• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Herman Schmerdley KBMI 1966-1968

H

HermanSchmerdley

Inactive
Inactive User
Hello,

I am Herman Schmerdley who used to be a deejay at KBMI in the Basic Metals old building in Henderson. I was there from 1966 until 1968. Others there at the time included Tony Lawrence, Paul Bruce, Geane Dahnise, Steven Gary Fisher also known as Gary Stevens. Jeff Colson quit KENO and came over and joined us for awhile. Also there was Michael Cupp... a long story could ensue about him. He was remarkable for one thing. Also there were Brad Perry, Sittin' Beef, Jerry Mack and a few others.

Before I was at KBMI I worked at KTOO and KLAV and KLAS (went into bankruptcy and became KLAV) and KRAM and KVEG. I was at KENO briefly in 1962. Some of the people I worked with included Bob Joyce, Mark Lane, G.L. Vitto, Bill Hess, Easy Ed Millar, Don Adams, Truman Hawkins, Bob Stoldahl, Johnny Meador, Don Hinson, Smiley Monroe, Johnny Gunn (Howard Trelstad), Ben Boulder (Roger Turnbeaugh), Frank Abell, Bat Henderson (Gene Hess, I believe), Johnny Magness, Bob Farnsworth, Jay Jolly, Dennis Diamond and quite a few others. I used to have occasional breakfasts with the KVEG crew and Charlie Shelton of The Rowel.

I have forgot to mention some but it is late. I am still very active but not in radio. I do a lot of videos at YouTube. I hope to hear some 1960s and early 1970s stories.
 
Some others I knew were Jimi Foxx at KENO who was one of the first to play The Buoys Timothy record, Wynn Stewart, a Country singer who had a show at KVEG for a short time. John Shoenker who was a newscaster for KVEG and Russ Jordan at KENO I knew in the 1960s. I did not know Coffee Jim Dandy at KENO but I had an email from him about two years ago. He was very popular. I worked with Jeff Colson for a short time at KBMI and his brother Chris who called himself Chris Haze worked at Disco 123 KLAV about 1979.
 
I joined KBMI about August or September of 1966. Those who worked there at that time included; Tony Lawrence, Paul Bruce and I think Gary Stevens might have been there already. Gary Stevens was Steven Gary Fisher who used Gary Stevens as his on air name. At that time the number one deejay in NYC was Gary Stevens. There were others there like. John McDonald who was the station director, and Dave Rogers who was the chief engineer. KBMI had been silent for several years prior to that and it came back on the air with no commercials and no news, just music and deejays. It was owned by the 1400 Corporation which had a big station in Boston and another in California.
 
The Gary Stevens in NYC was later President of Doubleday Broadccasting back when I worked at KHOW in Denver. He officiated over the sale of all of Doubleday's broadcast properties and then went on the become a very powerful Station Broker.
Bilco
 
One truism about radio is that the deejays we work with often do things that surprise us. Some become actors or recording artists. Most have talents beyond radio.

One person with whom I worked at KBMI was Mike Cupp. He managed the Sizzler Steak House in Henderson. He also was a guitarist. He became far more famous after the internet came along, but he was famous in a way where nobody knew his name.

He wrote a letter to me from Vietnam in 1969. Years later I posted it in a forum on the web. It was altered and rewritten in many ways but the basic message in Mike's letter usually remained. Here is a link to that letter;
http://www.myhollywoodstar.com/MikeCupplet1.html
 
I recall when KBMI's studio resided in a trailer on the grounds of the Hacienda Hotel, it was all News and automated. If I remember correctly, the transmitter was located next to the stadium in east las vegas. I was always a fan of automated stations as I started in radio at KLVM 94.1 located at 307 water street in henderson in 1974. John Corey was our engineer and I had the privilege of replacing the transmitter final tube and tuning the cavity under his watchful eye. We had an IGM automation system and were plagued by RF as the transmitter and studio were co-located. Even the fluorescent lamps in one room would stay lit when turned off. Constant attention to cart machines were a must as stop tone detection was not always reliable.

Dennis
 
When I was at KBMI in 1966-1968 we were in a building on the grounds of Titanium Metals in Henderson. Here is a link to a 1967 picture of myself inside the control room and broadcast board and turntables and a Monkees album. You can click on the picture for a bigger picture. The picture is halfway down on the right.
http://www.myhollywoodstar.com/me2.html
 
Buzz said:
I recall when KBMI's studio resided in a trailer on the grounds of the Hacienda Hotel, it was all News and automated. If I remember correctly, the transmitter was located next to the stadium in east las vegas. I was always a fan of automated stations as I started in radio at KLVM 94.1 located at 307 water street in henderson in 1974. John Corey was our engineer and I had the privilege of replacing the transmitter final tube and tuning the cavity under his watchful eye. We had an IGM automation system and were plagued by RF as the transmitter and studio were co-located. Even the fluorescent lamps in one room would stay lit when turned off. Constant attention to cart machines were a must as stop tone detection was not always reliable.

Dennis
Click to expand...

Dennis, my very first paying job in radio was in 1973 at KLVM 94.1 in Henderson, Jim Flint Sr. was general manager/CE, Barry Fehler did traffic and mornings... I helped Jim install that IGM automation system and well remember the hell we went through with the RF in that building....

We had all that RF above our heads with fluorescent lamps eternally glowing, and relays tripping randomly... and carts that didn't cue up....
 
HermanSchmerdley said:
When I was at KBMI in 1966-1968 we were in a building on the grounds of Titanium Metals in Henderson. Here is a link to a 1967 picture of myself inside the control room and broadcast board and turntables and a Monkees album. You can click on the picture for a bigger picture. The picture is halfway down on the right.
http://www.myhollywoodstar.com/me2.html
Click to expand...

Herman Schmerdley! What a blast from the past! I was a big fan of yours and KBMI back in those days, I even recorded the station on reel-to-reel - and I still have those reels, I'm in the process of digitizing them as I rebuild my Vegas Radio History website http://gapfel.com/vegasradio

I have on tape an early KBMI aircheck, the jock was backselling "San Francisco Nights" - and it sounds like he was running without a mixer... the music dumped out completely when he keyed the mic!

Herman, your contribution to my history of Las Vegas radio site would be much appreciated, I've been wanting to get the site back online. You are a valuable resource on Vegas radio history. I've retired my headphones and now am CE for Entercom's Buffalo cluster, which includes the legendary 50kw blowtorch WKBW (now WWKB)

-GT
 
I remember Jim Flint very well. He was the engineer for KRAM when I worked there in 1963. He had a bad arm if I remember correctly but he was always working on something. He might have done some work with Tom Cross occasionally at KLAS TV Channel 8. I also worked a station in Henderson in 1965 called KTOO which had a 5000 Watt transmitter building with lots of RF and sun spiders, or vinegaroons. You could get a real shock touching the doorknob without using a rag. We actually broadcast from inside that concrete building on the grounds of the Ballerina Henderson Mobile Home Park.
 
I recall the final months of the legendary KBMI in 1977. They were a fully automated pop station at the time. So was their FM KFM 102.. The two formats were very similar to each other. It sounded like KFM was running the TM-Century "Stereo Rock" format. KBMI was slightly more adult.

KBMI and KFM would cross-promote each other quite often, maybe twice an hour. The automated voice would say "listen to our sister station....". The two stations sounded so much alike I wondered why they didn't simulcast like KLUC did at the time.

Soon BOTH stations flipped formats. KBMI became Country KVEG (with the late Walt Reno doing mornings) and KFM became a hard rocking AOR. They were both popular stations in the late 70s/early 80s.
 
Especially for Penrod, but for all those interested in Las Vegas radio history, I wi;; mention a couple of things. People are surprised when I tell them I used a computer in the 1970s. I was at KVEG/KTRI which broadcast from the Castaways. We had a computer for the AM and another for the FM. It was all automated back in 1976. Pete Jay was the PD. One of the computers had a roll of paper that had holes punched in it by a mechanical device. That roll, which looked like adding machine paper, would then travel through some sprockets and cue the next event which might be a tape recorder or commercial or prerecorded newscast. Everything was recorded in the production room. Nothing was live. The time cart had every minute for twenty four hours advancing one minute at a time so a time could be announced on air but it was recorded. Corky Mayberry was mentioned. He was one of several who went from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Don Hinson and Johnny Magness did that also. Bob Joyce (KRAM) had been big in Philadelphia before coming to Las Vegas. Bob played Wayne Newton's early recordings and helped bring Wayne's career to the attention of some bigger players. Bob, I think helped Wayne become noticed by Bobby Darin and Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball. Ted Oberfelder was also at KRAM. Ted had an amazing radio career going back to network radio and The Lone Ranger series. Don Hinson recorded some records while he was at KENO. One was called Surfer Smash. It was recorded at Dynamic Sound Studios on Paradise Road. Roy Ward was the engineer there. Roy later commited suicide. I used to record there. Louis Prima and Connie Francis recorded there. Don later recorded an album for Capitol called Monster's Mash Party. It is a collector's item today. Don's album was produced by Gary Paxton who was the voice of The Hollywood Argyles and he produced Monster Mash. Gary also was involved with Tammy Faye Bajer. Bill Hess, who helped me get started in radio at KENO, had been an announcer in Alaska before coming to Las Vegas. Coffee Jim Dandy recorded Gringo which was a novelty parody of Lorne Green's Ringo. Smiley Monroe at KTOO in Henderson had a minor hit called Bluegrass in Hollywood. I did some recordings for some labels but no hits. My biggest success at YouTube so far is this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiyTY9kgpiQ
It has had over 700,000 views so far. I did have a record out while I was at KBMI called Mona Lisa which has become a collector's item according to record collector books. Wynn Stewart was at KVEG in 1963. He had the number one Country hit of 1965 called "It's Such a Pretty World Today." Ben Boulder at KVEG in 1963 who was Roger Turnbeaugh became General Manager of one of the big Chicago stations. He died young. Harry Pappas whose family owned KVEG in the 1960s, became very big in broadcasting with many radio and TV stations but I think he went bankrupt about a year ago. Most of this info can be found in greater detail on the net. Harry Pappas used the radio name of Harry Holiday.
 
HermanSchmerdley said:
I remember Jim Flint very well. He was the engineer for KRAM when I worked there in 1963. He had a bad arm if I remember correctly but he was always working on something. He might have done some work with Tom Cross occasionally at KLAS TV Channel 8. I also worked a station in Henderson in 1965 called KTOO which had a 5000 Watt transmitter building with lots of RF and sun spiders, or vinegaroons. You could get a real shock touching the doorknob without using a rag. We actually broadcast from inside that concrete building on the grounds of the Ballerina Henderson Mobile Home Park.
Click to expand...
James Shelby Flint would later appear on KDWN-AM 720 as "The Old Professor" ... Jim was missing a couple of fingers, no doubt the result of working on the high voltage section of a transmitter. "TC" Tom Cross was a good buddy of his, and I came to know Tom as well in my years in Vegas radio in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Jim taught me a great deal in my early years in radio, I am forever indebted to his guidance... as well as Gordon Atterberry. "Gordie A" did mid-days on KLAV and was chief engineer, he would work on equipment while doing his airshift... then would pop over to KRAM and work the 7-midnight shift....
 
I did work at KLAV when it was KLAS, then KLAV at the old El Rancho Vegas grounds near the Strip and Sahara, not far from Channel 13. I believe Gordon A was at the station then, but it might have been when I was at KRAM that I worked with him at the Tropicana. Jim Flint was definitely at KRAM when it was at the Tropicana in 1964 and before. Gordon A was a classy guy who could have made it in any major market. Also at KLAV was Truman Hawkins. I also remember a controversy involving KENO radio when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963. Before it was known how badly he was injured the deejay reported the shooting and then played Long Tall Texan. One other place to see the Las Vegas deejays of the 1960s was Sproul Homes, West Charleston and Carpenter. "63 designs for 1963, the homes designed with you in mind." Every weekend there were about a half dozen deejays doing remote broadcasts from the model homes. I did that for awhile for KVEG. One other remote I remember well from 1964. I was on the board at KLAV and Len Howard would be doing his remote show called All That Jazz from some casino where he would interview celebrities and guests. He would tell me over the intercom connection to cue up a record, side A cut 4. Then he would change his mind after I had it cued and he would want side B cut 3 or a different record. He never was able to make up his mind but somehow the show always sounded smooth and relaxed.
 
Tru Hawkins ("The Tru Hawkins Tower") hired me at KLAV for my first *live* airshift, I did overnights when Johnny Farrow couldn't pass his element 9 and lost his gig -- Harvey Godrov aka Harvey Allen actually was the first person to hire me at KLAV, but that was just to run Sunday shows like the Polish Hour and Aquerella Musicalle with Jorge Santania.

I learned a great deal from Gordie A, he was indeed a class act and... the last I heard... I believe he owned a station in Bullhead City (about 10 years ago)

KENO was also on the grounds of the El Rancho, old Vegas photos show the towers of the station near the strip and Sahara... of course, being a radio geek I always notice these things.

At one time, i believe most Vegas radio stations had studios and transmitters on the strip...KENO even applied for a CP for an FM in the 1940's when they were at the El Rancho. It was a status symbol for the hotels to have a radio station broadcasting there.
 
KRAM was automated in the mid-1980's when I worked there, we called the automation system "Mongo" and it was a system not far removed from what you described in the 1970s.

In the early 1980s when I worked at KUDO-93.1 FM we had the then-state of the art computerized music scheduling software called "Autoselect" which ran on a Trash-80!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom