The February 2010 meeting of the
History of Idaho Broadcasting Foundation
took place on Friday February 12th
from 11:30-1:30 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill in located West Boise. Special thanks to Corporate Member Citadel Broadcasting,
and specifically to KBOI-KTIK-KQFC Account Executive Katlin Cauffman for arranging the meeting place,
and to the management and staff of the restaurant for their excellent service and cooperation.
Having 40 plus people in the back room listening to old tapes of Wolfman Jack
is not something they do every day, but they came through in flying colors for us!
We’d also like to thank Citadel Assistant Chief Engineer Bill Frahm for bringing the station’s PA system and wireless microphone, and to thank Citadel Production Director Scott Cruise for making CDs of the aircheck to pass out to all members at the meeting. Thanks to Rockwell Smith for taking pictures!
Foundation Officers attending the meeting were President Art Gregory and Corporate Treasurer and Webmaster Rockwell Smith, who is Chief Engineer for the four FM radio stations, owned by Corporate Member Journal Broadcast Group. Vice President Frank Aden Jr. could not attend, but was there in spirit, grooving out to the Wolfman!
Guests of honor included former KFXD-AM announcer Jerry Rohnert, and Member Tom Scott, KFXD’s former Music Director from 1970-1975 and Program Director from 1975-1978.
Foundation Members attending included: Kitty Fleischman, Clint Tinsley, Al Hale, Don Morin, Del Chapman, Ray Littrell, Larry Taylor, Larry Chase, Gerry Moser, Melva Mattson, Shawn Kimmell, Tom Newman, Katlin Cauffman, RW Egelston, Cindee Scholfield, Lucas Babin, Bob Ahmann, Jim Johntz, Andy Johntz, Wendy Green, Blair Crook, Bill Frahm, Andy and Linda Enrico, Doug Copsey, Larry Newton, Mike Schroeder, and Carrie Cornils.
Guests included Kenny Wong (husband of Carrie Cornils), and former KFXD Executives Tim Pace, and Ron Grisham.
New members joining the Foundation that day (or renewing the membership) included Carrie Cornils (daughter of former KFXD President Wayne Cornils), Wendy Green (former KFXD-AM Music Director, KFXD-FM program Director, and the widow of Wayne Cornils), and Mike Schroeder (the son of the late Jim Schroeder, former Manager of KYME-AM). Welcome new members and thank you for joining us!
The reason for the meeting was to unveil and publically play for the first time the 1971 KFXD-AM aircheck of Wolfman Jack! Wolfman appeared on KFXD on September 2, 1971 to promote the Wood River Valley Rock Festival in the little town of Bellevue, Idaho, just south of Sun Valley. The event was, to put it mildly, “less than a total success.” But to hear Wolfman talk about it on KXFD the night before it happened, one would never know that; the festival sounded pretty exciting! Member Tom Scott was KFXD’s Music Director at the time and had pre-pulled a whole bunch of R&B records from the KFXD music library just prior to Wolfman’s arrival, but according to Tom, Wolfman played mostly rock and roll when he got here. The entire long-version of the tape is available to listen to on line at this website, as well as the telescoped aircheck we heard at the meeting. Jerry Rohnert was the KFXD-AM evening disc jockey whose shift Wolfman took over from 7:45 -9:00 P.M. Wolfman’s real name was name was Bob Smith, and according to Jerry, he was a very nice person.
After a delicious lunch, Art introduced members & guests but accidently left out Member Kitty Fleischman, the Publisher of Idaho Magazine. We wish to publically apologize to Kitty for the unintentional “slight” and thank her for attending. After the introductions, Art then brought up the Guests of Honor, Jerry Rohnert and Tom Scott. Both Jerry and Tom were at the station the night Wolfman arrived, and told their own stores about what it like to be there and meet Wolfman Jack!
Jerry Rohnert and Tom Scott then told their individual stories about meeting the Wolfman, and before we played the aircheck tape, Jerry told the group how an accident at the Bowmont Beet Dump of the Amalgamated Sugar Factory in Nampa resulted in the amputation of his left leg. A few months after it happened, a friend of his who worked for KMPC-AM in Los Angeles arranged for announcer Jim Lang (host of television’s “The Dating Game”) to record a special “get well” message for Jerry. We then played the humorous “get well” message (which you can hear at this site at the end of segment 3), and the crowd loved it!
The Wolfman Jack tape was then played in it’s entirely. (Uncut tape is here) You can hear the entire meeting by clicking below on Segments 1-6, which were recorded in chronological order as they took place.
Segment 1 (introductions of Members and guests)
Segment 2 (more introductions of Members and guests)
Segment 3 (Opening comments from Jerry Rohnert and Tom Scott and the Jim Lang Greeting)
Segment 4 (Wolfman aircheck segment a)
Segment 5 (Wolfman aircheck segment b)
Segment 6 (final meeting comments)
As the meeting ended all members attending received their copy of the latest Foundation Newsletter, Issue #17 of “As the Turntable Turns” which told the story of Wolfman Jack’s September 2, 1971 on-air appearance on KFXD, and what happened with the Rock Festival he was there to promote. The meeting then adjourned a little after 1:30 P.M.
Thank you to everyone who attended! Stay tuned to this website for information regarding the date, time, and place of future meetings.
