By John Skipper, of The Globe Gazette, Iowa

Mason City - Bob Brown was sure he was the first newsman in the country to
announce the death of movie actor James Dean 50 years ago.

Brown, the retired KGLO radio announcer who died Tuesday, loved to tell
stories about his career and was telling them as late as Saturday.

George Bauer, former KGLO announcer who now is program director at KUOO
Radio in Spirit Lake, interviewed Brown at his home three days before he
died.

Bauer is writing a history of KGLO for his master's thesis at South Dakota
State University and talked to Brown at his home. He said Brown's voice was
weak but his memories were strong, including the story about the actor's
death.

Brown told Bauer he was working at a radio station in San Luis Obispo,
Calif., a few miles from where Dean wrecked his Porsche. The state trooper
who handled the accident stopped at the radio station and gave Brown the
information and he put it on the air.

Brown also told Bauer he once met a fellow on a train who turned out to be
the "chief cutter" or film editor at Warner Brothers. He arranged for Brown
to get a personal tour of the Warner Brothers studios where he saw Shirley
Temple and Doris Day, and got to watch Humphrey Bogart filming on the set
of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

He also watched Howard Hughes fly the famed "Spruce Goose" in California.
Brown said he came to Mason City when the entire staff of KTAN Radio in
Tucson, Ariz., was fired. Brown said he read about a job at KGLO Radio and
Television, made a phone call and took the job over the phone.

"When we left Tucson it was 87 degrees. When we got to Mason City it was
below zero. My wife said 'let's turn around and go back,' but we couldn't
because I had taken the job," he told Bauer. "I never did get used to the
Iowa winters," he said.

He said he also never got used to waking up early in the morning, even
though he did it for 30 years.

In addition to being a KGLO announcer, he did commercials on KGLO-TV (now
KIMT). He also learned to direct live TV and directed many editions of
"Bart's Clubhouse," the afternoon children's show.

Brown told Bauer he was directing "Bart's Clubhouse" when news came in about
the Charles City tornado in 1968. He said he instructed Bart Curran, the
show's host, to go on the air and tell the kids to "tell your mom and dad to
come to the television, it's important." Then the station broadcast live
updates about the storm, rushing film from the scene and putting it on the
air before it was even dry. He explained that film was used in those days,
not videotape, and needed to be developed in the station's darkroom.

Bauer, who worked at KGLO from 1987 to 1990, said, "I got into radio because
of Bob Brown. I remember one day he told a joke on the air and it was the
first time I realized, 'Wow. Some guy is doing that for a living.' I grew up
listening to Bob for the school menus and his riddle from 'the poet of
Rockford' every morning at 10 to 7. I met him when I was in seventh grade
and he came to the Osage Junior High School to speak at a career day.

"The first day I sat in the studio across the desk from Bob Brown and Al
Heinz, I couldn't believe I was there."

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