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mention that working in the show barn alongside “right arm” newspaper associates like Yvonne Hartmann and Lisa Treiber-Walter made my job as a photographer of various show animals and their exhibitors comparatively easy. All I had to do was wait for the right moment, point the camera and shoot. They, on the other hand, had to corral sometimes-distracted celebratory exhibitors and their winners-circle friends/family members, accurately write down everyone’s names along with other pertinent details and then make sure all that information made it into the newspaper correctly. In short, working at fair association events was more fun than I could ever imagine, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for all the money that I lost over the years trying to pick a winner at the race track.
CHARLES FELLER Working at a radio station in San Marcos while attending college eventually turned into a long career in broadcasting for me. After leaving college, I moved back home to Gillespie County and started working part-time in 1954 for Radio Station KNAF. I went full-time in 1955. Then, in 1956, I moved to San Antonio for work. After 20 years of being away from the microphone, I started taking outside jobs in 1976 broadcasting on Radio Station KNAF. As it just so happens, one of my broadcasts in 1976 was from the Gillespie County Fair Grounds. Bill Jung and I did the first broadcast from the new fairgrounds when it was dedicated in 1976. Along with broadcasting from the show barn, the exhibition
hall and the queen’s contest during the fair and other summer events at the fairgrounds, I also provided radio broadcasts from the Stonewall Peach JAMboree and Rodeo, Harper Frontier Days, Blanco County Fair, the District Livestock Show in Kerrville, tractor and car shows, hay shows, the turkey shoot and more. Looking back, I should have kept a diary. In all of my years of broadcasting from around the Hill Country, I only missed one assignment, and that was because someone ran a stop sign on Milam Street and wrecked my pickup. Because I grew up on a farm and ranch, I have always had an interest in livestock. My brother and I showed animals at the old fairgrounds, and I even took ag classes in college.