90.5 FM in Wichita Falls, Texas is known as a K-Love affiliate since about 2005. Prior to that it was a Christian format targeting children courtesy of the owner, Cornerstone University. It seems 90.5 FM had a history as early as about 1989 under the call letters of KCRN. Criswell Bible Institute owned KCRN, so I’m guessing it was an affiliate of KCBI in Dallas.
It was about September 1991 that the call letters KTEO showed up on the frequency (years after KTEO AM & FM in San Angelo that are unrelated stations).
I have had to trace the history of the station to create a timeline. From what I can gather, 90.5 FM was first owned by Criswell Bible Institute when it signed on in 1989 before selling to Red River Educational Media Foundation that changed the call letters to KTEO around September 1991.
It is likely that KTEO began at this time as a classical music station for a population of about 180,000, originating in Wichita Falls, Texas. Although the station would not be sold until around July 2000, I do not think the format remained Classical that whole time. About July 2000 the station transferred to Cornerstone University, originator of the Christian Children’s format. I suspect the format was in place prior to the sale.
When I discovered KTEO was when I got my first computer. This was back in the day when a good 1 gig computer was about $1,600 and the internet was the 28 k. phone connection. KTEO had a website and they published their monthly program guide that was pages of every selection they were to play over the month listed by date and actual start time of each selection.
There was a link on the website to a lengthy newspaper article published in the Wichita Falls newspaper. That article pointed out the continuous classical music, uninterrupted except by a station identification on the hour.
While Wichita Falls, Texas seems an unlikely spot for a classical music station, the city of about 125,000 does have a symphony orchestra. Wichita Falls seems more of a blue collar sort of city with ranching being strong outside the corporate limits. It simply is not a hub for the arts community.
The other factor is Wichita Falls is actually close enough for WRR FM 101.1 to be heard almost like a local station. WRR FM, owned by the City of Dallas, is a 100kw. FM with decades and decades as a classical music station and focal point for the North Texas arts community. Although a commercial station, WRR is more of a hybrid commercial/community supported station. That squarely put KTEO as ‘second fiddle’ to WRR.
At the time I was trying to learn about classical music, I discovered KTEO. I wanted to ‘crack’ the format. I wanted to learn rotations and the ‘ins and outs’ of the format. Those monthly program guides helped me understand a good deal. I needed such a guide to realize I was hearing a 3 movement symphony versus individual one movement work. I barely knew Baroque from Romantic era at that point.
I found my many notes on KTEO yesterday. Here’s what I gleaned from a couple of calls to the General Manager who was sometimes a bit elusive in answering my questions (ie: “I guess you’re running unannounced classical music with only an ID on the hour, right?” Answer: “You need to drive up here and take a listen.”).
I did drive up and spent a night in a motel. I listened. I would not understand what was going on until later.
When I got within range I heard the WFMT Beethoven Network, the hour-long modules of Peter van de Graaff announced classical music in afternoon drive.
I recorded it. It was Saturday afternoon so a visit to the station was out as the office wasn’t open. I heard a couple of hours of the unannounced classical music with the “90.5 FM, KTEO, Wichita Falls. It’s 8 o’clock.”
I noted in the Program Guide that there was a 30 minute church program from 6:30 to 7pm Saturday evening (I think it was a Baptist Church). But on my listening there was no program. Perhaps after that month’s program guide the church stopped the weekly program.
Sunday mornings from 6am to Noon, per the program guide, was Christian and Sacred Music. This was traditional material such as hymns and classical sacred selections. Since the tracks were of much shorter duration, there was an ID added on the half hour. I listened just over 2 hours.
I had noted that by the time I visited, KTEO had added the Beethoven Network hourly modules to morning and afternoon drive (they offer 8 hours a day of fresh programming so I assume 6 to 10 and 3 to 7). On Saturdays they had begun airing the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera. It seems these were very new features.
I called the GM again and he was impressed I figured out they were airing the Beethoven Network and he opened up a bit more. He explained the Beethoven Network and Met Opera were attempts to expand the number of listeners and thus, financial contributions. KTEO had been simply automated and unannounced classical music in the very recent past.
I asked what the suggested amount was to get on the monthly program guide mailing list. I got no straight answer, just ‘any amount’. He said the guide was over 100 pages (and indeed my print out was over 100 pages for the months I printed). Unsure what might be an adequate amount, I never wrote a check. I cannot say for sure if the printed program guide carried display advertising.
The additional programming (Beethoven Network & Met Opera) were not because KTEO was succeeding. In fact, the GM said they had been getting in about $2,000 a month on average. I would imagine the monthly operating costs excluding payroll was likely more than $2,000 a month. The spending cash to get this syndicated programming was an attempt to expand that revenue base. Let’s call it exactly what it was: a last ditch effort to make the station survive.
So what was KTEO exactly? Here’s my notes of KTEO before the last ditch effort to save it:
The playlist seemed to be about 1,300 selections of known classical music with an emphasis on the performances that were critically acclaimed as among the best. The format was well rounded. Roughly half seemed to repeat about every 6 or 7 days while the remainder repeated about every three weeks. Amid the playlist were selections I termed as ‘light’. For example, Mantovani recorded some light classical and every 4 or 5 hours you heard such a selection. In fact one of those was the Overture to South Pacific from the original soundtrack on RCA. I think the complete library was about 287 hours of music.
On the hour was the simple 90.5 FM, KTEO, Wichita Falls, it’s (hour) o’clock. This was the only spoken word heard during classical hours. I actually emailed who I think was the wife of the General Manager who said she could not recall if KTEO did a listener support plea hourly or every other hour. Given I listened to several hours, I believe the listener support plea was every other hour. I transcribed it as a working example, 106 words, per my notes (call it about 45 seconds).
Sunday morning a station ID was added on the half hour. Given the short length of the selections played, that made sense. In classical hours there were typically under 5 selections (start the hour with a complete symphony or longer work and fill to the top of the hour). In many hours you got a couple of longer works with a shorter piece separating them (ie: Claire de Lune by Debussy).
Having never seen the printed program guide, I doubt they sold advertising in the guide. I say this because at $2,000 a month as average revenue, I’m guessing they might have had only about 400 contributors, likely far fewer as some true fans might give $100 or more a year versus about $60. At that quantity, given it was over 100 pages, I bet the printing and postage was more than $5 a copy.
I never heard underwriting on the station. The only knowledge I had of business support was the website saying sponsorship of the Metropolitan Opera was available. I’m guessing that Baptist Church might have contributed dollars for their half hour timeslot but given Criswell Bible Institute owned the station before Red River Educational Media, I wonder if the 30 minute weekly program was a part of the price of the station and for that matter even the 6 hour block of hymns and sacred music Sunday mornings. Some non-comm deals work like that: so much cash and so much underwriting or programming in lieu of cash. I fact, I saw one deal that was 2,400 Underwriting spots over 5 years as the full price of the station.
One might question if an automated classical format unannounced could work. I have learned announcers are important to classical music fans but how important is the announcer when you are playing just the well respected musicians playing the popular classical works? Sure classical music lovers enjoy music discovery and increasing their knowledge of composers but they like the popular stuff too.
To determine the success potential, I look to a station across the border, XHLNC FM. Through much of it’s lifespan, Excellency FM was an automated and unannounced classical format. All you heard was a short ID between each work. They sold underwriting at about $50 a spot and I understand they had listener support. The owner, upon his death, had decreed the station be classical music and non-commercial.
Given XHLNC began with “The Biggest 400 Hits of the past 400 years”, it expanded beyond that. Eventually selections would be announced in English and Spanish with a very ample playlist. Such expansion seems to indicate success and their media kit noted listener increases that were doubling each year. They had a very listenable format of classical music. It was done well before being sold and the format dropped. Did it make money? I’d say being set up as it was, it was carrying its financial weight without assistance, including salaries. Given XHLNC didn’t go away until recently, indicates such a station can be viable in the right place.
As my education on the classical format progressed, I learned news, weather and traffic reports are not essential. The classical music fan sees their classical music station as an oasis on the radio dial where the outside world does not invade. To include news, weather and traffic, it is perceived by some as opening the door to let some of the outside world encroach on their oasis. Announcements concerning the local arts community are seen as a positive. As to my knowledge, KTEO did not local arts community announcements. I doubt there would be a whole bunch going on but certainly a few to announce. I don’t recall XHLNC doing any either.
If KTEO sold Underwriting, could they have made it? If KTEO sold ads in the Program Guide, might they have been in better shape financially? One can only speculate. I note the classical station serving Wichita Falls now is a 4 station group serving double to triple the population as KTEO did but with low priced underwriting at about $7 a spot. Note this 4 station chain runs the usual NPR fare in drive times.
We have to realize public radio has a longer ramp-up time than commercial radio. It is said don’t even attempt a pledge drive the first two years. In other words you dig in those pockets a bit deeper as you learn, adjust and solidify your format to get those listener and underwriting dollars in future years.
KTEO lasted a couple of years by my notes. From the data I saw (purely applications filed with the FCC), it would appear KTEO was around from the later part of 1991 until mid-2000. I am guessing I discovered KTEO about 1995 and they were out of the format by 1997 at my best guess. At best, the format may have been 5 or 6 years old. I made no notation where the ‘2 years’ came from. I based the 5 or 6 years on my tracking the station’s sale and my estimated year when I noted the format had become the Children’s Christian format. I think that might have been about 3 years before the originator or that format bought the station.
I suppose in today’s world, the station would have picked up Classical 24 and let that run. Personally I don’t care for Classical 24 or even The Beethoven Network because you don’t get to hear many complete works. The formula for success means a good variety of works in an hour module. For these services to work, it has to be by consensus among a vast array of classical listeners who listen to classical in different ways. Generally that means playing more movements versus complete works. For me, I think that is taking a work ‘out of context’ and I feel if I heard the entire work, I’d have more perspective on that one movement the syndicated format picked to play.
It was about September 1991 that the call letters KTEO showed up on the frequency (years after KTEO AM & FM in San Angelo that are unrelated stations).
I have had to trace the history of the station to create a timeline. From what I can gather, 90.5 FM was first owned by Criswell Bible Institute when it signed on in 1989 before selling to Red River Educational Media Foundation that changed the call letters to KTEO around September 1991.
It is likely that KTEO began at this time as a classical music station for a population of about 180,000, originating in Wichita Falls, Texas. Although the station would not be sold until around July 2000, I do not think the format remained Classical that whole time. About July 2000 the station transferred to Cornerstone University, originator of the Christian Children’s format. I suspect the format was in place prior to the sale.
When I discovered KTEO was when I got my first computer. This was back in the day when a good 1 gig computer was about $1,600 and the internet was the 28 k. phone connection. KTEO had a website and they published their monthly program guide that was pages of every selection they were to play over the month listed by date and actual start time of each selection.
There was a link on the website to a lengthy newspaper article published in the Wichita Falls newspaper. That article pointed out the continuous classical music, uninterrupted except by a station identification on the hour.
While Wichita Falls, Texas seems an unlikely spot for a classical music station, the city of about 125,000 does have a symphony orchestra. Wichita Falls seems more of a blue collar sort of city with ranching being strong outside the corporate limits. It simply is not a hub for the arts community.
The other factor is Wichita Falls is actually close enough for WRR FM 101.1 to be heard almost like a local station. WRR FM, owned by the City of Dallas, is a 100kw. FM with decades and decades as a classical music station and focal point for the North Texas arts community. Although a commercial station, WRR is more of a hybrid commercial/community supported station. That squarely put KTEO as ‘second fiddle’ to WRR.
At the time I was trying to learn about classical music, I discovered KTEO. I wanted to ‘crack’ the format. I wanted to learn rotations and the ‘ins and outs’ of the format. Those monthly program guides helped me understand a good deal. I needed such a guide to realize I was hearing a 3 movement symphony versus individual one movement work. I barely knew Baroque from Romantic era at that point.
I found my many notes on KTEO yesterday. Here’s what I gleaned from a couple of calls to the General Manager who was sometimes a bit elusive in answering my questions (ie: “I guess you’re running unannounced classical music with only an ID on the hour, right?” Answer: “You need to drive up here and take a listen.”).
I did drive up and spent a night in a motel. I listened. I would not understand what was going on until later.
When I got within range I heard the WFMT Beethoven Network, the hour-long modules of Peter van de Graaff announced classical music in afternoon drive.
I recorded it. It was Saturday afternoon so a visit to the station was out as the office wasn’t open. I heard a couple of hours of the unannounced classical music with the “90.5 FM, KTEO, Wichita Falls. It’s 8 o’clock.”
I noted in the Program Guide that there was a 30 minute church program from 6:30 to 7pm Saturday evening (I think it was a Baptist Church). But on my listening there was no program. Perhaps after that month’s program guide the church stopped the weekly program.
Sunday mornings from 6am to Noon, per the program guide, was Christian and Sacred Music. This was traditional material such as hymns and classical sacred selections. Since the tracks were of much shorter duration, there was an ID added on the half hour. I listened just over 2 hours.
I had noted that by the time I visited, KTEO had added the Beethoven Network hourly modules to morning and afternoon drive (they offer 8 hours a day of fresh programming so I assume 6 to 10 and 3 to 7). On Saturdays they had begun airing the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera. It seems these were very new features.
I called the GM again and he was impressed I figured out they were airing the Beethoven Network and he opened up a bit more. He explained the Beethoven Network and Met Opera were attempts to expand the number of listeners and thus, financial contributions. KTEO had been simply automated and unannounced classical music in the very recent past.
I asked what the suggested amount was to get on the monthly program guide mailing list. I got no straight answer, just ‘any amount’. He said the guide was over 100 pages (and indeed my print out was over 100 pages for the months I printed). Unsure what might be an adequate amount, I never wrote a check. I cannot say for sure if the printed program guide carried display advertising.
The additional programming (Beethoven Network & Met Opera) were not because KTEO was succeeding. In fact, the GM said they had been getting in about $2,000 a month on average. I would imagine the monthly operating costs excluding payroll was likely more than $2,000 a month. The spending cash to get this syndicated programming was an attempt to expand that revenue base. Let’s call it exactly what it was: a last ditch effort to make the station survive.
So what was KTEO exactly? Here’s my notes of KTEO before the last ditch effort to save it:
The playlist seemed to be about 1,300 selections of known classical music with an emphasis on the performances that were critically acclaimed as among the best. The format was well rounded. Roughly half seemed to repeat about every 6 or 7 days while the remainder repeated about every three weeks. Amid the playlist were selections I termed as ‘light’. For example, Mantovani recorded some light classical and every 4 or 5 hours you heard such a selection. In fact one of those was the Overture to South Pacific from the original soundtrack on RCA. I think the complete library was about 287 hours of music.
On the hour was the simple 90.5 FM, KTEO, Wichita Falls, it’s (hour) o’clock. This was the only spoken word heard during classical hours. I actually emailed who I think was the wife of the General Manager who said she could not recall if KTEO did a listener support plea hourly or every other hour. Given I listened to several hours, I believe the listener support plea was every other hour. I transcribed it as a working example, 106 words, per my notes (call it about 45 seconds).
Sunday morning a station ID was added on the half hour. Given the short length of the selections played, that made sense. In classical hours there were typically under 5 selections (start the hour with a complete symphony or longer work and fill to the top of the hour). In many hours you got a couple of longer works with a shorter piece separating them (ie: Claire de Lune by Debussy).
Having never seen the printed program guide, I doubt they sold advertising in the guide. I say this because at $2,000 a month as average revenue, I’m guessing they might have had only about 400 contributors, likely far fewer as some true fans might give $100 or more a year versus about $60. At that quantity, given it was over 100 pages, I bet the printing and postage was more than $5 a copy.
I never heard underwriting on the station. The only knowledge I had of business support was the website saying sponsorship of the Metropolitan Opera was available. I’m guessing that Baptist Church might have contributed dollars for their half hour timeslot but given Criswell Bible Institute owned the station before Red River Educational Media, I wonder if the 30 minute weekly program was a part of the price of the station and for that matter even the 6 hour block of hymns and sacred music Sunday mornings. Some non-comm deals work like that: so much cash and so much underwriting or programming in lieu of cash. I fact, I saw one deal that was 2,400 Underwriting spots over 5 years as the full price of the station.
One might question if an automated classical format unannounced could work. I have learned announcers are important to classical music fans but how important is the announcer when you are playing just the well respected musicians playing the popular classical works? Sure classical music lovers enjoy music discovery and increasing their knowledge of composers but they like the popular stuff too.
To determine the success potential, I look to a station across the border, XHLNC FM. Through much of it’s lifespan, Excellency FM was an automated and unannounced classical format. All you heard was a short ID between each work. They sold underwriting at about $50 a spot and I understand they had listener support. The owner, upon his death, had decreed the station be classical music and non-commercial.
Given XHLNC began with “The Biggest 400 Hits of the past 400 years”, it expanded beyond that. Eventually selections would be announced in English and Spanish with a very ample playlist. Such expansion seems to indicate success and their media kit noted listener increases that were doubling each year. They had a very listenable format of classical music. It was done well before being sold and the format dropped. Did it make money? I’d say being set up as it was, it was carrying its financial weight without assistance, including salaries. Given XHLNC didn’t go away until recently, indicates such a station can be viable in the right place.
As my education on the classical format progressed, I learned news, weather and traffic reports are not essential. The classical music fan sees their classical music station as an oasis on the radio dial where the outside world does not invade. To include news, weather and traffic, it is perceived by some as opening the door to let some of the outside world encroach on their oasis. Announcements concerning the local arts community are seen as a positive. As to my knowledge, KTEO did not local arts community announcements. I doubt there would be a whole bunch going on but certainly a few to announce. I don’t recall XHLNC doing any either.
If KTEO sold Underwriting, could they have made it? If KTEO sold ads in the Program Guide, might they have been in better shape financially? One can only speculate. I note the classical station serving Wichita Falls now is a 4 station group serving double to triple the population as KTEO did but with low priced underwriting at about $7 a spot. Note this 4 station chain runs the usual NPR fare in drive times.
We have to realize public radio has a longer ramp-up time than commercial radio. It is said don’t even attempt a pledge drive the first two years. In other words you dig in those pockets a bit deeper as you learn, adjust and solidify your format to get those listener and underwriting dollars in future years.
KTEO lasted a couple of years by my notes. From the data I saw (purely applications filed with the FCC), it would appear KTEO was around from the later part of 1991 until mid-2000. I am guessing I discovered KTEO about 1995 and they were out of the format by 1997 at my best guess. At best, the format may have been 5 or 6 years old. I made no notation where the ‘2 years’ came from. I based the 5 or 6 years on my tracking the station’s sale and my estimated year when I noted the format had become the Children’s Christian format. I think that might have been about 3 years before the originator or that format bought the station.
I suppose in today’s world, the station would have picked up Classical 24 and let that run. Personally I don’t care for Classical 24 or even The Beethoven Network because you don’t get to hear many complete works. The formula for success means a good variety of works in an hour module. For these services to work, it has to be by consensus among a vast array of classical listeners who listen to classical in different ways. Generally that means playing more movements versus complete works. For me, I think that is taking a work ‘out of context’ and I feel if I heard the entire work, I’d have more perspective on that one movement the syndicated format picked to play.
