THANK YOU to Charles Frodsham for supplying the information below!

Broadcaster extraordinaire Don Anderson served KFH as chief announcer, master of ceremonies of live programs, and program director from 1949 to 1961 when he died suddenly of a heart attack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from November 1948, two months after the sign-on of KFH-FM, announcing a one-hour earlier 5 a.m. sign-on time with KFH personality Orth Bell.

In the photo, left to right: Frank Matthews, sales manager; Russell Lowe, promotion manager and editor of KFH newsletter; Frank Webb, VP and General Manager of KFH.

 

 

 

1955 – Russell Lowe congratulates new sales manager.

Back row, left to right: Virgil Hinshaw, Chief Engineer; Frank V. Webb, VP and General Manager; Thomas P. Bashaw, program director (inducted posthumously into the KAB Hall of Fame).

Front row, left to right: Sherwood Parks, sales manager; Russell Lowe, Jr.  promotion director and former director of the KFH Orchestra in the 1930s and 40s.

 

A popular KFH program in 1948 featured 16-year-old vocalist (and Wichita North High School junior) Patti Pyatt (now Patricia Tway).  KFH music director Wayne Euchner heard about Patti who–at the age of 15–was touring with the Russ Carlyle big band.

An interesting note about Patti is that her radio voice sounded very similar to that of women’s director Ethel Jane King.  So when Ethel Jane left KFH to join KAKE-TV in 1954, the station asked Patti to begin hosting the program titled “E-Jay’s Notebook.”  KFH owned the program title and Patti became “Miss E-Jay” on the air.  To many listeners the change seemed seamless, and Patti continued in that role until she and her husband moved from Wichita in the mid-1950s.

 

The 21-member Cessna Aircraft employee group called “Strictly Personnel,” appeared weekly at 7 p.m. on Sundays on KFH during 1941 and 1942.

This photo is courtesy of Active Aging reader Elizabeth “Babe” Watkins Day, one of the members of that group. “Babe” is the dark-haired girl in the back row (center) just to the right of the KFH-CBS banner.

Babe was able to identify three others in the photo: Francis “Flo” Lockman is to the right of Babe on the back row; Helen McLaughlin Puffer far right on front row; and Ruth W. Wilson, far right, back row.

 

Sue Webb Fulton was the first fulltime program director for KFH. In the 1920s, radio program directors auditioned vocalists and musicians instead of auditioning records. And they almost always trained vocalists and musicians.

Sue Webb Fulton of Wichita was known as that “Jayhawker Girl” on KFH in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her singing included all genres including operatic and classical to popular, jazz, and blues.

Courtesy: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum