Remembering radio programmer John Rook (1937-2016)

by Larry Miller

Some sixty years ago in Chadron, Nebraska — a bespectacled youngster named John Rook seemed to many local folks an unlikely candidate for finding success.  He was a bit uncoordinated and talked with a slight lisp.  But he would prove them wrong shortly after graduating from high school, forging  ahead  to a highly successful career in broadcasting.  He became a top name disc jockey, but found his real talent as a nationally-recognized programmer during the heyday of rock and roll.

That career, and his life, came to an end March 1, 2016 in at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

John Harlan Rook was born in Ohio.  He and his brother, Charles, moved to Nebraska at a young age and grew up in Chadron.  Both attended Chadron Prep.

"I certainly was not the most popular guy in my elementary and high school days," he wrote in later years.  

After breaking his glasses playing football as a high school freshman, John discontinued playing sports.  He had difficulty seeing until a year later when the local Lions Club replaced his glasses. John's relationship with his father was strained — to say the least — and it was with his step-mother, Della, and his grandmother Rook that he was closest.

"I held down three jobs…and while I didn't play sports, hunting and fishing became my time to get away from home on a limited basis."

Interestingly, it was a popular classmate — Eddie Kuska —  with whom he became friends.  Ed was all that John was not:  class president, a talented musician, and a good football and basketball player — even helping the Prep Junior Eagles win the Nebraska state class "C" basketball tournament.

"How he ever accepted me as a friend is beyond me, but Eddie was my protector as we walked the many blocks to school each day."

Rook was proud to be photographed with one of Chadron's biggest sports boosters for many years, Joe Lichty, a long-time barber best known for ringing his cow bells at sporting events.  This photo appeared in the Omaha World-Herald.

John Rook - 1955

One of John's jobs while in school was working as a fry cook at the old Frontier Drive-In.  After his junior year, he took a summer job with the Gering (Nebr) Courier, doing a many of the  menial tasks it took to run a small town paper.  Gaining some writing skills, he became editor of the high school newspaper during his senior year at Prep, and his senior yearbook predicted that Rook  might end up as publisher of a newspaper.  A good prediction — but the wrong medium.  It would be broadcasting, not newspapering, where John Rook would find a career and much success — but it was a wild and circuitous journey via Hollywood.

"I was on a Trailways bus to California within a few weeks of graduating from Chadron Prep in 1955," Rook later recalled.

"Dad insisted I take a job crawling under and greasing steam locomotives at the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad or a full time job as a cook at the Niles Cafe and Hotel.  Having already sampled both of those jobs part time during the school year, nothing would hold me back from escaping to California, even if it did mean I would start my venture with only $38 left to my name after purchasing my bus ticket."

Rook's two years in California found him working a variety of odd jobs, but fortuitously crossing paths with a few celebrities and ending up in a classroom at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse, rubbing shoulders with fellow students like Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and James Dean, among others.  

During this period, he also became acquainted with an up-and-coming rock and roll singer named Eddie Cochran.  A southern California transplant from Minnesota, Cochran and his family became fast friends with the young man from Nebraska.

Although he landed an "extra" job on the "Wild Bill Hickok" television series and a small part in the 1957 June Allyson movie re-make of "My Man Godfrey," John soon decided that acting was not for him. 

"After just two bit parts, my desire was waning on being an actor."

John Rook - KOBH 1958

In the Los Angeles area, John had been exposed to a wide variety of radio stations and radio announcers.  Too, he recalled a chance meeting at lunch with legendary singer and television star Tennessee Ernie Ford, who suggested that radio offered the best opportunities for a young man in those days.  Many radio announcers were leaving for television jobs, and the field would be "wide open".

Interviews for radio jobs in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Denver resulted in dead ends, accompanied by suggestions that he start in a smaller market — like Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where he showed up to apply for a job in 1957, only to learn it had been filled a few days earlier.

Low on cash, John returned to his home in Chadron— and a less than pleasant reception from his father.  Nonetheless, a visit with friend Freeman Hover at Chadron's KCSR resulted in a good lead:  the radio station in Newcastle, Wyoming was looking for an announcer.

Rock & Roll star Eddie Cochran received a "Key to the city"
in October 1959 in Chadron.  L-R are Lucille Redfern, Janet
Redfern, Eddie Cochran, and John Rook.

Within days, John was on the job at KASL Radio in Newcastle.   While the station's format was a bit alien to him, it served as a stepping stone to an opportunity at a new 1,000-watt radio station in Hot Springs, South Dakota the following year.  KOBH was an AM station at 580 on the dial, and it quickly became a favorite station not only in the Black Hills, but throughout much of eastern Wyoming and the northern Nebraska panhandle.  The reach of the station, coupled with numerous personal interviews with music artists crossing the region on tour, helped catapult John to larger market radio stations over the next five years.

In the fall of 1959, Rook brought rock performer Eddie Cochran to KOBH and organized live concerts in Hot Springs and Chadron.  When Cochran performed on his 21st birthday at Chadron's Assumption Arena on October 3, 1959, he was presented with a "Key to the City."  It was only a few months later that Cochran was killed in a taxi accident in England.  He was later named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

For John Rook, the next career stop was KALL in Salt Lake City, following by KTLN in Denver.   He earned an even bigger break in January 1965 when he was hired by ABC Radio as Program Director of its Pittsburgh  station, KQV.  After three successful years in Pittsburgh — including a short on-air stint as "Johnny Rowe" on WABC New York during a strike by radio and television artists — John Rook was a part of "management."

In 1967 he moved to WLS in Chicago as program manager and helped the station move to #1 in the market the following year, reaching an audience of some 4.2 million listeners each week.  In 1969, he was named "Radio's Man of the Year"  

Among the many industry people with whom John would become good friends was Bill Gavin.  A legendary figure in Top 40 radio, Gavin published The Gavin Report, widely used by stations across the country. 

"His (Gavin's) advice not only guided my career moves, but even my personal life.  'It will be the most important thing you could do in life,' he said, urging me — a single parent — to adopt two young lads, David and Clifford, from the Lena Pope orphanage in Fort Worth.  Guided by his wisdom, I would raise them to manhood and watch them get married.  From time to time, Bill visiting our hom 'beaming' his approval of my family.  He sent Christmas gifts to the boys each year."

In the early 1970's, John left Chicago to become a programming consultant with Drake-Chenault and Draper-Blore, only to return to the Windy City in 1972 as a consultant to WCFL Radio, engineering what Billboard magazine Radio Editor Claude Hall called "a miracle" turn-around for the station.  It was an early win for his newly-created John Rook & Associates consulting firm which went on to provide programming advice for some 30 stations across the country over the next few years.

By 1977, John returned to California, accepting the top programming job at KFI in Los Angeles.  The station, considered one of the most powerful in the country, beamed its 640 AM signal westward to Hawaii and could even reach portions of the eastern United States.  With a home in Northridge, John remained with KFI for nearly seven years, but departed after a dispute with a new station manager.   

"While I loved programming, it was time to be the P.D. of the entire station...my station. I scraped every penny together and purchased my Spokane FM (licensed to Couer D'Alene, Idaho) in 1983." He bought a place in the country, "Rook Ranch," where he could have his horses and enjoy a bit of solace from city life.

"Son Clifford and I arrived on July 4th 1983.  Later, David would arrive with his bride, Rhonda, and still later sister, Dottie, would call Coeur d'Alene home.  In time, brother Charles would take a job anchoring the news on a nearby Spokane TV station." (Photo at right of Rook gathering.  You can also read an earlier story about about the career of John's older brother, Charley Rook.)

It wasn't long, however, before he and some partners bought an FM radio station in Spokane, adding an AM station there the following year.  In 1986, the Rook group activated a new FM station in Spokane, followed by the purchase of two additional stations — one in Pasco, Washington, and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Seeking a bit of tranquility from the rush of working in an urban environment, but still desiring to keep a hand in the business he loved, John Rook moved to the country just south of Couer D'Alene, Idaho. 

Then, in 1988-89, John took something of a sabbatical from his new life in Idaho, returning to Los Angeles for a brief tour as program director of KABC Radio.  Managed by his friend George Green, John worked with some of the top talent in the country as the station struggled in its efforts to migrate from a music format to talk.  People like Wink Martindale, Bill Smith, Sonya Friedman, Bill Press, and many more. But it became increasingly clear that his friend George Green was making the programming decisions — not all of them to John's liking.  In one instance, Green cancelled a popular team (Martindale & Smith) that John had brought aboard, later learning that the ratings would place them at #1 in the market during their time slot.  John also recalled recommending the hire of a hot Sacramento talk-show host for an evening block, only to have the plan nixed by Green.  Alas, the ascending star from Sacramento — Rush Limbaugh — would not be hired by KABC.

John Rook (1937-2016)

"I truly loved being program director of KABC…but I really wasn't…..George was."  John saddled up and returned to his ranch and business interests in Idaho.  Although he sold most of his stations by the early 1990s, John kept hold of KCDA, the Couer D'Alene area station, until 2000.

At one point in his career, John Rook was considered for a seat on the Federal Communications Commission.  He later reflected that his staunch opposition to the frenzy for deregulation in broadcasting probably cost him the appointment.

Deregulation of the media, he later opined, was even more destructive than he had earlier predicted.

"Perhaps it would have been best if regulators had not allowed the monopolization of radio that resulted…a feeding frenzy of unethical lawyers devoured anyone offering competition.  Within days of congressional passage, the nation's media was gobbled up by three billionaires."

Retaining close ties with many of his former colleagues and friends in the entertainment business, John took the initiative in 2007 to organize the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.  It was largely intended to pay tribute to the many performers who weren't selected for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but yet were clearly deserving of more recognition for their enormous contributions to the music business. 

John enjoyed the pastoral setting of his rural Idaho ranch, where he kept a few horses and dogs.  He died of natural causes on March 1, 2016 at his home near Couer D'Alene.  He was 78 years old.

Charles Rook retires from a career in broadcasting

Ex-Chadronite reflects on excellent broadcasting career

By CON MARSHALL

Charley Rook says he was “very, very lucky” during his career as a radio and television news director and anchorman.  But he also credits his upbringing in Chadron with helping him make the most of the opportunities that were afforded to him.

                Rook is a 1954 graduate of Chadron Prep.  He was back “home” during Fur Trade Days in July, renewing acquaintances with friends and also taking stock of the town that he said he’s come to appreciate more and more while working and living in much larger cities.

                “A lot can be said for growing up in a place like Chadron,” Rook said while sipping on iced tea at the Country Kitchen. “This is a place where God and Country are important, where honesty and fairness are appreciated and where a strong work ethic is learned and carried out.  I tried to live by those values because I really never knew any other way.”

                Charley and his brother Johnny were born in Ohio, but their family moved to Chadron when they were in junior high. Their father, Gordon, was a Chadron native who was a diesel locomotive-electrician for the Chicago and North Western Railroad.  Their mother, Della, was a native of Kentucky. Johnny graduated from Prep in 1955, one year after Charley.

                Charley notes that he wasn’t a good enough basketball player to get much playing time on any of the three Class C state championship teams that Archie Conn coached during the 1950s, but he liked football and believes he received all-Northwest Nebraska Conference honors as an end on the Junior Eagles’ football team his senior year. 

                Both brothers made it big in broadcasting—Johnny in radio while Charley switched to television and was an anchorman at major stations in both Chicago and Los Angeles before spending 20 years at a station in Spokane-Coeur d' Alene, where he is now retired.

Early in their careers, both worked at KOBH Radio in Hot Springs where they “did about everything.”  While Charley made his mark as a radio and TV news anchor, Johnny had a knack for picking hot tunes before they were hits and he became a renowned radio programmer and station consultant.  Wikipedia has three pages on Johnny’s career. He lives in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, only about 20 miles from Spokane. (See separate story).

                Charley has no regrets about how things turned out for him, and while he was being  interviewed, mentioned two things that he feels helped put him on the  road to success.

                One, he said, was at the District 6 Declamatory and One-Act Play Contest that Chadron State College hosted when he was a junior at Chadron Prep.  The competition included radio newscasting and Charley won first place, sparking his interest in broadcasting and boosting his confidence. 

                The second was being able to work for his uncle Claude (Bud) Rook, the founder and owner of ABC Electric in Chadron during the summers and at other times when an extra helper was needed.

                “I’m sure there are some people in Chadron who remember him,” Charley said. “He was a good mentor for me. He was a taskmaster who had that work ethic which I so much admire to this day. Bud also believed if you worked harder than the competition  you could succeed in America, the greatest country the world has ever seen.

“Quite a bit of this rubbed off on me and I still believe it, even though things about this country have really changed over the years and in my estimation, not always for the better.  The nanny state and political correctness come to mind."

                Charley said some of “Uncle Bud’s training” helped him excel while he spent four years in the Navy immediately after graduating from Prep.  First of all, because of his experience as an electrician in the ABC Electric shop, Charley became a shipboard electrician on destroyer escorts in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. By the time he was discharged, he had an E-6 rating, something few sailors accomplish during a four-year hitch.

                “I made E-6 because I studied hard for the tests that we took.  I was told that if I stayed in the Navy I could probably become an officer. It was tempting, but I decided if I could do well in the Navy, I could probably also do well in the outside world so I got out.”

                After his discharge, Charley enrolled at Chadron State College in the fall of 1958, but stayed just one semester and part of the spring term. Johnny was working at KOBH and the Hot Springs station needed a weekend announcer.  Charley took the job and was soon hooked on radio broadcasting.

                Since the name Johnny Rook was already well-known to KOBH listeners when Charley went to work there, it was decided he should use a different last name.  Thus during the rest of his career—nearly 50 years—he was Charles Rowe to his listeners and viewers.   

                After only a few months at KOBH, he accepted a radio position  in Cheyenne. He said he definitely got lots of experience there.  He put the station on the air in the mornings, was often still there to give the noon news and then spent the afternoons selling spots, or ads.

                His stint in Cheyenne was cut short when some "high rollers" from San Francisco hired him to help build and set up programming for four new Northwest radio stations in Boise, Idaho, and Salem, Eugene and Medford, Ore.

                His next stop, still in the early-1960s, was at KYMN, a 50,000-watt station in Portland, Ore., where he was strictly a newsman. He was there a couple of years and enjoyed his work but realized television people were making more money.

                    Rook took a chance and in 1966 accepted a newscaster job at a tiny TV station in Coos Bay, Ore.  Within six months, he was promoted to the company's flagship station in Eugene as news director and anchor.

                Then just a few months later in 1967, he received a big break in his career.  He was offered a news anchor and capitol correspondent position at KXTV in Sacramento. That was shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.

 

“It was my pleasure to interview him three times in the two years I was at that station,” Charlie said. “He was great to interview and I was one of his admirers long before he became president.”

           Charley said he was not planning to leave Sacramento, but he went to Chicago in 1969 to visit his brother and his mother, who had moved with Johnny to the Windy City.

                “By then, Johnny was programming WLS Radio, a top Chicago station, and really making a name for himself.  While I was there, he lined up an interview for me with WLS-TV, which was owned by ABC. They offered me the job of anchoring their first-ever weekend newscast and filling in for their weekday anchors.  The pay was very good, so I left Sacramento and moved to Chicago.”

                Charley remained at WLS-TV for four years.  During two of those years, he also wrote and delivered three newscasts a day for the ABC radio network nationwide.

                One of his most memorable experiences in Chicago was working in the same office area as Paul Harvey, one of the nation’s preeminent newscasters for nearly five decades.

                “He would sometimes walk by my glass door, see me inside, open it and say ‘Hi Charles’ as he was leaving from work. 

“Sometimes, I’d go down the hall and watch him do his newscasts. He had the darnedest system. He had papers scattered all over his desk and would randomly pick one up and read it with that great voice of his. I never could figure out how he decided which story to use next.  It never seemed that he had the stories in any kind of an order, but it worked for him.”

                Charley said he was “never enamored” with Chicago, calling it “a corrupt city that’s still that way.” So when his contract ended he moved to KTTV, a major independent station in Los Angeles, and soon became its sole news anchor. KTTV is now owned by FOX.

                “I was there for eight years and had a great time,” he said. “I guess this was the ‘biggest job’ I ever had when it came to audience size.  But after a while, I began dreaming about having my own radio station, so in 1980 I moved again.  While in LA, I worked hard to obtain a permit to put a new FM station on the air in Lincoln City/Newport, Ore., right on the coast.

                “Building and managing the station was probably the most fun thing I have ever done and we put a superior product on the air. We won more than a dozen Associated Press statewide awards and a couple of national awards for our news coverage.  But I realized while I was having great fun, I wasn't making much money.   So I sold it and began looking for a television news position in the Northwest.”

                Charley didn’t get much time off after selling the station.  Within a few weeks he was hired as an anchor at KREM-TV in Spokane, Wash., and spent the last 20 years of his career there.

                “Our ratings were top notch and I enjoyed the staff at the station, even though I had a constant battle with some of the activist-liberals in the newsroom to make sure we were telling both sides of the story. Maybe that's why the 5 p.m. news at KREM, which I co-anchored for the full 20-years, was constantly number one. I finally retired when I reached 72 and that was five years ago.

                “I had a good career and I don’t have any complaints. I always enjoyed preparing myself for the job on a daily basis and then getting it done.” he added.

                He remains in Spokane after retiring and calls himself “a neighborhood volunteer" who is heavy into the Tea Party, Heritage Foundation and the National Rifle Association.

                He said he’s dismayed that the national media is so biased to the left and he tries to do what he can to maintain and promote the conservative viewpoint.

                Along the same lines, he said he greatly enjoyed his visit to Chadron and the chance to meet up with a number of his high school friends again.  Most of them, he noted, seem to be holding on to what he describes as “this country’s traditional values of honesty and hard work.”

(Thanks to good friend Con Marshall for sharing this story, originally written for the Chadron (Nebr) Record)

KZMX Radio -- a mere shadow of earlier station KOBH

By Larry Miller

Another setback for journalism has occurred with news that the New Orleans Times-Picayune is cutting back to publishing a print version of the newspaper just three days a week.  That sad news was delivered by visiting southern friend Jimmie Ray Gordon, whose late husband Bob was a respected veteran wire service reporter and newspaper editor in the south.

I confess that one of my long-time pet peeves has been the abandonment of local community service obligations by radio stations in favor of becoming part of a larger corporate operation.  Typically, such stations rely on satellite programming and minimal overhead to meet the bottom line profit expectations of shareholders.  Serious local news coverage is often the first “belt-tightening” step.

Clearly, technology evolution and a bad economy have significantly and negatively impacted many newspapers and broadcasting stations – particularly those that were not well run in the first place.

In 1959, KOBH listeners heard local/regional news, and 

the station sponsored lots of events. Here, Rock 'n Roll

legend Eddie Cochran (left) receives an award as the

"#1Male Vocalist" -- chosen by KOBH listeners. KOBH

DJ John Rowe (center) presents award in Chadron, Nebr.

It was no big surprise, for example, to learn that KZMX Radio in Hot Springs, South Dakota, was slapped with a big fine last month (May 2012) by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its “failure to make the stations available for inspection” and for “failure to operate in accordance with station authorization.”   The forfeiture was set at $21,500.

For those of us who remember the early years of the station, then KOBH-AM in Hot Springs, it stirred memories of a station that was once well-operated and reached a pretty good audience across the Black Hills and beyond, including many listeners in Wyoming and Nebraska.

We don’t know about the other properties owned and operated by Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting – licensee of KZMX-AM-FM – but the notice from the FCC seemed to make a compelling case that KZMX fits the profile of a station that “willfully or repeatedly fails to comply with…the provisions of the (Communications) Act.  They wrote the following in their Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture:

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, in response to a complaint, an agent from the Enforcement Bureau's Denver Office (Denver Office) attempted an inspection of the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio, during regular business hours. The Stations’ main studio is located approximately one mile north of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and is clearly marked in large letters “KZMX” and a sign on the front door reads “Mount Rushmore Broadcasting.” The door to the main studio was locked and there was no staff or management present at the building. There was no contact information posted at the main studio location, consequently, the agent was unable to gain entrance to the main studio. The agent stayed at the main studio site for several hours, monitoring Station KZMX(AM), which was operating on the frequency 580 kHz, and Station KZMX-FM, which was operating on frequency 96.7 MHz.2 The agent telephoned multiple phone numbers, including two published phone numbers associated with Mount Rushmore and the Stations several times, but none of his calls were answered.3 During the time the agent was at the main studio location, an individual identifying himself as a former employee stopped by the main studio location and informed the agent that no one had been present at the main studio for more than a year.

On June 1, 2011, during regular business hours, the Denver agent returned to the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio and again attempted an inspection of the Stations’ main studio. The agent stopped by the main studio several times throughout the day, during regular business hours. Each time, no employees were present and the agent was unable to gain access to the main studio.  Both Stations were in operation and during each visit, the agent telephoned several phone numbers associated with the Stations but his calls were not answered. The agent then visited a non-affiliated business in the area owned by the president of Mount Rushmore. After being informed that the Mount Rushmore president was in the area, the agent left his business card with an employee who agreed to have the president contact the agent, however, the agent never heard from the president.

You can go to the FCC web site to read their Notice of May 17, 2012 in its entirety, but it’s not a happy story.  Not for Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting, nor especially for the public, which apparently has been shortchanged by KZMX for a long time.

I received a copy of the FCC Notice from a long-time friend on May 19 – just a few days after it was adopted – so I thought I’d share it with a news outlet that purportedly covers news in the Black Hills region.   I sent a copy of the notice to the Rapid City Journal, which also owns the Hot Spring Star newspaper.  I was operating on the assumption that Hot Springs area residents were not likely to hear about the event from KZMX-AM-FM, and it seemed logical to me that the Journal might have an interest in the FCC action.  I e-mailed the notice to Kevin Woster at the Journal.

His response came two days later with a terse question:  “So what’s the issue?”

I replied that I thought the Notice of Forfeiture from the FCC was self-explanatory.  He responded that he gets a lot of mail, indicating that he hadn’t bothered to open or read the attachment.

Kevin is a good reporter.  I think he’s an even better writer.  But I was disappointed that nothing ever appeared in the Journal. Perhaps it was a pure editorial judgment call that this $21,500 forfeiture by a federally-licensed station in Hot Springs was too parochial – that the significance of the story was minimal.  And  maybe he’s right.

I never saw a story appear in the Rapid City Journal about the forfeiture.  Admittedly, I don’t read the Journal from front to back, so maybe I missed it.  Nor do I subscribe to the Hot Springs Star, where it may well have appeared. 

When I cranked up various online search engines to see just who might have reported the forfeiture, I found only the FCC website and…….Wikipedia?

The fact that Wikipedia somehow captured and shared information about the KZMX forfeiture order – and not the Rapid City Journal or Hot Springs Star – may well be a subtle clue as to why traditional media are struggling…….and online sources are thriving.  Even the likes of Wikipedia.

"CSTC" student Jack Thayer rose to the top of NBC Radio

by Larry Miller

It was 40 years ago this month that the world’s first 24-hour television news service, the Cable News Network, went on the air from Atlanta.  It became better known simply as CNN.   Created in by business tycoon Ted Turner in 1980, the fledgling network initially reached fewer than two million homes in the United States.

Today, CNN is seen in more than 89-million homes across the United States and over 160-million homes around the world.  There’s an abundance of other 24-hour news and information services around the world, too.

Broadcaster Jack Thayer

But CNN wasn’t the first 24-hour news network.  Five years before, in June of 1975, NBC Radio launched its “News and Information Service (NIS),” and the fellow credited with its creation was NBC Radio President Glover “Jack” Thayer.

Thayer was a midwesterner.  Born in Chicago in 1922 and raised in Minnesota – but he also had lived and gone to school in Chadron, Nebraska. 

Jack Thayer’s father, Harley, was a railroader.  He started his career back in 1897 as a “Station Helper” in Ridgefield, Illinois.  He worked his way through the ranks as a Brakeman, Conductor, then Trainmaster by 1930, Assistant Superintendent, and finally – by the late 1930’s – Superintendent for the Western Line Division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway headquartered in Chadron.

But son Jack remained with his grandmother in Minnesota in 1939-40 so he could finish his senior year at Winona High.  He was active in choir and drama, was a cheerleader for three years, but also developed a keen interest in radio, “haunting the local station, KWNO.”  The chief announcer at the station was a fellow named Jack London, a graduate of the Beck School of Radio in Minneapolis, where Thayer would later enroll.  In early May 1940, about three weeks before graduation, Winona High scheduled vocational conferences on a variety of jobs.  One was “Radio Broadcasting,” and the student chairman for that session was “Glover” Thayer.

The Thayers in Chadron - 1941 -  Harley, Jack, and Martha

(Photo courtesy of Tracie Ireland)

After receiving his high school diploma, Thayer was off to Nebraska to join his parents in their new home at 342 Ann Street in Chadron. There wasn’t much summer vacation for Jack, going to work June 6th as a laborer for C&NW before enrolling at Chadron State Teachers College for the 1940 fall term.

Thayer was in good company at CSTC.  Among his classmates was a bright young fellow from Gordon, Nebraska named Val Fitch.  They were also fraternity brothers in Delta Pi Sigma, a popular social fraternity.  Four decades later, Fitch would gain fame as a professor at Princeton University – and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. 

While Fitch was preparing for a career in science, Jack Thayer was more focused on the arts.  As a freshman, he won Second Award in short story competition and became active in the Pi Kappa Delta, the national forensics honorary fraternity.  He would serve as its vice-president his sophomore year.  The CSTC varsity forensics team, comprised of Thayer and Harold Mitchell, ranked at the top of competition in Omaha and at the State Tournament.  

Another fellow freshman at CSTC was a well-known “local boy,” Don Rickenbach, who later became a highly regarded and successful area rancher.  Rickenbach was also a “brother” in Pi Kappa Delta, and they were pictured together in the 1941-42 CSTC Anokasan yearbook.

Thayer’s two academic years at college in Chadron were chock full of activity.  He was particularly active in drama, serving as president of the Thespians his sophomore year and performing in at least three plays.

There was no radio station in Chadron in the 1940’s, so in the spring of 1942, Thayer departed for the Black Hills of South Dakota and was hired as an announcer at KOBH in Rapid City.  The station later became KOTA, flagship station of what later became Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises, operating five radio and three television stations across South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

Thayer's first radio job - KOBH Rapid City

(Photo courtesy of Tracie Ireland)

Apart from a photo of the 19-year-old Thayer as a new staff member, there’s little information about his short tenure at KOBH. 

By 1943 Jack was seeking his fortune in Minneapolis, first by attending the Beck School of Radio, followed by a job at WLOL Radio.  He also found a wife.  Marjorie Gossman and Glover “Jack” Thayer were married in 1944. Later that year, son Terry Lee Thayer was born. Meanwhile, Jack’s career as an announcer/salesman for WLOL began to blossom.

In April 1945, he was elected as an officer of the Twin City Radio Announcers IBEW Local 1331 union. He would remain with the station nearly three years – but during that time his marriage ended.

Television came to the Twin Cities in 1948 when KSTP-TV went on the air in St. Paul.  Across town, Joe Beck’s old “School of Radio,” became “Beck Studios,” adding a television school and with plans to build a commercial television station.  The Star Tribune noted that Beck was “even opening a store on Nicollet Avenue to sell television sets” and that Jack Thayer and WLOL colleague Bob Bouchier had quit the station to run the store for Beck.

After WLOL fired a popular host of its “Swing Club” show, they invited Thayer back into the fold.  Minneapolis Tribune columnist Will Jones wrote, “To capture the undershirt and beer listener, WLOL has rehired Jack Thayer.  Thayer, a former salesman for the station, left to sell television sets.  He’s giving up the television business to spin records.”

“Jack’s Record Shop” on WLOL Radio became exceptionally popular and picked up a sizable new audience.

Local newspaper ads showed “WLOL Disc Jockey Jack Thayer” in a spiffy new Groshire suit from Grodnik’s haberdashery, proclaiming “I go for Groshire…You’ll go for Groshire, too!”  He also endorsed footwear for Bob’s Shoes for Men. Such ads bolstered Jack’s newfound celebrity – and likely were a welcome supplement to his income.

Some stability seemed to have arrived for Thayer.  His career was going well, and he met a young lady named Donna Marchand.  That summer, they may have talked marriage, because Jack posted an ad in the Star-Tribune on August 18^th, simply saying:  “…need 3 to 4 room furnished apartment.  No children - Call AT 0406 8 a.m. to 12 noon except Sun.”   Three weeks later – In early September 1949 – Jack and Donna applied for a marriage license and were married two months later on November 12th.

Two nationally-recognized performers would host Jack’s popular WLOL radio show while the couple was getting hitched.  Star-Tribune columnist Will Jones wrote that singer June Christy and actor/comedian Billy DeWolfe were in town for club appearances and agreed to do the show for Jack.

Thayer remained with WLOL for the next two and one-half years, moving across town to WTCN Radio and Television in 1952.

More big changes were in the offing.

First came the birth of Jack and Donna’s daughter, Tracie Nan, in 1952, followed in 1953 by a son, Todd Neal.

Also in 1953, Thayer launched “Jack’s Corner Drug Store” on WTCN-TV. The show was a “dance get-together” for teens, replete with popular music of the day and dance contests. The studio set was a replica of a drug store, and area high school and college students were invited to participate in the fun.  This was a full four years before Dick Clark and “American Bandstand” would sweep the country.  It was another early indication Jack Thayer was an innovator and had a knack for knowing what audiences would like.

In February 1956.  Jack was lured to WDGY Radio in Minneapolis, which had been bought by Omaha-based Storz Broadcasting.  Young Todd Storz was the instigator of a “revolutionary” radio program format of “Top 40” music that would sweep the country. Thayer had already gained a reputation as the most influential disc jockey in the Twin Cities – credited with getting hit records started locally.  He would become the new General Manager of WDGY.

In September 1956, Donna Thayer gave birth to their second son, Timm.

The next three years brought many new professional challenges for Thayer, including the firing of a popular disc jockey.  These were valuable management experiences for Jack, and he gained stature as a good manager. The station fared well – and so did Jack Thayer.

In 1958, Jack was elected President of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association.  By the following May, after 16 years in in Minneapolis-St. Paul, he left the station to become Vice President and General Manager of KFRC Radio in San Francisco.  It was another short stay, followed by a five-year stint at yet another major market station, WHK in Cleveland, where – among other things – he lured the Beatles to town as part of their legendary 15-city tour of the United States.  Jack said their fee was “the highest entertainment price ever paid to bring a group to Cleveland.”

Thayer was lured back to California by Metromedia in 1965 to take the reins of KLAC in Los Angeles.  The Thayer family – after five years in Cleveland and an earlier brief stay in San Francisco – was ready to settle down.  They went to church at Brentwood Presbyterian Church, where Jack would become an elder.

At KLAC, Thayer began moving the station more and more from music to what was dubbed “two-way talk radio.” The call-in programs with expensive hosts such as Mort Sahl, Joe Pyne and Les Crane were extremely popular – and often quite controversial. Within two years, according to the Los AngelesTimes, Thayer had “built a big winner out of a perennial loser – the best balanced talk station.”  The Times recognized KLAC for its news and special events coverage.  Jack Thayer was honored as “Radio Executive of the Year.”

Audience ratings for KLAC continued to hold strong, and all seemed well.  But in late 1968, cross-town rival KABC Radio began leading in some charts, and – as LA Times columnist Don Page noted – even “high ratings yield to economics.”  Too, the budget for KLAC’s talk radio format was “enormous.” KABC was owned by the ABC network, while KLAC’s owners, Metromedia, seemed to be diversifying itself “out of the radio business,” wrote Page.

Rumors of change abounded at KLAC, and in very early January of 1969, Jack Thayer was fired.

By April, Donna and Jack Thayer divorced, just a few months shy of 20 years of marriage.  Donna would raise the children as Jack departed KLAC and began pursuit of new opportunities in broadcasting.

Within weeks, Thayer – the “architect of ‘two-way’ talk radio” – had formed Radio Consultants, Inc. to assist struggling radio stations.  He was credited with turning around floundering stations in major markets, including WMCA Radio in New York, fixing what was described as a “terminal case of no listenership.”  WMCA’s ratings spiked and its morning audience doubled within just two months.  He found similar success at WGAU in Philadelphia.

“It’s all in the planning and promotion and careful audience control,” he was quoted as telling the Los Angeles Times.

A young Don Imus - On the Air

Thayer was hired in 1970 as General Manager of KXOA in Sacramento, where he brought on board a relatively new talent, a young ex-Marine named Don Imus, who’d worked as a railroad brakeman and stumbled into broadcasting at a couple of smaller stations in California.  Imus’ early “shock jock” strategy generated criticism from inside and outside broadcasting – but gained enormous audiences.  His is also an interesting career, but – alas – Imus had no ties to Dawes County, Nebraska, so we’ll bypass his story!

By early 1971, Thayer had moved to Cleveland as General Manager of WGAR Radio, owned by Nationwide Communications, a subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance Company.  His tenure in Sacramento was so short, the 1971 Broadcasting Yearbook listed him in both Sacramento and Cleveland. Shortly after arriving in Ohio, Thayer brought Don Imus from Sacramento to help bolster ratings.  The station owners elected Thayer as Vice President/General Manager for Nationwide Communications, Inc. in 1974.

Jack Thayer’s career of frequent moves was not atypical for broadcasters, but what seemed to set him apart was his ability to land on his feet – almost always in jobs with greater visibility and responsibility.  And he was ever the innovator.

So it likely surprised few in the industry when in July 1974, Jack Thayer had been appointed president of NBC Radio.  His responsibilities would give him authority over the NBC Radio network and its owned-and-operated stations in San Francisco, Washington, New York, and Chicago. Those stations hadn’t been profitable for years.   The Chicago station, WMAQ, hadn’t seen a profit since 1963.  In just 16 months at the helm of NBC Radio, Jack Thayer was able to announce a profit for the station in December 1975.  Optimism abounded.

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