Frank Scott
CLASS OF 1984 Frank Scott was a true broadcaster, an Omahan who cut his teeth in radio and television in his hometown before moving on to international broadcasting for the Voice of America in Europe. A smart dresser with an acting background (he appeared in a barroom brawl scene with John Wayne), his outgoing personality was […]
Larry Walklin
CLASS OF 1985 Larry Walklin was the Fred and Gladys Seaton Professor of Broadcasting in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He started in commercial broadcasting at the age of 16 in his hometown of Grand Island at KMMJ. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Kansas State University in three years […]
Rev. Roswell Williams
CLASS OF 1985 Rev. Roswell C. Williams understood the importance of television as a mass medium and as an aid to education. He joined the faculty of Creighton University in Omaha in 1945 and became an advocate of radio and television as teaching tools. Before commercial television came to Omaha, Williams in 1946 welcomed production employees of WOW to set up experimental television equipment […]
Don Searle
CLASS OF 1986 Don Searle was an oil company visionary who recognized the power of this new medium called radio. With the financial backing of his father’s Mona Oil Company, he built KOIL in 1924 and wound up launching a new career for himself. The Searle family put KOIL on the air in Council Bluffs, Iowa, constructing what is said to be the first-ever building designed solely for the purpose of radio. […]
John Powell
CLASS OF 1986 John Powell was Vice President and General Manager of KHAS Hastings for 28 years. His longevity stems from the experience he built over seventeen years in radio since 1940, in positions ranging from announcer and sales to program director and general manager at nine different stations. Powell came to KHAS in 1957 from KSMN in Mason City, […]
Dave Young
CLASS OF 1987 Long-time manager and owner of KSID Sidney David Young settled in Nebraska from New Jersey by way of Wyoming. Upon graduation from the University of Wyoming in 1951, he entered radio at KFBC in Cheyenne. After a few years, he moved to Sidney to manage two-year-old KSID in 1954 making it his […]
Johnny Carson
CLASS OF 1987 Born in Corning, Iowa, Johnny Carson was raised in Norfolk which he always considered his hometown. Following high school, Carson joined the Navy and entertained enlisted men with his love of magic aboard the USS Pennsylvania. Upon his return to Nebraska, he wrote comedy for KFAB’s “Eddie Sosby’s Radio Rangers” show in 1948 while attending the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The […]
Steve Murphy
CLASS OF 1988 Steve Murphy worked broadcast news spending his 41-year career at WOW. He is recognized as one of the key leaders of Freedom of Information causes in Nebraska. Murphy joined WOW in 1951, two years after graduating from Creighton University. He was associate news director in 1965 and named news director for both […]
Martha Bohlsen
CLASS OF 1988 Martha Bohlsen whose cooking and homemakers shows aired over no fewer than four Omaha radio stations became a television fixture almost immediately after channel 6 signed on. Her kitchen set was adjacent to the set used by Johnny Carson. By 1948 and her tenth anniversary of being on the air, the busy […]
Gene Huse
CLASS OF 1989 Gene Huse was a publisher, pioneer radio station owner, engineer, mechanic, program innovator, and a strong advocate of truth in news. Huse took over as publisher of the family-owned Norfolk Daily News in 1915. He was already experimenting in his basement radio lab building crystal sets, and soon, transmitters. He studied for […]