In 1979, to celebrate KCOW’s 30th anniversary, interviews were conducted with several figures from the station’s past.  One of these past employees, Skip Stephenson, had made it big by ’79 as one of the hosts of NBC’s “Real People”, an early reality show that featured human interest stories.

The interviewer asked Skip to share a memory of Alliance, and Skip remembered a very familiar tale to anyone who grew up in Alliance:

We will be airing the full 9-minute interview with Skip Stephenson, who passed away in 1992, Monday morning January 21 on KCOW as part of our first in a monthly series of “flashback days”.  The January Flashback Day is sponsored by G and L Auto Detailing in Alliance.

This week’s photo features Jim Shull, who served as News Director for KCOW from 1990 to 1995.  Before our completely new studios were built in 2013, the newsroom was connected to the main KCOW on-air studio by a large window.

This photo gives us a look at pre-digital radio technology; in the upper left corner is a rack of “carts”, magnetic tape cartridges that slightly resemble 8-track tapes.  Each cart contained audio such as commercials, jingles, and program features.  Behind Jim is a “3-deck” playback machine that allowed multiple carts to be used back-to-back.

Carts (along with cassettes and reel-to-reel tape) were used at KCOW into the early 2000s.  Digital workstations replaced them all.

Earlier this week we welcomed Tim Garwood and Gretchen Garwood to our Alliance studios for a conversation about former KCOW General Manager Mike Garwood.  That conversation will air in its entirety on KCOW later this year as part of our monthly series of 70th anniversary interviews.  But at the very end of the conversation, Gretchen shared a memory of KCOW’s earliest days.

 

In preparing to celebrate KCOW’s 70th anniversary, we’ve done some looking back to previous milestones in the station’s history.  In 1999, the station marked 50 years on the air with a variety of events and activities.  The KCOW staff served as Grand Marshals of the 1999 Box Butte County Fair parade; commemorative 50th anniversary mugs bearing the “K-Cow” mascot were awarded to listeners; and the station held a big party for listeners with the Dean Bushnell big band at Heartland Aviation.

Our KCOW 70th photo of the week features an article about the station’s 50th from the Hemingford Ledger, including a photo of the staff taken by Hemingford’s own Lyle Fodnes.

In the years since this photo was taken, the KCOW family has said goodbye to Doug Abbott (died 2004), Mike Garwood (2007), John Jones (2016) and Dennis Klinker (2018).  Of the group in the photo, Mike Glesinger, Jason Wentworth and Helen Iossi remain on staff.  The 20 years since KCOW’s 50th anniversary have brought technological advancements, new studios, an FM translator at 92.5 FM and streaming audio.  But the goal is as it was in 1999 when Mike Garwood told the Ledger, “The salvation of the small market is going to be community service.”