Radio

Dick Ulett – 2009

Dick Ulett’s air work on St. Louis radio stations began in 1966, and over the next two decades he worked at seven different stations under his own name and the airname of Tom Marshall.

Ten years into his career he built a recording studio in the basement of his Clayton home, which evolved into Clayton Studios.

He left broadcasting to run his business but remained actively involved in efforts to gather and preserve St. Louis radio history.

Through his operation of the studio, Ulett’s voice continued to be heard on radio and television spots, and dozens of spots produced at Clayton Studios went on to win local and national awards.

Jack Sampson – 2008

​He was the man behind the scenes when KXOK became a national powerhouse.

​Jack Sampson had worked with Storz Broadcasting in Kansas City and Oklahoma City prior to his St. Louis assignment. From 1963 – 1975, Sampson was KXOK’s vice president and general manager. When he came to town, the station had begun to make a run in the ratings, but the business side needed a complete overhaul.

​Within a year the station was showing a profit, and more money was put into operations and promotion. He left St. Louis to get into station ownership.

​Sampson is a member of the Kansas Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Dan Kelly – 2008

Dan Kelly was 32 years old when he became the St. Louis Blues’ play-by-play voice. He’d already been broadcasting in Canada for 13 years.

He spent the rest of his life in St. Louis broadcasting the Blues, Cardinal baseball, Cardinal football, MU football and hosting sports call-in shows. The powerful nighttime signal of KMOX spread his work all over the US and Canada, and his popularity was reflected in the work he did outside of the market.

Kelly broadcast NFL football and NHL hockey for CBS, NHL hockey for USA Network, ESPN, CTV and the NHL Network. He was also the voice, through most of his career, of the NHL All-Star Game and the Stanley Cup Finals.

John Oelke – Legacy

​John Oelke began his broadcast engineering career here when was hired as vacation relief in 1961 by the St. Louis Pulitzer broadcast operation.

​In 1974 he was promoted to manager of engineering for KSD Radio. When the station was sold two years later, he took on additional duties for sister station KSD-FM, essentially becoming the company’s chief engineer. He built new studios, then repeated that task for WRTH.

​In 1984 Oelke became KSHE’s chief engineer, where he designed and built the station’s studios, transmitting facility and offices.

​After his “retirement” in 1996, John Oelke became site manager for St. Louis’ community broadcasting tower, which was shared by 10 FM stations, a digital TV antenna and several low-power TV stations.

Brad Hildebrand – 2015

Brad Hildebrand began his radio career on KSLQ St. Louis in 1973 where he worked as a DJ, traffic reporter, production director, assistant program director and host of talk programming. In 1984 he started CompuTraffic, one of the first independent companies in the nation to provide on-air traffic reports, and, later, news reports to subscribing radio and television stations. After selling the company in 1994, Brad developed the nation’s first traffic reporting website, and he expanded his traffic reporting operations to three other Midwestern cities. In 1998 he purchased an AM/FM radio operation in Washington, MO.

While working in the business full-time, Brad also taught at St. Louis Community College and Lindenwood University. His charity work over the years included the Missouri Special Olympics, Emmaus Homes, American Cancer Society and the Salvation Army.

Donny Brooks – 2007

​Donny “Soul Finger” Brooks hit the St. Louis market in 1962, taking a short-lived job at WBBR in East St. Louis, moving quickly to KATZ the following year and becoming a star disc jockey there. His young, energetic approach to his shows made him extremely popular, and job offers from other markets followed.

​By 1968 he was back in St. Louis and had moved through the ranks to take on the additional duties of music director and program director at KATZ. Donny left the market again in 1973 but returned to KKSS in 1975.