I was listening to Talk 650 the other day, and something occurred to me: What was 650's history before this format?
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650 History
- Thread starter ksradiogeek
- Start date
Also, what was on 610 before it adopted sports (in what year)?
I don't know all the history, but 650 was KIKK, country music. KILT 610 I believe was country and before that, Top 40.
P
purpledevil
Guest
started off as KRCT-Pasa get down dena. Changed to KIKK-Pasadena in the 60's, I think. Chuck Tiller would be the go to guy for this information. By the time I was growing up in the early to mid 70's it was playing country music and had an FM counterpart at 95.7 known as "KIKK 96 FM". Stayed with that, I believe until the late 90's. After that it has been Business Talk, a comedy format, CNN radio news, Standards (part time) and now Talk 650. I've probably missed something, but I'm old.
610 started as "The Big 610" and was Houston's main top 40 station. (that may anger some old timers, sorry) when KILT-FM dropped Album rock in 1980 or 81 for country, 610 simulcasted the FM sister. After that, "sportsradio 610" was born and still remains today.
610 started as "The Big 610" and was Houston's main top 40 station. (that may anger some old timers, sorry) when KILT-FM dropped Album rock in 1980 or 81 for country, 610 simulcasted the FM sister. After that, "sportsradio 610" was born and still remains today.
KRCT 650 was originally licensed to Baytown.
Please go to this link and scroll down concerning the history of KIKK.
http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2009/10/1960s-kikk-talk-radio-koda-kenr.html
As far as 610 is concerned, it came on the air originally as KLEE, sold to Gordon McLendon who changed it to KLBS, which was going to be the flagship of his Liberty broadcasting network. However there were some money problems which caused a change of plans and he sold it. He bought back around 1957 and took the KILT call letters from a TV station he had a license for in El Paso. KLBS then became KILT and the rest is history.
The website I just posted gives a tremendous amount of history concerning the history of Houston radio. Its a very good read. you will learn a lot of things you didn't know. It certainly cleared some of my own misinformation about the history of some of the stations.
Please go to this link and scroll down concerning the history of KIKK.
http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2009/10/1960s-kikk-talk-radio-koda-kenr.html
As far as 610 is concerned, it came on the air originally as KLEE, sold to Gordon McLendon who changed it to KLBS, which was going to be the flagship of his Liberty broadcasting network. However there were some money problems which caused a change of plans and he sold it. He bought back around 1957 and took the KILT call letters from a TV station he had a license for in El Paso. KLBS then became KILT and the rest is history.
The website I just posted gives a tremendous amount of history concerning the history of Houston radio. Its a very good read. you will learn a lot of things you didn't know. It certainly cleared some of my own misinformation about the history of some of the stations.
Chuck Tiller said:
The KLBS calls were once used for TV 5 out in San Antonio, Texas until the Express News became involved with TV5 hence the letters KENS K Express newS, McLendon was involved with KTSA Top 55AM if memory serves me right.
willdav713 said:
KLBS was never the calls for Channel 5 in San Antonio. KEYL were the calls from 1950-54, when the Express-News bought the station and it became KENS. As for KTSA, McLendon once made the famous goof of changing the calls to KAKI, to honor San Antonio's military presence(khaki), not knowing that "kaki" was slang for baby feces. the KTSA calls soon returned
I think the most interesting fact about KIKK's history is that it was in the vanguard of "C&W" stations that moved away from what was known then as "hayseed" radio. Chet Atkins got that ball rolling at RCA in Nashville around 1960 with what was called "Country-politan" music -- country songs with strings and brass instead of guitars and banjos.
Leroy Gloger wanted to get rid of the drawling DJ's and that whole small town country sound. So he hired Bill Bailey away from KTHT Demand Radio 790 to be his PD, and Bailey hired other pop and MOR DJ's. His goal was to play country music, but make KIKK sound the way the MOR stations sounded. More "uptown". More professional. He even had the infamous Richard Dobbyn bring his 20/20 news and his style of reporting it to KIKK. That's a whole 'nother story.
Gloger and KIKK 650 were so successful with this format that he was able to buy an FM and the rest is history. The FM simulcasted the AM until he was able to hire a second staff of jocks for it. And to think it all started with a 300 watt daytimer in Pasadena.
Leroy Gloger wanted to get rid of the drawling DJ's and that whole small town country sound. So he hired Bill Bailey away from KTHT Demand Radio 790 to be his PD, and Bailey hired other pop and MOR DJ's. His goal was to play country music, but make KIKK sound the way the MOR stations sounded. More "uptown". More professional. He even had the infamous Richard Dobbyn bring his 20/20 news and his style of reporting it to KIKK. That's a whole 'nother story.
Gloger and KIKK 650 were so successful with this format that he was able to buy an FM and the rest is history. The FM simulcasted the AM until he was able to hire a second staff of jocks for it. And to think it all started with a 300 watt daytimer in Pasadena.
FilioScotia said:
Interesting. Did a guy named Egmont Sonderling ever own KIKK for awhile or was that another Houston station.
Old Chicago
OldChicago said:
Leroy Gloger sold it to Egmont Sonderling. The way I heard it was that once KENR went fulltime, he felt like KIKK 650 was cooked and would not be able to compete. If that is so, then I find it odd that he would have been so short-sighted on the growing influence of FM. Unlike the rest of the country, FM was taking hold here in Houston faster mainly because of the flat terrain. KIKK-FM sure became a winner. It could be that he had a stake in KVRL Channel 26, which became KDOG.
Ch 26 went on the air in 1971 as KVRL, but four years later, the calls were changed to KDOG.
By 1975 Gloger had bought into the station, so he picked the new calls, because he thought the station was a dog, which was a general term for anything that was a financial loser.
The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day."
Unfortunately, the station really was a dog and didn't do well even with the embarrassing but truthful call letters, so it was sold to Metromedia just three years later. That's when the calls were changed to KRIV. Fox TV bought Metromedia in 1986, and KRIV has been hugely successful ever since.
By 1975 Gloger had bought into the station, so he picked the new calls, because he thought the station was a dog, which was a general term for anything that was a financial loser.
The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day."
Unfortunately, the station really was a dog and didn't do well even with the embarrassing but truthful call letters, so it was sold to Metromedia just three years later. That's when the calls were changed to KRIV. Fox TV bought Metromedia in 1986, and KRIV has been hugely successful ever since.
I would like to find out if this is true. When I worked in Houston in the early 70's, the story went around that Leroy Gloger had worked at a gas station and used sell gas to Arch Yancy. When he bought KIKK, or whatever the calls were then, he talked Arch in to coming to work for him. And the rest was history.
Truth or urban myth?
Jim Shannon
Truth or urban myth?
Jim Shannon
It's true. Gloger owned a gas station in Baytown in the 1950s, and made enough money to buy the majority piece of the Baytown radio station KRCT. Gloger managed the station, and I have in fact found factual evidence that Willie Nelson was one of his part time DJ's at one point in the late 50s. Nelson says Gloger fired him for always being late for his early Sunday morning show.
I have my doubts about the Arch Yancey story though. Yancey was a very popular DJ at KNUZ in the late 50s and early 60s. When Gloger moved KRCT to Pasadena around 1961 or so, he changed the calls to KIKK. Not long afterwards, he hired Bill Bailey away from KTHT 790 to be his PD and change the format from hayseed country to uptown country, and play the new strain of C&W known as Country-Politan, which Chet Atkins was pioneering at the time in Nashville.
Bill Bailey hired other pop and MOR DJ's to help with the new uptown sound, and I'm betting it was Bailey who hired Yancey, not Gloger, although Gloger obviously approved.
I have my doubts about the Arch Yancey story though. Yancey was a very popular DJ at KNUZ in the late 50s and early 60s. When Gloger moved KRCT to Pasadena around 1961 or so, he changed the calls to KIKK. Not long afterwards, he hired Bill Bailey away from KTHT 790 to be his PD and change the format from hayseed country to uptown country, and play the new strain of C&W known as Country-Politan, which Chet Atkins was pioneering at the time in Nashville.
Bill Bailey hired other pop and MOR DJ's to help with the new uptown sound, and I'm betting it was Bailey who hired Yancey, not Gloger, although Gloger obviously approved.
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