CRUIZIN’ WITH THE OLDIES
Beginning in about 2002, on Clear Channel’s KMGW-FM, the radio station paired up with a local Classic Car Club in Casper to present a weekend of Oldies over the Memorial Day Weekend. The program ran for four days beginning on Friday at Midnight and ran until Midnight on Memorial Day Monday.
The program was called “Cruizin’ With the Oldies,” and it featured all the old songs from the Late 50’s into the early 70’s. At the time, KMGW-FM was affiliated with ABC’s StarStation Radio Network and was 100% satellite programmed. This Cruizin’ with the Oldies program was the only time the station went live in the entire year with long-form programs.
In about 2005, as a former announcer at KATI, I convinced management to bring back Casper’s KATI for the Memorial Day Weekend program. I found old KATI jingles, commercials of the period, even a couple of former KATI announcers who were still in Casper and we presented a version of the old KATI sound. It was well received by the listening audience and each year it become a little more complex than the year before.
In 2009, I decided to try and put together a program that would actually feature as many of the old KATI announcers as I could find and get them back on the air with a series of air shows and special “Free For All” programs. We broke up the groups into their various time periods that they worked at KATI. Early 60’s, Late 60’s, 70’s & 80’s. What you will hear in this section of the website are those programs, in their entirety and as closely in the order in which they originally aired. In most cases, these air shifts were the first time some of these individuals had been on the air in over 25-years.
Finally, in 2010, I decided to retire from KTWO and wanted to go out with a bang, so to speak. I convinced Bob Price, General Manager at KTWO radio to assemble a KATI reunion of former employees and announcers. It meant contacting as many of the people as we could find, convincing them to return to Casper for the Memorial Day weekend and also to be a part of our Special radio program. We had people return to Wyoming from all over the country including Puerto Rico and 14 other states. In all, we had over 40-individuals and in many cases their wives return to be a part of our KATI/KAWY reunion. (Pictures are located in the “Sights” portion of the website)
For four-days of the 2010 Memorial Day weekend, KATI actually returned to the airwaves. Former announcers like Bill Sims, Randy Hall, Gene Wallace, Jock Blaney, Doc Mueller, Mark Allen, Bob Young and so many others all presented their versions of a KATI Classic Weekend. I’ve tried to include as many of these programs on this website as possible, due to technical issues at the time, not all the programs were recorded. So sit back, turn up your speaker, and enjoy KATI radio as it returned to the airwaves for one final time over this four day Memorial Day weekend of 2010.
Written October 2018, Dave Nutter, aka KATI’s “Real” Don Steele (1968-71) & katicasper.com website administrator