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Some kynd history

B

b-turner

KYND 1520, Cypress, Texas, was started by Matt Provenzano. From the other side of his desk I learned much of the station's history.

Matt was a banker at the time and was involved with several non-profits. These non-profits always wanted him to serve on some financial advisory board which seemed a bit too much like work. He asked one non-profit to allow him to serve on anything but a financial advisory position. They obliged. They handed him a bunch of videos of medical programs for the closed circuit TV feed for, I think, Baylor College of Medicine. One tape baffled him. It was a guy named Dr. Red Duke doing short tidbits of medical information. Not knowing how to utilize these segments, he phoned a guy he knew that sold advertising for a Houston TV station. The offer was a good lunch if he'd watch a few and suggest how they could be utilized. The salesman took the tapes to his General Manager. In a short time, Dr. Red Duke's medical minutes became a part of many local TV newscasts at stations around the country.

For Matt, this was the media bug that bit him. He loved radio. He decided he wanted a radio station in Houston. He started by calling engineers who generally told him he and thousands of others want a station in Houston. He was told they'd do a study but nothing was available. Discouraged, somebody said he should call Mike Vendetti. Mike found 1520 and walked Matt through the steps of having a frequency assigned to a community.

Back then you petitioned the FCC to create a frequency for a certain town and upon proving it can fit, the FCC grants this with a public notice where anybody can file for the frequency. Under Mike's advice, they asked for 500 watts but had already completed the study to raise the power to 3,000 watts once the 500 watt license was granted. Matt said he got 6 other applicants aside from himself. One was a big boy Christian radio group. Their attorneys played hardball with Matt. He said he got mad when they said they had such deep pockets they could block him for years until he was bankrupt and then they'd get the frequency. Matt's pockets weren't shallow but thy weren't so deep he could outlast them. He had to find a crack in their armor.

More in the next post.
 
Matt began looking for a crack in the armor of this big boy Christian Radio group that was fighting him for 1520. His qualifications as a CPA and as a tax specialist, he knew what caused problems with the IRS and others. Investigating this group he discovered that except in their home state, they were not registered with all the states where they operated stations. If you do business in multiple states, you have to register with each state you are doing business. Matt began looking at how they were raising money. Some was 'red flag' material...the sort of stuff that makes the IRS want to investigate. He stated it was enough to put them at risk of losing their non-profit status.

Now Matt had the fuel, his crack in their armor. Matt was smart. You don't take on an enemy with only one card to play. You get more cards to play to secure your position. Matt formed a non-profit organization and began filing on every frequency this Christian Radio big boy was trying to get. After filing on top of them for the 5th time, they got in touch.

Matt lowered the boom through his attorney: In short, you have 24 hours to drop the 1520 frequency or we're contacting every state government where you have not registered to do business in their state and I have a number of questionable practices in your fundraising I'm turning over to the IRS. Third, you are paying me all the cost I incurred to file on top of you. Do nothing and I put my plan in action and will file on top of every application you file from here to eternity.

A gentleman's agreement was had (you don't put that stuff in writing). They dropped the application for 1520 and Matt dropped all his applications with that non-profit organization. By the way, if they saw his name or he saw their name, both agreed to not apply on each other perpetually.

Matt now had to buy land (which he did), have the property cleared, bring in utilities (water well & septic at that time) and build a building. He had blown lots of money just winning the construction permit. Funds were getting a bit slim so Matt bought a portable building. It would serve as a transmitter shack and makeshift studio and office. He had to hire someone to work the station. Jim Glogowski was known to Mike Vendetti who suggested Matt talk to him. Jim took the job and what a job it was. I can't imagine what Jim struggled through that first year.

At 500 watts and a shoestring and paperclip for a budget, Jim worked the station the first year. In the early days, morning programs were taped on a VHS tape what would be rewound and played back for the afternoon as Jim went out to sell.

After a few months with no general manager and the staff rarely seeing Matt, I came to work at the station as Sales Manager in July 1993. Matt didn't want me to start until the station upgraded from 500 watts to 3,000 watts. Matt left banking and was a fulltime CPA/Tax Specialist at this point and took on jobs to fund the station. Jim had managed to bring in about $6,000 a month in billing that was around when I started. We rolled along several years before our format evolved. We made money.

The employees at the station asked me what I did to get Matt out to the station daily. They only saw him on payday prior to my arrival. The truth is I did nothing. I recall in my interview I was asked what my biggest issue was at my last station. I told him the owner who acted as manager would take off for days at a time and we had no way to reach him. I said when a decision was needed, I'd make it and always get in trouble for not being authorized to make the decision per the owner. I told him when the high school baseball team went to state and won, the next game was 5 hours later. The owner couldn't be found. So, I said, let's call all the sponsors to get them to sponsor this next game. I asked a person to find us someone to call the game and ran in to a dead end. I called the opposing team's radio station that graciously let me tie in by phone. We got the game on and made money. The owner gave me a tongue lashing in front of the staff a few days later. I said if a decision needs to be made I hoped he would be accessible or assign someone to make the decision. Maybe he felt he needed to 'learn me' by showing up each day. I think it was the fact he loved the passion of radio people. He said many times he had never seen a business where people loved their job and were so passionate about what they do.

The KYND building was still about 50% original portable building until KYND upgraded to 25,000 watts. You never knew it was 50% stick built and 50% portable building bought off a construction site. Matt and one of the DJs with some guidance of a handyman, built the stick built portion adding about 360 square feet (I think) on each side of the portable building. If you every visited the station, the portable building was the two steps up from either side of the white building with covered porch.

The art of KYND was to make money without calling attention to ourselves nor appearing successful enough for a hungry competitor to try to steal our format.

Why the KYND call letters? Matt loved KYND's beautiful music format and knew the call letters were well known among Houston adults at that time.
 
I should add that Matt, the man that launched KYND 1520, passed away several years ago. KYND went to his children. They still own the station today although I left the station a year ago. Any programming you hear with my voice was recorded in early 2019 on CD that it seems KYND continues to air direct from the CD tray of a desktop computer next to the transmitter at the tower site. It is my understanding I was the last employee KYND had. It is factual that KYND lost it's last 'paying' client a few days in to September days after Hurricane Harvey waterlogged Houston. That client went to another Houston station but was gone from the Houston airwaves by October 1 of that year. My leaving was prompted by the station's inability to pay me for months on end. Simply put, with no money coming in for years, you just can't sustain a station. I could offer my commentary on why that happened but that is a subject best left alone.
 
After a couple years without a paying client, on a historically full-time brokered AM radio facility, wouldn't you think that the Provenzano children might soon realize that the station has outlived its usefulness in its current state? No FM translator, no programming, and no money coming in. All of this from a facility on the high end of the band with a less than stellar signal. Yet, the equipment has to be maintained, tower(s) illuminated and painted, and the electricity to power up everything certainly isn't cheap. Judging solely from past experiences, it would appear KYND makes a likely candidate for license surrender. Then again, maybe the family sits around a luxurious parlour, lighting cigars with $100 bills as well.
 
cotton belt said:
After a couple years without a paying client, on a historically full-time brokered AM radio facility, wouldn't you think that the Provenzano children might soon realize that the station has outlived its usefulness in its current state? No FM translator, no programming, and no money coming in. All of this from a facility on the high end of the band with a less than stellar signal. Yet, the equipment has to be maintained, tower(s) illuminated and painted, and the electricity to power up everything certainly isn't cheap. Judging solely from past experiences, it would appear KYND makes a likely candidate for license surrender. Then again, maybe the family sits around a luxurious parlour, lighting cigars with $100 bills as well.
Click to expand...

KYND towers dont require painting or lighting.. on 1520, 1/4 wave is about 125 feet..... nothing under 200 feet requires painting or lighting
 
When KYND is optimized, it has a nice signal compared to other fully brokered stations in the market.

Personally I feel the owners did not understand the dynamics of the market: more time brokered stations than there was demand. This drove prices down. KYND had many opportunities to lease in the $20,000 to $22,500 a month realm. I pitched that for many serious potential clients but the owners wanted more per month than that. All those that were willing to come on at the $20,000 to $22,500 a month rate went elsewhere paying about $25,000 with the benefit of a translator.

KYND's owners saw a translator as an additional expense that would not create demand and value for the station.

In KYND's situation without an office or studio, any option other than brokered time would have required an investment they didn't want to make.

KYND has been up for sale (I don't know if it is still on the block officially) but the asking price was about 4 times what the offers were.

The owners are not radio people as in not understanding the business. The cash isn't there to run it and with no employees, there's nobody to run it if there was the cash.

In their defense, the offers they got to purchase KYND did not cover the investment made to upgrade the station to 25,000 watts.

Yes the owners have some money and work very hard for it. Like anyone with any money, you don't throw that money out the window on something that is losing money but invest in that with the better chance of returning your investment. If they should surrender the license, I ask why. You have something with some value and it's only smart to try to get some of those dollars back if not all of them. It would be about like having a car that is older and needing, perhaps a new transmission. Would you try to sell the car, perhaps for parts, or just say here, take it for free? I think you'd say you'd try to get some money for it. Obviously, it's the same thinking for the station. I suspect they're just not ready to take a haircut to rid themselves of the station.
 
b-turner said:
When KYND is optimized, it has a nice signal compared to other fully brokered stations in the market.

Personally I feel the owners did not understand the dynamics of the market: more time brokered stations than there was demand. This drove prices down. KYND had many opportunities to lease in the $20,000 to $22,500 a month realm. I pitched that for many serious potential clients but the owners wanted more per month than that. All those that were willing to come on at the $20,000 to $22,500 a month rate went elsewhere paying about $25,000 with the benefit of a translator.

KYND's owners saw a translator as an additional expense that would not create demand and value for the station.

In KYND's situation without an office or studio, any option other than brokered time would have required an investment they didn't want to make.

KYND has been up for sale (I don't know if it is still on the block officially) but the asking price was about 4 times what the offers were.

The owners are not radio people as in not understanding the business. The cash isn't there to run it and with no employees, there's nobody to run it if there was the cash.

In their defense, the offers they got to purchase KYND did not cover the investment made to upgrade the station to 25,000 watts.

Yes the owners have some money and work very hard for it. Like anyone with any money, you don't throw that money out the window on something that is losing money but invest in that with the better chance of returning your investment. If they should surrender the license, I ask why. You have something with some value and it's only smart to try to get some of those dollars back if not all of them. It would be about like having a car that is older and needing, perhaps a new transmission. Would you try to sell the car, perhaps for parts, or just say here, take it for free? I think you'd say you'd try to get some money for it. Obviously, it's the same thinking for the station. I suspect they're just not ready to take a haircut to rid themselves of the station.
Click to expand...

Except where it doesn't. Like any of the AM facilities down in Houston not named KTRH, KYND has its share of coverage holes. Now a barker message airs for available airtime on the station, with audio issues noted by another participant, and giving out a disconnected telephone number to inquire. The whole thought process is baffling to me, Mr. Turner, and it sounds like you saw the writing on the wall long before you were heading out the door.

The owners not having broadcasting experience certainly explains their decision to not apply for a translator during the last window. In my opinion, that was an epic mistake. If nothing else, having at least the construction permit for one would've increased the value of the station as they try to sell it. Surely, it would be a more attractive property than the just the stand alone Class D on the band's high end that it currently is.


Surrendering the license was a poor choice of words on my part, and given what is currently happening with the AM over in neighboring Daingerfield, not something I would wish for the KYND facility. I just can not see how this business model can be sustained for much longer, regardless of how much money the family may have squirreled away. As it appears, money is continuing to hemorrhage. A similar situation had developed up to your north with what had long been a touchy subject, the former KBPC. Now KDVY, the license was transferred and facility donated in whole to Houston Christian Broadcasters. This may be the kind of solution that fits KYND as well.
 
You certainly said what I was thinking. I contend KYND can do something but not at the rates the owners required. I suspect $20,000 might be a bit high now. They never told me the monthly operating expenses but I know the land is not zoned agricultural and the county considered each tower (all 3) as equal in value to cell towers. They had to educate the county! I'm sure it's not cheap. I just don't get why they would never say yes when I had a well qualified, market proven programmer ready to sign at a rate in the middle of what stations could get at the time. I recall when I told them the market could command $20-$22.5k per month and that the monthly rate in Houston had fallen, I was told that thinking is why radio is in the shape it's in.

I'm thinking somebody would want the station. The signal can be much better than it is (and much louder). The owners just need to think breaking even on the initial investment to build out the 25kw facility.

I'm not sure KHCB would want KYND. Maybe Bruce needs to call them if there might be interest.

The truth be told, I was going broke at KYND. They dropped my pay 20% when a new client paid less per month. After a year I said I was losing money and they needed to meet me in the middle. They did and a 10% reduction in pay was okay. After we lost the client I still got paid but after some time, it became 50% pay, then nothing. I still had prospects calling me about leasing the station, so I was hopeful. Anyway, I chose to stick with it because my parents were up in years and with the ability to control KYND via computer with a cell phone for the KYND number my owners were fine with me going to Fort Worth whenever and for as long as I needed. I figured any other radio job was not that flexible so, I'd try to make something happen. Finally after about 8 months of no paycheck except for a nice Christmas bonus of 2 week's full pay, I was blowing through my savings and opted for a new job.
 
Thanks for the time and effort to explain the beginnings of KYND and how hard it can be to operate a brokered daytime-only station. When KYND is on-the-air running your excellent recorded message, the signal often sounds weak, as if they are not running anywhere near full power.
Good luck up north of Dallas. Remind us where you are now.
 
Thanks for the KYND history. I recall hearing KYND for the first time in the late 1980's when it was doing transmitter tests from the original facility just north of 290 and Cypress-Rosehill Road. Broadcasts seemed to be rather sporadic the first few years...sometimes the station was there, sometimes not.

Somewhat surprising that KYND made a go of it on AM, when a couple of other local suburban efforts launched around that time (KTUN 1180 and KTBT 700) quickly fizzled and underwent format and call letter changes.

I'd be curious how old the original owner's children are. If they are older, they may be of a generation that might think AM radio is still a big deal, especially if they are otherwise clueless about the radio industry in general.

Bill is right; we've reached a saturation point with the brokered time model on Houston radio, and there are too many stations chasing too few programmers, or customers that can consistently pay. The current pandemic may very well thin out the remaining programmers who would be potential clients.

Interesting thought about KYND going to KHCB, who could probably use 1520 for their Spanish language service, current heard in the south side of the market on KHCB 1400 and its 101.5 translator. The KYND signal could fill in areas where the 1400 AM signal is poor and the FM signal is nonexistent or blocked by LPFMs.

My thought has been that the best use of KYND would be for an Asian language programmer, as the 1520 signal is quite good in the southwest part of the metro area where the target demographics are concentrated.

Going forward KYND should fix its audio issues. For quite some time the transmitter has sounded as if it is only hitting 60-70% modulation, and the audio is noticeably lower than other AMs.

I said this to the KYND owners on an earlier, similar thread: One way that rich people continue to be rich is by dumping unproductive or money-losing assets. After almost THREE YEARS without a paying client, the "kids" should dump KYND for whatever they can get, if even a pittance, and move on.
 
I agree on the audio issue. KYND always sounded low in volume to others on the dial.

Matt Provenzano told me he commissioned a study for a missing format hole in Houston radio. I have no clue about the methodology used but wonder if it leaned heavily toward a talk based format. The initial result of a body of 5,000 responses revealed the subject of religious information. This was not preaching but more educational in approach. Matt said he felt this was incorrect and the company doubled the study to 10,000 that showed a persistent desire for religious 'information'. In that respect, although done sometime around 1990 or so, I think the broadcast of simply the Bible without commentary or preaching would at least somewhat satisfy the survey results.

Something I always wanted to try but could never convince the owners to try was broadcasting radio friendly versions of the Bible, orchestrated and dramatized, broken down by chapter, as a format. I secured broadcast rights to several versions including Spanish and English languages. The sound is not unlike the old radio shows. The attempt would be not unlike the non-profits asking on TV commercials asking for a small amount monthly. The concept is if you feel it is important that God's Word be broadcast for anyone to hear would you consider supporting this evangelical tool with a monthly gift of say $15 a month or more. Any churches that desired spots could buy them. Given there is not ASCAP, BMI and SESAC fees and a playlist not in need of updating and research, it would be cheap to do. I figure it would be possible with promotion to the right portions of the community (Shepherds Guide for example) and awareness being built (a TV and newspaper story), that the station could generate enough monthly contributions to eclipse the monetary return from time brokering. After all, if the Catholics and other denominational groups can manage to pay decent dollars for otherwise dying AMs and support themselves with some paid staff, why not a format that is the crux of every Christian denominational belief? It would, in my view, be a viable option. I suspect a two to three year 'ramp up' would be needed. I'd think you could amass about 2,000 to 3,000 out of the Houston metro to become regular monthly donors. I feel it would be right to 'give back' a little to the organization that provides the content (although the broadcast of is the very mission of the group: to get the Bible heard).
 
b-turner said:
You certainly said what I was thinking. I contend KYND can do something but not at the rates the owners required. I suspect $20,000 might be a bit high now. They never told me the monthly operating expenses but I know the land is not zoned agricultural and the county considered each tower (all 3) as equal in value to cell towers. They had to educate the county! I'm sure it's not cheap. I just don't get why they would never say yes when I had a well qualified, market proven programmer ready to sign at a rate in the middle of what stations could get at the time. I recall when I told them the market could command $20-$22.5k per month and that the monthly rate in Houston had fallen, I was told that thinking is why radio is in the shape it's in.

I'm thinking somebody would want the station. The signal can be much better than it is (and much louder). The owners just need to think breaking even on the initial investment to build out the 25kw facility.

I'm not sure KHCB would want KYND. Maybe Bruce needs to call them if there might be interest.

The truth be told, I was going broke at KYND. They dropped my pay 20% when a new client paid less per month. After a year I said I was losing money and they needed to meet me in the middle. They did and a 10% reduction in pay was okay. After we lost the client I still got paid but after some time, it became 50% pay, then nothing. I still had prospects calling me about leasing the station, so I was hopeful. Anyway, I chose to stick with it because my parents were up in years and with the ability to control KYND via computer with a cell phone for the KYND number my owners were fine with me going to Fort Worth whenever and for as long as I needed. I figured any other radio job was not that flexible so, I'd try to make something happen. Finally after about 8 months of no paycheck except for a nice Christmas bonus of 2 week's full pay, I was blowing through my savings and opted for a new job.
Click to expand...

I heard KYND here in Victoria yesterday. And yes, Bill, I am impressed.

If 20k per month wasn’t good enough, what were the owners looking for?
 
The owners told me they wanted $30,000 but would start someone at $25,000 a month as long as it went up to $30,000 at some point. I took them a good 25 or so well qualified potential clients but they all wanted to start around $20,000 to $22,000, having no problem going to $25,000 after a couple of years. I'd hash out every detail and I'd get a 'go get a little more out of them'. One very well qualified programmer responded with 'I'm looking elsewhere. Your owners are too flaky'. Sadly that programmer would likely still be on KYND is I could have managed to get my owners to accept his best offer.

When the signal and everything is optimized, KYND is a very impressive signal, certainly better than many of the time brokered stations in the market.
 
b-turner said:
The owners told me they wanted $30,000 but would start someone at $25,000 a month as long as it went up to $30,000 at some point. I took them a good 25 or so well qualified potential clients but they all wanted to start around $20,000 to $22,000, having no problem going to $25,000 after a couple of years. I'd hash out every detail and I'd get a 'go get a little more out of them'. One very well qualified programmer responded with 'I'm looking elsewhere. Your owners are too flaky'. Sadly that programmer would likely still be on KYND is I could have managed to get my owners to accept his best offer.

When the signal and everything is optimized, KYND is a very impressive signal, certainly better than many of the time brokered stations in the market.
Click to expand...


KYND continues to operate past sunset at times.
 
You would think they would notice when the bill from the electric company arrives, given the whole zero revenue for 3 years situation...
 
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