John Shea
Announcer, Sports Play by Play, Engineer from 1965 to 1972
While he may not have been paid, John got his first look at KATI in the time between 1957 & 59 when he visited the studios in the old Midwest Building known as the KATI Kave. His mother worked as a bookkeeper for Pat Meenan whose offices were upstairs.
John later actually went to work at KATI in about 1965, first as a lawn boy and overnight janitor at the new studios at 1400 KATI Lane and later as an announcer, sports play by play and in the early 70’s as the engineer. Shea left the station in 1972 to work for Bill Sims at his new station, KOJO-AM, in Laramie.
John did a multitude of things while at the stations. He may have been a teenager mowing lawns and cleaning the station when he started but he worked into one of the most valuable members of the staff when he left to go to school in 1972.
He was the play by play voice for all of Casper’s schools at one time or another on both KATI and KAWY. He also did remote broadcasts for both stations from various businesses and, in fact, did the first ever FM remote for KAWY from the First National Bank of Casper following a major remodel of their lobby. A recording of that is listed below. When Phil Kuhn (Phil Rogers), Chief Engineer, left the station in 1970, John became the engineer for a couple of years as well as his other announcing duties.
John left KATI in 1972, initially to work for Bill Sims and Steve Broomell who had purchased KOJO-AM. He helped them with engineering and announcing duties and while he was in Laramie, went to school at the university and got his Elementary teaching degree. John’s left KOJO and broadcasting in approximately in 1976 when he went into teaching permanently.
John went on to be a longtime educator in Douglas and retired in approximately 2010. He still resides in Douglas, Wyoming.
