Ronnie Powell and Bruce Pease

Wow! Boy! I can't believe it! Ron Powell (yes! - that Ron Powell! Exclamation points are fun!!!) sent me some pictures - See:


Bob Franklin, Boy Broadcaster


Ronnie Powell, Boy! What an Engineer!

There are lots more, too. We have had a couple of long talks. What great fun! Since we worked at WSRS in Cleveland Hts. (our first jobs), Ron has had an amazing career, including teaching Electronics in the Navy, working on the Mike Douglas Show, and serving as Director of Engineering at the UCLA Television Center. He graduated from Captain Andy's Peruvian Tonsorial College and was the winner of the coveted Golden Plucker. He has formed his own company, Shoreline Ltd., and was Engineering Consultant to the Michael Jackson Victory Tour. He also worked on lots of infomercials, including Popeil's Pocket Flamethrower (be careful!) He has done lots of other cool stuff, way too much to list here. To think that this man and I used to heat up Beanie Weanies on the power supply of an old RCA transmitter in the mid-1950's. Ron and I are planning to get together in June. We'll have a lot to talk about.

I lost a good friend a few months ago, Bruce Pease. Or, "Captain Bruce," as he was known on WQUA in the Quad-Cities. The Captain was a regular caller to the All-Night Fistfight. At that time he worked at Iowana Dairy at night, trying to keep a fleet of "Thunderbird milk trucks" running. From time to time, he would come over to the station. I would give him a great big stack of throw-away 45's and he would listen to them. Every hour or so he would yell or laugh real loud and come running into the studio with a record that was SOOOO bad that it deserved to be called an Adam Jones Bomb of the Week. We had lots of laughs! Once at the height of the Watergate scandal he found a record by some hillbilly hunyock that was an ode to Richard M. Nixon. At the end of the song, this fool says, "Right on, Mister President. We love you." I put this tag on a cart, and every time there was a new Watergate revelation in the news, I would play it. That was sure to get me a call that would start with a big hardy laugh, followed by, "This is the Captain speakin'". Bruce loved to tell that story.

There were many times he and I laughed so hard we got tears in our eyes. Once I got tickets to a Chicago Blackhawks hockey game (at the time, very hard to get.) Bruce and I and another big guy drove up to Chicago. I don't remember what kind of car it was, but it was big, powerful, and loud, and the Captain was driving. We all told stories and speculated on which of the other drivers had "Sears and Roebuck licenses." We had been told about a restaurant in the old vegetable market district of town. We found it and the food was great! (I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but they called everybody, "Senator.") The waiters were all old men and wore black suits and looked like Leonard Barr! Our guy's suit was so wrinkled that it made his face look smooth! He had a very small notepad and a little sawed-off bowling alley pencil. We all ordered food like we were going to the electric chair. "Lurch" said nothing, made two marks on his paper and went away. In about 20 minutes, the feast arrived and he placed each dinner in front of the right person. The order was perfect (he got a really big tip!) The restaurant had a bus that took customers to the hockey game at Chicago Stadium and brought them back after the game. When we got to our seats, one was behind a post (that's why they could give me three tickets.) We took turns sitting in that seat. All I remember about the game is that there was a large woman about three rows in front of us who they called Tugboat Annie (she had a big steam whistle on her hat.) Hockey fans are sure colorful! And oh yes, the Blackhawks won.

On the way out, our egress was blocked by Humanity Humongous (a really big crowd that wasn't moving at all.) We started to speculate that we might miss our Senators bus! So, Bruce on one side of me and my other big friend on the other, picked me up under my arms and started yelling, "Man getting sick here! Throwing up! Look out, coming through!" - while I put my hands over my mouth. They kept hollering like that until we got to the street. I haven't seen crowds move that way since Godzilla ate that city made out of typing paper! Bruce Pease could tell a great story and he did so at the drop of a hat. Example: The Captain was married in Hawaii by a village mayor named Hy Colonic (it was a quick ceremony.) I just made that up. And I know Bruce would love it. I can just hear his big, happy laugh! He was a joy to know.

- Adam Jones
4-29-09