Alan Bowker

Known as “Don Sherwood,” he was an announcer at KATI from 1964 – 66

Alan Bowker’s fascination with radio started early while listening to DJ’s in the Washington DC area. His parents moved to Casper when he was ten and his love of radio continued. He lived near KVOC and became acquainted with the DJ’s there, that association ended up with a part-time job in 1962.

Alan’s time at KATI began in the summer of 1964, where he primarily worked weekends and early morning’s. Alan remained at KATI until he left for college in Laramie in 1966.

Alan started his career in broadcasting in 1962 while attending Dean Morgan Junior High School. He was fascinated with being a DJ and walked eight blocks from home to KVOC and talked his way into the control room to watch the announcers. Bill Shutts and Duane Simon owned KVOC then with air personalities Ray Calvert, Jerry Watts, Steve Roberts, and Marge Heilman. Alan’s first broadcasting job started by operating remote equipment for various Live Sunday morning church broadcasts. His mom actually had to drive him to the remotes as he was too young to drive at the time. A shift came open at the station and that put Alan on the air for the first time. The shift was a gem, with Alan working on the air from ten to midnight weekdays and a split shift on Sundays.

Alan came to KATI in August of 1964, working the famous studios at 314 N. McKinley, he was Junior at NCHS, (Natrona County High School.) Known as “Don Sherwood,” Bowker signed on at 5 am, playing country and western music until about 7:00 am, before heading to school. Later, in addition to working early mornings, he also worked a shift from 5 pm to 8 pm in the evenings. KATI dropped the country music in the mornings in 1965 for Top 40 and began playing the harder rock tunes at night. Alan worked fulltime at KATI until August 1966 and filling in with air shift relief work until December.

After graduation from NCHS, Alan entered the University of Wyoming as one of the first students studying for a Broadcasting degree. As a freshman he signed on campus radio station KUWR for the first time in September 1966. During the next four years he worked as an announcer and became Station Manager during his junior and senior years.

During summer breaks from school, Bowker worked as an engineer for various radio stations in California including KCBQ, San Diego in 1969 and KNBR / NBC Radio in San Francisco in 1970. After graduation, he returned to Casper for a time to do afternoons at KTWO-AM and then to KLZ in Denver.

In 1972 Alan moved to San Francisco to attend graduate school in broadcast communications at San Francisco State University. While attending classes there, he worked as a production engineer at KCBS-AM & FM for five years and got extensive training in computer programming and broadcast automation systems.. He received his master’s degree in 1975.

Alan left broadcasting after graduation to pursue technical positions at Fantasy Records, North Star Computers and with Stanley Kubrick. In 1983 he became Director of Information Systems at Dolby Laboratories for 12 years and worked in various other IT management positions.

He returned to his roots in broadcasting in 2006 in IT management at KGO-TV, an ABC Network owned television station in San Francisco, working with control room and newsroom automation systems. Alan retired from ABC in 2016.

Alan and his wife live in Marin County where he spends time restoring old broadcast gear among other things. He still has 1960’s radio control room equipment in his home and is digitizing reel to reel tapes from the 1960’s and 70’s to capture the nostalgia of his time on the air at KATI in the 1960s. He spends time flying his drone, travelling the world, and loves photographing the people and places of the world during his travels..You can follow Alan’s adventures on Facebook or his Website: https://bowkera.com