Kirk_Weilepp - Captn's Lounge Studios

Kirk Sanborn Weilepp was born on April 16th, 1948, at Ransom Memorial Hospital in Ottawa, Kansas, to Charles Edward and Patricia Louise Weilepp.  They moved to Topeka, Kansas, later that year.  Kirk attended Randolph Grade School from 1953 through 1959.  In the fall of 1960, he began attending St. John's Military School in Salina, Kansas and graduated in 1966.  While at St. John's, Kirk became a founding member of the St. John's Drum and Bugle Corps, playing the snare drum.  In the spring of 1966, he and the Corps participated in two "Crews" at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Upon graduation, he attended Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.  While there, he became involved with the Air Force ROTC program, seeking a flying position.  However, by the fall of 1968, he welcomed the opportunity to join the production crew with WIBW-TV in Topeka.  He started as a camera operator for the 6:00 and 10:00 pm news programs and, after a few years, moved on up to being the daytime production director.  He directed live newscasts for several years and did commercial production work for the station and local advertising agencies.  

In the 1970s, Kirk ran a podium camera for another “Landon Lecture Series” speech by President Richard Nixon. Because of the setup inside Ahearn Field House, Kirk was only about 20 feet away from Nixon. He now met one of his heroes during post-speech work with Dan Rather in the CBS control room. When President Gerald Ford went to Topeka (his daughter, Susan, was a photographer intern at the Topeka Capitol/Journal), he addressed the Kansas legislature. Kirk ran the camera just above the podium. (Nigel's note. When you run a camera at a presidential presentation, you know you are at the top of the game!)

In 1980, he moved up into station management, taking over the operation of the television production department.  While at WIBW-TV, Kirk was on the remote broadcasting crews for Big 8 Basketball on TVS and then NBC.  Beginning in 1972, the TV station created the All-American Network and began to televise quarter-horse races from Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, New Mexico.  They broadcast live three horse races a season, the Kansas Futurity, the Rainbow Futurity and The 'All American Futurity', billed as 'The World's Richest Horse Race' with a purse of One Million Dollars.  The production of these nationwide live telecasts lasted through the 1982 season.  

1984 approx. TWA new 747 SP story.  >>  (As told to Nigel) This was an interesting story as Kirk was invited and filmed on a test flight for a 747. There were only two seats on the plane, and neither was for him. So, take off and landing, he had to stand and hold on tight.  When the pilots put the plane through its tests, he was (shall we say) a little sick! <<

Kirk continued as Production Manager at WIBW-TV till the Spring of 1985. More information on WIBW 13.

In June of 1985, Kirk ended his work at the TV station and moved to Longmont, Colorado, to start his own business, The Production House.  After getting established for a few years, he gained access to the IBM facility in Boulder, Colorado, as a contractor, working regularly with the IBM Printing Systems Division.  He created many video projects in the form of training videos for the various printing products they offered.  Along the way, he attended several large sales and trade show events each year from New York to Los Angeles and many large cities in between.  

During his time in Longmont, Kirk joined the local origination channel, Channel 3, televising mostly local high school sports events, including the Channel 3 IBM Game of the Week.  This included local high school football, basketball, soccer and volleyball.  He also became a Longmont Cable Trust Board member for 29 years and acted as their chairman for over 20 years.  During his life in Longmont, he would travel back to Topeka several times a year to visit his parents.  His mother, Pat, passed away in February of 2001.  Kirk's dad, Ed, moved into a retirement community in Topeka later that year.  His dad's health worsened in the spring of 2011, and after retirement, Kirk spent several months back in Topeka with his dad till his death in July 2011.

After returning home to Longmont, Kirk began the search for a new house.  In the spring of 2014, he found a new batch of houses being built on the east side of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. After completion, he moved in and began enjoying sitting on his back porch and watching the trains go by. When his good friend T.G. Lewis was visiting to see the new property, Kirk was showing TG the basement and said, "And I have no idea what I'm going to do with this" TG pondered for a few seconds and said, "Why don't we turn this into a TV studio.". The rest, as they say, is history.

(Nigel Aves) During this period of building the studio, I was doing a radio show in Fort Collins at KRFC 88.9 every Saturday evening; I did this for five years. At the time, and unknown to me, Kirk, T.G. Lewis, and Big John Thone had constructed and equipped a small but productive 4-camera high-definition television studio in the basement. It has full LED lighting, a crew wireless intercom system, and a host/guest wireless sound system. After giving up the radio show, literally 2 or 3 days later, I had a phone call from my friend T.G. Lewis, "NIGEL! Guess what, we have a TV studio!". I went to the studio, looked around, and, I think, I said, "F%*k me, sign me up!" the two fools did!

It became known as The Captn's Lounge (Kirk + Startrek = Captain) and has produced various web-based video interviews ever since. One thing Kirk was always insistent on is that the Studio and Shows MUST continue no matter what happens with him. And the entire crew all agreed, and we will, but with a tear in our eye.

"Kirk was never happier than when he was sitting on his porch watching the trains (and the hawks) or when he was in the studio directing at his beloved video switcher. Kirk was the definition of the word professional."

(Nigel Aves) I was chatting one day to Kirk and we were talking astronomy. For some reason the name "Phil Plait" came up. Phil has been on broadcast TV a fair amount and in many different shows, talking about all the wonders of the Universe, he has also worked on Sci-Fi feature films. (This is not a complete list by far: Phil Plait is known for Arrival, Bill Nye Saves the World, Salvation, How the Universe Works, Nova and Bad Universe.) Phil happened to be Kirks favorite asstronomer, as Kirk told me, he explains things in easy to understand language, and most importantly keeps it light with a touch of humour.