1986 radio ad

[oldmanradio]

"Introducing the same old idea ... Yugo $3995.

 

[MikeShannon914]

So, on December 31, 1985, I was heading in the general direction of Downtown Dallas from Garland, hoping to catch some of the New Year's Eve fireworks show at the Cotton Bowl. Not wanting to get stuck in traffic, I figured a good vantage point would be around the I-30/Buckner area. A buddy of mine was with me, and he suggested we walk the lot at nearby Young Chevrolet just to kill some time (and drool over the new 1986 Corvettes.) On the front porch of the dealership, we found this sawed-off, runt-looking, gold-colored piece of a vehicle. The new Chevette? I wondered. No, it was the all-new YUGO, imported, of course, from Yugoslavia. Indeed, its sticker price was $3,995. In light of the recently-introduced Hyundai Excel that was priced under $5,000, I wondered if this was the direction ALL cars were headed.

So, after a mediocre fireworks show, we headed back to Garland, stopped at my buddy's house to drop him off about 12:30AM, and his parents were still up, watching TV and telling us that Ricky Nelson had died in a plane crash in East Texas. He and his band were en route to KLUV's New Year's Eve Sock-Hop, hosted by Hubcap Carter. Channel 4 (CBS then, of course) interviewed Al Forguson, who was the jock on duty that night at KLUV. I heard later that Sock-Hop attendees weren't even told of Nelson's death; just that he wasn't able to make it as promised.

Now how did I get on this tangent? Oh yeah, the Yugo.

 

[Rock Chalk]

Mike....That's not correct. The sock hop attendees were indeed told that Ricky had been killed. In fact, it was Hubcap and Paula Street who went on stage to make the announcement. (Hubcap was the one who relayed the actual shocking news.) Steve Eberhart and I were standing back in the wings, along with other KLUV staffers. Once Hubcap made the announcement, there was stunning silence for a couple of seconds, then absolute all-hell broke loose...sobbing, screaming, etc. The hotel (can't remember the name...it was on the northeast corner of LBJ and Central) along with KLUV, decided that the backup band will continue that night for those who wanted to party. Few did.

Jason Walker

 

[Rock Chalk]

Still can't think of the name of the hotel....but one quick correction. It was on the northwest corner of LBJ/Central, not the northeast.

 

[Steve Eberhart]

Crown Suites Hotel...

Actually...it was Hubcap and I who announced it to the crowd. Hubcap said it and I read from cryptic notes that Al back at the station had given me over the phone...I remember it well.
Hubcap said, "I am sorry to inform you that Ricky Nelson will not be here tonight, he was killed earlier in East Texas." There was a hush and gasps from the crowd already gathereed. I then said, "Hubcap, it was a plane crash in east Texas as the group was heading to Dallas for tonight's show. There was a fire involved and no survivors." At that, there was a rather obvious cry out from one section.

Hubcap and I were unaware that the group of musicians was also onboard and that their spouses and girlfriends had traveled to Dallas earlier in the day to observe New Years Eve with them after the gig. The wives and girlfriends were already at a table up front and heard it from us. They were the one's who cried out when I said "no survivors". We found out from calls to the Hotel by Channel 8 asking if he was already there since they got a report his plane went down. At the time, no one knew for certain if he was on the plane. The Hotel routed the call up to where we were broadcasting for some reason. We called the station and they were seeing it on the wire at about the same time.

Hubcap stayed on the air from the venue throughout the night. Every TV station showed up at the station and some at the Hotel. CBS was down the street from the Merchants Bank KLUV studio's getting ready for the Cotton Bowl Parade the next day...they sent a camera crew up to the station and that was on every CBS Newscast the next day. Even CNN was there, which was a very big deal at the time.

I read years later that Harriet Nelson heard about it on TV while watching the news. No one had called her!

I still have the carts of the promo's I did promoting that event, that obviously never happened.

 

[Rock Chalk]

Sorry about that Steve. For some reason I thought it was Paula. It's been nearly a quarter of a century, so my memory is a little fuzzy. Mike, for some reason that rumor has been running rampant for years, that the crowd was not told. Don't understand how that got started.

jason walker