On June 6, 1944, the allied forces launched the largest amphibious assault ever against Nazi Germany.
Category Archives: History
Williams radio history: KYET 1180 am
KYET Studio at 138 W. Route 66 downtown Williams.
WILLIAMS – With the rise of the new radio station, KZBX 92.1 FM, elders in Williams may harken back to the days of the former AM station KYET. The KYET studio was located at 138 W. Route 66 in downtown Williams. Now the location of the Grand Canyon Winery. Rather ironic since Bob did not like whining at the station.
The icon of the station was talk show host Bob Hardy. Bob Hardy was born into a radio family at Clark Air Base in the Philippines on June 25, 1954. His father, Bob Hardy Sr. was stationed there. Bob Hardy Sr. went on to become a noted radio personality and the young Bob Hardy learned the business from his father at KMOX in St. Louis.
Bob Hardy Jr. went on to WINU in Highland, Ill, WGSB in Chicago and WJNO and WPBR in West Palm Beach, Florida. Bob came to northern Arizona in 1992 where he found a broadcasting home at KVNA radio in Flagstaff. With Bob Hardy, however, political correctness was not one of his endearing traits. By one account, this caused a rift at KVNA. Letting him leave was probably a big mistake on their part.
Bob was hired on at the 10KW KYET station in Williams. His Northland Now show became a popular morning show with news and commentary including callers to the station. His station provided coverage and drew listeners from Flagstaff, to Valle and the Grand Canyon, to Ash Fork and into Utah.
People would particularly tune in on Saturday for News of the Weird in which he would read strange stories. He never revealed the source of the stories. As a KYET insider, I think it safe to reveal now that many of the stories came largely from tabloid journals.
Pete Christensen and Bob Hardy cover the Rendezvous Day parade in a KYET remote. (Northern Arizona Citizen file photo)
Bob was very patriotic, conservative and Second Amendment friendly. But he was also people friendly and loved to share other views. (It could have been, of course, that he just liked to spark controversy.) He opened his microphone to the Coconino County Libertarians. Bob even brought in the big, liberal guns from Phoenix in the form of comedian Pete Christensen. Christensen, unlike many other “liberal” comedians, prefers to perform family friendly comedy.
Patrick Whitehurst at the KYET studio.
Patrick Whitehurst is a writer and artist who submits work to various papers in northern Arizona. He started locally in Williams and served as an intern at KYET.
“My memory of the station is a bit fuzzy, but I remember the overall sense of the place (even down to the feeling it was haunted) and the thrill of getting on the radio, even if it was a small town radio station,” Patrick said. “Bob was always a very accommodating kind of guy, and possessed boundless energy. That I remember well. Just as I remember stressing about each and every Pat This! column I wrote.
“I started the weekly commentary show with the idea I would sound old and wise. Instead I came off sounding like a punk version of Dennis Miller. But it worked, just as Bob knew it would. And thanks to him, I had a blast doing it. In fact, even though I did host weekend talk for a while as well, the commentary was my favorite part of KYET.”
Bob also brought the Arizona Cardinals games to the station. After his Northland Now show ended, syndicated conservative talk radio took over and the late night favorite was Coast-to-Coast AM in the days of Art Bell.
Bob Hardy and Pete Christensen had great times at the station.
I recall passing by and seeing the station several times. I tuned it in one day and could not believe this guy; Bob Hardy. He was hilarious. If memory serves, in fact, it was a Saturday morning dose of News of the Weird. I went down to the station and walked right in. It was void of the normal security trappings of radio stations today. Except, of course, for the 9-mm Bob normally carried under his vest. I introduced myself and he responded with that deep, resounding voice of his. Our friendship began.
I set up the KYET web site. I provided news copy which was almost never satisfactory. I also provided publicity shots and exchanged advertising for the station through the Northern Arizona Citizen newspaper which I edited.
I wrote an ad for the Northern Arizona Citizen which stated that it was great for wrapping fish and lining bird cages. And you might even try reading it too. I walked into the station one day and Bob told me I had got him in trouble. A lady called and politely told him that he should not make fun of the paper. His response to her was, “You’ll never forget the name, will you?”
One Saturday morning I received a call from (I believe) Mik of the Libertarian Party asking me if I had seen or heard from him. I was rather stunned when I turned on the radio and did not hear the voice of Bob Hardy. When I finally did wake up, I realized something was terribly wrong. Bob always made it to the station every day except Sunday because he loved his job.
By the time I got to the station, the door was opened and mourning had begun. We found out that he passed away the previous night, Friday, June 5, 1998.
The station lasted only a few more months in Williams before shutting down.
Updated 6/6/14 6:06 pm
Contributing to this article
Patrick Whitehurst. Patrick Whitehurst is a fiction and non-fiction author who’s written for a number of northern Arizona newspapers over the years, covering everything from murders to Rotary luncheons. He contributed much to the Northern Arizona Citizen and has historic Williams books for sale around town. In his spare time he enjoys painting, blogging, the open water, and reading everything he can get his hands on. Whitehurst is a graduate of Northern Arizona University and currently lives among the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. His latest novella, Talk Jock Twits, is based on his short-lived career at KYET and will soon be available on Amazon. Visit him at www.patrickwhitehurst.com.
Glen Davis. Editor of the Northern Arizona Gazette. Glen worked at KYET as a volunteer for over a year where he met Patrick Whitehurst and Pete Christensen. Glen has self-published Concerning the Militia through LULU.com which started out as a notebook of research that he did for Bob and others. He also self-published a fiction work, A Shroud of Evidence.
High school text book really does re-write Constitution
BreitBart reports that one high school text book publisher literally does re-write the Constitution. It overturns a Supreme Court Decision, as well.
Page 102 of United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination (PDF) gives brief descriptions of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. Their version of the Second Amendment states:
The people have a right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.
The official Second Amendment reads:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
In 2008, the Supreme Court decided in District of Columbia v. Heller (PDF) that the right to bear arms is independent of being a member of a militia. In 2010, the case of McDonald v. Chicago (PDF), the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment restrictions on government applied to State as well as national government.
The book is authored by John J. Newman and was published in 2003 by Amsco School Publications Incorporated.
Continue reading
Greatest play in baseball history.
“And from time-to-time people ask, Well, are you upset because you spent nineteen seasons in the major leagues and your known for primarily stopping two people from burning the flag? If that’s all your known for, it’s not a bad thing at all.”
There are a myriad memorable plays in baseball history. This play by center fielder and Arizona State University alumnus Rick Monday on April 25th, 1976 in the 4th inning at Dodger Stadium was voted one of the best 100 plays of all times.
It did not set up a triple-play. It did not stop the winning run. What it did do is something more important to most people serving, or who have served, this country in the armed forces of the United States.
Source: Madison Rising
National Common Core victory in Arizona.
PHOENIX – There was an unfortunate victory for the Common Core cirriculum in Arizona. Senate Bill 1310 failed on March 5 by a vote of 12 for and 18 against. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Hupenthal made an attempt at convincing Arizona citizens that Arizona controlled the standards by calling it Arizona College and Career Ready Standards.
S.B. 1310 would have prohibited the Arizona State Board of Education from implementing the Common Core Standards and require Arizona to withdraw from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). The bill would have prevented the Board of Education for implementing any standards that would effectively implement common core.
It would have require the Board of Education to adopt an existing college entry examination accepted by fifty-percent of the colleges in the country to measure the academic performance of students.
Common core standards ask students to rewrite the Bill of Rights.
It was reported in November of last year that sixth-grade students of Milam Elementary School in Tupelo, Mississippi were told not to tell parents about one assignment. Digital Journal reported on an assignment to rewrite the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States to make it compatible with the PATRIOT act.
According to the London Telegraph, fiction books are being replaced in the Bill and Melissa Gates foundation funded program in favor of non-fiction works such as Levels of Insulation by the US Environmental Protection Agency. According to this article:
Supporters of the directive argue that it will help pupils to develop the ability to write concisely and factually, which will be more useful in the workplace than a knowledge of Shakespeare.
Parents and grandparents locally have expressed concerns about the standards which are removing a requirement to learn cursive writing from the curriculum. This would make it difficult for students to read the original documents of the founding of the country such as the Constitution of the United State of America.
S.B. 1155, still in committee, will allow school districts and charter schools to opt out of the common core standards. S.B. 1095, also still in committee, would require the SBE to withdraw from PARCC and not implement common core standards. It would require the SBE to notify the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate before entering into any contracts with outside entities that develop multi-State academic standards.
In an 1816 letter to Joseph Cabell, Thomas Jefferson warned about the undue interference in local affairs by the national government.
No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the national government be entrusted with the defence of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself.
In this letter he extended his opinion to the relationship between State and county government.
But if it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund, or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience.
In 1800 he warned in a letter to Gideon Granger of Connecticut;
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, & from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer & overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens, and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder & waste.
Vladimir Lenin explained common core in 1917.
“Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever”
(Common Core mathematics explained)
Ronald Reagan: We are Americans.
Hillsdale College Constitution 101 course starts Monday.
Hillsdale College Campus
Hillsdale College in Michigan is starting up a free basic online course on the Constitution on Monday, February 24. Potential students can per-register now.
These courses are non-credit courses which are based on the curriculum that the resident students must take in order to graduate. These are great extra-study courses for high school students and students of other colleges.
These well-done courses consist of video lectures and downloads from their Constitutional Reader and other sources. The course covers the Constitution in the view of the founders through their words and the government-approved Federalist Papers.
The course is complete with examinations and you even receive a certificate of completion for the courses.
Upon completion, there is a Constitution 201 course available. They also have two history courses and a new economics course.
The course comes in ten weekly sections with a video about 45-minutes long. The reading depends on how much time you devote. If you want a good understanding of the Constitution, this is about the best ten weeks you can spend.
Secret Location of ‘King David’s Castle’ to be Revealed
A major archaeological find points to a Davidic royal castle in Nahal Refaim. Location was secret, until now.
The location of a major archaeological find that was kept secret until now will be revealed to the public on Friday, next week. The find is being touted as a royal castle that could have belonged to Israel’s most celebrated king – the Bible’s King David.
The find is a decorated carved stone known as “a proto-aeolic capital” that is connected to a column. Only 30 such capitals have been found in Israel so far, and only five of them were found in areas in which Biblical-era kings lived.
Unlike all of the other proto-aeolic capitals found in Israel – this one is not separate from the column but connected to it. The weight of the column and capital are estimated to be about five tons.
“For reasons that are not completely clear,” wrote newspaper Makor Rishon when the find was first announced, “several authorities in Israel have decided to silence the find, which may mark a breakthrough in the perception of the period of King David and his son, Shlomo [Solomon], and of the entire Judean kingdom.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva 7
The Kiss of Life
by Rocco Morabito
This 1967 award-winning photo entitled “Kiss of Life” shows two power linemen, Randall Champion and J. D. Thompson, at the top of a utility pole. They had been performing routine maintenance when Champion brushed one of the high voltage lines at the very top. These are the lines that can be heard “singing” with electricity. Over 4000 volts entered Champion’s body and instantly stopped his heart (an electric chair uses about 2000 volts).
His safety harness prevented a fall, and Thompson, who had been ascending below him, quickly reached him and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and descended with him on his shoulder.
Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and Champion was moderately revived by the time paramedics arrived. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living.
Rocco Morabito (November 2, 1920 – April 5, 2009) was an American photographer who spent the majority of his career at the Jacksonville Journal.
Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for “The Kiss of Life”, a Jacksonville Journal photo that showed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation between two workers on a utility pole. Randall G. Champion was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line; fellow lineman J.D. Thompson revived him while strapped to the pole by the waist. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64; Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.
He served in World War II in the Army Air Forces as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. He returned after the war and worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982. He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.—WikiPedia
SEE ALSO: The Kiss of Life, 40 years later, 10 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photos And Their Stories
Daniel Boone: Trailblazer. Full movie.
YouTube: Set in 1775, Daniel Boone takes his family far West to build Fort Boone despite the extreme dangers of Indian attacks. Boone explained his courage: “It isn’t how you die, it’s what you live for.”
This old movie probably led a series of television programs hosted by Uncle Walt.
Eventually a six-year television series staring Fess Paker, Patricia Blair and Ed Ames ran from 1964. This show launched the career of many an actor. The show is currently being run on the Memorable Entertainment (ME) television network.
More movies at OldiesGoodiesCinema