Some in Mid-Missouri are remembering the contributions of a longtime local broadcaster after he passed away earlier this month.
Murl Nash died at his home Jan. 10 at age 89.
Nash spent 10 years in broadcasting as a disc jockey and announcer at KWOS radio and anchored the evening news on KRCG-TV in the 1960s and early '70s.
"Murl didn't have an impressive formal education, but he was a curious person who was essentially self-educated on many topics," longtime KRCG anchor Dick Preston said. "He was an announcer here, writing and appearing on commercials, making graphics - which were done on a printing press at the time - and producing and appearing on a 15-minute segment called 'World News Final' the last 15 minutes of our 10 p.m. news."
Preston said Nash was not in the news department, per se, and never covered stories, but to the public, he was a newsman. Nash also knew the Bible well and was an ordained minister, serving at Saline Valley Church of Christ in Tuscumbia, he added.
"Murl was still at channel 13 when he told News Director Don Shinkle that he was applying to be a new character for McDonald's, in which he would wear a costume," Preston remembered. "For 25 years, he was Ronald McDonald in a seven-state area and spent weekends traveling to various towns. Murl was actually quite a character who liked to be in the limelight, and Ronald let him do that, even when he left us and went to work for the Missouri Division of Employment Security."
"Murl and I were known as 'Murl and Earl - The Gold Dust Twins,' a long-running radio program on KTTR in Rolla," said Earl Fleer who worked with Murl in radio for many years. "We were two old hillbillies who had a one-hour daily show featuring a lot of nonsense and little reality."
Fleer said Nash was a versatile person who was a mentor to himself and many others who aspired to become broadcasters.
"Without his tutoring, I probably never would have been hired at WDAF in Kansas City," Fleer said. "Murl worked at radio stations in several states before he left broadcasting. I considered Murl a lifetime friend. He will be missed."
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