The Novelty Boys

Jimmie Pierson and Richard "Dick" Klasi were the Novelty Boys,leaders of a touring and yodeling old time country music troupe. I say troupe because their group grew to include a number of other members including Cora Deane, Cleora Cooper, Johnny Buffington and others. Dick and Jimmie were farms boys that first met in 1931 working at the Henry Field Company.

Henry Field was a seed company, they still exist today. Like many small businesses of the era, they sponsored tom on their local radio station. In this case that was 780 WJAG-AM in Norfolk, NE.  WJAG was owned by the Norfolk Daily News, so you can imagine there was some reciprocity there. While the station's main studio was at the Hotel Norfolk, the Henry Field Company programs aired daily from a studio built at one of their branch stores.It is there that Jimmie and Dick debuted on air. They later played KSOO-AM for Henry Field as well. First they played as the Nebraskan Trio, then as The Oklahoma Wranglers which they used for about 3 years. 

They went on to play at KFNF-AM near Shenandoah, IA and on KOIL-AM in Omaha, NE.
In was there that they picked up the name "The Novelty Boys."  There they were sponsored by the Aksarben Horse Show and were also able to play WAAW-AM and WOW-AM. In 1934 they played on KMOX-AM.  They also played for a time on WNAX-AM in Yankton, SD. In 1937 Jimmie Pierson's little brother, Melvin "Willie" Pierson, joined the group. He stayed on for a New England tour that included WABI-AM in Bangor.

In WWII Jimmie went into the service, and his brother Willie filled in for him. the group returned to St. Louis and appeared on several stations, then stayed on at KMA-AM in Shenandoah. When Jimmie returned they tried to reunite, but illness struck and many members struck off. Jimmie and Willie played as part of a trio with Willies wife Lois on WIBW-TV, but the good times were over. Willie has a second career as a DJ on KRFM, a radioman at last.

Don Burden

There are movers and shakers you never hear about. They are the men behind the curtain, the holders of the strings, the property and the purses. the mars family for example is notoriously camera shy, and press-phobic, but run the largest confectionery company in the world. But radioland has it's own for sure. Today lets talk about Don Burden. I don't know Don personally, but the history of things gives me the impression that Burden was bad news. But it is those inflexible, unreasonable people who can truly excel. Consider Steve Jobs. He was truly spectacularly successful, but he was also an unrepentant asshole. So in the same light, consider the saga of Don Burden.

KOIL-AM first signed on in 1925 at 278 meters as a 1,000 watt daytimer out of Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is right across the river from Omaha so it blanketed that metro. They survived 28 years not unscathed, but at least undiminished before Don Burden came in from KWIK-AM in Pocatello, Idaho. In about 1950 Central States Broadcasting had to unload 1290 KOIL-AM to the Union Holding Company because the FCC was on a tear, actually  enforcing ownership limits. (for once)  But  Union Holding Co. was based in Lincoln, NE and had some trouble selling enough ads to keep things running properly. Don Burden bought the station for $185k with just $5k down. He was 25 years old and probably more ambitious than is probably safe.

Burden promoted the station big time, and now with local ownership resumed selling airtime with zeal. He poached several of the popular staffers from KOWH-AM across the street. In fairness, they were in the middle of a Top-40 ratings war, and KOIL won. He bought up other stations including KISN-AM in Portland and WIFE-AM  in Indianapolis. In 1959, he entered the FM band with 96.1 KOIL-FM. It began as a KOIL-AM simulcast, but in 1966 went to Beautiful Music.

But all along that successful path, Burden was making enemies, because he was an abusive prick. You can read some stories here. He grabbed DJs by the ear, and called them "fucking gypsies" and other even more choice  obscenities. He could be set off into a profane tirade by a misplaced stack of tapes, or open beverage containers. He got results, but when you get them that way.. there is no one to defend you when you go down... and some of them are just waiting to get their revenge.

The mid 1960s he began manipulating their news coverage of certain political races including an Oregon gubernatorial race in 1966, an Indiana U.S. Senate race in 1964, and a number of other political campaigns. Fox News does this every day now, but back in the sixties this was illegal.[It still probably should be.] The FCC investigated ethics complaints against him. the charges in the end were just a laundry list of every nasty thing he'd ever done, the rigged contests, double billing, illegal gifts, and those political missteps. He was probably guilty of most of it. They shut down his entire radio chain in September 1976: KISN, KOIL, WIFE and KEFM (formerly KOIL-FM). They spared nothing. Many have said that it was the harshest punishment the FCC ever dished out. More here.

In 1976 KOIL returned to the air under new ownership. Burden managed not to be convicted of any criminal wrong-doing, but lost between $15 and $20 million dollars of radio properties. In 1978, he bought another station, 97.7 KPEN-FM, in Los Altos California. He had been defacto running that station since 1963 but he didn't own it so they couldn't take it away. He sold it off in 1983. He died in 1985 at the age of 56.

The Mona Motor Oil Twins

Now this is truly obscure. There are scant few references to the Mona Motor Oil Twins, and many of them erroneously list them as the Mono Motor Oil Twins. It's difficult to track down any information on the group. but we do know that they had a little something to do with KOIL. The Mona Motor Oil Company owned 1080 KOIL-AM, which signed on July 10, 1925. (They didn't move to 1290 until much later) They originally broadcast from twin towers in Council Bluffs, Iowa and then moved to Omaha in 1937.  None of my books even gave a year. Thankfully Google scans newspapers. The Milwaukee Journal newspaper mentioned the Mona Motor Oil Twins in a short article on Sept 6th 1928.

"Ned and John, the Mona Motor Oil Twins, from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and station KOIL  will broadcast a special program over WTMJ, the Milwaukee Journal station from 7 to 7:30 and from 10 to 10:30 tonight. They will sing a number of popular songs of today and play a few Hawaiian guitar selections. Listen to the twins tonight over WTMJ."

That's the whole thing. I have also found exactly one 78 release by the duo titled "The Book on Etiquette/ I'm Saving Saturday Night For You" on Columbia [1340 D]. Modern complication CDs seem to list that first track as 'Etiquette Blues." That was also released in 1928. A 1927 issue of Ohio State University monthly lists the Mona Motor Oil Twins the morning of Tuesday, May 10th.My impression here is that the group was very short-lived. The Encyclopedia of American Radio lists entries for a Mona Motor Oil Trio, and a Mona Motor Oil String Quartet.

What ultimately happened to ned and Jonh we may never know.  The great depression was hard on the Mona Motor Oil Co. before the crash, the Mona Motor Oil complex was expanding down South 6th Stree. but after things were bad. Barnsdall Corp. acquired the company in 1932. They sold KOIL to promoter Don Burden in 1953. The stories about Don Burden deserve their own post and he too will have his day.

Bobby Dale

Bobby dale is dead, long live Bobby Dale.He was interviewed on his deathbed in 2001 and from those transcripts, a biography was written by Lou Waters. Bobby talked like a hipster, because he was one. In some ways he was an archetypal hipster embodying what was hep after the word hep went out of fashion. Lou knew Bobby from their time together on 630 KDWB-AM in Minneapolis back in 1960. Lou's own fame came from his time at CNN. The book is spectacular.

He was born Robert Dale Bastiansen on July 27, 1931, in Minneapolis. He left town at 25 for his first radio gig. But he wasn't from San Francisco at all, not even California. Bobby Dale started out in Glendive. The Bay Area Radio Museum says it's Glendive Minnesota. But, there is no Glendive in Minesota. I assume they mean Glendive, Montana. Don't feel bad, other sources also get it wrong, even citing Glendive Missouri. Bobby left Glendive in 1960 for a job at KOIL-AM in Omaha, NE where he replaced 18-year-old Gary Owens. Owens had left for KFWB, as Bobby would soon as well.

Less than a year later KDWB Minneapolis. In 1961, when the talent at 980 KFWB-AM went on strike, Booby flew down to start as a scab. In a stroke of irony, B. Mitchell Reed of KFWB flew to KDWB to take over Bobby's now vacant position. He stayed there until 1963, moving to KRLA in 1964, after a short spin at KEWB. Then he plowed through almost every station on the dial. He was on KFRC in 1966, and KSFO twice. He did a year in 1968 when it was an MOR station and returned in 1971 for another 4 year spin while they were an AC station. In between he tried weekends at KGBS and KSAN.
In the early 1980s he moved to the north side of the bay spinning swing music at 1510 KTIM-AM, in San Rafael, CA, a daytimer. Then he went back to San Francisco to work at KKCY. The station became KOFY in 1986 and he remained on board. He retired from full-time radio in 1990 but still made time to make an occasional appearance on the University of San Francisco campus station, KUSF.

Things went downhill rapidly for Dale. In 1992 he lost his voice. In the exam before an operation to remove nodules from his vocal chords it was discovered that he had diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and heart problem. He succumbed to liver cancer in 2001, he was 69 years old.

Breakfast with the Johnsons

Reality TV has been an exploding genre since that pasty and trite "Real World" sham graces the cablevision universe with it's debut on MTV in 1992. Twenty seasons later a hundred similarly conceived TV programs have come and gone, and nobody has yet to refer to where reality programming began.

Before reality television there was reality radio. Reality radio, began it's first contrived motions in 1952 on WBBM-AM. It was a half-hour radio show hosted by Cliff Johnson from the kitchen of his Oak Park home. It ran for 10 years.

The show was basically arranged around a breakfast table in the Johnson home. The characters be they real or otherwise were: breadwinner Mr. Johnson, homemaker /wife, Luella, and four daughters, ages 2 to 10: Linda, Pamela, and Vicki. The family pet was a parakeet named Olaf. It died and was mourned on-air. When Mrs. Johnson became pregnant with Cliff Jr. the cast expanded. Read more here.

Girls chatted about school and boys boys, were prominent characters. It mirrored real life in that era milkman and mail man included.

At 7:30 in the morning, Monday through Friday. The microphones were installed all over the Johnson home. Children would wandered in, and the milkman would come in. They talked about each other, Chicago, and the world. It was like Oak Park, IL had its own radio show.

Clifford Johnson was born on a dairy farm in Beresford, SD. He married Luella in 1938. they relocated to Lincoln and it was there that he got a job with the Central States Network. his good reputation there got him a gig at KOIL in Omaha. That high profile gig led him to WBBM in Chicago in 1941.

First he was was host of "Meet the Missus", then "Shopping with the Missus", and "Listen to Cliff". His eponymous show caught the notice of Philip K. Wrigley, who brought him on board at KNX. There he filled in for Jack Bailey during his show "Queen for a Day" and once for Art Linkletter and his segment "Kids Say the Darnedest Things." It was that show that supposedly inspired Cliff to dream up "Breakfast with the Johnsons."

After 10 great years at the breakfast table, Cliff moved on. He became host of "Sounds of Europe." He received the Dwight Eisenhower Award for his news work there. He was managing editor from 1964 to 1968 at 1390 WNUS-AM. Then at the age of 77 he went back to college earned a degree in theology and one on communications. he spent the remainder of his life volunteering and doing community work. In 1993 the Illinois state assembly honored him with a resolution deciding his life's accomplishments.

DJ Mean Gene Okerlund

KOIL-AM is like many other early Midwestern AMs. It's had its ups and down and very arcane "firsts." But it is the only one to have a DJ move on to MC'ing pro-wrestling bouts. Mean Gene Okerlund started his career at 1290 KOIL-AM under his real name, Gary Mack as a disc jockey. Yes that is the same guy from Pro Wrestling.

Originally KOIL was owned by the Mona Motor Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Monarch Manufacturing Company, the "OIL" in KOIL was just a standard marketing tie-in. Its two tower array was in Fairmont Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is directly across the border from Omaha. Known as KOIL was the second station licensed to the Omaha metro. Initially it broadcast on 1080 AM as a day timer then moved to 1290 AM and began 24/7 service.

The studio was in a building at Park & Huntington Streets, described as the first in the nation built with the expressed purpose of being a radio station. It still exists today as a private residence. But that's not the studio that DJ Mean Gene hung his hat.

When the FCC began to enforce duopoly rules in the early 50s, Central States Broadcasting retained one station KFOR and ditched KOIL and 1110 KFAB-AM. 1240 KFAB went to the May Broadcasting Company, and KOIL was transferred to the Union Holding Company, a cooperative group. KOIL went on to become the first ABC affiliate west of the Mississippi and the second NBC affiliate west of the Mississippi. It was the first radio station to incorporate an electronic Kilgen pipe organ into its studios for whatever that's worth. During its peak in live programming in the 1960's, KOIL had two orchestras and it employed about 100 people. ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WAS MEAN GENE OKERLUND!

Mona Oil began faltering through the Depression and was forced to suspend its radio operation. KOIL became a part of the Central States Broadcasting group, headquartered out of Lincoln and owned by the Charles Stuart family. The core of the group were KOIL, KFOR, and KFAB (originally licensed to Lincoln, now in Omaha). Incidentally, these cities are home to Mean Genes own chain of burger joints, bowling alleys and pizzerias.

Omaha's 1290 AM frequency is now KKAR, a popular conservative-leaning talker. http://www.kkar.com/

the KOIL call letters reside on 1020 in Plattsmouth, NE. .. another radio Disney outlet. http://www.koilcountry1020.com/