Lee Gordon

Lee Gordon was born in Jefferson City and had deep roots in the capital city. An elementary school in Jefferson City is even named for his uncle, Thorpe Gordon. Lee Gordon was taking drama classes at Jefferson Junior College when KRCG was hiring a part-time announcer for the station. He began work at KRCG in April 1955, only a few weeks after the station had opened in February 1955. Mr. Gordon had only been working at KRCG when the station's full-time announcer quit. KRCG then offered him the job and he took it. It was early in KRCG's history that he was the anchor for the station's 10:00 PM newscast, as well as its announcer for commercials. In 1956 he began his long stint as a weathercaster at the station. Lee Gordon also worked behind the scenes. In the days when KRCG produced a good deal of local programming, Lee Gordon directed many of those live local TV shows. In the days before ABC affiliate KCBJ (now KMIZ) opened in 1971, KRCG and Columbia station KOMU would divide up ABC programming between the two stations. It was Lee Gordon who chose which ABC shows would air on KRCG, everything from The Big Valley to The Johnny Cash Show. He served as KRCG's program manager and eventually its station manager. Aside from his long stint as a weatherman on KRCG, many viewers might remember him best for playing Santa Claus on the station's long running children's show Showtime in the weeks before Christmas. He is also remembered as KRCG's horror host, The Count, on the station's horror movie anthology Tales of Terror in the early to mid Seventies. Tales of Terror included reruns of the classic TV series Thriller and such classic horror movies as Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Mummy (1932). Gordon died on 9 November 2021.