KFAB: Pavelka Welcome Anytime

Listeners to the "Good Morning Show" on KFAB (1110 AM) are letting it be known that they enjoy hearing Kent Pavelka back on the "Blowtorch of the Midwest."

Pavelka spent more than 35 years working in radio, including 27 at KFAB. His most recent on-air shift, doing a morning drive show at KKAR (1290 AM), ended last fall. Pavelka now owns his own advertising agency and public relations firm, Kent Pavelka & Associates, and has produced several advertisements for the Omaha Public Schools’ “One City, One School District” campaign.

The past couple of months, Pavelka has filled in on "The Good Morning Show" with one of his longtime on-air colleagues, Gary Sadlemyer, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln football sports play-by-play guy, Jim Rose, when either of them has taken vacation.

Sadlemyer, KFAB's program director who has worked at the station since 1976, said listeners have made it known they enjoy hearing Pavelka. One even made mention that hearing Pavelka read snow-related closings and postponements recently conjured up nostolgic memories of KFAB in the early 80s, with Pavelka, the late Walt Kavanaugh, Don Cole and Roger Flemmer handling the morning airshift.

"Usually people take the time to email me when they’re unhappy," Sadlemyer said. "But the response (to Pavelka) has been overwhelmingly positive. The first couple of times he was on, I received 30 emails. Out of that total, there were only three or four that were negative."

Now that producer Roger Olson has returned (following seven weeks of recovery from a mild stroke) to the show, the opportunities to fill in for Sadlemyer or Rose might not be as frequent. But Sadlemyer said Pavelka is always welcome on KFAB.

"As long as he wants to and is able to do it, I’m sure you’ll hear him on our air," Sadlemyer said.

[Updated: April 6, 2006]