Kathi Bowers Wallis Civic-Minded Entrepreneur

Published: July 18, 2017, 9 a.m.

b'Kathi Bowers Wallis on equality for all ~\\n\\n"I particularly felt strongly about women and the fact that women were having a very difficult time. You couldn\'t get a loan from the bank. You couldn\'t get anything done because you were a woman. For me, that extended right over into minorities and people who were having a difficult time breaking through the old boy white network, which frankly really pissed me off."\\n\\nKathi Bowers Wallis, Civic-Minded Entrepreneur Our Town in studio interview\\n\\nA Ockershausen:\\tHi, this is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town. I\'m going to read an introduction that\'s important, and then I\'ll explain why when I finish it. Our next guest has been a tremendous influence on my life. I\'ve known her and been a friend for almost 50 years. That\'s hard to believe. During my career at WMAL in late 1970s, that was for radio and television, this lady made some courageous suggestions to me professionally that have changed the course of influence of our industry. Our industry, not just Washington, and the live of minorities and women in broadcasting. She\'s always been ahead of the curve in her thinking. She\'s an entrepreneur. She\'s been a movie reviewer on radio right here at WMAL. A yoga instructor, and now she\'s a burger queen. She\'s the kind of spirit that added spice to the old boys club. Theold boys club. Not only that, the old boy. She\'s been a wonderful friend to me, and please welcome Kathi Wallis. Ta-dah!\\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tTa-dah! \\nA Ockershausen:\\tSay something. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tGood afternoon. Here I am.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tWell, it\'s important that you know that Janice and I feel this way about you, and she makes a point that the things that you did to help me and help WMAL was influence on the industry, and that\'s a true story, with women and minorities, mostly black. The people that you suggested that we started here at WMAL Radio like Ed Scandrett in radio, Mary Brown in personnel. Because you had been in the personnel business. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tRight. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tI think when we first met as a matter of fact, you were selling for Chase Photography. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tWhat was my title there? Public relations for Chase Studios with those two dirty old men. Right? Remember them? \\nA Ockershausen:\\tAbsolutely. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tOh my God. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tIt was a great business. Wasn\'t it?\\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tYeah.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tIt was downtown photography. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tDowntown on M Street, and they did all the portraits of everybody who was important. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tBeautiful, beautiful work. They\'re out to business now. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tOh my God. They\'re both dead and buried long ago, but they were the only guys you went to to get your picture taken. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tThey\'re the best. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tYeah. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tYou had the PR job. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tI had the PR job. I think before that, I was with Super Girls. Oh, dear God. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tYou\'re a super woman now. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tThank God I became radicalized. Super Girls. That\'s when I was Miss Buick. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tI had the opportunity of working with you and meeting these people and through the Ad Club and the other things that you were deeply involved in. I\'m serious now about the influence in broadcasting because we had almost no black people in the broadcast business in their line of sales work. \\nKathi Bowers Wallis:\\tThat\'s true. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tThey had them on maybe on station, but this was let\'s say a lily white radio TV company, and we brought in Ed Scangrett and Mary and others, Phil Brown, all because of your name. It had an influence on this company. Believe me ABC then looked at us as a prime example of what you could do in broadcasting if you set your mind to it. If you want to hire black people, don\'t say you can\'t find any. That\'s baloney. ABC used us in management as an example. The first sales meeting I went to with them,'