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Hoffman Hayride (KOB-TV)
KOB-TV
Albuquerque, NM
Year Started:  1950
Date Started:  March 11, 1950

Hoffman Hayride

Television was beginning to become a new visual medium of entertainment. On March 11, 1950, KOB-TV in Albuquerque, a live local entertainment show was going to be broadcast called the Hoffman Hayride.

The sponsors for the show were the Hoffman Radio Corporation and the Thompson Music Company, a dealer for Hoffman televisions.

Dick Bills and his Sandia Mountain Boys were to be the hosts for the show. The March 8, 1950 article indicated that local personalities would also appear on the show from time to time.

The initial time slot for the show was from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Saturday afternoons.

The idea behind the broadcast time was so that demonstration television sets in the stores during business hours could be turned on to get prospective customers interested in buying a television.

March 11, 1950 Hoffman Hayride Ad

Station KOB-TV was just getting started and the program listing for Saturday showed a limited number of shows. There was a 15-minute Newstape show at 7:00, followed by Finlandia and other lesser known shows. The station signed off the air at 9:10pm.

In May 1950, The Dick Bills Show was on the air and from 10:30 to 11:30 and listeners to KOB radio were encouraged to listen in to win a trip to Hollywood.

The show's day and time seemed to change in those early days - perhaps due to Dick Bills schedule or keeping the television station's budget in tow. For example, in November 1950, the KOB-TV ad noted that the show was back - this time on Friday night at 8:00pm.

In the July 15, 1950 KOB-TV listing, it stated that "Saturday Evening Television Discountined for Summer". But the Hoffman Hayride show was on at 3:00pm then. And promoted a teaser to "See this week, "Miss E-Z Vision" - presumably a model to promote Hoffman's Easy Vision Televisions. Viewers were encouraged to tune in and vote for next week's candidate. On that same July evening, Dick Bills and his Sandia Mountain Boys were to be performing at 8:00pm to mark the grand opening of the new Greyhound Bus Terminal.

In February 1951, KOB-TV's program listing was promoting a "live" broadcast of the Hoffman Hayride show and Dick Bills' own show in downtown Albuquerque at the Hudson Showroom.

The program listings we were able to review would occasionally list the guest stars appearing on the show. Some of these were:

  • Darlene Aimes
  • Yearout Quartet (Tom Kelly, Bob Yearout, Vern Henning and Dick Hilleary)
  • Dusty Taylor
  • Shorty Woodward
  • Peggy Lewis
  • The Hanan Trio
  • St. Mary's Clarinet Quartet
  • The Mil-Rae Girls Quartet
  • Johnny Griswold (The Voice of Hoffman)
  • Judy and Fay
  • The Loco Weeds
  • Dean Kirk
  • Junior Condardt
  • Marilyn Kloss
  • Dick Forrest

It seemed to be a pattern for these new live entertainment shows to give younger local talent a chance to perform before an audience in the event they might want to pursue such a career. In early May 1950, the Albuquerque Journal reported that a group of four young girls aged six to 11 years old, from the Mil-Rae Studio would do a special song and dance number "Heap Big Smoke—No Fire. The youngsters were Sue Ray Claussen, Penny Grayson, Marie Matousek and Ann Perry. That same show would feature a clarinet quartet from St. Mary's High School. Their number on the show would be "American Panorama". In the quartet were Shirley Arviso, Marie Jo Miera, Mary Ellen Murphy and Richard Rowe. They were directed by Joseph Paulson.

Sponsors would be listed in those program listings as well - presumably Hoffman Television dealers.

  • Thompson Music Company
  • Rogers Home Equipment Stores
  • Chant Electric Company
  • Yearout Electric Company
  • Sanders Electric Company
  • Reidling Music Company
  • Albuquerque Music Company

The Hoffman Radio Corporation was an early pioneer in television broadcasting in the western part of the United States. Its founder and president, H. Leslie Hoffman was instrumental in showing that electronics manufacturing could be done just as well on the west coast. Up to World War II, that type of manufacturing was done in the eastern United States. The Hoffman Radio Corporation convinced the government to give it some of its contracts during the war time efforts and that continued long after the war. Elsewhere on this site for a Hoffman Hayride show, we will go into deeper detail of the Hoffman story.

Credits & Sources
  • The Albuquerque Journal; March 8, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; March 10, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; March 11, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; March 18, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; May 6, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; May 16, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; May 13, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; June 3, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; July 15, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; July 22, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; September 1, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; November 17, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; December 8, 1950; Albuquerque, NM
  • The Albuquerque Journal; February 2, 1951; Albuquerque, NM

Dick Bills and his Sandia Mountain Boys




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