This one's kinda weird ... sorry about that in advance. Had a dream last night in which I was passing the old KIKK in Pasadena! So woke up trying to remember which street that was??!! And on a SLIGHTLY related issue...trying to remember what KILT-FM was doing long before the country thing kicked in (around the time when KILT-AM was dominant and FM just starting to get some traction. I seem to recall an AOR format of some sort??)
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Couple other history q's
- Thread starter LITTLEBOYBLUE
- Start date
J
jriggenbach
Guest
The original KIKK in Pasadena was on Sterling Street, a.k.a. State Highway 225, before it became a freeway.
Before it went country, KILT was the leading Top 40 station in the market, followed closely by KNUZ and KTHT.
JR
Before it went country, KILT was the leading Top 40 station in the market, followed closely by KNUZ and KTHT.
JR
C
CW
Guest
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
Yes, KILT-FM was AOR before the country....while its AM was Top40 and one of the big leaders in radios in Houston (with H&H...one team which later moved to be S&P on 790)
KIKK before it was KIKK
KIKK was originally licensed as KRCT in Pasadena. It was located in the old downtown part of Pasadena on Sterling Street, which was the main east-west thoroughfare through Pasadena. This was many years before the Hwy 225 Freeway was built over it.
Leroy Gloger bought KRCT in the early sixties, changed the calls to KIKK, and moved it to a small office building on Southmore, just west of Tatar Street, which is now Pasadena Blvd. That's where it was for years and where it grew to its phenomenal success. A remarkable achievement for a 300 watt daytimer, but 650 AM was a clear-channel in those days and it covered the entire greater Houston area like a blanket.
It's where Gloger pioneered "Country-Politan" radio, or "Uptown" country. Country music without the drawling hayseed DJ's. Gloger first hired Bill Bailey away from the original KTHT 790 to be his PD, and together they hired professional uptown sounding DJ's, and 20-20 news director Richard Dobbyn came over from KILT to do his outrageous racist rants and pretend it was a newscast.
Sometime in the late 60s Gloger bought an FM (I forget which one) and simulcast the AM signal on it for a long time. The FM side finally got its own programming and staff in the 70s and the AM side gradually faded into obscurity.
I worked for Dobbyn and Gloger chasing cops news for about a year and a half in the late 60s, and while I have nothing good to say about Dobbyn, I must say that Leroy Gloger was the nicest and most generous station owner I have ever worked for. He believed in sharing his success with the people who made it happen. Every month of sales over 100 thousand dollars, every employee got a 100 dollar bill in the pay envelope along with their paycheck. That was good money in the sixties, and we got those bonuses every month I was there in 1968 and 69.
You won't believe his Christmas bonuses. You got a month's pay for every year you'd been with him. I went to one Xmas party where several people who'd been with him since the beginning went home with 4 or 5 months pay, IN CASH. He and his wife got packages of brand new bills from the bank, counted out the bonuses, and tied up each bundle with a big red ribbon and a thank-you Christmas card.
They don't make'em like Leroy Gloger anymore.
KIKK was originally licensed as KRCT in Pasadena. It was located in the old downtown part of Pasadena on Sterling Street, which was the main east-west thoroughfare through Pasadena. This was many years before the Hwy 225 Freeway was built over it.
Leroy Gloger bought KRCT in the early sixties, changed the calls to KIKK, and moved it to a small office building on Southmore, just west of Tatar Street, which is now Pasadena Blvd. That's where it was for years and where it grew to its phenomenal success. A remarkable achievement for a 300 watt daytimer, but 650 AM was a clear-channel in those days and it covered the entire greater Houston area like a blanket.
It's where Gloger pioneered "Country-Politan" radio, or "Uptown" country. Country music without the drawling hayseed DJ's. Gloger first hired Bill Bailey away from the original KTHT 790 to be his PD, and together they hired professional uptown sounding DJ's, and 20-20 news director Richard Dobbyn came over from KILT to do his outrageous racist rants and pretend it was a newscast.
Sometime in the late 60s Gloger bought an FM (I forget which one) and simulcast the AM signal on it for a long time. The FM side finally got its own programming and staff in the 70s and the AM side gradually faded into obscurity.
I worked for Dobbyn and Gloger chasing cops news for about a year and a half in the late 60s, and while I have nothing good to say about Dobbyn, I must say that Leroy Gloger was the nicest and most generous station owner I have ever worked for. He believed in sharing his success with the people who made it happen. Every month of sales over 100 thousand dollars, every employee got a 100 dollar bill in the pay envelope along with their paycheck. That was good money in the sixties, and we got those bonuses every month I was there in 1968 and 69.
You won't believe his Christmas bonuses. You got a month's pay for every year you'd been with him. I went to one Xmas party where several people who'd been with him since the beginning went home with 4 or 5 months pay, IN CASH. He and his wife got packages of brand new bills from the bank, counted out the bonuses, and tied up each bundle with a big red ribbon and a thank-you Christmas card.
They don't make'em like Leroy Gloger anymore.
Thanks for the post about the glory days of KIKK, but I've got a couple of notes here. KRCT was originally licensed to Baytown. The KIKK call letters came into being with the move to Pasadena.
KIKK wasn't technically a "clear channel" station. It's on what was once referred to as a clear channel, as a daytimer affording protection to the dominant "clear channel" (Class I-A) station WSM in Nashville. Stations like WSM were re-designated as Class A's when the "clears" were effectively broken up in 80's by the FCC. That move allowed many new and former daytime-only stations to operate at night on Class A channels if they were at least 750 miles from the dominant station. But KIKK still can't operate at night because it lies about 660 miles from WSM.
Being on a "clear channel" didn't have anything to do with KIKK's coverage, which is virtually the same as it was back in the 1960's. It's always operated with 250 watts. Of course we have to consider that the Houston metropolitan area was a lot smaller back then and there was far less man-made interference. Also it can be argued that KIKK was offering what was a unique format, so with no competition out there fans sought out the station and were willing to put up with the station's limited range.
The FM station they bought (95.7, now KHJZ) was previously known as KHUL.
KIKK wasn't technically a "clear channel" station. It's on what was once referred to as a clear channel, as a daytimer affording protection to the dominant "clear channel" (Class I-A) station WSM in Nashville. Stations like WSM were re-designated as Class A's when the "clears" were effectively broken up in 80's by the FCC. That move allowed many new and former daytime-only stations to operate at night on Class A channels if they were at least 750 miles from the dominant station. But KIKK still can't operate at night because it lies about 660 miles from WSM.
Being on a "clear channel" didn't have anything to do with KIKK's coverage, which is virtually the same as it was back in the 1960's. It's always operated with 250 watts. Of course we have to consider that the Houston metropolitan area was a lot smaller back then and there was far less man-made interference. Also it can be argued that KIKK was offering what was a unique format, so with no competition out there fans sought out the station and were willing to put up with the station's limited range.
The FM station they bought (95.7, now KHJZ) was previously known as KHUL.
Re: KIKK before it was KIKK
I believe Gloger was also the original owner of channel 26.
FilioScotia said:
I believe Gloger was also the original owner of channel 26.
As I recall that launched around 1971 or 1972? Like many of the UHF's of its day, I remember 26 starting with all kinds of long-shelved reruns ... like Broderick Crawford's "HIGHWAY PATROL"!! 10-4.
Thanks for the feedback and info ... the facility on Southmore is the one I remember. Had the stand-alone "KIKK" sign out near the street ... and was just a few blocks down the road from the big Sears store! (I believe that Sears is a Wal-Mart mega store now??) Bet those were fun days when KIKK was in Pasadena and Gilley's started hitting its stride as the "go-to Honky Tonk"!! Amazing how all these major music-related landmarks seem to have met their larger-than-life demise ... Gilley's, Studio 54, etc.!!
Thanks for the feedback and info ... the facility on Southmore is the one I remember. Had the stand-alone "KIKK" sign out near the street ... and was just a few blocks down the road from the big Sears store! (I believe that Sears is a Wal-Mart mega store now??) Bet those were fun days when KIKK was in Pasadena and Gilley's started hitting its stride as the "go-to Honky Tonk"!! Amazing how all these major music-related landmarks seem to have met their larger-than-life demise ... Gilley's, Studio 54, etc.!!
KRCT was originally licensed to Baytown. The KIKK call letters came into being with the move to Pasadena.
You remember a lot more of the old days than I do, and I trust your memory better than mine, but KRCT's studio was in Pasadena on Sterling. I used to visit Hal Harris and other DJ's there all the time when I was in high school just three blocks away. Hal's daughter was in some of my classes and she loved showing off her dad. When Gloger bought it in the early sixties, KRCT disappeared from that address and re-appeared over on Southmore with new call letters.
KIKK AM had phenomenal range. You could pick it up in Galveston and nearly halfway to Beaumont. I know because I did when I was out chasing news stories for Dobbyn. Jack Cato and I once rode together to a story in Eagle Lake, and KIKK was loud and clear all the way. I rode with Jack in that huge caravan of police cars and news cars later portrayed in the movie The Sugarland Express, and we got KIKK AM loud and clear in Dayton, Cleveland and Conroe, but it faded out near Navasota.
Pretty good reach for 250 watts.
And yes Leroy Gloger was one of Channel 26's original owners. It was he who came up with its original call letters -- KDOG. Unfortunately, it lived up to those calls and didn't do very well. When he sold it the new owners fell all over themselves filing for a new set of letters.
You remember a lot more of the old days than I do, and I trust your memory better than mine, but KRCT's studio was in Pasadena on Sterling. I used to visit Hal Harris and other DJ's there all the time when I was in high school just three blocks away. Hal's daughter was in some of my classes and she loved showing off her dad. When Gloger bought it in the early sixties, KRCT disappeared from that address and re-appeared over on Southmore with new call letters.
KIKK AM had phenomenal range. You could pick it up in Galveston and nearly halfway to Beaumont. I know because I did when I was out chasing news stories for Dobbyn. Jack Cato and I once rode together to a story in Eagle Lake, and KIKK was loud and clear all the way. I rode with Jack in that huge caravan of police cars and news cars later portrayed in the movie The Sugarland Express, and we got KIKK AM loud and clear in Dayton, Cleveland and Conroe, but it faded out near Navasota.
Pretty good reach for 250 watts.
And yes Leroy Gloger was one of Channel 26's original owners. It was he who came up with its original call letters -- KDOG. Unfortunately, it lived up to those calls and didn't do very well. When he sold it the new owners fell all over themselves filing for a new set of letters.
Actually the KRCT calls were in use for 4 years after the move to Pasadena. The KIKK calls came when Gloger made a big push to be identified as a Houston station. He undertook a big advertising campaign and the ads referred to KIKK as Houston's only clear channel station!jd said:
I haven't been able to pinpoint the launch of KRCT or where it was in the Tri-Cities area. The Houston papers didn't cover the boonies well and the competing station in the Tri-Cities was owned by the Goose Creek (Baytown) Daily Sun and they didn't give KRCT much free publicity. However, it's clear the station got on the air between the fall of 1946 and the summer of 1947, most likely in the spring of '47, which means KIKK is 60 years old this year.
If anyone knows anything more about KRCT before moving to Pasadena please jump in here and contribute.
The original calls on 26 were KVRL-TV. I stand to be corrected on this but I think Gloger was responsible for the KDOG calls but was not one of the original owners.FilioScotia said:
I like the way the software automatically filtered the word before "...TONK" (the h-tonk descriptor) when I described Gilley's!! Clearly it was looking for a different context ... which suggests if only Imus had posted stuff on this board before opening his yap it would have been pre-sanitized for him and he'd STILL be on the air today!!!!!!
You're right
It was KVRL before it was KDOG. I had forgotten it had been on the air several years, and it was a real dog financially, which is why Leroy Gloger wanted to call it KDOG when he and his partners bought it.
I think I'm going to go to my corner and shut up for awhile. It's increasingly clear that my old memory isn't what it used to be.
It was KVRL before it was KDOG. I had forgotten it had been on the air several years, and it was a real dog financially, which is why Leroy Gloger wanted to call it KDOG when he and his partners bought it.
I think I'm going to go to my corner and shut up for awhile. It's increasingly clear that my old memory isn't what it used to be.
Re: You're right
Okay, I know my memory is a little fuzzy too. But I remember that there was a lady from Longview who owned Channel 26, and every day she'd commute (by limousine) from there to Houston, over 400 miles round-trip. This supposedly went on throughout her ownership (a couple of years) until the station was sold to Metromeadia. I don't remember the lady's name but as I recall she had a small dog which she adored, and she never went anywhere without it. Hence the call letter change to KDOG-TV. Or maybe not. Was it a partnership with Gloger, or did he sell out to the Longview lady? In any event Channel 26 had those call letters for two years or so (1976-1978) before changing to KRIV.
FilioScotia said:
Okay, I know my memory is a little fuzzy too. But I remember that there was a lady from Longview who owned Channel 26, and every day she'd commute (by limousine) from there to Houston, over 400 miles round-trip. This supposedly went on throughout her ownership (a couple of years) until the station was sold to Metromeadia. I don't remember the lady's name but as I recall she had a small dog which she adored, and she never went anywhere without it. Hence the call letter change to KDOG-TV. Or maybe not. Was it a partnership with Gloger, or did he sell out to the Longview lady? In any event Channel 26 had those call letters for two years or so (1976-1978) before changing to KRIV.
That was more recent than Gloger
I remember that Longview woman, and the green Rolls-Royce she drove back and forth between Longview and Houston. This was in the early 80s, when my wife and I were living in Lufkin, and I was news directing an AM/FM in Nacogdoches. I remember reading a newspaper story about that lady and her Rolls-Royce, and within a week I saw her driving through Lufkin. I saw her numerous times on her way through town. You couldn't miss her because there aren't many green Rolls-Royces in east Texas. I believe this was a few years after Gloger sold his share of the station. But I could be wrong.
It was KDOG until 1978. Here's what the Wikipedia says about it: "In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV-TV. The new letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, D.C., was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in 1999. Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV."
I just learned the damndest bit of trivia about Willie Nelson. I was Googling around looking for anything I could find about KRCT and KIKK, and the transcript of an old interview with Willie popped up. Willie says he worked at KRCT for a short while back in the early or mid 50s. (The time frame isn't clear)
Here's the pertinent part: "...When in Houston, I ran into a guy I’d known before, Paul Buskirk. I was pretty broke so I decided to sell the song, “Family Bible” Paul, Walt Breelin and Claude Grey split it three ways and gave me $25.00 for it.
I went to work for Larry Butler pickin’ in the evenings, and I worked the Sunday morning sign-on DJ show at KRCT radio, which now has the call letters, KIKK. Leroy Gloger was the manager there, and he fired me. That hurt my ego, and I left town. I took my family to Waco, and I headed for Nashville...."
Leroy Gloger fired Willie Nelson and inspired him to move to Nashville. God I love the Internet.
I remember that Longview woman, and the green Rolls-Royce she drove back and forth between Longview and Houston. This was in the early 80s, when my wife and I were living in Lufkin, and I was news directing an AM/FM in Nacogdoches. I remember reading a newspaper story about that lady and her Rolls-Royce, and within a week I saw her driving through Lufkin. I saw her numerous times on her way through town. You couldn't miss her because there aren't many green Rolls-Royces in east Texas. I believe this was a few years after Gloger sold his share of the station. But I could be wrong.
It was KDOG until 1978. Here's what the Wikipedia says about it: "In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV-TV. The new letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, D.C., was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in 1999. Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV."
I just learned the damndest bit of trivia about Willie Nelson. I was Googling around looking for anything I could find about KRCT and KIKK, and the transcript of an old interview with Willie popped up. Willie says he worked at KRCT for a short while back in the early or mid 50s. (The time frame isn't clear)
Here's the pertinent part: "...When in Houston, I ran into a guy I’d known before, Paul Buskirk. I was pretty broke so I decided to sell the song, “Family Bible” Paul, Walt Breelin and Claude Grey split it three ways and gave me $25.00 for it.
I went to work for Larry Butler pickin’ in the evenings, and I worked the Sunday morning sign-on DJ show at KRCT radio, which now has the call letters, KIKK. Leroy Gloger was the manager there, and he fired me. That hurt my ego, and I left town. I took my family to Waco, and I headed for Nashville...."
Leroy Gloger fired Willie Nelson and inspired him to move to Nashville. God I love the Internet.
That's a very interesting tidbit. I had heard Willie was a DJ at a Houston station but didn't know which one. Someone had actually told me it was KXYZ.
And apparently Gloger was manager of KRCT before buying it?
BTW, almost everybody has poor memory and gets old memories mixed up I think. Many just don't realize it and think they remember everything perfectly
.
And apparently Gloger was manager of KRCT before buying it?
BTW, almost everybody has poor memory and gets old memories mixed up I think. Many just don't realize it and think they remember everything perfectly
.Finally! Someone who understands fading memory cells. Here's a link to that Willie Nelson interview from 1969. It has a lot of fascinating tidbits about his early life before he got famous. http://stillisstillmoving.com/?p=36
Thanks for the link, that's quite a story. I never googled on KRCT since it's been so long since the calls were used here, I wouldn't have expected to find anything.
Just remember, if you're smart enough to realize your memory isn't perfect, you're actually one step ahead of the game.
Just remember, if you're smart enough to realize your memory isn't perfect, you're actually one step ahead of the game.
You're just trying to make me feel better. And you did. Thanks.
KDOG-TV
A little insight, and a correction about the mystery woman: she was Clara McLaughlin, a television executive who became the first African-American woman to own a TV station. It wasn't Houston's KDOG-TV. Instead, she's the one who put Longview's KLMG-TV channel 51 on the air. My memory failed me when I posted that she made the round trip to her station daily. That much was correct, but it was from Houston to Longview, not the other way around. With that said, though, it's not clear whether Ms. McLaughlin had worked at KRIV's predecessor, KDOG-TV. But somehow the story about her having a dog and coming up with those call letters was tossed around back in those days. If she was there, and assuming the other parts of the story have some basis, it follows that she might had some influence in the choice of the KDOG call letters. Leroy Gloger, however, is generally credited with the idea. If anyone knows the real story, please ring in.
According to the site "TV ACRES" Ms. McLaughlin bought the Longview station in 1982 and it signed on as a CBS affiliate in the fall of 1984. The station is now FOX affiliate KFXK-TV. More info on this page: www.tvacres.com/broad_african.htm
FilioScotia said:
A little insight, and a correction about the mystery woman: she was Clara McLaughlin, a television executive who became the first African-American woman to own a TV station. It wasn't Houston's KDOG-TV. Instead, she's the one who put Longview's KLMG-TV channel 51 on the air. My memory failed me when I posted that she made the round trip to her station daily. That much was correct, but it was from Houston to Longview, not the other way around. With that said, though, it's not clear whether Ms. McLaughlin had worked at KRIV's predecessor, KDOG-TV. But somehow the story about her having a dog and coming up with those call letters was tossed around back in those days. If she was there, and assuming the other parts of the story have some basis, it follows that she might had some influence in the choice of the KDOG call letters. Leroy Gloger, however, is generally credited with the idea. If anyone knows the real story, please ring in.
According to the site "TV ACRES" Ms. McLaughlin bought the Longview station in 1982 and it signed on as a CBS affiliate in the fall of 1984. The station is now FOX affiliate KFXK-TV. More info on this page: www.tvacres.com/broad_african.htm
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