, and KWVZ and further south are KSOR, and KOOZ. AAA outlet KTEE was playing some Roasanne Cash. But in Florence 90.7 KXCR, a hyper-local unassuming 900 watt station. I stuck around and I heard a show about poetry, and listened to a talk show KXCR Conversations. These get posted online here so you can hear that very show. Also notable is KMHS, a high school station with not one or two but three sticks: 1430, 105.1 and 91.3. I just wish it wasn't wasted playing modern country music.

The drive was beautiful of course. I stopped at a joint named Mr. Ed's Espresso, Juice, and Underground Pub. The walls and ceiling are all hung with guitars of every make and model. The pizza is great it was one of the best stops on the whole drive. As I approached the California border I could hear 790 KRJY-AM, the Travelers Information station out of Eureka. This station is interesting because it's privately owned. They signed on in 1980 as KEKA. Prior to 2000 it was an Adult Standards format, and under Westwood One it was Spanish Oldies until 2016.

Station 910 KURY-AM should be playing Nostalgia but it too has drifted forward a couple decades more like it's FM counterpart on 95.3. The first California FM station I can hear for sure is 91.9 KHSR, an NPR zombie. I hear it best near the coastline. 1480 KEJB-AM out of Eureka is playing some actual oldies: Chiffons, Martha Reeves, Bobby Fuller the first one I've heard all week. I drove through Brookings, past several state-line themed cannabis shops and was in suddenly California.

I might have missed something but the giant redwood trees do seem to only start south of the border. I have since read that they do grow in Southwest Oregon but are smaller. The first LPFM I hit was 101.1 KFUG in Crescent City but they were playing modern country music as I passed through town but according to their website it's a crapshoot. It could have been Noiseparade or all Elvis. More here. I could hear 104.7 KHUM out of Humbolt by the time I got to Kalamath, more true AAA: Dan Auerbach, Beatles, Lana Del Rey and way too much J.J. Cale. 

Down the road I hit the Eureka-Arcata market which has a more robust radio dial. Station 95.1 KMDR playing is listed online as Rhythmic Oldies but is actually Soft AC. 94.1 KLGE a loungy jazz station... not quite Adult Standards though it sports some Mel Torme. A couple years ago they did a real deal radio play called "Hard Boiled Humboldt, A Half-Baked Detective Story". Yes you can download it and you should. [LINK] I expected it to come in but 105.1 KRFH, the one college station in town was not audible.

The area between Eureka and Ft. Brag is pretty rural but I noticed, starting in Eureka what KMUD has become. Firstly it is the station I remember. I tuned in and the first thing I heard was some talk about Shamans and then Native American music. They are now a real deal public radio network: 91.1 KMUD, 88.1 KMUE, and 90.3 KLAI. Don't ever change.

The dial got quiet until we hit Ft. Bragg and then Mendocino, home of 89.3 KAKX. The kids are surprisingly adept, nice mix of indie rock. Then the highway routed further inland. In Santa Rosa I can hear a repeater for KCSM on 90.7, and KWMR is keeping it weird. Kay Clements was still MD last time I came through, she's not listed on the staff website anymore but they just celebrated 25 years of broadcasting[LINK], congratulations! I also bumped into KRJF-LP which I've not heard before [LINK]. In the mid-afternoon I caught the New Music show, mostly a mix of AAA and indie rock, nice driving music. From there I could already hear San Francisco stations like KPFA, but I stuck with 93.7 KJZY, one of the few Nostalgia stations left, then all jazz 91.1 KCSM all the way into the city.

Filled with tacos from Tacos Oscar next door, I paid a visit to 1-2-3-4 Go Records on 40th Street in Oakland. Among other things I got a few stickers there, one for 92.7 FM KEXP.  The problem is that KEXP is on 90.3 in Seattle. Much like KYA Gold in Seattle... this station is 800 miles away from this sticker. The truth was a big surprise. In 2009 KEXP bought the station we now know as 92.7 KEXC. I'm not sure how I missed the news, but KEXP bought the old KJAZ stick from Flying Bear in 2022. There were other sights and other sounds, but you can't stay on the road forever.