 | Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452. |
Nostalgia
2006-04-01 10:49:00
Do you remember?
I was very interested to see the feedback from last months article on early radio in Wichita. I thought it would be interesting this month to cover some of the features on one of Wichita’s AM stations, KFH.
ANSWER: KFH call letters stand for Kansas’ Finest Hotel. The years progressed and the station occupied it’s own building named of all things, “The KFH Building.” This station was scheduled with what is called block programming. That is varied type shows that usually are totally different, the daily format went from pop music to country, to sometimes classic, and agricultural programs. It started in the morning with a disc jockey…usually country…and Bruce Behymers farm reports. Morning programming would also feature one of Wichita’s first shows for women…the Ethel Jane King show. Noon was always exciting…because along with the daily news that was delivered by George Doyle for many years…there also was the Ark Valley Boys show. One of the things that set KFH aside from the other stations was the fact that they had a complete audience equipped theatre in one of their studios where the Ark Valley Boys originated. Folks would drive in for miles to see this live band and the vocalists…there was entertainers like Bud Victory who besides playing the guitar, was also a very good vocalist. There was entertainers like bud victory besides playing the guitar was also a very good vocalist and so was his brother Oby Victory. Then there was Cousin Snazzy who played the stand up bass fiddle and Clarence Brown offered the comedy to the program, and was later Popeye on KAKE TV. The sometimes announcer was Don Anderson. But this was a great live show with the band and all the special guests they would bring in. Then the evening started with a talk show called the party line…its host was George Wells who later became the captain of the detectives for the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Patrol. Late night was Bill and Doree Post, the married couple who sang and kept us entertained. KFH also was the station of note to carry the WSU games…Broadcast in early days by Rick Stanley and Later Gus Grebe. Les Campbell was the Chief Engineer and Jimmy Carpenter, the Station Music Director. Program Director back then was Tom Bashaw, who later became the Station General Manager, and did an excellent job.It seems to me that KFH was also the first FM station on the air in Wichita. Great memories…of a radio station that was kept us entertained through the years, and the call letters are still on the air, but switched from 1330 to 1240 AM…great memories.
