Ozarks Voices: Jim Grundy, December 23, 2021 - Video

Interview with Jim Grundy by Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at Missouri State University. Mr. Grundy was a salesman for KWTO Radio in Springfield, Missouri in the early 1970s. The interview took place in the home of Jim Grundy in Springfield, Missouri, on December 23, 2021. (NOTE: due to a technical error, this interview is truncated and ends at 26:10.)

Topics discussed during the interview include Grundy’s father, S. K. Grundy, and how his father came to work in Springfield, Missouri, in 1950 selling cedar novelties; television programming in the 1950s; Ralph Foster’s early work in radio in Kansas City then in Springfield at KWTO; the transition from radio to television in Springfield; S. K. Grundy’s work at KWTO with Ralph Foster; personalities who appeared on Ozark Jubilee; S. K. Grundy’s work with the Lawrence Welk Show and co-writing the theme song for the show, “Bubbles in the Wine;” S. K. Grundy playing in bands in the 1930s and 1940s; S. K. Grundy’s nautical engineering work with Spartan Aircraft during World War II; S. K. Grundy’s music-writing skills; how his parents met; S. K. Grundy performing and competing in barbershop quartets.