Chapter XXVII (Big D) 2/08/23 (27)

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Hung out with Chapman
at K-V-I-L

We made a little magic
as we gave ’em all hell.

Kay-Ville was once
the best in the nation.

But now she’s just
another radio station.

Back when Jim Hilliard hired me to be the National PD of Fairbanks, he’d just purchased KVIL for a million eight, and the Dallas radio people thought he was crazy.
Later CBS would pay 85 million for it, but I doubt they’d even get stick value for it today.

A couple of weeks after I started work in Indy, Jim said that we were going to make an unofficial visit to Dallas.
When the GM of KVIL, Bob Hana, picked us up at Love Field and Jim told him that this was my first trip to Dallas, he said, “Then let’s get this out of the way.”

The next thing I knew, we were at Dealey Plaza, where he directed my attention to the window where Lee Harvey Oswald took the shot heard around the world.
While there, he also pointed out the famous grassy knoll, which has fueled hundreds of conspiracy theories for years.

Then he said, “Ok, enough of the bad news George, now if you look across the street, you’ll see the good news.”
Out there strolling on their lunch break were the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. They all looked like Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and I could hardly wait to design a radio station for them.

The next morning we had breakfast with Bob and his Program Director, Ron Chapman, at the Fairmont Hotel.
Some forty years later, during his opening remarks at the KVIL reunion, Ron recalled that breakfast where he remembered thinking, “This quiet, unassuming Canadian is going to be our rating’s savior?”

A few years ago, in Chicago, I had the honor of inducting Ron into his third Hall of Fame.
Later that evening, while having cocktails in the lobby bar at the Palmer House,  we reminisced about our early days at KVIL.

Ron claimed that he vividly remembers the day I changed his career.
He said it happened while we were walking down the hall when the station was in Hyland Park, and he was explaining to me that the reason that he didn’t have a phone in the studio was that he thought it distracted the air talent.

Then he said that I stopped and said to him, “Ron, we’re doing a lot of new stuff on the air, you may want a phone in there just  to hear what the folks think about what we’re doing.”
According to Ron, the phone went in the next day, and he spent the rest of his career answering it.

Over the years, a lot of people have taken credit for KVIL’s phenomenal success, so when I went back to the above-mentioned reunion, I asked Jack Schell to point out all the geniuses to me.
Jack said he couldn’t because they were all outside parking cars.

The truth is, no one person is responsible for KVIL; it took a lot of brilliant people to take the billing from thirty-five thousand a month to the two million dollar mark.
KVIL became so successful that even Mr. Fairbanks couldn’t handle it and said, “That bubble’s going to burst,” so he sold it. Burst it did, albeit some twenty years later.

Initially, Hilliard wanted a soft launch because he was waiting for Arbitron to combine the Dallas and Ft. Worth rating books.
Doing so would take D/FW into the top 10, which would pump a few extra million dollars into the marketplace.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, so we created a stalling technique.
We did a concept called “Build your own radio station.”

It began with a unique blend of music and some outstanding Heller Jingles featuring the Wrecking Crew.
We also ran some Chuck Riley promos saying, “103.7 on the FM dial has been turned over to the people of Texas, so we need your help.”

When a few folks said they needed the time and temp now and then, we gave them Ron Chapman in the morning.
When others said it would be nice to know if the world was still out when they woke up, we put Bob Morrison and Andy McCollum together to assure them that all was well.

For those worried about getting to work on time, we put Suzie Humphreys up in a jet chopper to monitor the traffic.
Then when they said, “Hey, what about the weather, we gave it to them color radar style.

And for those folks who needed to know how the  Cowboys were doing, we got Mayor Wes Wise to tell them.
Oh, and our billboard that read, “Wise with Ron,”was on the front page of the Dallas Morning News. 

When Arbitron finally combined the Dallas and Fort Worth rating books, KVIL went on a promotional rampage which began with non-stop contests.
We gave away all kinds of things like trips around the world, cars, diamonds from Tiffany’s, and a ton of cash.

Our biggest promotion, though, didn’t cost a cent. One morning Ron said, “If you’ve got an extra twenty, send it to me, and we’ll figure out later what to do with it.
Within three days, he received over a quarter of a million dollars and begged the folks to stop.

We didn’t just contest; we did some promotions designed to make the TV news, like Ron Chapman and Mike Seldon racing each other around the world.
Then Ron did his show underwater in a shark tank with seven sharks when the movie “Jaws” made people afraid to even go in their pools.

Ron also did his first-ever parachute jump live on the air, and as he floated down, the TV cameras were waiting for him. width=

Oh, and did I mention that KVIL was also responsible for choosing which lovely ladies got to try out for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders? (see above)
They even made a movie about the process, which featured Ron playing himself. (See movie poster below)
Not only did we have the legendary Ron Chapman on KVIL, but we also had gifted characters like Bill Gardner, who won Billboard Magazine’s “Personality Of The Year” during our first year of operation.
Or how about Major Tom Lewis, who became a prominent TV weatherman in DC and filled in on the Today Show?

Wildman Cat Simon replaced Tom, and speaking of weather, our mid-day guy, Jack Schell, delivered the best weathercast I’ve ever heard.
“Look at that sky,” he said, “Cecil B. DeMille would pay a couple of million dollars for it, but you’ve got it free right here in Dallas, Texas.”

Mike Selden was our boogie maniac in the afternoons until the talented, pretty boy; Larry Dixon replaced him with some help from Billy Bob Harris doing Texas-style stock market updates from his pickup truck.

When Suzie Humphreys became fearful of flying, we put Ben Laurie in the chopper and moved Suzie to the Yellow Van.
Suzie always knew where the superstars were, so instead of them having to dress up for a studio visit, some of them rode around with her in the van.

I’ll never forget the morning Ron went to Suzie for a report, and all we heard was Willie singing “On The Road Again” live from the Yellow Van.
The result of all the mayhem and madness is that I’m proud to say that most of KVIL’s original staff, pictured above and below, are deservedly in the Radio Hall Of Fame.

One thought on “Chapter XXVII (Big D) 2/08/23 (27)

  1. Rob Ray:You Forgot To mention the Amazing Chuck Rhoads as Program Director!! (Big D Little a)
    Geo: That must have been when I was no longer involved, Rob, Chuck was Ron Chapman’s assistant during my tenure.

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