Classic Larry Nelson

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Classic Larry Nelson

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Sat May 28, 2011 4:28 pm

Thanks to former Seattle jock Joe Coburn for this story on legendary, long-time, (and sadly, now passed) KOMO morning man Larry Nelson:

It was in the early 70's -- 72-73 prolly -- and KOMO was the only station in town with an airplane reporting traffic. Teddy Garlatz, Sr. was the pilot. A very nervous fellow to have such a job. KJR, KING, KOL, KIRO all listened to the 2-way conversations between Teddy and KOMO to embellish their reporting and none of them acknowledged the fact.

So, one day, Larry calls up all the stations and asks them to make a contribution toward the upkeep of the plane and pilot. They all declined.

(minor chord here -- impending doom stuff)

Now, Lar and Teddy work out a signal. Larry gives a key word to Teddy who then provides a bogus traffic report, just over the two-way.

KING immediately went on the air, "Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin -- a tanker truck carrying 40,000 gallons of fish oil has just overturned on the West end of the I-90 floating bridge and has traffic backed up all the way to Mercer Island!" KOL Constant Information (Jack Morton on mornings at that time) reports the same. KJR Instant Information (Frank Thompson and Emperor Smith) is hot on their heels and KIRO goes wall-to-wall 'fish oil.' Even Buck Ritchie over at country KAYO threw in a blurb.

KOMO said nothing.

It didn't take too long for the truth to come out but by that time the damage was done. Pat O'day went on KJR with an open apology, KING reported the story, KIRO never mentioned it again and Morton pronounced KOL as 'The Pirate Radio Station' claiming not only to have stolen it's traffic reports but the records they played and even the clock on the wall.

KOMO said nothing.

The real fun started with the legal entanglements as KOMO and KOL had the same lawyer.

It was one of the greatest moments in the history of Seattle Radio and Lar had just dreamt it up and done it. He was in so much trouble. He just smiled and ordered another martini at Vito's.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

jdc
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: Classic Larry Nelson

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sat May 28, 2011 6:36 pm

Hahahaha!
It's always been like that.
In Toronto when I first started at CHUM in '72, the air traffic reports had been discontinued for some time after the two clowns (the traffic reporter was Hartley Hubbs) who did them wrecked the helicopter during a drunken stunt using the helicopter landing skids trying to pick up a park bench on the Toronto Islands.
The parks board had become tired of this and had started cementing the benches into the ground.
They tried to pick up one of the newly cemented ones and flipped the chopper onto it's rotor.
(The Globe and Mail used to publish a picture of this every year on the anniversary of the occurrence.)
CKEY still had 2 helicopters back then, one flown by Dini Petty and CFRB had Henry Shannon in a fixed wing plane but IIRC, those were the only stations with aircraft.
Of course, all the rest of the stations religiously monitored both their on air reports and the two way traffic between the stations and the traffic reporters.
I don't think anyone ever pulled a gag like the one in Seattle but we always worried about something like that happening and being caught red-handed stealing someone else's material.
Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Engineering, News, Voice work and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada

54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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