“I am a four year Korean War veteran, United States Air Force and participated in the first non-stop, around the world flight in a B-50, Lucky Lady in 1949. My military service offset my early life plans and dreams by five years.
“Prior to KFXM, I was in Bakersfield at KAFY.There, I made ratings history and created national hot breaking record market with national attention for many artists including Beach Boys, Platters, Kathy Young, Olympics, Contours, Ritchie Valens, Righteous Brothers, Motown records, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Paragons, and dozens more.
“I worked briefly doing a shift 9am to Noon but was primarily Director of Operations managing what was then California’s largest independent chain of radio stations - Tullis & Hearne Radio Stations, Inc. From 1962 to 1965, I was the executive vice president and then general manager from 1982 to 1986.
“From 1990 to 1999 I owned Double A Advertising and a TV Consulting firm. Clients included: California Highway Patrol, Ethan Allen, Lazy Boy, Southern California Ford & Southern California Nissan Dealers, Communication Workers of America, Catholic Archdiocese of Southern California, Honda Dealers, Remington Arms (Safety), Minolta, Pete Ellis Auto Group among others. I also established an advertising department for the Southern California region of Comcast Cable.”
Al after a long, long day
About Al Anthony
"My fifty seven years of Broadcasting and Multimedia experience has provided me with a rich, rewarding career including: Corporate Executive, managing sales, talent, production, programming, technical, creative, recruiting, training as well as ratings and financial turnarounds.
"Media experience includes: Television, Radio, Cable, Print, Movies, Outdoor, Advertising Agencies; managerial, ownership as well as personal air talent."
Career Media Highlights
Produced, Hosted syndicated TV show "Al Anthony Dance Party" 1961-1962
Created and produced syndicated country dance show, "Country Junction" 1992
Billboard Magazine’s "Public Service Program Director of the Year" (1961)
Co-produced Rolling Stones first US appearance San Bernardino, California in 1965.
Worked at Disney Studios (for Mr. Disney during creation of Disneyland) 1955
Actor (Union Waiver) in 12 Motion Pictures, mostly MGM (including The Blackboard Jungle)
Managed, recorded several hit musical artists on self owned & other record labels
Associations: Member/Officer of Board of Directors:
National Association of Broadcasters.
Southern California Broadcasters Association.
California Broadcasters Association.
Inland Empire Broadcasters Association
"Mid-fifties found me pursuing lifelong Los Angeles-bound dream. With the help of the GI Bill and a dozen odd jobs, many concurrently, I graduated Los Angeles State College, with honors, mostly straight A’s. (First in our family tree to attend and graduate college)
"My majors: TV/Radio Broadcasting, Advertising and Acting. Concurrently I attended Ogden’s Radio Operational Engineering School, and acquired Lifetime FCC First Class License.
"While in college, I worked every paid and free gig available towards any experience I could garner. One of these included subbing for a hooded wrestler, The Raven, broadcasting all night from a restaurant on La Cienega in Hollywood on KBLA. (When he 'got lucky' I got work!) in 1954. I did vacation relief for all jocks at KSPA, Santa Paula.
"Prior to leaving New York I worked at WENE, Endicott/Triple Cities announcing and radio drama acting in 1947.
"My first full time radio opportunity came in 1956, opening a new station, KSLR in Oceanside, California. It was the first radio station ever on the air between LA and San Diego. It was a dream come true, not having to start in Idaho, North Dakota or some other godforsaken spot! It was a blast of an experience to broadcast on a local station in a region where there had never been done before. We were treated royally. Not many people ever have that chance anywhere, let alone Southern California, at the beach in San Diego County!! That dream lasted a year; KSLR, later KUDE was sold (you fill in the blanks.) I chose to leave and it became a forerunner of what radio is today."
The B-50A, Global Queen was selected as the primary aircraft for this round-the-world mission
with two B-50A back-ups, Lucky Lady II and Lone Ranger. Global Queen commanded by Lt. Jewell took
off from Carswell AFB, Fort Worth, TX on February 25, 1949 but engine troubles forced it to abort the
mission and land in the Azores. Lucky Lady II then departed from Carswell on February 26, 1949. All
its crew, except for Parmalee were with the SAC 63d Bomb Squadron, 43d Bomb Group.
Capt. James G. Gallagher Aircraft Commander
1st Lt. Arthur M. Neal Second pilot
Capt. James H. Morris Co-pilot.
Capt. Glenn E. Hacker Navigator
1st Lt. Earl L. Rigor Navigator
1st Lt. Ronald B. Bonner Radar Operator
1st Lt. William F. Caffrey Radar Operator
Capt. David B. Parmalee Crew Chief Engineer
TSgt. Virgil L. Young Flight Engineer
SSgt. Robert G. Davis Flight Engineer
TSgt. Burgess C. Cantrell Radio engineer
SSgt. Robert R. McLeroy Radio Engineer
TSgt. Melvin G. Davis Gunner (refueling)
SSgt. Donald G. Traugh Jr Gunner (refueling)
==================
The Lucky Lady II was a functioning B-50 of the 43rd Bombardment Group equipped with 12 .50-caliber machine guns, with an additional fuel tank added in the bomb bay to provide additional range. The plane had a double crew with three pilots, with each crew taking a shift of four to six hours on duty and four to six hours off.
The plane started its round-the-world trip with a crew of 14 under the supervision of Capt. James Gallagher at 12:21 PM on February 26, 1949, from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, heading East over the Atlantic Ocean. After flying 23,452 miles (37,742 km), the plane passed the control tower back at Carswell AFB on March 2 at 10:22 AM, marking the end of the circumnavigation, and landed there at 10:31 AM after being in the air for 94 hours and one minute, landing two minutes before the estimated time of arrival calculated at take-off. En route, the plane was refueled four times by B-29 Superfortresses converted into aerial refueling tankers; meeting up above Lajes Air Force Base in the Azores, Dhahran Airfield in Saudi Arabia, Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines and Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. The plane flew at altitudes between 10,000 to 20,000 feet (3,000 to 6,100 m) and completed the trip around the world at an average ground speed of 239 miles per hour (385 km/h).
Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay, Strategic Air Command's commanding general, was on hand to greet the Lucky Lady II upon its arrival, together with dignitaries including Secretary of the Air ForceW. Stuart Symington, Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenberg and Major General Roger M. Ramey, commanding general of the Eighth Air Force. LeMay cited the significance of the mission as indicating that the Air Force now had the capability to take off on bombing missions from anywhere in the United States to "any place in the world that required the atomic bomb". He further stated that mid-air refueling could also be used for fighter aircraft. Symington noted that aerial refueling would "turn medium bombers into inter-continental bombers".
Anthony is a Korean War veteran, having served as an aircraft technician in the United States Air Force. In 1949, he was on board a BoeingB-50 Superfortress named Lucky Lady II for a non-stop, around-the-world flight that was the first such trip for that aircraft model.
Early Radio Career
After his military service, Anthony graduated from Los Angeles State College, where he majored in television and radio broadcasting. He later attended Ogden's Radio Operational Engineering School and earned a Lifetime FCC 1st Class License.
Anthony's first radio jobs were part-time work for KBLA 1580 AM in Santa Monica, California and KSPA 1510 AM in Santa Paula. In 1956, Anthony was hired as a full-time personality at KSLR in Oceanside.
AFTRA Strike
In 1968, Anthony was the Director of Operations at KFXM, Tiger Radio 590 when an AFTRA strike resulted in a walkout of the radio station's on-air staff. Anthony and other members of the station's management and sales staff immediately took over disc jockeying duties, adopting the mysterious personas of The Jones Boys. Anthony went by the alias, Casey Jones, while the other fill-in DJs were similarly referred to as "John Paul Jones", "Davy Jones", "Lonesome Jones", "Tom Jones", "Unsinkable Jones", and "Just Plain Jones". This strategy not only allowed the station to survive the walkout, but resulted in an increase in ratings due to the mystery surrounding the "new" DJs.
The 43rd began full operations in the theater in mid-November 1942 from bases in northern Australia. For the next year, the 43rd was one of two heavy bombardment groups in MacArthurs Fifth Air Force, carrying the war to the Japanese at places such as Salamaua, Lae, Hansa Bay, Wewak and Rabaul. After participating in the watershed Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the Group began gradually re-equipping with the B-24 Liberator after the decision was made to discontinue support for two heavy bomber types in the theater, thereafter diverting all of the B-17 aircraft resources to Europe. During June of 1943, the unit experienced several B-17 losses over Rabaul as the Japanese attempted to develop successful night fighting tactics against heavy bombers.
In November of 1943, as part of the re-equipment with the B-24, the units 63rd Squadron received a replacement package of aircrews and aircraft with special, radar-equipped B-24s that had the mission of conducting night radar search and destroy missions at low altitude against enemy shipping targets, eventually ranging around the entire Pacific perimeter of Asia. This unit operated exclusively at night and conducted its highly successful shipping search and attack flights separately from the other three squadrons. These continued to fly standard heavy bombardment missions against the far-flung land targets of the Southwest Pacific Theater from New Guinea to the Netherlands East Indies and the Philippines, until finally reaching the shores of Japan itself. The 43rd was one of the key units participating in the famous raids on Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea during the spring of 1944, and on the oilfields at Balikpapan, Borneo during the fall of that year. In 1945, it was instrumental in battering the industrial targets, ports and transportation infrastructure of Formosa to rubble. Along the way, the 43rd adopted the name Kens Men, after three famous theater leaders who were key to the history of the unit: General George C. Kenney, commander of 5th Air Force, Gen. Kenneth Walker, C.O. of Fifth Bomber Command, who was lost on a 43rd Bomb Group mission over Rabaul on January 5, 1943, and Ken McCullar, one of the most successful early squadron commanders.
B-24J-190-CO "The Dragon and his Tail"
Unit: 64th BS, 43rd BG, 5th AF, USAAF
Serial: 973 (44-40973)
This plane operated from Ie-Shima Island during 1945.
B-17F "The Joker's Wild"
On July 11, 1943 took off after midnight from 7-Mile Drome near Port Moresby piloted by Lt. Ralph K. De Loach and an ad-hoc crew. Private Clinton was flying his first combat mission that night. Their mission was to bomb Rabaul. Over the target, problems developed with the right wing's no. 3 and no. 4 engines, but the bombs were successfully dropped over the target.
Returning, the bomber was caught in a violent storm, with the two engines on the right wing malfunctioning. The pilots could not hold a straight course and got lost and ran low on fuel. Since co-pilot Moore had previously ditched a B-17, DeLoach handed the controls over to him.
The B-17 ditched off Kakau and the Makau Mission (near Boga Boga) off Cape Vogel. During the ditching, three of the crew were injured. The worst injury was engineer Smith who had been seated between the two pilots and suffered a broken back. The entire crew escaped the aircraft, deployed their life rafts an were aided ashore by friendly villagers who gave them food and shelter in their village.
On 10 August 1945, in one of the final bombing missions in the war in the Pacific, more than 20 B-24s of the Fifth USAAFs 43rd Bomb Group targeted Oita, a Japanese home island city on Kyushu. Shown here are the Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the Far East Air Force departing the target area. Of special interest is the elaborate Nose Art displayed on late war Liberators such as this one from the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th USAAF.
The B-24s in the painting were part of one of the Far East Air Forces last bombing missions against the Empire of Japan. Seen here leaving the target, the city of Oita on the Japanese home island of Kyushu, elements of the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43 Bomb Group, 10 August, 1945 were part of a twenty-plus B-24 raid by the 43 Bomb Group on a mission dubbed a milk-run due to the light-to-nil defensive opposition generated by the Japanese. In the foreground, #973 bears the flamboyant artwork covering the complete port side of the aircraft which would immortalize it and its creator S/Sgt. Sarkis E. Bartigian, who was assigned to the 64Tth Sqdn. ground echelon. Bartigians exuberant creations decorated the sides of a number of 43rd Bomb Group B-24s late in the war, but this one, THE DRAGON AND HIS TAIL was the most well known and photographed. After meeting an ignominious end in the smelters at Kingman, Arizona following the wars end, #973 recently was reincarnated in all its glory on the port side of the Collings Foundations B-24
B-24 Liberator "Stormy Weather" of 43rd Bomb Group -
