60 Years of Elections at WDAF

They are some of the busiest nights in the business, and WDAF has been around for 60 years of elections. Check out some vintage pics of election nights of years past!

Comments

[Lynda Owings]

As I've watched you reminisce about the good old days at WDAF, I
joined in the fun...by remembering my days there. In the early sixties,
right after college, I began to work in the art department under the
tutelage of Doug Lowe, the most patient of teachers. You see, I was
a fine art major in college, but had no concept of commercial art.

It was before the era of real technology and most things were done
by hand...using....literally, hands to do what computers do today.
I learned how to set type, produce acetate keylines for printing and
use a 14-pound polaroid press camera for promotional photos.
Those promotional slides (or telops as they were called) used those
B&W photos and letters rubbed off a page of PressType. Compared
to today's art, it was pretty primitive....but it was...SHOWBIZ!

Sam Feeback was the remote cameraman and he is the one who taught
me how to work that 14-pound camera and develop the photos. That's
right...the photos...even though Polaroid...had to be processed in some
VERY nasty smelling goop so they wouldn't fade too quickly.

How I loved rubbing elbows with the celebrities of WDAF...
Bill Leeds, John Herrington, Murray Nolte were the newsmen
and weather man respectively. They were local heroes and it was
great entering restaurants with them at lunch time...all heads turning
to gape at them...and I was actually with them. What a thrill.

Even more thrilling were the opportunities to meet national celebrities.
Walt Bodine and Jean Glenn hosted radio interview shows which were
recorded downtown at Bretton's restaurant. I was there to photograph
the proceedings for those promotional telops. TV and Movies stars
were the usual guests...Alan King, George Burns, Rock Hudson, Jerry
Lewisand Carol Burnett to name a few.

In college, my art counselor was a student of Thomas Hart Benton and
so I was particulary pleased when Walt and Jean interviewed him. He
was not the first interviewed that day, so we had the opporunity to get
acquainted...he even invited me to a reception at his home...I was
SO lucky. I met his wife and saw some of his work in the his
private collection. What an experience.

For me, however, it was the original eight astronauts...which had
recently been selected by NASA. that provided the most impressive
memory. They were true heroes...so brave and so handsome. Tom
Wolf 's book The Right Stuff and the movie of the same name held a
lot of meaning for me because I had met all the players.

In addition a series called Inside Africa gave me an insight into a
continent I knew little about and it was interesting to see these
handsome representatives in their native costumes and hear them
talk about their countries.

I see Dan Henry in some of your memory segments...I knew him when
he was a disc jockey on WDAF radio 610. Yep...those were the good..er..
different old days.

We've all come a long way, but I'll never forget my days at the NBC affiliate,
WDAF...and everytime I pass 31st and the Trafficway...I throw a glance to
that window on the second floor where I worked and daydreamed for a couple
of years.

Happy Anniversary to you and to a part of my history.

Lynda O. Owings
Parkville

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