TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — KGUN-TV first signed on the air in June of 1956.
Shortly after, the sales department started meeting for coffee each week. It is a decades-long tradition that continues to this day for some KGUN alumni.
"It's a bunch of old broadcasters that get together once a week, and that's it," Ray Lindstrom said.
Lindstrom is one of the original KGUN 9 broadcasters.
"This was the picture taken off the screen by my mom in 1960," said Lindstrom, pointing to an old photo. "It was at KGUN. I was working in the booth as a booth announcer when I was 18 years old."
Fast forward 65 years and Lindstrom is still associated with KGUN 9, in a way. He is part of the KGUN Coffee Crew made up primarily of KGUN 9 alumni.
The group meets every Friday morning at a midtown breakfast spot — just like the group did when it formed in 1966.
"The sales guys enjoyed going to coffee instead of going out on the streets every minute of the day," explained Scott Vaughan.
Vaughan worked on the popular Marshal KGUN kids show before joining the KGUN 9 Sales Department in the mid-60s. He remembers the first meeting called by then-General Manager George Wallace.
"This one week he invited sales people to 'come on in, Jack Jacobson is going to tell you about some of our new programming that you get to sell'," recalled Vaughan.
That is how the weekly coffee group started.
Jack Jacobson was a TV pioneer in Tucson. He hosted KGUN 9's horror movie each week in the 1960s. He also became a charter member of George Wallace's weekly coffee group.
"We did get together to specifically talk about selling Channel 9 as an advertising medium," George Wallace said in 2006. "And look what happened."
Over time, the group became much more of a KGUN 9 alumni event.
It has included a half dozen former KGUN general managers, including my late father Jack Parris. He was a regular at Friday coffee for decades.
Also at the table: the late Larry Schnebly, the beloved leader of the group until his death in 2022.
"Gosh, they were just, just really vanguards of the broadcasting community," said Lindstrom. "Real go-getters and guys that started broadcasting here when it was, when it was virtually nothing."
Once known as the Jolly Boys, today the group is known as the Coffee Crew. It includes KGUN alumni and media makers from other TV and radio stations.
"Half a dozen of us are 80 years old or more," said Vaughan. "So, it's a time where we think about the past a lot. Sometimes we grouse about it and say, 'boy media would be much better if we were still in it'."
There have been some new additions to the Coffee Crew in recent years. KGUN alumni like former sports director Dave Silver and former news anchor Nina Trasoff now attend regularly.
"Great to just sit with people I adored back in the day and to be able to reconnect with them and sit around the table and catch up," said Trasoff. "And tell stories about old film cameras."
At the end of each Friday meeting is a coin toss. Just like when the coffee group began, the losers pay for the coffee.
Today, many of the members use a coin flipping app on their phones. But just like when the coffee group started, even the coin toss can become a bit of a tall tale.
The coffee crew has just one rule: no talking politics.
There are a dozen members of the group who have been enshrined in the Arizona Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
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Pat Parris is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. He is a graduate of Sabino High School where he was the 1982 high school state track champion in the 800 meters. While in high school and college, he worked part-time in the KGUN 9 newsroom. Share your story ideas and important issues with Pat by emailing pat.parris@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
