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KBRN 1500 Boerne playing oldies

A

Anonymouse

Guest
KBRN 1500 Boerne is playing 50's and 60's oldies music. When did they flip? It does have some liners, which say things like "Boerne's 1500 KBRN" and "50's and 60's, KBRN". I'm hearing mostly classic stuff, sounds 50's and early 60's leaning.
 
Are we talking early pre-British invasion top 40 hits or are we talking 'Middle of the Road', aka Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc?

The station originally had an oldies format, moving to mostly Big band before being sold and adopting a Nostalgia format. At that time the station had a bad reputation, not due to the new owners but rather something from the past nobody could explain to me. The issue they always had was much of greater Boerne at the time worked in San Antonio, so the number of listeners to this daytime only 250 watter (at the time) was slim. As I recall, $5,000 a month was a good month back in 1993 when I was in Kerrville. I think TV News anchor Alan Hemberger (San Antonio, then Houston at one point) owned the station early on.
 
b-turner said:
Are we talking early pre-British invasion top 40 hits or are we talking 'Middle of the Road', aka Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc?
Click to expand...

I don't know the different songs of back then too much, but I'd say pre british invasion. I can't really name most of what I've heard, but I did hear this song. I only found it because of the lyrics and didn't know it before now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkCWT2neuI
 
Kbrn

Just found this as well, live in Boerne. The station has always had a Spanish Format for a long time something that was not good for here. Hopefully this will last. The owner has a Hispanic background which explains why it been a Spanish format for the most.



Anonymouse said:
KBRN 1500 Boerne is playing 50's and 60's oldies music. When did they flip? It does have some liners, which say things like "Boerne's 1500 KBRN" and "50's and 60's, KBRN". I'm hearing mostly classic stuff, sounds 50's and early 60's leaning.
Click to expand...
 
As I understand things, and we're going back to 1993, the ownership of KBRN was located in the Rio Grande Valley. I met the owner at one point but I cannot recall if he was Hispanic or not. When the station couldn't make it with its own format, Paulino Bernal leased the station for his Spanish language ministry. At some point Paulino had funding issues. After that I am unsure of what might have taken place. KBRN has been around for about 30 years. In the late 1980s it was oldies and in the early 1990s was a Nostalgia format. I knew the manager of the station in the early 1990s and most of the employees of KBRN then as I worked 30 miles up the road at the station that after I left became The Ranch. So, KBRN has had decades with a Spanish language format. I can only speculate if this is temporary or permanent.
 
The station is owned by Jerry Benavides. I just found out that China Grove Media is partnering with Jerry and is going to get KBRN back to being more local with news sports etc in the near future and is going to keep this format. So this sounds great.
 
ajfan said:
The station is owned by Jerry Benavides. I just found out that China Grove Media is partnering with Jerry and is going to get KBRN back to being more local with news sports etc in the near future and is going to keep this format. So this sounds great.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree. That's awesome! :)

It's actually gone through several formats over the past few years, mostly Spanish. I'm excited for the station's future though, and always supportive of locally programmed radio.
 
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I'm the acting manager, I guess you could say, of the China Grove Media end of the KBRN partnership, and can confirm what ajfan told this group. We're out of San Antonio. Our TOC (if you can call it that) is in China Grove, and that's where the stream that's programming the station is coming from at the moment. We plan to restore the KBRN operation to being totally local as fast as we can, once the station has cash flow again.
 
Welcome to the forum Gary. I hope you can reach your goals. KBRN went on the air back in 1982 and it changed ownership numerous times over the years and was never able to establish itself in Boerne, I think because at first the station had a very old transmitter and was always off and on the air and that immediately did not sit well and then over the years always changing ownership and formats.
 
Welcome Gary and congrats. I'd love to see KBRN be a viable local station again.

Since I was in the area, the population in the KBRN coverage has changed and increased. What may not have worked in the past is not a barometer for today.

Keep pushing ahead and keep overhead low as you can as you get there. As one old time broadcaster shared with me, he'd gladly begin as a mere shell of what the station would become because it creates a great story. He said listeners and advertisers recognize the lowly beginnings and as each rung on the ladder creates a more successful station, the more those listeners and advertisers want to grab your coattails and ride them to the top. As he put it, the underdog is a good place because you can run the race at your own pace and fill the stands with those cheering you on.
 
I am over near Babcock and Huebner now, tried to tune in KBRN which would come in better at this location if it wasn't for KCOR 1350.
That station is problematic near this area, sometimes I have heard KCOR's audio coming in on non AM radio devices. Weird...
 
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That's because you're practically right at the KCOR 1350 transmitter site. While I usually don't hear about it happening with 5,000 watt stations, AM signals can be picked up on a variety of different devices. When I lived in Oklahoma, a friend of mine lived in Moore, OK, near the tower array of then-KOMA 1520, and they could hear the station on several of their household appliances. His mother could even hear the station on the fillings in her teeth sometimes!

My father had a friend who lived in east Tulsa just blocks away from the then-KVOO 1170 tower array, and Dad experienced KVOO on his fillings once, too.

I also encountered this in the spring of 2001 when I was in Nashville for a few months. I was on the Nashville/Brentwood line about a mile from the WSM 650 tower, and I heard WSM every time I picked up the phone.
 
Hearing stations on your tooth fillings? Um, okay. LOL that really sounds crazy.
 
KBRN is planning to get an increase in power. Seem like no other station is SA is strickly 50's & 60's Rock n Roll. KONO am is now sports and FM 101.1 is not really the 50's at all anymore.
 
The closest to KBRN's new format is 96.9 KPPC-LP, but that station's just a low power FM. KPPC seems to have more 70's music than 50's, though. Still not bad at all.
I actually saw George from KPPC commenting on KBRN's FB post the other day, wishing them luck. :)
 
'cuz they're gonna need it if KBRN intends to target San Antonio...
 
I think it might just intend to target Boerne?
What they need is nighttime authorization, because right now it's licensed for daytime only. They may broadcast at night now, but I'm told it's because they don't yet have the capability to shut the thing down at night. Once they get back on their feet though, if no nighttime authorization is allowed, I expect they will shut down at night as authorized by the FCC.


AJ, know when Benavides's new San Antonio translator will come on the air on 99.9? It looks like it's licensed, but there's no peep at all on the frequency. http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=FM&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=1683706
 
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