City replaces stolen sign for namesake

Nearly 40 years later, John S. Yates is still making news.

It was 1973 when Yates was named the winner of a contest sponsored by KVIL in which radio personalities Jack Schell and Ron Chapman sought to "Make Someone Famous."

Putting aside the immediate accolades and attention, that Yates is still remembered speaks to the success of their endeavor.

Among the rewards for winning the contest was having a street in The Colony named after him -- John S. Yates Boulevard, which now runs between North Colony Boulevard and Strickland Avenue.

Yates, Schell, and Chapman stopped by city hall in The Colony on Jan. 11 for a reunion that featured the city presenting Yates with a replacement street sign after his original copy was stolen from his Dallas home late last year.

The photo op provided all three with the opportunity to reminisce about the contest that brought them together all those years ago.

"Jack was the 'godfather' of the contest," Chapman said. "Little KVIL had no money and no budget whatsoever, but we liked to do things that made people talk. So Jack came to me and said, 'Why don't we make somebody famous?'"

Being famous in 1973 meant having your name paged during a football game and at Las Vegas hotels. It meant having things named after you, like the wing of an apartment complex, a suite at the Fairmont Hotel, and a pizza at Shakey's Pizza restaurant. It also meant riding in the Cotton Bowl parade on New Year's Day and meeting a Penthouse Pet of the Year.

"By the time we did the drawing, we had jingle singers standing by ... to sing, 'John S. Yates, KVIL!' We had some billboards ... that said, 'The World Famous John Yates,' with his picture and KVIL at the bottom," Chapman said.

The day the contest winner was announced, one of the television stations was doing a promotion in the evening where they needed "high-profile personalities" to appear, Chapman said.

"We said that Jack and I would go on, but we're bringing a contest winner with us," he said. "At 5:10 in the afternoon we drew the winner, and at 7:10 p.m. (Yates was) live on TV."

Though he is quick to give Schell credit for concocting the contest, adding the street-naming as part of the winnings was a last-second idea of Chapman's.

"I wanted to do something that would be permanent. I wanted to do something that would outlast all of us," Chapman said.

To that end, they contacted homebuilder Fox & Jacobs, which was developing The Colony at the time. They agreed to name a street after Yates in exchange for KVIL broadcasting live from the development.

"They get the advertising, we get the name. That's how it happened," Chapman said.

While many of Yates' winnings, such as having his name on the Fairmont suite and apartment complex, no longer exist, John S. Yates Boulevard has proven to be as permanent as Chapman hoped.

"We pulled it off and got it done. I'm amazed it's still here. It lives on beyond you," Chapman told Yates.

Some years after the contest but before the street was extended to where it is now, John S. Yates Park was proposed to be built at the street's end, about where Peters Colony Elementary School is today.

"That really amused me because years had gone by, and the people who decided to name that place John S. Yates Park were not aware of how John S. Yates street became known," Chapman said, adding that he imagined the park's planners spending time at the library researching the name, wondering what John S. Yates did for the early pioneers in North Texas.

For his part, Yates, now 72, is happy for having been a part of something that lives on to this day.

"I love it," he said. "People still remember it. They ask me, 'Weren't you on KVIL?'"

Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...