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 […]
Todd Storz
CLASS OF 1989 Todd Storz was the man who developed local music and news formats for radio at a time when the industry was struggling against the onslaught of television. Block radio and variety were the rules. Changing it at the time required new thinking and courage. An early interest in radio steered Todd to […]
Merrill Workhoven
CLASS OF 1990 A valuable addition to WOW’s announcing staff came in 1945. Merrill Workhoven joined WOW after stints at KSCJ Sioux City, KSOO Sioux Falls. He had also spent a few years in Hollywood doing short films. Some speculate that it was Merrill who encouraged young co-worker Johnny Carson to quit and move to […]
Bob Taylor
CLASS OF 1990 Bob Taylor was a fixture in news broadcasting at KOLN/KGIN channels 110/11 television in Lincoln and Grand Island for 28 years. He’s described as a true dyed-in-the-wool newsman and remembered fondly as a strict mentor to young newspeople starting out as interns. A North Carolina native, Bob graduated from Northwestern University in […]