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KTRH trivia

C

ContinuousWave

Ok, we all know KTRH is a power house station...but how many know the real history of it??

So time for a little trivia play

1) what was the original callsign and frequency AND location of KTRH?
(no fair using Google or the FCC if you can avoid it)

2) how many other frequencies has it been on??

Of course we know what the meaning of the callsign is......Wonder what the callsign was before it was KTRH (not it was not the original call)?
 
ContinuousWave said:
Ok, we all know KTRH is a power house station...but how many know the real history of it??

So time for a little trivia play

1) what was the original callsign and frequency AND location of KTRH?
(no fair using Google or the FCC if you can avoid it)

2) how many other frequencies has it been on??

Of course we know what the meaning of the callsign is......Wonder what the callsign was before it was KTRH (not it was not the original call)?
Click to expand...

In the mid 30's it was on 1290, where it had moved in the early 30's from 1120.... NARBA moved it to 1320, from where it jumped post-war as a new facility on 740.

I'm not sure, but there seems to be a relation with the 20's KFLX in Galveston on 1110 in the post-FRC years.

I did not use Google or the FCC... I used www.americanradiohistory.com
 
Without using Google I'd say that 833 kHz was one of their freqs but that was when all MW's were placed onto it.........IIRC the station was established in 1921.......
 
KTRH was licensed as WCM in Austin on 1100 kHz in 1922. It was moved to Houston in 1930 while doing some freq changes as noted above...(I think there was one or two other changes)...it became KTRG for a while...before the owner of the Rice Hotel bought it and moved the studios to the hotel..(thus the change in callsign to KTRH) the 740 frequency was first licensed in April 1943..been trying to make sense of the old cards microfiched at the FCC site....
 
Bonus trivia: What is the oldest active radio station in Houston, celebrating its 90th year of service next year?

Hint: it's not KTRH, but it is a sister.

Another tidbit: Dan Rather once called Buff games for KTRH, in the late 50s. CW correctly stated that the calls stand for K-The Rice Hotel, location of the original studios. Over the years, they have also included "Kome To Rice Hotel", "Keep That Resumé Handy", "Katering To Right Hypocrisy"(as a conservative talker), and K-"Talk Radio Houston".

I have never heard of KTRH residing on 1320. It was at 1120 kilocycles prior to 1942.

Can anyone tell me what full time musical formats KTRH has ever programmed during its over 80 year run in Houston? That's one that I've never been able to get an answer on. It has been a spoken word format since I can remember.
 
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Yes it is, and well done Stan. KPRC, which stands for "Kotton Port Rail Center" the City's longtime slogan, was introduced in 1925 at 920kc by William P. Hobby, President and publisher of The Houston Post, who wanted to have a radio facility to compliment the newspaper. It is the oldest surviving radio station in Houston. I have a b/w picture of the old KPRC TV and Radio facilities complete with the neon calls on the tower and studios directly below. Very state of the art for its time.
 
As far as the original stations licensed to Houston, yep KPRC is it.....KTRH though has a longer over on the air timeline...and who was the original licensee of what is now KTRH?? The University of Texas!

WEV was the first station on the air in Houston Mar. 23, 1922 but it was deleted as a dark station on Jan. 10, 1925.

Port Arthur's original station was WFAH June 1922, but it was deleted from the data base Aug, 1924 (some people wrongly believe 1250 KPAC was the 1st station in PA)

The OLDEST AM in Texas was WRR...now KTCK on 1310....originally licensed on Aug 4, 1921....The callsign is still alive on 101.1 FM which is one of the oldest FMs in Texas (and owned by the city of Dallas...one of the few independent full Class Cs left in DFW)
 
Ah...you're really bringing the useless information out of me now. Another longtime radio facility in Texas is "The Voice of Longview" AM 1370 KFRO.

Signed on in Longview in 1935, one year prior to Kilgore's KOCA (Now KDOK), after it failed in Fort Worth. J.R. Curtis then somehow pulled off the coup of a lifetime. In 1941, when everyone else was moving dial positions, there stayed KFRO at 1370. How Curtis pulled this off, especially with 1370 licensed to a small town like Longview was then, remains a mystery.

Thanks for the history lesson, CW. Count me in as one of those under the impression that KPAC was the first licensed P.A. station. Now, you are right, WRR Dallas was the first in the State that has remained continuously on the air.

Can you name the first outside of a major metropolitan area? Hint: Whether you referred to it by the calls or the town, you said the same thing.
 
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ContinuousWave said:
As far as the original stations licensed to Houston, yep KPRC is it.....KTRH though has a longer over on the air timeline...and who was the original licensee of what is now KTRH?? The University of Texas!
Click to expand...

What is interesting to me is that in the early to mid-20's Galveston had more stations than Houston!
 
DavidEduardo said:


What is interesting to me is that in the early to mid-20's Galveston had more stations than Houston!
Click to expand...

Probably related to the aftermath of the 1900 hurricane and the slow rise of the Port of Houston, which was comparatively protected from storms. I would bet Galveston, in spite of the damage in 1900, was a bigger city than Houston into the 20's. It was certainly the second largest port of entry for immigrants to the United States after Ellis Island.
 
purpledevil said:
Ah...you're really bringing the useless information out of me now. Another longtime radio facility in Texas is "The Voice of Longview" AM 1370 KFRO.

Signed on in Longview in 1935, one year prior to Kilgore's KOCA (Now KDOK), after it failed in Fort Worth. J.R. Curtis then somehow pulled off the coup of a lifetime. In 1941, when everyone else was moving dial positions, there stayed KFRO at 1370. How Curtis pulled this off, especially with 1370 licensed to a small town like Longview was then, remains a mystery.

Thanks for the history lesson, CW. Count me in as one of those under the impression that KPAC was the first licensed P.A. station. Now, you are right, WRR Dallas was the first in the State that has remained continuously on the air.

Can you name the first outside of a major metropolitan area? Hint: Whether you referred to it by the calls or the town, you said the same thing.
Click to expand...

WACO??

Port Arthur's original station was WFAH...which lasted 2 years...Beaumont had WMAM for maybe a year (licensed just after WFAH was licensed)..
KLVI and KPAC were late comers to the game...
 
Yessir, WACO-Waco signed on the air on July 21st, 1922. The license is still very much active, although it has moved both frequency and COL. Now KCLE Burleson at 1460 running ESPN sports. If the memory isn't failing me, the original WACO calls remained on the license well up into the 90s. Then, someone thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, so it skipped town and moved to Burleson. Worse yet, it's stolen Cleburne's call letters! Lol, like anyone cares.

Where can I find more on WFAH, CW? I'd be interested in learning more about it.
I
 
purpledevil said:
Yessir, WACO-Waco signed on the air on July 21st, 1922. The license is still very much active, although it has moved both frequency and COL. Now KCLE Burleson at 1460 running ESPN sports. If the memory isn't failing me, the original WACO calls remained on the license well up into the 90s. Then, someone thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, so it skipped town and moved to Burleson. Worse yet, it's stolen Cleburne's call letters! Lol, like anyone cares.

Where can I find more on WFAH, CW? I'd be interested in learning more about it.
I
Click to expand...

WACO left Waco in 96 for Glen Rose and changed callsign to KKTK and freq to 1120....then call changed to KTFW in 02 (and George Marti was a 20% owner at this point)...in 2005, it changed frequency to 1460, its COL to Burleson, callsign to KHFX and George sold out his share. In 2008, it swapped callsigns with 1140 and became KCLE...WHEW!!

As to WFAH and a lot of the old original AMs that were deleted within a few years of starting in the early days, its is rough to find any data...Even the FCC database is impossible to find info on them..(once they get deleted from the database, thats it...unless you can find something on them from other sources)

I wish the FCC site had more info than it does...trying to get info on past transactions is rough because the CDBS will use the current callsign in listings and thats not right..the callsign in use at the time should be shown...but the FCC really does not care about callsigns..it uses the Facility IDs to keep track (since people change callsigns as fast as they can these days)
 
It's been a while back since reading about this on the net but I recall seeing somewhere that what began as KPAC 1250 was originally a transplant from Brownsville (KWWG?) Or something like this; might be something that the PA News had a small article on but now I can't find the clipping nor any sign of it on the net........I'm thinking that these were well after the 833kHz days as well!
 
Yes you are correct!! KWWG and it was a move from Brownsville...Originally on 1080, moved to 1260 in 1928 and then it moved to PA in 1934; was a 500w daytimer only but operated after sundown for special circumstances as permitted (It broadcast statewide elections one night at 250w; football games also! and FDRs speech from Fort Worth in the late 30s!) It eventually got a directional when it moved to 1220 in December 1939 and then finally 1250 after NARBA in March 1941 with its 5KW day and 1KW night DA-N in 1947...luckily the old cards are on the FCC record...now if only they would show the FM....a lot of people I know are still unclear as to when it popped up...(obviously after the war and the FM band was moved to the current band)

One of the original PA towers used in the 1260/1220 freq still stands...and has a state marker on it now...the second tower, seen only in an old picture, was where a school stands now...For years, there was speculation if there was a flattop used between the towers...evidently the towers were used in the directional array though the remaining one is grounded.
 
I'm also recalling it's original location was in the area of what is now the defunct Woodrow Wilson Middle School, its move to 7700 Gulfway (when co-owned with then KHYS/Clear Channel) was sometime in the late 70's/early 80's, if I have that right.......FM's origins are still a mystery
 
The 7700 Gulfway Drive location for the old 1250-AM KPAC transmitter in Port Arthur goes much further back in time. Growing up there, I remember seeing its two towers and brick Art Deco looking transmitter building as we approached the Rainbow Bridge in the '50s. When I deejay'ed at KPAC in the mid '60s, the transmitter was still staffed by full time engineers and KPAC-FM had recently sign-on.
 
Maybe I am confused some, though I still seem to remember something in the area associated with 1250 adjacent to that middle school, furthermore, while listening to Tee Bruce's final show there (now around 25 years ago) he made mention of working for the station from that area of town as well...........
 
KPAC-FM was first licensed on 101.9 in the 50s....I found some info on it on a web site...not sure when it moved to 98.5..the cards at the FCC site show when the AM moved from Proctor to Gulfway....and that was back in the 50s..I'll have to pull them up again to get the exact dates..it was late and I was tired as I looked over the info...What was weird was the FM going to 98.5 with a Channel 6 TV in the area unless it was on before KFDM signed on....(there was an IF issue with the two in the analog days)..when I DJed at KPAC in the 70s, there was still full time engineers at the transmitter site...one of them was a ham friend of mine..one night he was watching a movie and did not want to leave so he called the studio and asked me if I wanted to run "experimental" after Midnight...sure!!! SO at 12AM, signed off the 1KW night signal....and a min later, he brought it back on the air at 5KW omni...and I played some opposite sides (We were NOT playing the BeeGees 'You should be dancing" but the B side song "Subway"...anyone remember that one? didnt think so ;) At around 1 or 1:30, the movie ended and we signed off....got some signal reports in the next week.....Sam Monroe was wondering WTH??? I told him the engineer wanted to test some things at full power so we ran experimental (no spots)...Sam luckily did not know what music I played NOT MOR! thats for sure...I went with a top40 format...of course KOLE owned it in PA at the time...with KLVI and KAYC fighting for the listeners...but that null in KLVI's pattern hurt it right down the drag on Gulfway
 
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