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 […]
Foster May
CLASS OF 1990 Foster May was an aggressive, controversial figure in Nebraska, considered a radio phenomenon at the time. He set the pattern for local radio news coverage during the 1930s and 40s, its formative period. Clearly a workaholic, he at one time handled all newscasts from 6 a.m. to midnight before the days of […]
Ken Elkins
CLASS OF 1991 Kenneth Joe Elkins was one of eight children of a coal miner in southern West Virginia. His military service brought Ken to Nebraska where his broadcast career in management was meteoric. It began in 1960 at KETV in Omaha, working nights as a camera operator while serving in the air Force at […]
Dick Cavett
CLASS OF 1991 Dick Cavett appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States for five decades, from the 1960s through the 2000s. A native Nebraskan born in Gibbon, much of his success may have happened elsewhere, but his inspiration was rooted in his home state. Precociously bright, Cavett got laughs from an early […]