In 1970, KMOX had a news staff with reporters and people with actual journalism skills.  I was hired to write weekend overnight news.

In those days the main news source was the teletype. Anyone over 50 is probably familiar with these automatic typewriters and the clattering sound that they made. Most radio stations had one or two. KMOX had seven. They made so much noise that they were enclosed in a long closet with glass sliding doors. A teletype is an automatic typewriter with a long roll of paper (just like a roll of toilet paper!) mounted on it. The teletype was hooked up to a phone line that fed the information. Thus, the organizations that provided the news were called “wire services”. The main news agencies at the time were the United Press International(UPI) and the Associated Press. (AP)  There were two teletypes of each. One was called the “A” wire. This contained copy intended for newsprint. The “B” wire was intended for broadcast and the stories were much shorter.  There was also a machine dedicated to sports, one for Missouri news, and I think one that had business information.

Most of these machines clattered away constantly. Every so often you had to “clear the wire”.   You would reach behind the teletype where a pile of printed, unspooled news would lie.  You learned how to gather it up and take it to the news desk where you would check it for anything that you thought you could use. There was a rack on the wall labeled  “World”  “Local”  “Sports” “Weather” etc. Below each category was a nail. You would go through the news, tearing it off sharply on the edge of your desk or with a ruler and then put it on the nail in the appropriate spot. The guys during the day may want to use it.

Of course you also had to put on fresh rolls of paper and take care of the typewriter ribbons, which were a real challenge. You were good if you could change one without getting any ink on your fingers or clothes.

The simplest kind of news writing is called “Rip and Read”.  This means tearing off a piece of wire copy and reading it directly on the air. This was not acceptable at KMOX but you could get away with tearing off a piece of copy and stapling it to a piece of standard paper. I wasn’t expected to leave the station and do any actual reporting.  I would usually take a piece of wire copy and just retype it. I would occasionally do some re-writes so it would read better. If I took a story off the newspaper wire, I almost always had to edit it down.

Another thing we did was “make the rounds”. There was a list of all the hospitals, police stations, etc., that we were supposed to call every shift. There was also a police scanner that was always on but I didn’t pay much attention to it. It surprised me how boring it was.

Each hour I wrote a newscast with local news weather and sports that lasted 10 minutes.  Most of the time my casts were read by John McCormack, one of the coolest guys in radio.

After midnight the  CBS switchboard shut down and I would get all calls. This included calls into the TV station downstairs. In those days it was still called KMOX TV. (Channel 4).

Mr. Hyland hated TV and it was never mentioned on air. We had nothing to do whatsoever with them even though we were owned by the same company and occupied the same building.

One time I wrote a story about a TV tower in Ohio that had gotten knocked down by a helicopter. This was probably around 3A in the morning.  The hot line rang. It was Mr. Hyland. We had never met. I was just a peon. “Mr. Dalton” (I know that he couldn’t have known my name. I bet he called someone first and asked who I was. I also could tell that he was in the building. He was famous for being in his office at 3A in the morning.) “Mr. Dalton, I know that you are new and you are probably unaware that we don’t mention the other media on KMOX radio.  When you re-write the story for the 4A news, you will say broadcast tower.”

Thus, when I got calls from people thinking that I had something to with the TV station, I didn’t feel any need to show them any respect if they didn’t show me any consideration.  One night “The Sands of Iwo Jima” was supposed to be on.  The phones started ringing. “KMOX, hello.” “Hey bub, what happened to “The Sands of Iwo Jima?”  They must be running a different movie. He was pissed, he probably had been on Iwo. Of course I didn’t know anything about it. I was just the news writer upstairs in radio. This made no difference to this guy and he told me that I should be ashamed of the way I was running my TV station. “Click”

After the first couple of calls I retaliated.  “Hey bub, what happened…?” “Sir, KMOX television has decided that they are against the war in Vietnam and had decided to stop showing any war movies at all.” A hand reached through the phone line and started strangling me. The snarling was unbelievable.

Channel 4 would also run a recorded public affairs show by this guy named Parker Wheatley. Inevitably someone would think that the show was live at 4A and want to ask Parker a question. I would go into producer mode and say “What is your question or comment for Mr. Wheatley?” “Please turn your TV off while you are on hold and when you hear a click please make you comment with a French accent and try not to use the letter H.”  I would remind you that I was still just a kid of 20 and even though I took my job seriously, my judgement wasn’t always really good.

Answering the phones in the newsroom was also my insight into how really important KMOX was to St. Louis then and how people felt about it. People were always calling for help for their various causes. “What does KMOX intend to do about the potholes on Forest Park Blvd?”  They thought that KMOX could do anything. Many times they could. When you called someone and identified yourself as KMOX, you always got respect and results.