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History of Beaumont radio

T

thebeach33445

Hey Guys:

Would anybody know if KAYD 97.5 (formerly KRIC-FM) which went to seprate programming in 1962 was a beautiful music format and when did it go AOR?

Thanks

T.J.
 
I found out that KAYD was Beautiful Music in 1962 to around 1971 when it started adding vocals which made up 25% of its playlist. The other 75%was Instrumentals. It was Automated. Then in 1974 it went AOR with live jocks.

Would anybody know when KAYD went Top 40 then Country?

I have some more questions about the FM here. Would anybody know the dates of:

1. When did KTRM 95.1 go from Country to Beautiful Music?

2. When did KTRM Beautiful Music changed calls to KIEL-FM?

3. When did KLVI-FM Beautiful Music change calls to KBPO?

4. When 104.5 signed on in 1972 as KOBS was it a Top 40 station? Would anybody know when did KOBS change to KZOM?

Thanks

T.J.
 
Hey Guys:

Would anybody know where I could get info on the history of Beaumont radio? I am trying to find some info on some stations but I am having no luck.

Thanks

T.J.
 
Thanks stan.

I have been using thye broadcasting yearbooks unfortantley they don't give format info before 1971 so any format info from the 50's and 60's are not in those books.

Like how many Top 40 AM stations were in the Beaumont area in the 50's and 60's? I keep seeing KOLE, KPAC, KAYC, KLVI and I saw a survey which had KTRM 990 was a top 40 in 1961. Could anybody help on this?

Thanks
T.J.
 
I found this on the Texas boards:

RADIO STATES => Texas => Topic started by: Roxane on March 03, 2009, 04:46:38 PM


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Title: Call letters of the black station in Beaumont circa 1957?
Post by: Roxane on March 03, 2009, 04:46:38 PM
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I've heard KJET was the African American station in the Fifties. Can anyone confirm or deny and provide the correct station? Tks.


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Title: Re: Call letters of the black station in Beaumont circa 1957?
Post by: dx7 on March 03, 2009, 07:15:25 PM
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It was indeed KJET at 1380 on the AM dial -- one of the most popular radio stations in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area in the late 50's and into the 60's. Very popular in the Black community with quite a few Anglo listeners as well.


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Title: Re: Call letters of the black station in Beaumont circa 1957?
Post by: stan on March 07, 2009, 11:49:30 AM
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KJET was on the air for quite a while. It was still on the air when I got to Beaumont in the late 1970s.


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Title: Re: Call letters of the black station in Beaumont circa 1957?
Post by: t.j. on December 05, 2010, 03:45:42 PM
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Hey Guys:

KJET 1380 started in either Dec 1954 or Jan 1955. Not sure which is right. I found this using the broadcasting yearbooks. Before that is was KPBX.

T.J.
 
KPAC was a very popular Top 40 station in the late fifties/early sixties with a great mix of current rock n roll hits and local rock singers/groups (Jivin' Gene, T.K. Hulin, etc) and legendary jocks like Steve-O the Nightrider before changing to an easy listening/MOR format around 1964.

KOLE was Top 40 throughout the 60's and early/mid 70's -- I worked there in 1966 as a weekend jock while in high school, and again as a weekend DJ in 71-72 while at Lamar U.

I remember KTRM in the early 60's -- my parents listened to it and it was an eclectic mix of music with Gordon Baxter in the mornings, Slim Watts playing country in mid days...but I don't remember hearing much Top 40 on it. If anything, it leaned country during the 60's.

KAYC was a great li'l Top 40 station in the 60's, and KLVI (K-56 they called it) switched to Top 40 around 1967 or so...but I may be a little foggy on the actual dates.
 
Would anybody know when KAYD went Top 40 then Country?

It was mid/late 70z when the switch was made from Top 40 to Country, Barry Kaye was doing PM drive.
 
I worked at KJET in 1972 as news director. I lasted only 2 weeks before going to Houston. KJET had a sister FM station that was Spanish in the mornings. KJET AM was black and was a daytimer (if I remember correctly). They had a Sunday morning talk show, a public affairs type thing. I hosted it one morning and had no idea what I was doing. I just put the callers on the air and let them yak until each ran out of anything to say. The station was owned by a guy out of Tyler, I think the name was Roy Lemmons or Lemmon.
 
When I left to the US Army in January 1966, there was a radio personality name Ron Wagner, I think that was his name and when I returned in 1969 he was gone. Does anyone remember him and what happened to him?
 
thebeach33445 said:
I found out that KAYD was Beautiful Music in 1962 to around 1971 when it started adding vocals which made up 25% of its playlist. The other 75%was Instrumentals. It was Automated. Then in 1974 it went AOR with live jocks.

Would anybody know when KAYD went Top 40 then Country?

I have some more questions about the FM here. Would anybody know the dates of:

1. When did KTRM 95.1 go from Country to Beautiful Music?

2. When did KTRM Beautiful Music changed calls to KIEL-FM?

3. When did KLVI-FM Beautiful Music change calls to KBPO?

4. When 104.5 signed on in 1972 as KOBS was it a Top 40 station? Would anybody know when did KOBS change to KZOM?

Thanks

T.J.
Click to expand...

I signed off KAYD as an AOR station...that was a Sunday night in fall 78 iirc
Not sure when it went country but it was 5 years or do later if memory serves.
KTRM?? don't know
KLVI FM was KBPO in the late 60s or early 70s...CE at the time was Keesler...and one joke off the call sign was keeslers big put on!! Also jokingly referred to as keeps Barry pissed off, in reference to Barry Nadler the FCC engineer in Beaumont...who for some reason hated the Hicks family and wanted to see them gone from broadcasting

As far as I remember KOBS was top 40 from the day it signed on..it was mono until the new owners changed it to KZOM and added stereo..I think that was late 78 or early 79.. I'll ask Larry King or some of the other jocks who work there at the start of Zoom for the entire details
 
When did KTRM Beautiful Music changed calls to KIEL-FM? July 7, 1978


When did KLVI-FM Beautiful Music change calls to KBPO? Sept. 1, 1967
 
thebeach33445 said:
Hey Guys:

Would anybody know if KAYD 97.5 (formerly KRIC-FM) which went to seprate programming in 1962 was a beautiful music format and when did it go AOR?

Thanks

T.J.
Click to expand...
KRIC FM had separate programming evenings from November 1957 and by March 1958 was on mornings to 10 P.M.. later Midnight. In 1960 they list themselves in U.S. Radio as having entirely separate programming. While it is easy to automatically list many of these early separate FMs as "Beautiful Music" it is important to remember that many of them just played what was available on LPs vocal or instrumental. In those days most of the the adult popular music audience loved both vocal and instrumental music. However it is my belief from what I have read in local newspapers that it was indeed a Beautiful Music station with an evening Classical music block followed by jazz or dance music. When there was no local sports. The Classical Music did not last more than a couple of years. The station was sold in 1962 but the programming remained largely the same.
 
thebeach33445 said:
I found out that KAYD was Beautiful Music in 1962 to around 1971 when it started adding vocals which made up 25% of its playlist. The other 75%was Instrumentals. It was Automated. Then in 1974 it went AOR with live jocks.

Would anybody know when KAYD went Top 40 then Country?

I have some more questions about the FM here. Would anybody know the dates of:

1. When did KTRM 95.1 go from Country to Beautiful Music?

2. When did KTRM Beautiful Music changed calls to KIEL-FM?

3. When did KLVI-FM Beautiful Music change calls to KBPO?

4. When 104.5 signed on in 1972 as KOBS was it a Top 40 station? Would anybody know when did KOBS change to KZOM?

Thanks

T.J.
Click to expand...
KTRM FM had been KHGM from October 1961, largely Beautiful Music. Sold in 1966, it went to Country Music under the new ownership on September 1, 1966. Included was some Gospel Music which became more requested in the 70s played by a Mr. Hebert who was a regular DJ. This increased to the point he was allowed to take the station to full time (18 hours daily) Gospel late in 1973. It was sold soon after that and the new owners decided to go Beautiful Music which they did in early August 1976 as KIEL FM. In 1978 the station was again sold and the new owners changed calls to KALO that Fall and went to Disco/Soul programming. KBPO FM has already been doing Beautiful Music since it went on the air in 1966 and they sold in 1976 to Air-Waves, the owners of Beautiful Music WQXY FM in Baton Rouge who changed the calls to KQXY FM September 15 and instituted the same format - that of Schulke Radio Productions - that they used in Baton Rouge.
 
We tried to get Papa John Hicks to keep the FM and move the Top40 format to it..we already knew of rumors that KLVI was going country and the FM would have made a great home for the top40 format, but Papa refused to hear it
 
KAYD went top40 iirc in the fall of 78, its been a while.. I was the one who signed off the AOR format on a Sunday night and turned off the xmtr. Monday morning, we came back as Top40 with the request line off the hook for over a week 😀
 
Henry McClurg said:
I worked at KJET in 1972 as news director. I lasted only 2 weeks before going to Houston. KJET had a sister FM station that was Spanish in the mornings. KJET AM was black and was a daytimer (if I remember correctly). They had a Sunday morning talk show, a public affairs type thing. I hosted it one morning and had no idea what I was doing. I just put the callers on the air and let them yak until each ran out of anything to say. The station was owned by a guy out of Tyler, I think the name was Roy Lemmons or Lemmon.
Click to expand...
KJETs FM was 107.7...eventually becoming KWIC and moving to 107.9 in the 70s because of 107.5 upgrading at Chocolate Bayou. KJET was daytime only but later got night power at 127watts, not sure if it was KRCM before or after that happened.
 
ContinuousWave said:
KJETs FM was 107.7...eventually becoming KWIC and moving to 107.9 in the 70s because of 107.5 upgrading at Chocolate Bayou. KJET was daytime only but later got night power at 127watts, not sure if it was KRCM before or after that happened.
Click to expand...
I worked at Top 40 KAYC in 1973. KAYD was beautiful music at that time. KWIC FM had a great sound. KJET was still on with R&B, GREAT radio station! I remember Steve O. and Steve Hicks on K-56 KLVI in 1964. KLVI was a great Top 40 station back then.
 
When I moved to Beaumont in 1978, I recall the following FM stations being in place -

93.3 KYKR (Nederland)- country
94.1 KQXY - beautiful music
95.1 KALO - R&B
97.5 KAYD - top 40
98.5 KHYS (Port Arthur) - R&B
104.5 KZOM (Orange) - album rock
106.1 KIOC (Orange) - top 40 - automated Drake Chenault format
107.7 KWIC - rock
 
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