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KATT FM100

W

wildthangjim

I'm reminiscing about going from Tulsa to Stillwater in the fall of 1976 to start school at OSU and hearing KATT FM100 OKC for the first time. I had been lamenting the loss of KTBA, the original Tulsa "progressive rock" station, and KMOD, with a more mainstream approach (at least for the time), wasn't cutting it for me. KATT was a revelation. They played all kinds of stuff, from Carole King to King Crimson, with entertaining, if low key, jocks. They always referred to OKC as "Zoom City" and Norman as "Zip City" for some reason. The rumor (surely untrue) around campus was that they were financed by the owner's drug dealing income :). It only lasted a few years until they morphed into Rock 100 and started playing the usual Foreigner/Journey 70's rock. It was good radio while it lasted, though, and a great soundtrack for my college years.
 
Ahaha, good memories.

I was part of the original staff back in 76. "Zoom City" was a phrase introduced by the evening jock, David Bell. David had just moved to OKC from LA and was astounded by the driving habits of the locals. You know what I mean...you are driving on 240 and a pickup hauling a horse trailer cuts from the far left lane to the right without looking. Norman as "zip city" just kinda evolved, as did "Zoom Lake" (which a lot of folks thought was lake Hefner or Overholser). Actually Zoom Lake was a sewage lagoon beside the studios on S.E. 79th at the time.

You're right. The campus stories are not true. When the station went on the air (as FM-100 The Cat, KJAK), the actual owner was in bankruptcy. The station later sold to a broadcaster out of Dallas.
 
Not really. KATT stayed to true to the "rock and roll for adults" concept for about 4 years after its start. Then it began to drift away.

Originally, KATT was consulted by Ira Lipsom from KZEW, Ft, Worth/Dallas. That didn't last beyond the first year of operation. The first owner out of bankruptcy was John Tyler's Sun Broadcasting. Tyler was managing KLIF at the time.

As to "mainstream," FM-100 was locked in. About 6 months after it went on the air, with 8 minutes of spots per hour, it was sold out. Oh, an by the way, Soundtrack sued the station because we wouldn't air Linda's spots.
 
Lol! Good for KATT back then. I wouldn't have ran Linda Loudmouth either ( j/k). LOL! Thanks for the history Stacker. Very cool!
 
Stacker, thanks for the insights, very interesting. KATT did a good job of staying consistent with the sound, very laid back, at least for the first few years (Soundtrak would have been too jarring by comparison). As I remember it, they were sounding harder, with more mainstream rock, by about '79. 96X was competing with them by then, although they didn't put much of a signal into Stillwater. KATT may have been rock for adults, but they were pretty popular at OSU then.

KATT at the time played many artists that, to my knowledge, didn't get any airplay anywhere else in OK. Michael Stanley Band, David Bromberg, Wendy Waldman, and Jesse Colin Young are 4 that come to mind. Very similar to what became AAA. I would love to hear some airchecks of those first few years.
 
I listened to the KATT when I first moved from Philadelphia, PA to Stillwater. The thing that "the cat" reminded me of was the great album oriented rock station I listened to for many years in Philadelphia, PA, WMMR and I put KATT in the late 70's in the same caliber as WMMR. I remember one time listening to the song "The Year of the Cat" and believed that as many times as they played the song that this was their theme song in the late 70's. It is a memory that I take from my years at OSU since this was one of my favorite stations.
 
The song, Year Of The Cat, was taken as a sign from God.

The early momentum of that station was amazing. I can remember driving through Stroud, OK, on many of my highway 66 roadtrips...someone had painted the Cat logo on an underpass there. Amazing amount of passion surrounded that station. You just don't see that anymore. Right thing, right time.
 
Yeah and the right owners that actually cared about their one station that mattered to them. Now we have 7 stations deep in one building and no time or resources dedicated to any of them (other than sports talk) that are at the level sufficent to make a real station anymore. Sadly, this is the way today radio is.
 
I was pretty passionate about the Cat in those days. To me, it was a combination of good, eclectic music, smart and humorous jocks who treated the listeners as equals, and an overall vibe. They created a community of listeners and didn't pander to them. It's one of very few times when I've consistently kept listening through commercial breaks to see what was coming next. I know there were others like this elsewhere in those days (Ira Lipson's KZEW Dallas maybe one of them). The only other time I've since experienced this was when I moved to Denver in 1989 and started listening to KBCO. In those days, they had the same deal going, a community of passionate listeners. Nowadays, hard to find that sort of thing outside of some public stations.
 
Ah, Jim you hit the magic word a couple of times there. Community.

Whether it was intentional or not, early KATT did just that. It created a club, filled with inside jokes, good music and a bunch of jocks that were just having fun.
 
When I was in Denver in the early 90's KBCO listeners felt like they were in an exclusive club (with better musical taste than most!). Part of it was the personality of the jocks, but a lot of it was the music. The music was different than what you'd get anywhere else on the dial. They even played different songs off the popular albums than other stations. KATT did that as well. One that I remember was Bad Company. Everyone else played "Burning Sky" (the only song off the album still heard on radio today). KATT played only "Morning Sun" and, I assume, consiously avoided "Burning Sky". Listeners noticed that difference.
 
"Yep, OKC. Today's radio is a flickering shadow of what it once was." Until the big boys end up sheding off some signals (most likely through bankruptcy court), radio will continue to spiral down. My hope is that some sticks will be shed in the rougher years to come and out of the ashes radio will phoenix out of the ashes with smaller owners willing to take risk and try innovation. I think it will work. My only fear is that the big stupid guys will be able to hold on long enough to render the whole industry irrelevant. Keep in mind that KATT as an example was built out of the ashes of a terrible operator named Ed Sossen. Jacks losses through Sossen brought the cost of the stick into a reasonable price where Lacy and friends could get started and try something new. The difference between Sossen and cloud people or CC is he wasn't able to keep getting people stupid enough to extend him credit over and over again. The big boys seem to still be able to do that. When the banker and investment group people finally figure out that big corporate radio is a bad investment, the game will change. Until then, it's going to keep on going just as it is.
 
OKC makes a good point. KATT was literally born out of the ashes. At the time the station concept was conceived, the owner of KJAK FM-100 and KLPR 1140 was in bankruptcy as a "debtor in possession". Bill Lacy and friends worked a deal with the bankruptcy court to start what in the early days was called FM-100 "the Cat" (mumbled legal id, KJAK Oklahoma City, then in the clear, FM-100 the Cat). Lacy was the general manager of the FM and the goal was to buy the station when it emerged from bankruptcy. The original studios and offices were in a burned out transmitter building at the bottom of a 500 foot tower. And when I say burned out, I mean it. The place had suffered at least two "accidental" fires in the past. It was a tiny place, two studios and a 12 by 10 room that served as an office for the GM and the sales people. The transmitter was wedged into the hallway. Bad conditions, but it created great spirit among the staff. We all had to get along. Didn't have enough room not to. That attitude came through on the air.

By the way when the AM and FM were sold by the bankruptcy court, the successful bidder, Sun Broadcasting out of Dallas paid a then astounding sum of $866,000.
 
Wow.. That was some real money for the times for very little equipment assets. Before the early 90s insanity of consolidation, that had to be one of the higher-priced sales of this market.
 
stacker said:
OKC makes a good point. KATT was literally born out of the ashes. At the time the station concept was conceived, the owner of KJAK FM-100 and KLPR 1140 was in bankruptcy as a "debtor in possession". Bill Lacy and friends worked a deal with the bankruptcy court to start what in the early days was called FM-100 "the Cat" (mumbled legal id, KJAK Oklahoma City, then in the clear, FM-100 the Cat). Lacy was the general manager of the FM and the goal was to buy the station when it emerged from bankruptcy. The original studios and offices were in a burned out transmitter building at the bottom of a 500 foot tower. And when I say burned out, I mean it. The place had suffered at least two "accidental" fires in the past. It was a tiny place, two studios and a 12 by 10 room that served as an office for the GM and the sales people. The transmitter was wedged into the hallway. Bad conditions, but it created great spirit among the staff. We all had to get along. Didn't have enough room not to. That attitude came through on the air.

By the way when the AM and FM were sold by the bankruptcy court, the successful bidder, Sun Broadcasting out of Dallas paid a then astounding sum of $866,000.
Click to expand...

And don't forget the studios for the long gone KLPR-TV channel 14. Used for storage. The station did a promotion with a bunch of candy bars, all kept in boxes and never given away. Well, the mice got into them, and the mice were everywhere! Even found mice turds inside the main FM console. No joke! I was there. The AM was simulcast, until it went all Disco when their simulcast waiver ran out. Interesting place. I always wanted to buy a KATT jacket, but never could come up with the money. Too bad-it would be worth a fortune on Ebay today. Ah, the good old days.
 
And don't forget the studios for the long gone KLPR-TV channel 14.
Click to expand...

Ahaha! I remember that. The old TV studios eventually caught on fire (which seemed common at location). The insides were cleaned out and then the real storage began. In the early days of KATT, some of us were scrounging around in the old TV facility. We found a big box of springs and a huge box of L'Eggs panty hose. The springs were apparently a device that you could stuff into the mouth of your gas tank to prevent people from siphoning gas from your car.

Anyway, we tried to give away a pair of springs and panty hose on KATT. We called them Junior Burglar Kits. The springs were for aspiring "second story" burglars.
 
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