DJ DB Cooper

Valley Times Newspaper 12/24/64

If you spend enough time on radio boards you will encounter quiet questions about Jim Wood, of 870 KIEV-AM. The station was located in the Glenwood Hotel and only moved to 870 from 850 in 1934. Woods wasn't a big name. Really none of those names are. Calcote put out a couple country records. At KIEV the big names were Dick Whittinghill and Don Rickles but that was in the late 1940s. (More here) In their country music era reputedly KIEV shared staff and programming with KWOW in Pomona. References are hard to find. Jim Wood was there in 1964 for certain. Reputedly Jim Woods had two adopted sons, Frank and Michael. His father owned Woods Mortuary. Maybe that's the wrong Woods. There were at least six  identifiable Jim Woods' in radioland in the 1960s, and for the man in question, Jim Wood was only his on-air name. His real name was Ralph James Silkwood. 

He is not the more famous Jim Woods aka "Big" Jim Wood aka  "The Vanilla Gorilla", who's baritone voice hit big at KRLA and KROQ. That Jim Woods also spent time at WSPD, KILT, WIBG and even XPRS. [SOURCE] [SOURCE]. Ditto, this isn't the Jim Woods at KPOL and KZLA who later worked at Fan Club Management Services, nor the one at Midwest Broadcasting (KDMA etc) in 1960. I also doubt that he's the Jim Wood from WJR and WWJ in the late 1950s, nor the Jim Wood from KRAK-AM/FM in Stockton, CA. (That Jim Wood was the alias of Jim Smallwood.) There are actually even more Jim Woods' in the record. For some reason that name is very common in radioland in the late 1950s and it complicates the story.

Our Jim Wood is most notable for being a suspect in the hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 on on November 24, 1971 under the name D.B. Cooper. Without that chance intersection he would be far more obscure. It would be prudent to point out now that the FBI eliminated him as a suspect. But they also never caught anyone...

There were literally hundreds of suspects. But only one of them was a DJ: Ralph J. Silkwood. His best known show was on 870 KIEV-AM in Los Angeles. The conspiracy folks often report that he was also a DJ in Portland, OR but the call letters are never mentioned. It turns out he was much more than a DJ and there are several FCC dockets confirming the details. In 1960, Broadcasting magazine reported that Ralph J. Silkwood filed an application to operate on 900 kHz at 1,000 watts as Jefferson Country Broadcasting in Kalamath Falls. That application never went anywhere because of a man named Hansen.

In 1964, Ralph J. Silkwood tried to transfer his ownership share in Medford, Broadcasters, Inc. to W.H. Hansen. At the time Medford Broadcasting owned 1300 KDOV-AM Medford, OR; 570 KCNO-AM Alturas, CA; and a CP on 93.7, also in Medford. But the FCC had a problem with W.H. Hansen, and to a lesser extent his son Robert. For their part the Hansens' had some messy paperwork. It was unclear who owned what. Contracts had not been filed with the FCC and the paperwork they did file was not accurate. They also filed conflicting CPs for KDAD in Weed, CA under the ownership of Shasta Cascade Broadcasting; co-owner of KWSD. W.H. Hansen had not disclosed his ownership of KCNO, leaving Robert in hot water. The FCC did not like this at all. [SOURCE]  While Silkwood was innocent of the airline hijacking, there was something very shady about KDOV.

"The Shasta Petition supported by an affidavit of personal knowledge, alleges misrepresentations, undisclosed ownership, lack of candor and violations of our reporting rules at KDAD, Weed, Calif., by both the permittee of record, Jay C. Lemire, and W. H. Hansen, while he was a proposed assignee. Again, information before the Commission tends to support these allegations, not only against W. H. Hansen-Lemire at KDAD,, but also against W. H. Hansen at Stations KDOV, Medford, Oreg.,. and KCNO, Alturas, Calif."

Silkwood had only bought his 50% share of the station station from K.C. Laurence in 1958. It is not a coincidence that the tower collapsed in September of that year. The problem being that Laurance only owned 62.5 shares Hansen scammed everyone. Laurance only owned an option to buy the other 62.5 shares from Hansen.  In court documents Hansen refers to Silkwood as "Jim Silkwood. The same document discloses that Hansen also owned shares in KDAN and KBOY. Silkwood spent 8 years trying to be rid of the albatross he had only bought with $5,000 Hansen "gave" him. [SOURCE] 

The transfer of KDOV was dismissed as moot in 1972 by the commission indicating that something else had resolved the ownership question. The 1973 issue of the Broadcasting yearbook reveals that the station was deleted.  The KDOV call letters had reappeared on 1350 in Ashland, OR operated by Faith Tabernacle, that station still exists today, albeit from Phoenix, OR as a sports talker. In 1959 The Medford Mail Tribune tells us one more thing about Silkwood and KDOV:

"Buddy Knox, western and rock and roll artist, and the Rhythm Orchids will perform from 9 to 1 o'clock tonight at Dreamland ballroom. Knox, six-foot vocalist who was born in Happy, Texas, and the musical group began their recording career with "Party Doll." Jim Silkwood, of radio station KDOV, is promoting the local dance and program."

(Buddy Knox was a passable Buddy Holly clone. More here.) The Dreamland Ballroom was located on E. Main Street in Medford, upstairs from the Isis movie theater. More here. What's relevant about this is that it indicates KDOV was playing rock n' roll in 1959, and that Silkwood was playing an active part in operating the station, as a DJ and promoter. It also confirms Hansen's contention that Silkwood at least sometimes went by his middle name. But there the trail ends. While Hansen continued to get in legal trouble regularly, Silkwood becomes a ghost.

But there is one more, very strange Robert Silkwood incident to report. Reported in the San Rafael Daily Independent Journal of July 1963 a man by that name, with the alias E. Babeaux. He managed to have a series of fits, each at a bus station, and each time getting first aid, then being rushed to a hospital. He did this twice in San Francisco, and once in Santa Rosa. He may have had Munchausen syndrome, or maybe he just liked ambulance rides.

PSC to PDX

I didn't drive directly from Tri-Cities to San Francisco. I drove from Portland to Tri-Cities and back to Portland, and only then down that long winding coastal road. Route 101 originates in Washington state where it wraps around the Olympic peninsula. Most sources give  that location as Olympia but I think the start of the ramp off is technically in Tumwater. The southern Terminus is in Los Angeles 1,540 miles away. The ramp  roughly at the ramp for S. Grande Vista Ave.

Two stations call Tumwater their city of license: 1340 KUOW-AM, and on 95.3 K237FR, the HD2 repeater of KYYO. Many stations give their city of license as Olympia: KAOS, KPLI, KXXO, KKWF, and seven repeaters and translators. Almost none of those towers are actually in either city. KAOS or course is local, as is KPLI; even KXXO way out on Capitol Peak at the Weyerhaeuser Radio Site in the Capitol forest is technically in Olympia. Strangely it's the repeaters that seem to be out of town like K270CJ and  K262CY repeater, are out of town.

K270CJ reminded me of something I've been observing for years now: the slow migration of oldies and classic rock playlists into the 1980s and even 1990s. By extension Country Oldies has also time-traveled to the 1980s which is frankly not a good era and I'm sorry to report that Nostalgia, the old big band format is basically extinct. But more on all that in a bit. 

Appropriate, to this topic, K270CJ at one point did broadcast "Olympia's Boomer Rock and Roll" as "Boom FM." But it's the HD3 channel of KRXY, that's not front row. HD3 is the back seat of the station wagon. (On the 94.5 FM stick they're broadcasting Hot AC.) But if you go to the website it has very mixed branding. It has KYA-FM in the header, but the URL is still Theboomfm, and the text describes the music as "Classic Hits" which is not oldies or classic rock. Notably the banner at the top is broken. I had forgotten this existed but this is all that remains of the old KYAgold site. That last flip of the FM stick happened in march of 1994 at 93.3 KYCY in San Francisco ending a brand stretching back into the early 1970s. [LINK] Per a December 2022 conversation on radiodiscussions.com [SOURCE] K270CJ flipped to SuperCFL and the steam flipped to sports which is what I found. However, I've found multiple other KYA streams... that are on-brand and still running.

• KYA Gold

• 1260 KYA Radio

• 94.7 KYA Radio1

I stocked up on  Calvin Johnson mix tapes at the Rainy Day Record Co. . but there's no tape deck in the car. So I spent this leg of the trip doing a bandscan while driving along the Columbia River gorge. This was an interesting experiment as there are no AM or FM transmitters in side of it but alternately behind the bluffs and hills around it. 

 

Heading to (Yakima-Pasco- Richland-Kennewick) Most of the drive is decidedly rural, these are white areas of the metro map. You can see the course of the river in the shape of the surrounding counties. But Route 14, aka The Lewis and Clark Highway,  starts in Vancouver, WA; home of 91.9 KOUV-LP, which is still a CP and 97.5 KDOA-LP a Caribbean station with a complicated resume. They sold their stick on 101.5 in the Dalles to the religious satcaster Educational Media Foundation (EMF). That station became KJYV in 2019 and then KDLZ in 2022. KDOA moved to 97.5 in 2021 but in September of 2023 filed a CP to move to 99.9. Both CPs are still active,but EMF (the E also stands for Evil) has a translator on 97.5 for KLVP making 99.9 the safer bet. They did file a proper STA [LINK] to remain silent due to that "copious interference" which they were when I drove through.

The first town of any note is Camas which has two location stations KIEV-LP "outlaw country" [LINK] and KNRK and by extension the HD-2 channel of KNRK, Alternative Classics. They were playing Kings of Leon when I last checked, a new cut from 2024. Alternative perhaps, classic? No. The Freeway ends at Washougal and while KMHD comes in clear there's nothing new on the dial I couldn't hear in Vancouver. The transmitters on Mount Hood are mostly on the south side of that summit and not particularly clear here.

Further down the road was the town Skamania, a perfect town for a ska-fest, or ska band. It's never happened but there have been a few near-misses. In 1964 Carlos Malcolm And His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms put out a record "Ska-Mania" which opened with the single "Skamania" it's mostly about curry. The Supertones and Five Iron Frenzy did a tour in 1998  named "Skamania." The band the Skatalites put out a record in 1996 "Greetings from Skamania." That's both one first wave and one second wave ska band, but still no love for the unincorporated community in Oregon. But if you're looking for local music in Skamania, Matthew McDonnell put our a cassette in 1992 "A Musical history and tour of the Columbia River Gorge."  Good luck finding it. A few miles later I pass the Bridge of the Gods.

After a quick stop at North bank Books I hit the road. 104.5 KPLP reports a city of license right on the water in White salmon, but they use a stick 23 miles away in Parkdale. It's another christian contemporary station.  I headed on to The Dalles; home of KQHR, KOTD, KMSW, KACI, KDLZ, KACI, KODL and another 9 FM repeaters.  92.7 KMSW purports to be Classic Rock and 1440 KODL to be Classic Country; both have slide into the 1980s. On the AM band are two more: news talker KACI-AM and and KODL-AM, both simulcasting on their respective FM sticks. I can just get 102.3 KRSX a standard issue country FM station.  They're 12 miles inland up route 97 to nowhere. Further down the road I can just get 106.1 KWCQ out of Condon, OR 33 miles away.

By the time I get to Boardman, before the river hooks north, The dial turns over to mostly Tri-Cities stations. Public stations KOLU, KRBM and KFAE comes in clearly but just like my last visit the college station KWCW is elusive. Half the dial is country music stations. I tried for 980 KTCR looking for an oldies station and got more 80s music. I can however get two other classic country stations out here: 1240 KTIX-AM and 1360 KOHU. Both have playlists that also lean into the 1980s but KOHU is certainly more interesting with a lot more old style lap steel. Both stations cover an area in the hills south east of Tri-Cities proper out in those white areas of the map. Station 101.9 KNHK is also classic country but I couldn't receive it. 

On the drive back there was one RF mystery that took me hours to make sense of. On 1230 AM I could hear this Spanish music for most of the drive. In trying to guess the location of the transmitter, I found it was strong fore and aft even as I rounded sharp corners, and tall hills loomed over head. I even considered it being a pirate. It turns out that 1230 KDYM-AM Sunnyside (near Yakima) and 1230 KRYN-AM in Gresham both simulcast "Estacion de la Familia radio". They are 170 miles apart at opposite ends of the Columbia river, but because of the depth of the gorge you can usually receive it anywhere between Portland and Kennewick. But which one you receive depends on which side of the mountain you're facing.

The Hawthorne Thing

In his later years Jim Hawthorne was a contributor to www.laradio.com which is how I came to know of him. His radio career took in the 1940s on KXLA in Pasadena, CA. He was a wacky DJ playing novelty songs and spinning his shtick three decades before Dr. Demento got into that racket. The good doctor himself described Hawthorne as "one of a kind."You can hear air-checks here.

He was born in Victor, CO, a suburb of Colorado Springs in 1918. He enrolled at Denver University and fresh out of college in 1941 he found work on 1340 KMYR-AM in Denver, CO. (No connection to the form FM station) KMYR-AM was founded in 1940 by Frederick W. Meyer, a local grocer. The studio was on the second floor of the Industrial Federal Savings and Loan Building at 1626 Stout St. It appears that the original building still stands.

Hawthorne relocated to L.A. the following year to start at KXLA. His show was more reserved at first but by 1947,  Time magazine described it as "Hellzapoppin on the air." His overnight program featured songs by Tex Ritter,  Spike Jones, Homer and Jethro, Buddy Baker, Red Ingle and Slim Coates, and cuts that were already old even then by Arthur Pryor, Billy Murray. That's when he started cutting novelty 45s. Don't even get me started about the hogan-twanger. More here.

Starting in 1948, he produced and starred in his Saturday night syndicated NBC program, "The Hawthorne Thing." Most sources list it as starting in 1950, but Billboard clearly lists it in issues as early as 1947. But he hopped around after that. He did a Top-10 type program at KYA in 1957. He went back to LA in 1959 for a gig at KDAY, then in 1960 he worked at KFWB but the station was shut down by an AFTRA strike in 1962 and flipped to all-news. More here.

1965 he did a children's show on KMGB-TV in Honolulu from 1965 - 1969.  He was on KOA-AM back home in Denver starting in 1974 doing overnights and then PD for both KOA and KOAQ-FM. He left there in 1985 when Jacor bought the cluster and "retired" him. He was 67 and not quite done, he popped back up in 1991 on 1500 KIEV-AM to recreate his classic KXLA schtick as a weekly program. then he retired for real. He died in 2007. He was 89 years old. 

Woody Guthrie on KFVD

Woody Guthrie traveled a lot for work. In 1938 he went to Redding, California to work on the Kenneth Dam. He was not alone. In his own words:

"In a bend of the Sacramento is the town of Redding,California. The word had scattered out that twenty-five hundred workers was needed to build the Kenneth Dam, and already eight thousand work hands had come to do the job... I fell off of the freight with my guitar over my shoulder and asked a guy when the work was going to start. He said it was supposed to get going last month. Telegram hadn't come from Washington yet."

That dam if it ever existed, even on paper was never built. Woody headed south to Los Angeles and managed to get a daily radio show on 1000 KFVD-AM. He was trying to save up money to bring his wife and child to LA to live with him. It was a time in which the west coast as very country. The Saddle Tramps were on KFOX, The Saddle Pals were on KMPC, Sons of the Pioneers were on KRKD and both Sutart Hamblen and Roy Rogers were stars. Woody and his cousin Jack auditioned for Frank Burke Jr. who gave them a daily 15-minute slot at 8:00 AM. It was early enough they could still fit in a days labor after the gig. It was called the Oklahoma and Woody Show. More here.

Maxine Crissman guested on a couple shows and when jack left to work, she became the other half of the duo. She picked up the stage name Lefty Lou and it became the Woody and Lefty Lou Show in 1937. It did well enough He was able to bring his family to LA that year. They managed to pick up a couple extra gigs together on KIEV-AM in Glendale, and the program was extended from 15 minutes to half an hour then they added an 11pm show. Then Mrs. Guthrie decided that there was a little hanky panky between Lefty Lou and Guthrie.

They performed on KFVD until 1938 when a big offer came to move the program to 1010 XELO-AM in Tijuana. The deal included a big raise, a longer program and creative control. It was a border blaster and sent Woody's program across the Midwest and into Canada. They got an invitation to play the Big Barn Dance on WLS, then it fell apart. They had a big fight with the Mexican police and Woody was briefly arrested. The WLS invite was lost. The owner of XELO left town owing them money. So they went back to KVFD, but Maxine fell ill and had difficulty performing. The show fizzled out and Woody left for New York in 1939. Woody didn't perform again on radio until Alan Lomax put him on his CBS "Folk School on the Air" show.