O'BRIEN-BRONSON & ALEXANDER RIDING HIGH

  Mike has a vintage radio restoration shop in northern Washington, Bronson (Brandt Miller) is a TV weatherman & does radio also in Chicago and Chris (Alan Lawson) has been part of Stumptown radio for years. 

Comments

[John E.]

I was lucky enough to work with Brant and Alan at KIMN in Denver right after they left Portland. Great talent...great guys. Lawson became one of the key players at KINK and other Portland stations over the years.

[JoelinPDX]

I worked with O'Brien's brother Tim Kiley (Kiley is the family name) at another KISN...KYSN in Colorado Springs in 1972. They sounded identical and looked a lot alike too. Funny thing is they gave me the air name Rockin' Ron O'BRIEN. It was one of the names they'd had jingled.

Brant Miller and I used to go out to eat in the middle of the night once or twice a week. Brant was working at KPFM-AM and I was at KLIQ AM/FM.

We both worked the evening shift and would get together and go to the Barbary Coast, the airport or just Denney's. Sometimes we were joined late by Bob King who worked at, the then new, Top 40 station KGW. There weren't near the number of places open in the middle of the night then.

While working at KPFM-AM Brant got a call from KISN and went to work there as Charlie Bronson. The name was a take off on the then popular "Along Came Bronson" TV show. Plus KISN would never have admitted to hiring someone from across town. No non-compete clause...Hell, no contract.

Brant drove his dad's old Chrysler wagon and it drove Don Burden crazy to have one of his jocks driving such a beat up old POS. They also had to take Brant out and buy him some suitable clothes to wear in the KISN window. Image is everything, you know.

Next thing along, Brant got a call from Denver and went to work at KIMN. Brant didn't land on his feet, he never got knocked off them. People just kept offering him better and better jobs...a testament to his talent.

As mentioned, Brant is on TV as a weatherman in Chicago nowadays. He works for WMAQ, channel 5 and has for years. He got his meteorology degree from the University of Mississippi.

I last saw Brant about four years ago when he was in town. We had lunch at Jake's in the Governor Hotel. I met his wife and he was doing great. Gonna have to get in touch with him again.

[Bob Karm]

Great post Joe(Charlie)!

[tom]

The Elephants they're riding were part of a the Ringling Brothers Circus parade that was going to be at the Memorial Coliseum. I think they had a parade from the train yards up to the Coliseum across the Broadway Bridge. The only reason I know that is because of the month and year 1970 I had a girl friend who was in a high school marching band that was going to be in that parade and they let her ride one of the Elephants. All those songs that week bring back a lot of memories especially "(I know ) I'm losing you." Sniff.