going way back (KOMA)

From: Dick Yuhnke

Hi Charlie

Was listening to you this morning when a man called in and was talking about the “old” days when you were on KHJ. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t think you would consider that the “old” days. I’m only 61 years old, but I really think I remember listening to you on KOMA in Oklahoma City in the 60′s. I graduated from high school in ’65, and from OSU in ’70. Weren’t you working back there during that time frame? I recall that KOMA (I think it was 1560AM) was famous for transmitting at something like 100,000 watts at night. I’ve heard stories of people all over the country tuning in to that station at night during those days. I’ve even heard of people here in LA picking it up when conditions were “just right”.

Let me know if my memory is lacking or if you really were at KOMA. And thanks for being a radio friend for a lot of years.

Dick Yuhnke

(NOTE TO DICK: You’re right about me working at KOMA – 1520 on the AM dial in Oklahoma City. It was one of only 2 stations on that frequency in the entire USA, the other one being WKBW in Buffalo, New York. Both stations had 50,000 watts which, with no other stations on that frequency, covered a lot of territory, especially at night. KOMA literally could be heard at night in every state west of the Mississippi River, all the way up to Alaska and west to Hawaii! I did the morning show at KOMA for a year up until I left for Boston in January of 1967.)