Wichita ? A street on the Wichita State University campus has been named Mike Oatman Drive in memory of the well-known Wichita radio personality and broadcast executive who died last year.

The new road sign was unveiled by Oatman’s widow, Peggy, and son, Andy, in a Thursday ceremony. Andy Oatman said that although his father attended college for only one semester, he was dedicated to Wichita State. He had served as chairman of the university board of trustees from 1994 until his death in January 2003.

University officials want to promote the area through which the street runs as the “front door” to the campus.

A new welcome center is under construction there.

“Nobody else can say howdy better than Mike,” said Don Beggs, university president.

Oatman, who was 63 when he died, was a Texas native who worked at radio jobs in that state, Louisiana and Colorado before before coming in 1964 to Wichita as program director and drivetime anchor for KFDI. He soon became station manager, and using his “Ol’ Mike” name on the air, continued the drivetime show for 37 years.

He and Mike Lynch, who brought him to Wichita, became partners in Great Empire Broadcasting Inc., which also owned stations in Springfield, Mo., Tulsa, Okla., and Omaha, Neb.

Oatman continued to do a five-minute daily show after his retirement, and he wrote a weekly column for The Wichita Eagle.