• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

1370 KFRO History

6

600kogo

Does anyone know the various formats that KFRO had over the 75 years shes been on the air? I know at one time she was a mutual affiliate, then TSN, then ABC, and now as the Ranch a fox affiliate. But what was she during the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. We all know that the 2000's werent too good to her.

Remember to Keep Forever Rolling On
 
I have an aircheck from around 1975 of KFRO-AM I rescued off a reel I found at a thrift store, and it was doing Top 40 at the time, with a really long newscast.

When I moved to Kilgore in 1988, KFRO-FM was running satellite AC in AM Stereo with some urban programming at night and Sunday mornings. Then it flipped to Oldies, sometimes simulcasting with 95.3.. and then sold off to Waller and he let it go to hell with a bunch of formats: standards, Urban AC, Talk, ESPN sports..and then sold to Access One and the simulcast with 104.1.

KFRO-AM used to have a great signal back then, but they've never repaired it. I doubt they can receive it at night at the KYKX studios.
 
When I moved to Longview in 1973, they had what I would describe as an MOR format. They may have played some top 40 music, but none of the "wild" stuff that KLUE was playing. KLUE was the top 40 station that the kids listened to. KEES was the country station, along with KHER/KYKX that was just getting started. The adults would listen to either KFRO or beautiful music station KNUE, but KNUE had a hit and miss signal in Longview in those days. The gospel station was KHYM.

My dad would make fun of the station that I listened to, which was KLUE, because they shut down at night. His station, which was KFRO, was 24/7.

In the early-mid 80's, they ran an urban format, very similar to KZEY.

After Curtis sold the station to Sunburst(?), then Waller, the station went through seems like a dozen formats as billyg has mentioned.

The KFRO tower site is on east hwy 80, about 1/2 mile or so east of Eastman Rd. Their nighttime is directional, and seems that it has always targeted south Longview, as this was the area of the city's original growth. They city really only started growing north in the 70's. Now, the signal drops off very rapidly as you drive north past the loop on 259 or Judson Rd. The nightime signal at the KYKX studios is poor. I live about 3 miles north of the KYKX studios and the signal is in the noise at my house at night. The nightime signal in south Longview is still pretty good. Either Curtis or Sunburst actually put in an app in the late 80's or early 90's to increase KFRO's power to 5kW day. Not sure if they were ever issued a CP to do this, but it was never acted upon and left to expire once Waller took over.
 
Greg Branch said:
Either Curtis or Sunburst actually put in an app in the late 80's or early 90's to increase KFRO's power to 5kW day. Not sure if they were ever issued a CP to do this, but it was never acted upon and left to expire once Waller took over.
Click to expand...

I heard some talk about that and Sunburst sounds right, but I'm not sure when it was being considered. As things turned out, though, it may have been little more than an idea since there seems to be no record of any applications for it. Then again, maybe it was expunged since Waller didn't act on it.
 
jd said:
I heard some talk about that and Sunburst sounds right, but I'm not sure when it was being considered. As things turned out, though, it may have been little more than an idea since there seems to be no record of any applications for it. Then again, maybe it was expunged since Waller didn't act on it.
Click to expand...

IIRC, I read an article in the LNJ regarding the proposed power increase. It could have been the article that detailed the sale of the station from Curtis to Sunburst, or from Sunburst to Waller. In that article it may have mentioned that the new owners were planning on increasing the power of the station to 5kW, and it never got further than the proposal stage.

You're right, though. There is nothing in the FCC CDBS related to any app for a power increase.
 
Greg Branch said:
The KFRO tower site is on east hwy 80, about 1/2 mile or so east of Eastman Rd. Their nighttime is directional, and seems that it has always targeted south Longview, as this was the area of the city's original growth. They city really only started growing north in the 70's. Now, the signal drops off very rapidly as you drive north past the loop on 259 or Judson Rd. The nightime signal at the KYKX studios is poor. I live about 3 miles north of the KYKX studios and the signal is in the noise at my house at night. The nightime signal in south Longview is still pretty good. Either Curtis or Sunburst actually put in an app in the late 80's or early 90's to increase KFRO's power to 5kW day. Not sure if they were ever issued a CP to do this, but it was never acted upon and left to expire once Waller took over.
Click to expand...

Back in the late 80's-early 90's KFRO could cover Kilgore just fine at night. But now either the tower site (perhaps copper theft?) or the transmitter has degraded badly.The modulation is too low compared to KDOK and KTBB during the day, and I seriously doubt the station is running a full 1K.

Here is my aircheck of KFRO. I found this tape at the old Goodwill thrift store on south Green (now the La Michoacana Meat Market). The tape must have been by a former DJ since it was already scoped. Thanks to the mentioning of the academy awards during the newscast, it's from March 30, 1976.

http://www.divshare.com/download/13440130-843
 
I was actually at the site a few weeks ago and it was running a full 1KW, but sunburst and the wallers did ZERO maintenence, and the towers are in terrible shape. Plus copper does degrade especially in the terrible acidic soil of east texas. There was no evidence of any theft. And with the changing of the rules of how often to run a proof on the array, Who knows about the signal? I listened to KFRO at night in Kilgore while I was there 2 weeks ago. It dropped off at the Country Tavern, or maybe it was just interference from the former pirate station KOFY???
 
You know the Wallers need to change the call letters of 95.3 to better match "The Breeze". With the same call letters on different stations owned by different owners it becomes confusing for arbitron diary holders and arbitron itself. The KFRO calls need to stay with the herritage AM, since she had them since 1935.
 
600kogo said:
You know the Wallers need to change the call letters of 95.3 to better match "The Breeze". With the same call letters on different stations owned by different owners it becomes confusing for arbitron diary holders and arbitron itself. The KFRO calls need to stay with the herritage AM, since she had them since 1935.
Click to expand...

95.3 should go back to their original calls, KNIF - Nifty 95! ;D
 
600kogo said:
I was actually at the site a few weeks ago and it was running a full 1KW, but sunburst and the wallers did ZERO maintenence, and the towers are in terrible shape. Plus copper does degrade especially in the terrible acidic soil of east texas. There was no evidence of any theft. And with the changing of the rules of how often to run a proof on the array, Who knows about the signal? I listened to KFRO at night in Kilgore while I was there 2 weeks ago. It dropped off at the Country Tavern, or maybe it was just interference from the former pirate station KOFY???
Click to expand...

It's a damn shame that these companies treat their AM properties like Ghetto slumlords, letting the properties rust and rot. I bet the compressor/limiter KFRO-AM is using right now is the same one that was on my aircheck in 1976. The newer one probably burned up so they just hooked up the old one from the 70's. Townsquare has done a great job maximizing KDOK 1240's signal with nice LOUD processing, instead of the crappy distorted and clipping mess it had been since the 80's.

KOFY was still on the air at 6:30pm tonight, and I remember when I worked for it as KHYM we signed off at 5:15 in December! They just got a new license and already those dummies are abusing it. :mad: I may have in my collection of old radio stuff I've hung onto a Xerox of the KHYM sign-on/off times from around 1989-90. If I can find it I'll post it on the KOFY thread.

600kogo said:
You know the Wallers need to change the call letters of 95.3 to better match "The Breeze". With the same call letters on different stations owned by different owners it becomes confusing for arbitron diary holders and arbitron itself. The KFRO calls need to stay with the herritage AM, since she had them since 1935.
Click to expand...

I agree, I don't know why Waller wasn't forced to change the KFRO-FM calls to something else. And hanging onto KLJT could also be hurting 102.3 (which has been coming in very strong into Kilgore lately, even in my Jeep)

I guess in this age of Breezes, Mixes, Blazes, Q's, X's etc, call letters don't mean much to listeners now.
 
Thanks for posting that aircheck, billyg. Brings back some memories. I wish someone could scrounge up an aircheck of KLUE from that era. I had a boatload of cassettes that I recorded from KLUE, KLIF, WLS, XEROK, etc. from the 70's, but I suspect that they are rotting in the Longview landfill somewhere.
 
It's a damn shame that these companies treat their AM properties like Ghetto slumlords, letting the properties rust and rot. I bet the compressor/limiter KFRO-AM is using right now is the same one that was on my aircheck in 1976. The newer one probably burned up so they just hooked up the old one from the 70's. Townsquare has done a great job maximizing KDOK 1240's signal with nice LOUD processing, instead of the crappy distorted and clipping mess it had been since the 80's.

The limiter that was on KFRO when I was there 6 years ago was a REALLY CRAPPY Marti Limiter compressor, then the found an old CRL set up and put them in which is what is still there. The 1974-1990's limiter was a Dorrough DAP 310 which was damaged due to lightning and given to me about 2 years ago, and the ironic thing is I just got done getting it working an hour ago!!!
 
BillyG, I am listening to your aircheck of KFRO, and DAMN that station sounded great (not fidelity wise, but programming). It sounded like KCBQ in the 50s and 60s. Its depressing the snot out of me listening to that great station!!
 
Thanks for posting the aircheck BillyG. It sounds great.
 
600kogo said:
The limiter that was on KFRO when I was there 6 years ago was a REALLY CRAPPY Marti Limiter compressor, then the found an old CRL set up and put them in which is what is still there. The 1974-1990's limiter was a Dorrough DAP 310 which was damaged due to lightning and given to me about 2 years ago, and the ironic thing is I just got done getting it working an hour ago!!!
Click to expand...

Those DAP's were/are wonderful processors. On the other hand those Martis were a piece of JUNK.

I worked at several stations that had the CRL systems "spectral energy processor" (I'm amazed I can remember that!) and modulation controller modules. And though they didn't sound as full as an Optimod AM they can sound pretty good. I don't know why KFRO cant make theirs sound good.. unless they stuck the Marti back in.
 
600kogo said:
BillyG, I am listening to your aircheck of KFRO, and DAMN that station sounded great (not fidelity wise, but programming). It sounded like KCBQ in the 50s and 60s. Its depressing the snot out of me listening to that great station!!
Click to expand...

Its not the best quality. The tape was wrinkled and there was a bad hum running all through it so I had to use a notch filter plugin on soundforge to remove most of it. I'm surprised this tape survived and wound up at Goodwill in the early 90's instead of a landfill.

I also miss this kind of local radio, where the station picked thier own records (Phoebe Snow, ELO, Seatrain, BTO and CW McCall?) and gave a damn about serving the community. (KFRO did a 5 minute local newscast at 1 AM in the morning!)
 
Thank God the Marti is not in place, The single rack spaced CRL Spectral Energy processor is in place but to run the CRL boxes you have to have all three units the AGC, Limiter, and Compressor. The limiter is the only one there as I recall, and it is far superior to that Marti. But also KFRO is running a Harris MW-1 transmitter which is probably (for AM) the worst sounding transmitter ever!! It was the first solid state box, and they just sound horrible. Nothing sounds as good on AM as a plate modulated tube transmitter with a Dorrough DAP 310.

By the way the second worst transmitter is the Collins/Continental Power Rock 5 KW transmitter, which is what KWRD had for years! The Power Rock that was at KIIS 1120 in LA would actually turn itself off anytime they played Crystal Gayle. It seems that her voice hit some weird resonant frequency with the funky Pulse Wave modulation it does, and it shuts off!! Another good reason to not play Crystal Gayle! Play Loretta her sister LOL!!!
 
richaroo said:
i worked at knif in the 80's don't remember it being called nifty 95, but easy listing star 95.
Click to expand...

The 1981 Broadcasting Yearbook shows that KNIF went on the air on 7/24/1980, and format shown is Contemporary MOR. The original incarnation of the station was Nifty 95. Best that I can recall about the format was that it was basically an AC format, but I remember some country and even urban music being thrown in. Nifty 95 didn't last long, and soon became Star 95.

Maybe they started the easy listening format after KNUE switched to country. That would have been sometime in 1982.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom