 in the studio. My name is Jeff Shaw and we have a special guest, two guests today actually. To my right is Mr. Gary Chu. He's a long time broadcaster and we're going to be talking to him a little bit about some of his experience. You can see him there on the camera. And to Gary's right is actually Ruth Chambers. She's a long time community broadcaster who's been broadcasting here at Davis Media Access for a long time. She'll be adding some color commentary and helping me with some of the questions with Gary since we have such a short time to talk to him today. Gary. So, oh yeah, here we are. You started out in broadcasting, I looked it up on the internet in 1956. Is that true or not? Well, it's true or false. You mean it's actually online? It's online somewhere and there's a little blurb about you. 1956, that was some time ago. Didn't say where. Well, it said Blackwell, Oklahoma. That's exactly right. That's where I graduated from high school. And did you start broadcasting in high school? No, actually, excuse me, I started graduating. I graduated in 55 and I started going to a junior college just south of Blackwell and I was a music student and they were having, they had a campus radio station there just to carry your current station. And they, excuse me, they said the small station that was in Blackwell was going to need to hire a couple of announcers and we should go up and do an audition at the campus station at the little college place around. So, were you a singer at the time? What kind of music? Yeah, I was a singer primarily, but I was taking music curriculum. But did you think that helped with learning how to be a broadcaster and have presence on the microphone? Oh, yeah, speaking voice and how to articulate your words and stuff like that. And that was not a paid gig? Oh, yes it was. My first radio job was a paid gig and I got a dollar an hour. That much? That much, yeah. And then you moved to Tulsa. This is where you got your big break. Actually, I went to Wichita first. Okay. And then I met a guy in Wichita who had been at, worked at a station in Jefferson City, Missouri. And he went to Tulsa and then I left Wichita and he got me a job in Tulsa. Okay. And that was at a radio station or? Yeah, it was an AM station in Wichita in about 1959. And what were you doing at there? I was a rock and roll disc jockey and was going to the University of Tulsa. And this was in 1959. So rock and roll was a new thing. Yeah. And I was all set up for the Beatles to come along when I was in 63 or 4. That's right. That's right. So you were at the station broadcasting rock and roll and when the Beatles first did that help sales or what? Yeah, I did. Matter of fact, actually, we're all kind of flabbergasted about the Beatles. I had never been a real strong fan of rock and roll music. I'd always liked jazz better growing up. And then when the Beatles came by and well, the Beatles records came by. That's right. I started listening. All of us said these guys are really pretty good. Yeah. And so that's. So that change, that change, that was a moment you can remember. It flip flopped. That's right. It flip flopped me. So I mean, I didn't flip me away from the other kind of music, but it just enlarged my perspective. And that was just because you thought they were such good players or the music was so original. So original and just because it was different and I liked what the music was saying. So then you moved on to television. And going the transition from radio to television, was that just because the technology was changing? Was that because someone said you ought to be in television? I had a, there was a guy, I was always an on-the-air disc jockey when I worked in radio. And most of the people that I ran around with in the commercial broadcasting were newsmen and I always have been close with people that work in news. And he worked, he was a newsman and he left the station and went to the local CBS affiliate in Tulsa. And after he was there for a while, he called me up and told me that the weatherman there was going to go back, he was going to Wichita to be an anchor man. And he said, you know, I think you ought to try it over that job because you can make more money and you can't play rock and roll records when you're 50 years old. So he became a weatherman. Exactly. And this is a shot of you here doing the weather. There he is. This is a, there's no green screen. There's someone behind the screen. It seems like, you know, there are hijinks back in the day. Looks like Kilroy was here in the background. That's exactly right. And I need to tell you a story about the guy behind the board. You can obviously tell me to tell where I am. I look like I'm about 15 years old there. His name is Lee Woodward. And he's still alive so far as I know. And he lives, he's retired in Tulsa. He's a great golfer. He was the number one weatherman and he was really good. And his brother, who is deceased now, was a movie actor named Morgan Woodward. And Morgan Woodward was the guy who was the sheriff who killed Paul Newman in Cool Hand Loop. Oh, son of a gun. You know, he had the sunglasses on. That's Lee's brother. Wow. And then I want to move on now to, after you did the weather, you went and you pitched, I don't know if this is at the same station or another station where you pitched, I want to do movie reviews. And this was sort of a, people weren't doing movie reviews on television at the time. Oh, right. That's exactly, that was a channel six. And the reason that came about in the opening came sort of was because they expanded to a full hour of news, evening news. Remember that expansion came? They brought up this picture here I just want to show. This is, it became so popular that they advertised you as a local television personality in Tulsa, right? And he's known for his good posture. And this is a very, this is you reviewing a movie? No, it's me sitting in my front room by a bay window looking out the window out of some fall leaves. The guy who took the picture, his name is Dino Economist. He worked, he was a photographer at channel six. Great guy. But this is, they're advertising, people tune in and check out this relaxed dude give you movie reviews. Is that the idea here? What happened was when they expand, when they expanded the newscast, they needed things to fill it out. And I went to the news director and I said, I'm a new movie freak. I always have been even though I was a little boy. And I said, I could start writing movie reviews and doing them on the air. I said, he said, he says, see a movie, write a script and record it. You know, he was very gave you that freedom. And then I walked in and he said, we're going to put it, put you on the air. And it was popular. How did you know it was popular? Well, I can't, I don't, I didn't have any particular numbers in books. But you know, people, there wasn't anybody else doing movie reviews on television in about 1970-ish. Yeah. I think the first movies I did was Doc with Casey Stacey Keach, the western. Yeah. And this is, to put things in context, this is before Siskel and Ebert. This is before they started. So it really was not a, and I was a big fan of those guys, particularly Ebert, because you know, Ebert, so knowledgeable. And such a nice guy he was too. So you stayed out there until what year? And then you moved to Sacramento and started doing a capital public radio? Well, actually I had some other places to go, Texas, Missouri, and all broadcasting. I went to Wichita and began a public radio. I actually started a public radio. I got the University of Tulsa FM station on the air with NPR affiliation in 1978 or nine. And so, and then I went and worked in public TV for a while. And then I moved to Wichita and worked in public radio again. Then I came to Sacramento. Gotcha. And Sacramento, you came here primarily for the broadcasting job or? Yeah. Yeah. I was, I didn't really enjoy being sort of a department head or an operations director, program director type person. And I, I really wanted to do what I started out doing, you know. Which is being on the air. Yeah. And it takes a certain personality to be on the air, right Ruth? You have to have a gigantic ego. That's not a problem. Is that it? And so I took the job, I offered, what's the word I want to use? I wanted to go to the, apply for the job. Sure. At Sacramento. And I got it. And I started working at KXPR and Capital Public Radio in January of 89. Worked about almost 20 years. And being someone who helped start, bring the NPR affiliation to Tulsa. And then working for, continuing to work in NPR. You saw NPR change quite a bit, I'm sure. And how was it, how did it change in your estimation? Well, I always, I remember the first time I ever heard NPR, it was all things considered. And I was driving from Tulsa to Wichita to visit my parents. And the local station in Wichita already had NPR affiliation, but Tulsa didn't. So I had not heard NPR before. And I started listening to this newscast in the afternoon, as I was driving into town. And I thought, golly, they were covering water, it was Watergate was going on then. Because they were talking about John Sirica. And I thought, that's really an interesting piece they had put together there. And Susan Stamberg was the host, along with Bob Edwards, the morning edition wasn't even on the air yet. And so I went back and I finally got the job at KWGS as a manager. And then I started politicking and lobbying for getting NPR affiliation. And that happened officially in early 1970s. And it's, I mean, it's clearly grown, NPR has grown since. Right. And it's gone through phases where Congress votes to, you know, cut Big Bird or whatever. I know, I remember one of the first things we carried of NPR, that was a continuing thing, was the Panama Canal Treaty hearings when Jimmy Carter was president, which was a rather controversial thing because some people, you know, it's like what's today in politics, you know, there were people who were for it and people who weren't for it. Yeah, of course. And so now you've come to Davis and have joined us community broadcasters. Ruth, I didn't mention, but Ruth does the Chamber Street Theater on Thursdays at 11 a.m. Before that, before that you produced a television. Yeah, Granny Muffin leads for many years. Yes. And you've now joined the ranks of the community broadcasters. He's going to teach us some tricks, I think. Professional. No, no tricks. No tricks. Well, skills. Let's call it skills. Well, I don't know. Maybe so. I don't know. Maybe style. I'm just actually, what I'm doing is, on KDRT is one hour program I have now is that I'm actually putting together some music that I've wanted to put together for a long time and you're giving me that opportunity and I think it's sounding good to me. Of course, I like the music too. I think it's great. I'd like to invite people to tune in on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. for Gary's show, but I've learned already a bunch. The music, the soundtrack you played off of the movie Diva last week, that sentimental walk or something like that. I remember you're coming into the control room and asking me what it was. I knew I'd heard some of those things you've heard over time. They're faint in your memory and you kind of... Well, movie themes, you hear them while you're watching the movie and then you never hear them again. You can hardly hear them. There are just a few places you can hear movie music on radio and now here in KDRT now we can do that. You can play that. A little bit, but I also play some classical music and some jazz which all kind of moves. I try to meld it together. I don't play early classical music. The classical music I play is 20th century primarily. Yeah. Well, it's repeating a theme too in the music. So when you played one the other day you had via lobos and then you had Bach and the thing is they were similar. That's poor rabbit. Actually, I used to do that about 10 minutes of this kind of programming when I worked at the Capitol Public Radio. When I worked the late classical shift in the evening and there was a jazz shift that was coming on after me and so I would be the guy who would make the transition between my classical shift to the jazz that was starting. And then that would be a natural time. Yeah. And then I started accumulating this information about music and I'm like, golly, there's some really great stuff that falls right into that niche. That's right. And it just happens that people call it third stream music as to Gunther Schuller developing and it's not really third stream music without what I'm playing, but it's a great word to use because everybody's streaming these days. Well, it's just like KDRT does. Exactly. We're on the web at KDRT.org. You can tune in and listen to Ruth's show, Chamber Street Theater, Thursdays at 11 a.m. or online at KDRT.org. Gary's show, third streaming on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and online at KDRT.org. I'm glad that we have the space here for you to spread your wings from bringing all your broadcast experience here to share with other people. I'm very flattered for you to say that. Yeah. Well, I encourage everyone to check out both of these shows and thanks, Gary. Thanks, Ruth, also for co-hosting tonight. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure. And I encourage everyone to check it out online if you can to tune in here and Davis at 95.7 fm. My name is Jeff and thanks for tuning in to In The Studio and thanks again for coming in, you guys. My pleasure.