NEBRASKA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Fetzer Broadcasting
Ebel became director of Fetzer Broadcasting and Fetzer Communications, but still found time to serve as president of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association in 1964.
Swisher was the National Association of Broadcasters president in 1961 and 1962. He was a National Association of Broadcasters committee member and served two terms on the Television Bureau of Advertising national board of directors.
Art Thomas was one of Nebraska's pioneer broadcasters. After a stint with the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, he was named manager of WJAG Norfolk in 1932. During that time he also served as Chief Newscaster and produced one of the first Man On The Street interview programs that were becoming popular in the 1930s and 40s.
Thomas was one of the charter organizers of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and served as Secretary-Treasurer for fifteen years. At the time, this unpaid position performed most of the duties later performed by the Executive Director. Thomas repeatedly refused opportunities to become NBA President because he felt his continued service as Secretary-Treasurer allowed him to contribute the most to the long-term success of the Association.
Upon retirement from WJAG in 1951, he was succeeded by his son Robert E. (Bob) Thomas who was NBA President/Chair 1953 and 1963. He in turn was succeeded by his son Robert G. (Robb) Thomas who was NBA president/chair in 1994.
The year of Mr. Thomas's passing is unknown to the NBA. We encourage anyone with this information to please contact us.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Chairperson of Radio One, Inc
Catherine Hughes is the founder and chairperson of Radio One, Inc., the largest African-American-owned and operated broadcast company in the nation.
Born in Omaha, Hughes grew up in the Logan-Fontenelle Housing Projects and attended the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Creighton University, her father's alma mater, but never completed her degree.
In 1969 she began working at KOWH, a Black-owned radio station in Omaha, working and volunteering for everything. Hughes then invested $10,000 in the radio station from an inheritance. She recalled the station owners weren't looking for investors, but she figured having a stake in the company would afford more opportunities to learn the radio business and give her more responsibility. The station paid back her entire investment when she left in 1973.
From the knowledge gained at KOWH AM/FM, Hughes moved to Washington, D.C. to begin building her empire. She was hired as general sales manager at WHUR-FM, Howard University Radio. Two years later she became the station's general manager, boosting sales revenue from $300,000 to $3.5 million. Hughes also first created the urban radio format called "The Quiet Storm" on Howard University's radio station.
In 1979, she and her husband purchased a small Washington radio station, WOL, creating Radio One. Her own talk show became a hit. Over time, she became the full owner and made the station profitable.
Charles P. Arnot was born in Scribner, Nebraska and lived in Fremont where he later graduated from Midland Luthern College. Arnot began his foreign reporting career with United Press International wire service covering the Pacific theater in World War II. He saw plenty of battles and watched the sinking of the U.S.S. Hornet and covered the battle of Guadalcanal and the invasion of Guam. Toward the war's end, he transferred to Europe and chronicled the aftermath of the Allied victory over the Nazis. As director of Amerika-Dienst, news and feature service of the U. S. High Commission in Germany, he was passing the ammunition to German Newspapers in the cold war against Russian propaganda.
Arnot joined ABC News in 1956. He reported on several conflicts in Korea, Cyprus and Egypt duirng the 1950's. Also during the decade he held bureau chief positions for ABC News in Cairo and Nairobi.
He was ABC News' Saigon bureau chief in 1963 for two years. After South Vietnam, he served as Rome bureau chief for three years. Then in 1969, he was renamed Siagon bureau chief, where he remained for two years.
After 15 years abroad, he returned to ABC News in Nework in 1970 to handle the network's weekend radio news operations.
He was honored by the Overseas Press Club of America in 1963 for best television reporting abroad the previous year, and was co-recipient of the Lowell Thomas Award in 1975 for the ABC News piece, "Scenes From a War."
Arnot passed away in 1998 in Prescott, Arizona, where he had retired several years prior. He was 81.
Job Titles:
- NRG Media / Grand Island / Kearney
Hamer served as President of the Omaha Press Club in 1968, President of the National Press Photographers Association in 1971, and lectured at the annual Newsvideo Workshop at the University of Oklahoma for thirty-two years
Don Meier was the driving force behind one of the most successful series in television, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. He created, directed, and produced the show hosted by Marlin Perkins. "Growing up in Nebraska, I liked the outdoors, but this was beyond my wildest dreams," Don said.
Don ran the library and taught school in Oshkosh, Nebraska. While studying at the University of Nebraska, Meier became interested in broadcasting and took all the radio courses the university offered at the time. After college, Meier served in the Army during World War II, including serving for a year at the Pentagon. While in the Army, he rose to the level of lieutenant colonel.
Afterward, he headed to Chicago to work at a small experimental TV station (the forerunner to today's WMAQ TV) doing virtually everything. With that training ground, he moved to NBC. He was Director of the Dave Garroway Show in the 1950s and went on to produce shows like Quiz Kids, Mr. Wizard, and Zoo Parade. His involvement with Perkins on Zoo Parade led to his decision to take the camera beyond the zoo and to develop a pilot of Wild Kingdom.
After 84 rejections, Meier finally found a sponsor for the show with Mutual of Omaha. It quickly became a family television favorite with its travel to different places showing untamed nature. As producer, Meier demanded all material be zoologically accurate. The show ran Sundays on NBC and later in syndication for 25 years.
Don's show received many accolades including the first National Wildlife Federation Award and four Emmys. Meier in 1993 established a scholarship to benefit a freshman broadcasting major at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and also endowed scholarships in the university's colleges of law and business.
Don Searle was an oil company visionary who recognized the power of this new medium called radio. With the financial backing of his father's Mona Oil Company, he built KOIL in 1924 and wound up launching a new career for himself.
The Searle family put KOIL on the air in Council Bluffs, Iowa, constructing what is said to be the first-ever building designed solely for the purpose of radio. When they sold KOIL in 1933, Don moved to Topeka, Kansas, as General Manager of WIBW.
Five years later Searle returned to Nebraska taking over the Central States Broadcasting System headquartered in Lincoln. It was a duopoly operation consisting of three stations-KFAB and KFOR in Lincoln, and coincidentally KOIL which by this time had moved to Omaha.
Searle moved on to bigger responsibilities and station ownership after leaving Lincoln in 1943. He was general manager at KGO San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles as Vice President of ABC's Western Division, and General Manager of KECA, which became KABC in 1946. He left ABC for health reasons in 1948.
During his corporate years on the West Coast, Searle kept his Midwestern ties through station ownership. He owned KMMJ Grand Island since 1936, then expanded his holdings with KXXX Colby, Kansas in 1948, and KFNF Shenandoah and KIOA Des Moines in 1957.
Searle sold his stations in the 1960s. After the sale of KMMJ in 1967, Seale left Grand Island and retired to his Monterey, California, home.
Eric Brown led KRVN and the nation's only farmer-rancher-owned radio group in America for over 30 years. Taking over the KRVN management position left by his retiring father, he brought an impressive background of experience and education in journalism to continue the tradition begun by Max Brown.
Eric began his broadcasting career in 1962 as a part-time announcer at KRVN, the Nebraska Rural Radio Association station that his father had put on the air in 1951.
He graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of Nebraska in 1967. After earning his master's at the University of Missouri, he taught at South Dakota State University. In 1975, he earned a Ph.D. in broadcasting from Ohio University and returned to South Dakota State as director of Educational Media and manager of the school's KESD FM/TV.
Eric returned to Lexington in 1979 taking over as general manager when his father retired from the position.
Under Eric's leadership, the Nebraska Rural Radio Association expanded its reach. In 1984 with the purchase of KNEB AM/FM in Scottsbluff and in 1996 adding KTIC AM/KWPN FM in West Point, the Nebraska Rural Radio Network was formed.
Eric served on more than two dozen statewide boards in addition to serving two terms on the board of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and was elected president in 1984. For seven years, Eric served as the national legislative liaison for the NBA. One of his accomplishments was helping start the Governor's call-in program with Bob Kerry.
Eric retired in 2012 as General Manager of the Nebraska Rural Radio Association but remains active with its Foundation. He and his wife Ruth reside in Lincoln.
Frank Scott was a true broadcaster, an Omahan who cut his teeth in radio and television in his hometown before moving on to international broadcasting for the Voice of America in Europe. A smart dresser with an acting background (he appeared in a barroom brawl scene with John Wayne), his outgoing personality was a natural for the business.
Frank Scott was born in Omaha, studied at UNL, and graduated with a BS in Journalism at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1954. He has been a broadcaster virtually all of his life. He worked his way through college as a news reporter and film director at KMTV Omaha also producing and writing live TV quiz shows.
After graduation Scott pursued an acting career in New York and Hollywood before returning to broadcasting in 1958 as news director and anchor at KVOA TV in Houston. Returning to Omaha two years later he was news director for KBON. Scott was vice president and a general manager by 1967 and in 1970 changed KBON's calls to KLNG "Calling Radio," marking the station's move as one of the first news-talk operations in the country. In 1973 he was named VP of Welcome Radio, Inc., a subsidiary of the company that owned the station.
Some legendary broadcasters worked under Scott's leadership in the 1970s. They include the well-known Lyle DeMoss, Carol Schrader who later became a long-time anchor at KMTV, and Chuck Hagel who went on to become U.S. Senator from Nebraska and Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration.
George Kister (pronounced Kee-ster) spent much of his 43-year broadcast career at KMMJ Grand Island. He entered radio almost by chance. He became Assistant Secretary of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce in 1925 which at the time acted as manager of radio station KFKX Hastings. As Assistant Secretary, Kister began his air work as the station's farm announcer.
In 1927 KFKX was shut down and the call letters moved to Chicago. The USDA market reports were moved to KMMJ in Clay Center under the care of George Kister who had by this time was well acquainted with farm news and reports. KMMJ moved to Grand Island in 1939 and Kister moved with it.
During his tenure with KMMJ, Kister served as Program Director, Farm Director, Public Service Director, but was best known as their long time News Director.
After his retirement from broadcasting in 1968, Kister worked for the City of Hastings.
Job Titles:
- Owner, President, and General Manager of KWBE AM
Gordon C. "Bud" Pentz was owner, president, and general manager of KWBE AM and FM in Beatrice, Nebraska. A native of Illinois, he was a graduate of both the University of Illinois and Yale University, having received four degrees from the two institutions.
While station manager, Gordon Pentz bought controlling interest in KWBE Beatrice in 1957. From there he developed his small market local signal into a legendary success story. First, he placed the station focus on local issues and events and even aired his own talk show inviting nearly any of Beatrice's residents with something to say as guests. For many years his live telephone call-in show helped him determine the needs, interests, and wants of the KWBE listening audience.
Secondly, in 1958 he installed the state's first radio station Weather Radar through the purchase of a government surplus World War II Navy Radar system.
Harold A. Soderlund had already spent over 40 years in broadcasting and related businesses at the time of his induction into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 1979.
He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1935 and was sales manager of radio station KFAB in its early years. He founded and was the principal owner of KOOO, Omaha in 1957 with a "format for all groups in its listening area." He sold the station in 1959.
In 1957 he established the Soderlund Company which sold advertising time for its client stations nationally and regionally. At one time, the company represented 100 radio stations and 35 television stations.
The Soderlund Company also handled "The Martha Bohlsen Show", a pioneer homemaker show that began as a promotion for the Nebraska Power Company. He published a cookbook of favorite recipes "From Martha Bohlsen's Kitchen".
Harold served the Nebraska Broadcasters Association as chairman of its Associate Members Committee for three years.
While Mr. Soderlund's first love was broadcasting, he also was advertising manager of a country newspaper, account executive of an advertising agency, and co-owner of a company selling space on outdoor Scotchline signs.
He served as Chairman of a National Association of Broadcasters committee on agency recognition, spending three years traveling the country to sell the idea of an agency recognition bureau.
He remained active into his later years and in the late 1980s formed the Soderlund Satellite Sales Seminars in conjunction with the University of Nebraska College of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Nebraska Broadcasters Association.
He also made significant financial contributions to the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Foundation and was a strong proponent for increasing the number of scholarships for broadcasting students at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Omaha, and Kearney.
Job Titles:
- Radio by the Time He Became a Partner
Howard Shuman was quite familiar with radio by the time he became a partner at KFOR David City in 1924. He built his first transmitter in 1914.
He was instrumental in moving KFOR to Lincoln in 1926 and the following year he bought full control of the station. He sold KFOR in 1932 to a company that already owned KFAB in Lincoln forming the region's first duopoly. Shuman went on to build and sell transmitters and provide his engineering skills for other stations.
Shuman founded another Lincoln station in 1949. In what was said to be a dispute with Stuart Broadcasting, owners of KFOR at the time, he built KLMS on 1480. He sold KLMS to the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald in 1974.
The year of Mr. Shuman's passing is unknown to the NBA. We encourage anyone with this information to please contact us.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- President
Robert E. "Bob" Thomas was the executive vice president and general manager of Norfolk's WJAG and its later FM KEXL from 1951 to 1985. From 1964 to 1985 he also served as executive vice president of KCOL AM/FM Fort Collins, CO. During the '60s and early '70s, his Beef Empire Group also included KVSH Valentine and KCSR Chadron.
Thomas was born August 6, 1918, in Omaha, Nebraska and his family moved to Norfolk in 1932. He graduated from Norfolk Senior High School in 1936 and completed some undergraduate work at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. From 1939-41, and again from 1946-1948 he served in several different positions with WJAG AM as radio news editor, newscaster, salesman, sales manager, and assistant manager. He also spent time in sales at KWPC, Muscatine. Iowa and at KOWH/KOAD-FM in Omaha during this period. From 1948-1950 he was employed as a radio/television director for one of the region's leading advertising agencies in Omaha.
A World War II veteran, Thomas served over 20 years as an Army reserve officer. During the war, he graduated from Officer Candidate School and ultimately commanded the Short Wave Operations Division of the Armed Forces Radio Network in San Francisco from 1944 to 1946. AFRS broadcast to Alaska's Aleutian Islands, Central and South America, and the entire Pacific Theater.
Thomas twice served as president and secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association board of directors and served on virtually all standing committees of the Nebraska Broadcaster's Association at one time or another.
He received the NBA's first Lifetime Member Award in 1966, Outstanding Broadcaster Award in 1971, and was presented the Broadcast Pioneer Award by the University of Nebraska School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2005.
Bob served as president of the Nebraska Associated Press News Association, was a charter member of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Small Market Radio Committee, and was elected three times to the NAB radio board for District 10 (IA, MO, & NE). He participated on many other NAB committees.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board / Gray Media Group
Job Titles:
- Associate Director / Truescope, Inc. Omaha