Over time, Ed hired more DJs who showed up daily to work in his basement. They came to their minimum wage job as most professionals did, in a jacket and tie. There they found the Teletype machine next to the washing machine and racks of albums lining the walls. Leona Ceries was also an on-air presence on KSHE, voicing many of the public service announcements and commercials. All her work was pre-taped, allowing her to do housework, perform station secretarial duties and answer phone calls during the day. She loaned several baking pans to the station’s news desk so the wire copy could be sorted into appropriate categories.
Although KSHE’s audience was small, they were dedicated. Bill Flynn, who worked the 10 pm to 6 am shift, remembers Ed telling him a phone response had shown KSHE’s listeners to be very particular about “their” station. Listeners would often bring their own records to the station so the announcers could air them. One listener in Webster Groves made tapes from his private record collection, then were played on the air from a Wollensak deck patched into the control board.
KSHE before it became a rock station, Page 13
“Here now, lets get a picture of this. My wife Aunt Mary, she’s standing over there, about four of her standing there it looks like. She wants to get a picture of this I think, Elvis. There you go Aunt Mary, she ain’t old enough hardly to be Aunt hardly is she? My goodness, now. Thank you a lot Elvis.”
Uncle Buck, (Ron Lipe) Kiel Auditorium, March 1957, Page 15
