2018 Hall of Fame

KSHE FM in St. Louis recently celebrated its 50th anniversary as America’s oldest rock station thanks in great part to one of the pioneers of Album Oriented Rock . . . Sheldon “Shelley” Grafman. Shortly after Century Broadcasting purchased KSHE-FM it became apparent that the current middle-of-the-road/classical music format could not attract enough audience or advertisers to be successful. The decision was made to introduce a brand new music format called album oriented rock that was gaining popularity on the west coast.

Before the current explosion of syndicated talk radio, there was a talk radio legend hard at work in Kansas City. Mike Hervey, known on air as Mike Murphy, was appointment radio for listeners in Kansas City. Mike began his career at KLEE radio in his hometown of Ottumwa, Iowa. Before Kansas City, he worked at radio stations in Springfield, IL, Cedar Rapids, IA, Peoria, Moline, IL and Indianapolis.

When Bob Priddy was a senior at Missouri University, he wrote news for KFRU radio in Columbia, worked with graduate students, ran the newsroom for evening newscasts and did an overnight music show. At Mizzou, he also met and married Nancy, his wife of 40 years. Upon graduation in 1963, Bob worked his way up to News Director at KLIK radio in Jefferson City. There he met and worked with Clyde Lear and Derry Brownfield.