We ran across some pictures recently and thought you might find them interesting. 

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Back in the early 80's Country 96-KWWR hosted a Country Music Talent Contest that was originally called Country Star Search and later called Country Showdown.  

The first year of the contest, we held several nights of competition at a local nightclub (The old Attic Lounge at the Villa Motel), with the final night at the old Liberty Theater in Mexico.  The top winners from each of the earlier nights of competition performed to see who would advance on to the Missouri State contest.   (The Liberty closed down permanently a short time later.  The Pepsi sign in the ticket window was promoting "Midnight Owl Movies - Bruce Lee, His Last Days/His Last Nights."  The Liberty was only showing midnight movies at that time, on Friday and Saturday nights.)

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 This is (the late) Jerry Johnson (left), GM of Country 96 at the time, helping get me (Gary Leonard) ready to emcee the show that night.  (I needed all the help I could get).
This is the stage at the Liberty Theater, with the Country 96 backup band.   Sorry that I don't remember all the names, but it's Bill Potts on guitar (second from left), me standing at center stage, Kevin Johnson on drums and Randy Johnson on bass guitar.  Jerry's at the sound board (lower right). garystage.jpg (45846 bytes)
kenthmc.jpg (22519 bytes) This is Kent Morgan (left) interviewing our winner that night, H. McMillan.   Kent was News Director at the time.  H. competed in our contest in later years and we think he subsequently moved to Texas where he got a recording contract and enjoyed some regional success.
The following year, we moved the contest to Goodtime Country in Columbia, as interest in competing and watching/listening had grown.

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 As a bonus at the final night of competition, we brought in Denise Price, who had won the national contest the year before.  The grand prize at the national contest had been a cash prize plus a recording and touring contract.  That's Dennis Grandcolas (left) who was Country 96 Sales Manager, Gary Kenniston on guitar (in the Country 96 backup band), Denise Price and me.  (How 'bout that Wrangler belt buckle with my Levi jeans?)
This is H. McMillan back once again.  (And isn't that the same outfit from the year before?)

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Here are few miscellaneous pictures not related to the country talent shows.
That's Owen Lackey on the left, a KXEO microphone in the center, and an unidentified woman on the right, who's obviously enjoying whatever Owen was saying.  In a January 2005 email from Owen Lackey, he explains:  "I was quite surprised to see my earlier life suddenly on your web page. The KXEO mic indicated the reason, the place was the '49 or '50 Audrain county fair - the lady ... sorry,  too many people have passed thru my 80 years"
In 1985 we put up a new, thousand foot tower for KWWR.  Jerry said this was a chance to say he sat on top of the big tower.
(Of course the top of the tower was still on the ground at the time).

The large white object is the uppermost FM antenna bay, enclosed in a fiberglass radome (cover).  This FM antenna has 10 bays mounted on a 100 foot tall pole at the top of our tower.

 

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 And at Jerry's request, Randy and I sat briefly on the top of the new tower, so we, too, could say we sat on top of the thousand foot tower.
If you have any information to add about any of  these photos, or have any old photos relating to KXEO or KWWR that you'd like to share, please email me .  Thanks for stopping by.
-Gary