Have you ever wondered about the fascinating history behind radio and television broadcasting, especially in Texas? Hear incredible stories in an exclusive conversation with Chuck Conrad, the executive director of Kilgore’s Texas Broadcast Museum.
In this captivating journey, Conrad tells how he acquired remarkable pieces, including microphones used in a major motion picture and a camera that captured a history-changing moment.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. You may not realize that East Texas is home to an amazing broadcast museum. You’ll find everything from old black and white TVs to mobile TV broadcasting vehicles there. Its executive director, Chuck Conrad, is our guest today. Welcome.
Chuck Conrad: Hi, thank you. Glad to be here.
Mike Landess: Why a broadcasting museum and why the location in Kilgore?
Chuck Conrad: Well, I get asked that question a lot. Well, I live near Kilgore, which has a lot to do with it. I had somebody at an NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention ask me, “Why didn’t you do this in Los Angeles?” They said, “Gee, there’s going to be this new museum right across the street … it’s going to be awesome.” It’s the Academy Award Museum, I think. And I said, “Well, what was their budget?” And the guy says, “I think it was $460 million.” I said, “Well, there’s one of your answers right there.” It’s relatively cheap in Kilgore. You know, sometimes you just see something in life, and you go, “That needs to be done.” And then you go, “You know, I kind of think I could do that.” And that’s really how we got there. I’ve been collecting this stuff forever. I worked in radio back when I was in college, and people gave me stuff. I worked and I owned a live sound company for 30, 35 years. I did sound for rock and roll concerts and all kinds of things like that. And people would say, “Hey, here’s this old microphone, you want it?” Or they’d come into our shop, and they would say, “What are you going to give me in trade for this old, cruddy microphone?” And I threw them in a box and didn’t think too much of it. And we moved to a new building that we actually owned, and I got some of these mics out. Some of these look really cool, and you haven’t seen one like these. So I made a big display of them behind our rental and sales counter. One day some people that were doing a movie in Dallas–it was the Oliver Stone JFK movie, in fact. They came in to buy some tape, some duct tape or gaffer tape. And the guy who was the prop manager saw these microphones and said, “I need those!” And I went, “You do? OK, well, whatever.” He said, “We’d like to rent them for a month or two.” And I went, “Well, OK, fine.” So we rented a bunch of microphones. So if you ever see the old JFK movie, most of the microphones are mine. And that kind of started the collection because I started going well, you know, maybe I ought to just go look for some of these things. And then people just started bringing me things. I mean, one day a guy called me up and said, “Well, I hear you like old TV cameras.” I had bought one from a museum in Dallas that closed. It actually turns out it was there when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. And it’s on display at the museum. But then this guy said, “Well, I’ve got these cameras.” He was from WSMV in Nashville. I thought they’d probably seen some interesting things. I said, “I’d like to have them, but how do we get them to Dallas?” And he said, “Well, that’s not really a problem, because my son is going to The University of Texas at Arlington this fall as a freshman. And he has a pickup truck, and he’ll bring them down.” I went, “Well, OK.” So you know these things started collecting. Everything was great until I moved. I sold the business.
Mike Landess: In Dallas?
Chuck Conrad: In Dallas. You know, it’s a company called Crossroads Audio. They’re still in business. They survived COVID and everything. They’re basically a concert sound and pro audio dealer. And when I sold the company, they said, “You’re going to have to get the stuff out of here.” I worked for them for a year, which was one of the more awkward years of my life, because when you go from being the boss to just being, you know, That Guy. “Go see what Chuck knows about it,” whatever. But you know past that, it was very awkward. And I carried trailer after trailer load of stuff out because I’ve been storing it in the attic of this building. It was a pretty good size building, about 13,500 square feet or so, and a bunch of it had an attic in it. And that was a convenient place to put it. I didn’t know how much stuff I had. And I took some pictures of it, thinking if I got in a wreck or something, it might be a good idea for insurance purposes. And you know, those things kind of tend to drift off into the internet somehow or other. And one day, I got a call from the Sixth Floor Museum, which is the Kennedy museum in Dallas. Well worth visiting, incidentally.
Mike Landess: In the book depository.
Chuck Conrad: Yeah, in the book depository, Sixth Floor, no less. And they called me up and said, “Do we understand you’ve got a camera from KRLD TV?” I said, “Yeah, I do. I used to work there.” And they said, “Do you know what it is?” I said, “Yeah, it’s a GE.” And the guy goes, “That’s not what I mean.” He said, “Did you know what it did?” And I said, “Well, I was working there, it was doing church services on Sunday mornings in black and white because the Color Remote Unit did Dallas Cowboy games.” This was the 1960s, back when the Cowboys couldn’t sell out for $6 for a ticket. So anyway, they said, “Did you know it was there when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot?” I went, “You’re joking!” “No, no, it really was. We’d like to borrow it, if we could, for a year.” So they ended up borrowing this thing. And I went you know, maybe some of this stuff has some significance. And in the interim, I met another guy in Kilgore who collects old radios and TVs. He likes what we call them: “gravitationally enhanced devices.” You know, giant cabinets, you know, with the record player in it and the AM radio…
Mike Landess: (laughs) A bar…
Chuck Conrad: Yeah, we actually have a bar radio. In fact, it’s pretty cool. It’s got Scotch and bourbon dispensers on it. And AM and FM. Well, we also have a smoker at radio. So the two are just the, you know, the man cave special. Put your Barcalounger between the two and you’re done. And, anyway, we got together and went, “What on earth are we going to do with all this stuff?” Couldn’t figure out what to do with it, and neither could my friend Warren, and we decided, you know, maybe we could do a museum. And I’d visited a couple others. There are several in the country and thought that they were pretty good, except most of their stuff didn’t work. They were more like warehouses or something. In the interim, the Sixth Floor Museum people told me about a Dumont telecruiser, which is a TV mobile unit.
Mike Landess: Like on a big bus, right?
Chuck Conrad: Yes, it looks like a big bus. Actually, it is a bus. Anyway. They said, “Do you want it? We know where it is.” And they said, “It’s been offered to us, and we don’t have a place to put it. But it was used during the Kennedy assassination coverage.” Well, that’s really interesting. And I went through a giant rigamarole with the owners who were hoarders just like you see on TV. I couldn’t believe people actually could live like that, but apparently a lot of people do. And they had this old bus that was built for channel 8 in Dallas. It was built in 1949 by Dumont Laboratories. It’s serial number 101. And it was indeed used in the Kennedy assassination coverage. And the Sixth Floor Museum people didn’t want it because it needed everything for a starter. This is a major, major restoration project. And even if they restored it, where would they put it? They’re on the sixth floor. It won’t fit in an elevator or anything. They don’t have any parking. The parking’s worse than here at UT.
Mike Landess: That’s because of the construction.
Chuck Conrad: If you can believe that. But anyway, this thing followed me home. And I went through a 10-year restoration project with the thing. And it’s on display at the museum because it’s a good place to park it, frankly. And one thing has kind of led to another, and it seems like now we’re one of the biggest radio-TV museums in the country.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been broadcast museum director and radio station owner, Chuck Conrad of Kilgore. For more information, you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. There you’ll also find this interview to share or to listen to again. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
