 | 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
2006-03-01 10:28:00
Do you remember?
Radio stations of the past in the city of Wichita all had their own personality. I received a real nice e-mail from John Heckman, who was a news announcer on KWBB in the early years. KWBB was started by John Levand, publisher of the Wichita Beacon newspaper. You may remember, the Wichita Eagle was distributed through the city in the mornings, and the Beacon in the early evening. I spoke with John Levand about his new radio station before it came on the air. KWBB was broadcast at 1410, and has since had many call letter changes, as well as format switches. John reminded me of many of the personalities who were on the air at the time of its gala opening…Lee Nichols occupied much of the daytime hours. Then there was John Campbell in the evening, and Dick Jones. The news department was probably the largest in town at that time, headed by news director Jim Setters and his many co-announcers. He was also accompanied by his mobile news men – John Heckman, John Wagner, George Brumley, Dick Schmidt, Ralph Carpenter and many more. This was the first station in Wichita to actually cover instant breaking news of any kind. This included any type of fire, accident involving cars, trains, planes, all homicides, court house activity, and many varied news items and interviews. Cliff Koch was the Chief Radio Engineer that kept the whole place on the air, and Harold Hale, Sales Manager, along with sales reps. Bob Genette and Bob McCune sold the commercial advertising, and Milt Hall was the General Manager who headed the whole operation. KWBB was number one in Wichita ratings for many, many years with this great staff. KWBB completed the five buttons on your AM radio dial. First was KFBI, second KAKE, third KFH, fourth KWBB, fifth KANS. Great radio days and wonderful entertainment.
