Gordon McLendon was born
in Paris, Texas, on 8th June, 1921. The family moved to Oklahoma when
he was a child. McLendon studied Far Eastern languages at Yale
University. While at university he ran the campus radio station
and was business manager for the Yale Literary
Magazine.
During the Second
World War he accepted a commission in the United
States Navy and worked as an interpreter, translator and interrogator.
Later he joined armed forces radio.
After the war McLendon
returned to Texas and joined the KNET radio station. Eventually he
established his own radio station, KLIF, in Dallas. His first innovation
was to provide live baseball broadcasts.
In 1947 McLendon and his
father, Barton McLendon, founded the Liberty Broadcasting System (LBS).
By 1952 LBS was the second largest radio network in the United States.
The McLendon family eventually owned a large number of radio stations
including KNUS-FM (Dallas), KOST (Los Angeles), WYSL-AM (Chicago),
KABL-FM (San Francisco), KILT (Houston), KTSA (San Antonio) and KELP
(EL Paso).
It has been claimed that
McLendon was the first person to introduce the traffic reports, jingles,
all-news radio station and "easy-listening" programmes.
His radio stations also expressed a right-wing political commentary.
This included his attacks on federal aid to education, racial desegregation
of public schools and equal voting rights for all races.
In 1963 rumours began to
circulate that McLendon might have been involved in the assassination
of John F. Kennedy. In their book, Deadly
Secrets, Warren Hinckle and William
Turner claim
that Gerry
P. Hemming obtained
money from McLendon to help fund Interpen.
McLendon was
also an associate of Jack
Ruby
as well as being friendly
with several other suspects including Clint
Murchison, Bobby
Baker and David
Atlee Phillips.
Peter Dale Scott claims that McLendon
made a secret trip to Mexico City just before the assassination.
According to Seth
Kantor when Ruby was arrested he "shouted out for Gordon
McLendon". The KLIF disc-jockey, Weird Beard, later told Kantor
that Ruby "greatly admired McLendon".
McLendon was also a film
producer and in 1959 made three movies: The
Killer Shrews, The Giant Gila
Monster and My Dog Buddy.
He was also ran the advertising campaigns for 150 movie and between
1963 and 1966 McLendon worked for United Artists. McLendon was also
the author of several books including How
to Succeed in Broadcasting (1961), Correct
Spelling in Three Hours (1962) and Understanding
American Government (1964).
A member of the Democratic
Party, McLendon attempted to unseat Ralph
Yarborough in 1964. He later left the party saying he could no
longer support the policies of Lyndon
B. Johnson.
McLendon sold KLIF for
$10.5m in 1971. Over the next eight years he sold the rest of his
radio stations for approximately $100m. Later it was estimated that
McLendon was worth around $200m.
In 1975 McLendon and David
Atlee Phillips
formed the Association of
Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO).
By 1985
Forbes Magazine claimed that McLendon was worth around
$200m.
Gordon McLendon died of
cancer on 14th September, 1986.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
Dave
Perry's JFK Assassination Website
Available from Amazon
Books (order below)
