Local veterans to be featured on live broadcast Nov. 11 at Historium
"Cowboy" Rick Hamby, middle, will interview Vietnam veterans Larry Warrick, right, and Terry Wyrick in a live remote radio broadcast from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11 - Veterans Day - at the Ozark County Historium on the Gainesville square. Robert Klineline, who wasn't available for the photo, will join the men to talk about his experiences when he and Warrick worked for Continental Telephone Company. The two-hour program will be broadcast live on KUKU radio at 100.3 FM. Listeners can also hear the live program online at kukuradio.com. Everyone is invited to the Historium for the program.
From noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Ozark County Historium in Gainesville will host a Veterans Day program featuring West Plains-based Ozark Marketing radio station KUKU's live remote broadcast of "Cowboy" Rick Hamby's onsite interview with two Vietnam veterans, Larry Warrick of Gainesville and Terry Wyrick of Clarkridge, Arkansas. The two veterans will talk with Hamby about their experiences in the military. As a bonus, Gainesville-area resident Robert Klineline, Hamby's cousin and Warrick's longtime former Continental Telephone Company co-worker, will join the group to share stories about their many years of service, especially during the days of the "10-party party line" system.
The program is free and open to the public, but those attending are asked to arrive a little early so they can get settled before the live broadcast begins promptly at noon. Audience members may come and go, move about quietly and share whispered conversations during the program, but they're asked to keep background noise to a minimum. There will be several brief breaks during the two-hour broadcast when everyone can speak normally among themselves. Hamby invites audience members to ask questions during the broadcast.
The only opportunity to hear the interview broadcast session "live" will be from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday on KUKU 100.3 FM or online by visiting the radio's website, kukuradio.com, and clicking on "listen live." The station will not re-broadcast the program later, and it will not be available later for digital streaming on the station's website.
Except for the live broadcast Tuesday, KUKU is unable to share the complete, recorded two-hour show online because of copyright restrictions related to the music used during breaks in the program. However, the Historium is working on plans to record the interview onsite, without the music that will be added by technicians working back at the radio station. Without the copyrighted music, the recorded interview can be shared later online, including on the Historium's website, ozarkcountyhistory.org.
The Veterans Day program is being presented to introduce Rick Hamby's new weekly radio program, "High Noon in American History with Cowboy Rick," a 30-minute segment to be broadcast on KUKU 100.3 FM at 12:15 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning Nov. 19. For several years, Hamby and his former wife, Bev, had a Saturday morning program, "Just for Kids Radio Roundup / Great Moments in American History," that was broadcast on KUKU's sister station, KKDY 102.5 FM.
Hamby, who lives in Caulfield, is also known for the authentic 1880s stagecoach he owns. It was the original "ride" at Silver Dollar City shortly after the amusement park opened near Branson in 1960. Since acquiring the stagecoach in 1999, Hamby has led a team of friends and supporters, many of them on horseback, on more than a dozen horsedrawn-stagecoach journeys throughout Missouri, Texas, Kansas and other states, usually delivering letters from school children and meeting with residents along the routes. In May 2022, a five-day journey through Ozark County began at Glade Top Trail, followed stretches of the Old Salt Road, and ended at the Historium in Gainesville.
The stagecoach project suffered a setback when Hamby sustained major injuries in a car crash in July 2024. Now he has mostly recovered and is already planning the next stagecoach journey, this one heading west across Kansas, in 2026.