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When Harry Cooper's father decided Springfield had room for another radio station in 1940, he probably never dreamed that his legacy in local media would last until 1998.
Last week's announcement of the planned sale of KOLR, Channel 10 in Springfield, was a little sad for the Cooper family, progeny of the man who started the business with KTTS AM, a radio station located in the former Chamber of Commerce building, which stood roughly where the Guaranty Federal building stands now, said Harry Cooper.
The Guaranty Federal building is now home to Radio 2000's offices. Cooper is now 71 years old, and became involved in the family business his father started when he returned to Springfield from serving in the Navy in 1956, he said. At that time, the television station was only 3 years old, and the studios were on the second floor of the Chamber of Commerce building.
"I remember they had to get props up to the second floor to be used in the broadcasts. I have a picture of them trying to get a horse up there," Cooper said. Cooper's father had a partner in those early days in G. Pearson Ward, who became...