Monday, October 19, 2015
Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Website - October 19, 2015
Posted: October 19, 2015 | Last Revised: October 19, 2015
Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Website
At the attached link, you will be able to review the brief biography and the video that was shared at the time of Bette Bailly's induction into the Broadcast Professionals' Hall of Fame in 2003. There was a dinner and program held in Denver for the awardees that year. This website contains all of the honorees over the past 15 years or so, and is interesting to see. Click on the left margin to view those tributes to the broadcasters you may know and remember! Many of the older TV and radio personalities around the state of Colorado that will be familiar to you will be on this site.
General Link http://www.broadcastprofessionals.org/halloffame.html
There is also an "In Memoriam" page which has additional information on the Professionals who have passed away, and of course, Bette will have her own section here, soon.
Direct Link to Bette Bailly
http://www.broadcastprofessionals.org/halloffame.htmlBailly
For additional information about KNAB and it's inception, run your mouse up the same page as the direct link to Bailly and you will see an entry for E.G. Beehler. Alternatively, go to the year 2005 on the left side of the first link and you will see his name listed. Click on his name. Al Ross started KNAB in 1967, and the radio engineer who was responsible for beginning the station was Elmer Beehler. They were my father and grand father, respectively. At the time KNAB was started, the Federal Communications Commission required that a licensed radio engineer be associated with every station. My father owned and managed stations but he was not a licensed engineer.
My cousin and I submitted our Grandfather Beehler's name to the committee and Bette was an avid supporter for him to be inducted that year. She enjoyed working with him, and remained friends with him until his death in 1985.
On a personal level, I met Bette when I was 13, when my father hired her as the radio engineer for his station in Burlington. My grandfather was willing to help him build it and get it on the air, but was not interested in moving to Burlington (he and my grandmother had lived in Sterling since the mid 1930s). He also preferred to stay retired (he was in his mid 70s in 1967). Bette was a mentor of mine, always encouraging me to achieve my career dreams in what was then a male-dominated field, and she was one of my biggest cheerleaders. Even though I moved out of state after graduating from CU-Boulder, I have stayed in contact with Bette for the rest of my life, and if I was in Colorado visiting friends and relatives, I visited her in Burlington every time I was able to. I will miss her tremendously, and will miss our phone conversations we had during the times when I was not able to see her. Rest in Peace, Bette.
- Nancy A. Ross (-Stallings), BHS '72
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