Walt Reno - Cowboy Whitey and the Circle 5 Ranch, WOC TV 5 Davenport, Iowa - Quad Cities
 

  Walt Reno was a legend in the WOC viewing area during the early 1950's. In addition to being a WOC Television personality, he played the wildly popular Cowboy Whitey on the Circle 5 Ranch. There most likely was not a single child in the bi-state area who did not know his name.

Walt Reno was a local guy who made it big.

Long before the last generation of local children's programming came along at WOC in the form of Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat, a predecessor to this program was on the air. WOC director Don McGonegle explains it best.

WOC had a long history of kids host from the time it went on the air in 1949. When I began working there, there was Comic-Cut-Ups with Ken Wagner and one of his daughters. His oldest daughter played a hand puppet which was a clown and Edith Glidden who was one of the directors of the time was the voice. Ken would do drawings and we had some really cheap bad cartoons and it was a 15 minute program. We were then channel 5 rather than channel 6 and the big kids host at that time was Walt Reno as Cowboy Whitey on the Circle 5 ranch.

               

We had a bunk-house set, straw bails and wooden benches and we did have a limited space that we would bring kids in to the old bunkhouse to be with Cowboy Whitey. They ran western movies which would be cut up as we had live portions in it to do commercials and to do the routine with the kids. Walt Reno was basically standing up in the bunk-house, talking to the kids and talking to the camera and running the segments of the cowboy movies.

Walt Reno's wife's cousin Verl Lekwa remembers Cowboy Whitey on WOC! ... I was in high school when Walt started at WOC and having a celebrity in my family gave me a bragging point with my classmates. We saw Walt often and he was a handsome, joyful fellow, traits that were with him to the end. He had one of the great smiles I've ever seen. Our family got a set a year or so after WOC went on the air and our living room floor was packed with kids on nights when certain shows (probably westerns) were on the air. One channel, black-and-white, grainy but what a miracle! We watched Walt a lot, of course, and enjoyed his shows. Then, as I grew older and left the area, he was in Des Moines and we saw him less often.

08/19/2007 ... Ford Roberts not only remembers Walt Reno, he went to school and worked with him!

Walt Reno and I first met in the 30's when we attended Hubbell Elementary School. Upon Walt's University of Iowa graduation he joined the staff of KWDM, Des Moines, where I had been for a year or so. I was responsible for 'breaking him in" although he didn't need much of my help. Walt left for a Lima, Ohio, station a couple years later. I joined the WMT staff in 1952. This was in the time before WMT TV, and our TV viewing was a combination of WOC & WHBF, in the Quad Cities. One day tuning to WOC, I happened on a cowboy show and the host, Whitey' was WALT RENO!... never looked at Walt as a cowboy but I guess he did OK. Next thing I knew he was staff member of KRNT & KRNT-TV, Des Moines. We worked in a number of Ad Club ventures over the years until he left for Las Vegas. (WMT's very own Ford Roberts pictured here on the left)

I interviewed Walt in the 90's while doing a radio show on KRNT. What a shock with the news that Walt died on a operating table during what was described as a non life-threatening' surgical process.

Kind regards,
Ford Roberts*
*Real name is William Hufford

Walt accepted a job offer at station KRNT in Des Moines and was well on his way to national stardom but it was his time at WOC that Jamie Reno, Walt's son, said he had the most fond memories. WOC was the place where Mr. Reno pointed to that he had his first big break.

Cowboy Whitey with Kedso the Clown promoting Keds tennis shoes on the Circle 5 Ranch.

From TV Guide, Week of May 8 - 14, 1953:

To children who like plenty of action in their two-gun rootin' tootin' western films, WOC-TV's "Circle 5 Ranch" graciously obliges. Movie revivals of life on the untamed western plains, replete with spurs, horses, outlaws and of course cowboys, take up a greater part of the program.

The rest of the time Cowboy Whitey chats with Quad-City youngsters - both in their living rooms via the TV screen, and in the Davenport TV studio. Whitey, in the person of Walt Reno, isn't the two-gun rootin' tootin' type of cow herder though.

Seemingly less interested in rounding up cattle and more interested in establishing amiable relations with his young viewers, Walt informally talks the language of all good cowboys. Attired in a cowboy outfit, he can usually be seen every afternoon perched atop a wooden corral right outside his "ranch".

Sometimes he is surrounded by a group of young western hero worshipers who are interviewed during the 40 minute program. Many of them, each week, win one or more of the various prizes given away on the show. Whitey also awards each week a "tall tale" certificate to any young viewer who can score as the undisputed fabricator of tall tales.

Occasionally the unusual occurs on the "Circle 5 Ranch". Way out of traditional cowboy bounds, a mathmatical canine named Pal recently appeared on the show. The dog wizard barked his way into the studio and wagging his tale, barked his way through multiplication, division, addition and subtraction problems to the edification of human audiences at home and at the station.

Walt's success on "Circle 5 Ranch" and with the admiring pint-sized cowboys and cowgirls apparently stems from his brief previous experience with children's shows on an Iowa City radio station.

Graduate of Iowa U.

The slim, blond and handsome entertainer, who originally took a medical course to become a doctor, has done radio stints as announcer and emcee on Iowa and Illinois radio stations. He came to the Davenport station last December from a radio job in Lima, Ohio. Born in Des Moines, Walt spent a year and a half during the last global war with the U.S. Navy in Guam, where he served as a land-based laboratory technician.

A graduate of the University of Iowa, majoring in speech, the 26-year old performer also attests to outstanding athletic feats, particularly in the water. While in college he placed as one of the Big Ten in the 200-yard breast stroke competition; he took third place in the State of Iowa for the 100-yard breast stroke; and was one of the 15 best swimmers sent to Florida in 1948 by the university to demonstrate the sport at a "swimming clinic" in the southern state.

Walt learned the fundamentals of what every performer should know in little theater work and various emceeing jobs in Iowa and Illinois. An entertainer at heart, he hopes eventually to develop a TV show of his own - along the lines of Garry Moore's - where he can bring his talents to the fore and share them with Quad-City viewers.




Jamie Reno is a nationally renoun writer for Newsweek magazine. You most likely have read his articles. He is an acclaimed songwriter who works with some of the biggest names in the business. He is also quite simply one of the nicest guys you could ever speak with.

Jamie is a cancer survivor who's songwriting came about as a part of the struggle to beat cancer. His music is from his heart dealing with his struggles as well as his efforts to find a cure for others. You can find Jamie's website at http://www.jamiereno.com/story.htm

Jamie was kind enough to share the priceless photos which you see on this page and are found at http://www.desmoinesbroadcasting.com. Jamie also shares this beautiful eulogy which he wrote for his father. This writing can also be found at the same website along with more about Walt Reno.

WALT RENO

a life lived to the fullest...by Jamie Reno, son of Walt Reno

Walt Reno, devoted family man and broadcasting legend, lived every day of his remarkable life to the fullest. Both larger than life, and salt of the earth, Walt was a modern-day renaissance man who excelled in most everything he tried.

From his first days as a broadcaster on the college radio station at the University of Iowa in the late 1940s and into the new millennium, Walt did it all in the radio and television industry. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Walt was a huge broadcasting force in the Midwest. He worked for several years at WOC in Davenport, Iowa, where he became well known as "Cowboy Whitey," the popular kids' show host.

Walt went on to become the top-rated morning radio disc jockey in Iowa, working as the morning man for KRNT radio in his hometown of Des Moines, then KSO radio, also in Des Moines. During those years, Walt also hosted numerous popular television shows on Des Moines' CBS affiliate, Channel 8, including ³O, Gee,² "Family Fun Time" and the daily ³Telefunnies,² in which Walt would tell funny stories in all kinds of different voices.

Walt was also the most recognizable commercial pitch man on radio and television in Iowa for many years, selling everything from milk to cars, hosted variety shows throughout Iowa, and was a fixture at the Iowa State Fair every summer, mastering various shows and concerts for kids and other fairgoers.

Walt also traveled all across the country in the 1960s interviewing movie stars, including Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty and many more.

Moving to Las Vegas in 1972, Waltıs career continued to flourish. He joined the staff of KORK radio, where he worked the afternoon drive, and subsequently became the weatherman for the NBC news affiliate in Las Vegas. Again, he did lots and lots of radio and television commercials, and was one of the most recognizable broadcasters in Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s.

When he made the move from KORK radio to KVEG radio, his ratings soared and he became the number one morning radio man in Las Vegas.

Walt did it all during his years in Las Vegas, hosting Easter Seal telethons, hosting the hugely popular ³I Love You Las Vegas² parties, writing a golf column for Las Vegas Magazine and various other publications, and doing thousands and thousands of commercials. Itıs doubtful if Walt ever paid for a meal, a movie or a round of golf while living in Vegas the past 30 years.

More recently, Walt hosted Las Vegas entertainment show for KLAV radio in which he interviewed all kinds of stars, from Jack Jones to Gordon Lightfoot. A friend to celebrities such as Jerry Lewis and Marty Allen, Walt loved show business, and enjoyed meeting the stars.

Walt also was the Voice of Las Vegas for the nationally syndicated Travel Talk Radio show hosted by Sandy Dhuyvetter and co-hosted periodically by Waltıs son, Jamie Reno.

On the national front, Walt was the announcer for several years on the legendary Mike Douglas Show, and did numerous voices for the animated satirical USA Network comedy show ³Duckman,² which was written and executive produced by his son, Jeff Reno. In the late 80s, Walt was also the Las Vegas editor for The NFLıS Official Guide to the Super Bowl, whose editor was Waltıs son, Jamie.

But Walt was as great a success as a person as he was a performer. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, he attended Roosevelt High School, and the University of Iowa.

A great athlete and fitness fanatic, Walt lettered in swimming at Roosevelt and at the University of Iowa. He swam the butterfly stroke. At the University of Iowa, where he got his degree in Speech, Walt was a member of the Alpha Tao Omega fraternity.

Walt was a World War II veteran, a Navy man who was stationed on Guam during the war.

Walt was also a tremendous golfer, a three handicap at one time, and won numerous golf tournaments in Iowa and Las Vegas. And he wrote about the game he loved for years, for Las Vegas Magazine and many other publications.

Walt met and interviewed virtually every major golfing great, from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to Jack Nicklaus. Walt, the number one booster of Las Vegas golf, helped transform Vegas from a city with only a handful of golf courses in the early 70s to an international golfing Mecca.

Walt was also a music buff who loved spinning records for the last 50 years. He loved Mel Torme and Bobby Darin, and worshipped Frank Sinatra, but his musical idol was big-band leader Stan Kenton, whom he interviewed several times. Walt also stayed up with the times, and loved rock bands such as Chicago, Pink Floyd and Yes.

Walt played some trumpet as a kid, too, and kept that trumpet through the years, but he laughingly admitted he only knew how to play one song well: ³The Girl From Ipanema.²

Walt was a natural entertainer who had an amazing sense of humor, and could make anyone laugh. A man of a thousand voices and faces, he was a brilliant public speaker and remarkably adept at improvisation. He had no equal in the joke-telling department. A huge fan of movies, his favorite actor was Burt Lancaster.

And Walt especially loved comedy. Among his favorite comics and comic actors were Jonathan Winters, Danny Kaye, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, W.C. Fields, Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, and his favorite new comic, Larry the Cable Guy.

Walt and his wife, Donna, were divorced in the 1970s but remained very close friends through the years. In Las Vegas, he lived with his longtime love, Diane.

Walt Reno got the most out of every single day. An immaculate dresser with a flamboyant personality and a deep, masculine voice, Walt was, above all else, a family man. He spent every free moment with his three children, Jeff, Michele and Jamie, all three of whom are devastated by this loss, but determined to keep Waltıs loving memory and his remarkable legacy alive forever.

Special thanks again to desmoinesbroadcasting.com and to Jamie Reno for use of the pictures and eulogy on this website.

If you have any memorabilia, pictures or stories of Walt Reno from his time at WOC, please email me!

10/23/2007 ... I have a wood plaque with a "Whitey Say`s Hang them here". Do you have any info on this piece? ..Circle 6 Ranch WOC-TV

Bj Kelso

10/24/2007 ... I think they either sold them or gave as prize. I have one exactly like it!

Russ Wingo WOC alumni

Special thanks to Doug Smith for the image of the Circle 6 badge.

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