Disclaimer: This location is private property. There is a gaping hole in the floor, an open elevator shaft, broken glass, and the location can only be reached by climbing up a darkened stairwell (no lights, no elevator).

(from Guestbook 5) Mike Bruchas said:

KOME stood for Oklahoma's Magic Empire, which Tulsa was called in the 50's.


(from Guestbook 2, 3/15/99) Mike Bruchas said:

Reallly old Tulsa radio Trivia. You remember Harrington's Men's Store. Sometime in the 70's they had to move - I guess they were once by the PAC site. A TU friend worked at the new Harrington's building and took us to the abandoned upstairs. I cannot remember if it was KRMG's or KOME's old studio site. We wandered thru the studio space and offices - a flashback to the 50's though almost all of the gear was gone, I think some consoles remained.

On a glass door was Hal O'Halloran's name stenciled as Sports Director - which blew us away.


(from Guestbook 27) Frank Morrow listed some KOME personnel:

Announcers: Harlan Judkins and Greg Chancellor, who did the morning news show “The Crown Edition” along with Dick Campbell (also KTUL). Dave Hindman, Bob Croskery, Charles Connor, whom Campbell told to stand across the room and shout his commercials, supposedly to give excitement and “punch.” It sounded horrible, and poor Charles got an undeservedly poor professional reputation.

Bob Griffin (also KAKC)

John Doremus (also KRMG)

Sportscasters: Tony George, Mack Creager (also KAKC and KRMG), Hugh Finnerty (also KAKC)


(from Guestbook 27) Jim Ruddle said:

And just to add to the list of radio performers: At KOME, Ken Klein (later worked in Detroit...)

Additionally at KOME, Wally Iams, who was also a singer and had sung with a couple of name bands and even cut a record or two.


(from Guestbook 34) Frank Morrow said:

Radio in Tulsa had become rather stagnant in the mid-‘50s. TV was gobbling up the audience and advertising revenue. The networks were becoming less important, with a lot of shows being “sustaining,” meaning unsponsored. With the exception of the 10 o’clock news and sports and Sleepwalkers’ Serenade on KVOO, there was little or no attempt to sell the evening hours. They were ceded to TV. The word circulated that some stations were being run for the sole purpose as tax write-offs.

Occasionally, a station would try something desperate, such as KOME’s becoming an all-classical music station for a while, complete with a host with an English accent.


(from Guestbook 56) Don Norton said:

I remember 1300 kHz (kilocycles in those days, not kiloHertz) as the residence of KOME, started in Tulsa about 1938 and long gone. This was a move upward for KOME, which started life as a 250-watter on 1340.

In fact, I worked there in 1953 prior to moving to KOTV. KCNW and KXXO came along after I left town for awhile. Dick Campbell was another alumnus, and I think John Doremus was there for awhile while attending TU. I KNOW Dave Davis was (not David Croninger, who used the name "Davis.") The "real" Dave Davis, as I called him, later became a great director at KOTV.
...
Just a few more notes on my good friend David Cadwell Davis, Jr. (son of a long-time American Airlines planner), Dave died March 14, 1983, reportedly reaching for the 'phone in his small apartment n Norman. His last employment was with the University of Oklahoma developing the school's broadcast offerings. But I knew him best in the 1950s at TU, KWGS, KOME and KOTV. Dr. Ben Henneke paid him a great tribute when he remarked that with Dave's dry, wry humor, "you wondered whether he might be the 'new' Fred Allen."

KOME was never a great news station, but I remember on the day that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died Dave interviewed Dr. Marvin E, Lowe, then teaching Russian history at TU, and we played the interview as a "special" right before a basketball game that night.




(from Guestbook 60) Dave E. said:

Who recalls KOME's experiment as a soul station in the late 60s? KOCW tried that too for awhile a couple of years earlier.


(from Guestbook 71) Frank Morrow said:

After the demise of the Golden Days of Radio, stations in Tulsa tried different approaches to reach an audience, particularly KOME. Gone were the glory days when there were only three stations in town, each with its own network: KVOO(NBC), KTUL(CBS), and KOME(ABC). When NBC came under antitrust scrutiny for having two networks—the Red and the Blue—the Blue Network, with its lesser programs, was cut loose to become ABC. As a result, KOME always was behind KVOO and KTUL in listenership.

In the 1950s, KOME swung from one primary format to another in attempt to gain an audience: classical music, religion and local sports. It also dropped all network affiliation. The station carried the Tulsa Oilers with Hugh Finnerty (later Tony George) and TU basketball games with Tony George. It was during the emphasis on sports that a rather strange broadcast took place at the station.

TU freshman Bob Croskery was working at KOME as an announcer. He told me one day that he had just come from a broadcast of a high school wrestling tournament in which he performed the function as the “expert, color” man. I asked him what he knew about wrestling. He said, “Nothing. And neither did the ‘play-by-play’ announcer.”

When I asked him how in the world they could describe anything meaningful to the audience, he said, “Well, we would say that so-and-so was crawling on top of his opponent. Stuff like that.”

My next query was, “How could you ever sell the time?”

“We went to the most gullible advertiser we had, and told him about the proposed broadcast. He said, simply, ‘What’s it going to cost me?’ And, that was it.”

That was the last amateur wrestling broadcast KOME ever had. It was also probably the only radio broadcast of high school wrestling in the history of Tulsa radio.


(from Guestbook 77) Jim Ruddle said:

KOME, in the mid-forties, had an afternoon call-in contest, a "name that tune" sort of thing, with the prize a ticket to the Majestic theater. I used to listen during summer vacation. The tunes were ridiculously easy to identify, and the only problem was getting a call through before anyone else. I solved this, by simply dialing KOME's number as soon as they said "Here's today's tune," or some variation of that. Nine times out of ten, the call would be answered as the first bars of the song were being played, and, since they were so readily identifiable, it was a fish-in-a-barrel situation. I got to enjoy a lot of air conditioning that way.


(from Guestbook 80) Jim Ruddle said:

I remember the KOME studios in the American Airlines building, on Boston. Howard Engel, who was an opera nut, worked there as a salesman. The later KOME was all shine and polish compared with the AA building's digs. One additional feature at the "new" KOME location was its proximity to Borofsky's Delicatessen, across the street and a few doors south. This may have been the only delicatessen in Tulsa, at the time. They sold the best chocolate eclairs I ever ate.