Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1961)

OUR RESPECTS to Ruth Montez Tjaden, president, AWRT Broadcasting isn't strictly a man's world If any woman in broadcasting ever could follow an act, as the old showbusiness saying goes, like Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, it has to be Ruth Montez Tjaden, the new president of the American Women in Radio & Television and director of promotion, publicity and public relations for KWTV (TV) Oklahoma City. In fact, following Montez Tjaden (pronounced Jaden) might even be a tougher assignment. The drawling, statuesque (she's a shade under six feet tall) leader of AWRT has cut quite a caper in a broadcasting career spanning some 20 years. The former actress-newspaperwomanadvertising copywriter-press agent-promoter-Navy Commander has done almost everything in her time except break Babe Ruth's homerun record — mainly because she didn't have time. Like Mrs. Tufty, Montez also has color, a boisterous personality and a strong conviction that this isn't strictly a man's world — particularly in broadcasting. Actually, Montez Tjaden (she hasn't used Ruth since childhood except for a tenure in the Navy when ". . . that bear of a CO. in San Francisco wouldn't believe Montez was my real name.") is dynamic as lady presidents go. With all her versatility and aggressiveness she is as refined as a typical socialite, and has a modern art and sculpture collection to prove it. But the lady is tough. She is big enough and has a voice loud enough to command respect from her male counterparts— and she does. "The James Arness of AWRT" ■ She is appropriately described by a phrase overheard at a broadcaster-legislative reception last May at the National Press Club in Washington: "She'd be great in the James Arness role in Gunsmoke." Whether in jest or not, the tag fits. She grew up on a cattle ranch and is an able rider as well as a good shot, a talent retained from her youth when she hunted rabbits with her brothers. Montez broke into broadcasting in the early 1940s as a continuity writer, assistant producer and part time actress (when the occasion demanded) at KFB1 Wichita, Kan. Eighteen months later, Montez was head of the continuity and traffic department in addition to her chores as a newscaster. Still not satisfied (and she wouldn't be for many years hence, as it came to pass), she switched her allegiance to KOME Tulsa. The opening of the armed services to women accounted for many news stories during 1942, and she got the idea to try for a commission in the Navy. "I was an ensign before I knew what was happening," Montez says. Today she is a full commander in the Naval Reserve. Introduction to her present boss, Edgar T. Bell, executive vice president and general manager of KWTV, came while Montez was on a public relations mission for the Navy. She and Mr. Bell combined their efforts in promoting the war bond drive in Oklahoma City. It was a little more than coincidence that she went to him for a job when her Navy tour ended. Learns Promotion ■ Montez told Mr. Bell she wanted to learn the promotion business, a wish he promptly fulfilled, putting her to work in the promotion department of the Oklahoma Publishing Co. writing trade and direct mail advertising for WKY Oklahoma City and KLZ Denver. When WEEK Peoria, 111., was built in 1947, Montez packed her bags and became the station's first promotion manager. In 1949 she transferred back to familiar soil when KRMG Tulsa began operations. She sailed a radical tack from broadcasting at this point, taking a year's time out to be a press agent. As Montez explains it "It sounded like fun, it was good pay and it offered practical experience in promotion." She became publicity director for the LeBlanc Corp., Lafayette, La., handling advance press for the first Hadacol Goodwill Caravan, a 20th Century Medicine Show. Montez Tjaden A sailor guides her crew A 90-day tour of duty with the Navy during the Korean conflict stretched into a two-year hitch, and it was 1953 before Montez and Edgar Bell renewed their association to promote a tall television tower, which became KWTV. She has been there ever since, running her department efficiently and effectively. And it has not gone unnoticed as Mr. Bell himself will testify: "As promotion manager of KWTV, Miss Tjaden has won many awards and high professional recognition — but we are most proud of the leading part she has played in developing 'KWTV-Big 9' image — one that is second to none in the Southwest." A Whale of a Lander ■ Today, the chief concern of Montez Tjaden is AWRT — its growth, its prosperity and its role in the broadcasting industry. But AWRT is not a new concern for Montez. She has been a member for the past nine years, active nationally the past six as a director, vice president, president-elect and currently the group's chief executive. During her administration AWRT's Educational Foundation (a sort of NAB Harvard seminar for women) has flowered into bloom with a successful venture this past summer at Syracuse U. The 1962 seminar at the U. of Washington in Seattle will be even greater, she says. For years, Montez has believed that there is a relationship between how well informed the individual station executive is and the contribution that his (or her) station will be able to make to the industry. Every station official must be fully up-to-date on the problems and difficulties that face broadcasting, she argues, if individual stations are to be as productive as they potentially can be. The vital importance of this relationship, she maintains, cannot be overstressed. The 48-year-old (she's not squeamish about her age) lady president doesn't confine her leadership strictly to the 1,600-member AWRT. She was a founder vice president of the Broadcast Promotion Assn. (predominantly male) during its first two years in addition to holding memberships in the Oklahoma Public Relations Assn., the Navy League, and Theta Sigma Phi (national honorary journalism group). Her hobbies are art and fishing — and she's fairly proficient with the hook, line and sinker, though she says she'd have to land a whale to out-do her father and three brothers during their fishing trips in the Colorado Rockies every summer. BROADCASTING, November 6, 1961 113