In 1985 fueled by my own careless ambition and the ease of raising money from Savings and Loans that were soon to fail. I considered buying a small chain of radio stations in the Mid and Southwest United States.
The stations were owned by a family newspaper company. The Seaton family of Kansas owned newspapers and radio stations in Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas. The Patriarch of the family Fred Andrew Seaton had been the United States Secretary of Interior under fellow Kansan Dwight Eisenhower Presidency. Alaska became a State under Secretary Seaton. He had also been a US Senator representing Nebraska
Communications Equity, primarily a cable television investment banking firm, was expanding over into radio and represented the Family in the selling. Due diligence which is a term used in mergers and acquisitions which mean going and looking at what you may be buying. Communications Equity which was flush with money from the heydays of cable television deals had their own private jet which they allowed one of their guys and me to use with their two pilots to check out the stations.
The plane picked me up in Pittsburgh, PA from there we flew to Coffeyville, Kansas, a town about 90 minutes from Tulsa, to visit the two stations there and spend the evening visiting at the home of R.M. Seaton who published the Coffeyville Journal and oversaw the operation of the AM and FM radio stations. The next morning we made the short flight to Manhattan, KS to meet with Edward Seaton who was R.M.'s son and the Publisher of the Manhattan Mercury. Edward like his father was a great and personable gentleman and businessman. He was a Harvard graduate and was friends with West Virginia's the Governor Jay Rockefeller who had been his classmate while in Cambridge.
After lunch we took off for Hastings, Nebraska where the family owned the Hastings Tribune and KHAS am radio station. This was my first, and to this date, my only visit to Nebraska. The Hastings airport was very small and had minimal commercial service. The arrival of the Citation jet was a pretty big event for them. The few people that were at the small terminal looked rather disappointed when we walked off and were not recognizable as celebrities.
It was very cold in Nebraska and we were told when we checked into the Holiday Inn, which at the time was the only recognizable lodging brand in town, that the best steak in town was available just across the street. After refreshing in our separate rooms we walked across the street to the recommended place, where we ordered a couple of steaks and a bottle of wine. Our waitress was somewhat embarrassed in that she did not know how to use a corkscrew. I was able to talk her through the process in a manner that she felt comfortable.
Early the next morning after visiting with the General Manager of the radio station we headed to the airport where the pilots had fresh fruit, bagels, juice, coffee and the Wall Street Journal in the plane waiting for us, we were wheels up and headed to our last stations that were in Lubbock, Texas.
Realizing this was the last day we were going to have use of the jet and no more stations to visit we decided that we should celebrate when we got to Lubbock by having barbecue and Lone Star Beer.
Though I had been to Texas before, I had never been to Lubbock, which is best know for being the Hometown of Buddy Holly and Texas Tech University, a school where WVU Old Grads will recall that football coach Jim Carlen left Morgantown to coach. Then allowing his top assistant Bobby Bowden to take over the head coaching duties in 1970.
We rented a car at the airport and went to explore the town seeing the Buddy Holly statue and the impressive Texas Tech Stadium, then to check into the hotel, before our pursuit of barbecue and Lone Star Beer.
After checking into our rooms we agreed to meet in the bar in 30 minutes for our first Lone Star.
While waiting in the lobby for my traveling companion I was reading an article in the Lubbock Avalanche newspaper about a bizarre murder that had happened at a ranch outside of town. The mother of the family, which sounded a lot like the Ewings of South Fork , had been murdered by her son. In interviewing one of the neighbors on their thoughts, the neighbor was in disbelief because the accused "seemed like a nice young man and always had a good crease in his jeans" which I made a mental note of should I decide to get into business in West Texas.
Also while waiting in the lobby the University of Houston basketball team checked in for a game they had that evening with the Texas Tech Red Raiders. After their coach, Pat Foster distributed the players their keys he went to the desk and told the clerk to completely turn off all of the phones in their rooms. This in the days before cell phones was a prudent thing to do with his student athletes.
Finally we went to the bar and ordered two Lone Stars to be told by the bartender that they did not carry Lone Star Beer, which we found inconceivable, so we immediately left to find a real Texas bar that would have the beer of the Lone Star State. After striking out at two more watering holes to find out brand we were directed to a barbecue restaurant that we felt would surely have the brand.
After being seated, our waitress came and took our drink order and of course we ordered two long neck Lone Stars. She can back in short time to announce that they also did not stock Lone Star. So now I know there is something terribly wrong. perhaps a labor stoppage or product shortage. So doing my best J.R. Ewing impression I order a bourbon and branch and asked the waitress to please go to her manager and find out why nobody had Lone Star.
Upon coming back to deliver the cocktails and take our dinner order she made no mention of the answer to the ongoing lack of Lone Star. I said to her,"well did you find out the answer to my question?" and she said, "yes, but I can't tell you" Looking both surprised and displeased I said "why not?" she said "I just can't" I went on to tell her our quandary and suggested that her tip would be more liberal if I could find the answer. So she begrudgingly whispered that the manager said they didn't carry Lone Star, "because Lone Star tasted like piss." This was not the news we had been waiting to hear. As we were finishing up our dinner, the manager came to our table to apologize and also to give us directions to a bar near the Texas Tech campus that sold Lone Star, which was cheap and therefore a favorite of the students. After our first bottle we were pretty well convinced that the manager's assessment of the beer had been correct.
Shortly after this is when the huge savings and loan crisis developed and the S&Ls in Texas that had agreed to the financing of the deal reneged.
It was a deal that obviously was not intended to happen, but Lubbock taught me a lesson about beer and blue jeans. Perhaps now I know why Buddy Holly felt so blue about Peggy Sue.
