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KFCC 1270AM

O

OldChicago

The was a station operating at 1270AM a few years back called KFCC in the Houston area. It was shut down because of reasons I really do not understand, but it may have been operating without a license from the Government. Question I have is could 1270 be used in the Houston area again for a radio station. If so, who would they have to protect and what kind of power levels could it run?


Old Chicago
 
Originally, it was KIOX, licensed to Bay City. It operated on a temporary permit since 1968 until it's death by deletion from the table of assignments. It has to protect 1270 in Ft. Worth and KWHI 1280 in Brenham. It cannot move to Houston. Although one guy tried to do it and found out the hard way that you cannot just load it up on the back of a pickup and move it to a tower in Missouri City. That's the short story. Our good friend JD could elaborate more. I worked at 1270 KIOX in 1973 through 1974.
 
OldChicago said:
The was a station operating at 1270AM a few years back called KFCC in the Houston area.
Old Chicago
Click to expand...

You gave me a ride to this station when I was visiting Houston in 1996 and went into the KFCC office with me.
My question I had for them back then is what right they had to be on the air back then. They didn't answer my question to my satisfactions.
That is why I wanted to visit the station,because they seemed to be a licensed pirate radio station. It appeared the only think legal about the station was their KFCC call letters.

Chuck Tiller said:
Originally, it was KIOX, licensed to Bay City. It operated on a temporary permit since 1968 until it's death by deletion from the table of assignments. It has to protect 1270 in Ft. Worth and KWHI 1280 in Brenham.
Click to expand...


I Dxed KIOX from San Antonio in 1972 and 1973. They answered my reception report. As I recall, they were licensed for 24 hour operation.
Why did KIOX have a temporary permit? Did they sign on the air with a temporary permit?
 
KFCC was moved into Houston. The guy who did it submitted an engineering study the FCC would approve. It seems the problem was the station, through a number of events, was moved prior to the FCC issued Construction Permit. In fact, faced with the same scenario this guy faced, I wonder how many would have opted for the same choice he made. From my limited understanding, the station may have been allowed to 'die' when the license expired. The twisted story goes something like this: the license is in your name but we (the FCC) don't recognize you as the owner, therefore you cannot sell it because we (the FCC) will not approve the transfer. There was talk of the license being donated. It has been years since I thought of KFCC. The studios were in Stafford and the format was time brokered.
 
It was one of a couple of local operators who should be sharing the same jail cell together, but somehow seem to skate, untouched by the law. If you or I tried to pull half the stuff these guys have pulled off with impunity, we'd either be in the federal pen or have our kneecaps shattered.
 
I seem to recall that Don Worlenger was involved in KFCC. I also seem to think that this happened sometime in the 1995-1997 timeline. The story is that the station lost his tower site, filed with the FCC for a new one under an STA (one that just so happened to be in Missouri City) and it got granted. The impression I got was that someone at the FCC didn't bother to check where the coordinates actually are. It was a longwire antenna, and the former Salem GM turned him in to the Commission. That's what got the license revocation started.

Be aware that I heard all of this some time ago, and my memory may be faulty.

Texas Tuner
 
gabigley1 said:
I Dxed KIOX from San Antonio in 1972 and 1973. They answered my reception report. As I recall, they were licensed for 24 hour operation.
Why did KIOX have a temporary permit? Did they sign on the air with a temporary permit?
Click to expand...

Back in 1968, KIOX was cited for double billing and other problems that I do not remember. I was told, during my time there, that a temporary permit was issued because it was the only station licensed to Matagorda County. My focus at the time was making a run to the bank to cash my check, which bounced on a regular basis. When I was there, we signed off at midnight and signed back on at 6AM. It was not cost effective to have an overnight shift. I do not know why the FCC issued those call letters, KFCC. Somebody wasn't paying attention. That same bunch had been time brokering on 1070 KENR. When Salem bought it, they ended the relationship. That owner did not want to loose the International business he had on KENR. He figured he could keep the businees as long as he had a station in Houston.This was the reason to move 1270 to Houston. It is my understanding that they fudged the engineering documents and really didn't think anyone would notice. When the station signed on illegally in Houston, the 1st station to feel the ill effects was 1280 KWHI in Brenham. The roller coaster ride began at that point.
 
Chuck Tiller said:
gabigley1 said:
I Dxed KIOX from San Antonio in 1972 and 1973. They answered my reception report. As I recall, they were licensed for 24 hour operation.
Why did KIOX have a temporary permit? Did they sign on the air with a temporary permit?
Click to expand...

Back in 1968, KIOX was cited for double billing and other problems that I do not remember. I was told, during my time there, that a temporary permit was issued because it was the only station licensed to Matagorda County. My focus at the time was making a run to the bank to cash my check, which bounced on a regular basis. When I was there, we signed off at midnight and signed back on at 6AM. It was not cost effective to have an overnight shift. I do not know why the FCC issued those call letters, KFCC. Somebody wasn't paying attention. That same bunch had been time brokering on 1070 KENR. When Salem bought it, they ended the relationship. That owner did not want to loose the International business he had on KENR. He figured he could keep the businees as long as he had a station in Houston.This was the reason to move 1270 to Houston. It is my understanding that they fudged the engineering documents and really didn't think anyone would notice. When the station signed on illegally in Houston, the 1st station to feel the ill effects was 1280 KWHI in Brenham. The roller coaster ride began at that point.
Click to expand...

And, to my knowledge, it's the only station I know of personally that's ever had its ticket revoked by the Commission. I seem to recall the license application was held up for years, as well as the revocation proceedings. Lots of lawyers got rich of that one.
 
[/quote]

And, to my knowledge, it's the only station I know of personally that's ever had its ticket revoked by the Commission. I seem to recall the license application was held up for years, as well as the revocation proceedings. Lots of lawyers got rich of that one.
[/quote]

I think a company called RKO GENERAL had all of their stations taken away for both its radio and TV stations for some issues with it billing practices.

Old Chicago
 
I was working across town when the Melton family lost the license to KUPD/KUKQ Tempe (Phoenix) AZ. Hint: when the FCC declares someone to be unfit to be a licensee, don't tell the commission that he's been demoted to being a salesman... then when the inspector shows up and find he's still in the General Manager's office and everyone calls him boss, don't pick stuff up off your desk and throw it at the guy while saying "get the f*** out of my office." Good times.
 
TexasTuner said:
I seem to recall that Don Worlenger was involved in KFCC. I also seem to think that this happened sometime in the 1995-1997 timeline. The story is that the station lost his tower site, filed with the FCC for a new one under an STA (one that just so happened to be in Missouri City) and it got granted. The impression I got was that someone at the FCC didn't bother to check where the coordinates actually are. It was a longwire antenna, and the former Salem GM turned him in to the Commission. That's what got the license revocation started.

Be aware that I heard all of this some time ago, and my memory may be faulty.

Texas Tuner
Click to expand...

That's fairly close to the way it happened, but there were so many twists and turns along the way. The KFCC story is one of the strangest sagas ever, and part of an article from thirteen years ago provides some insight:

Werlinger bought KFCC in 1995 with the intention of moving it closer to Houston, agency records show. He received special FCC permission to move to Missouri City, a Houston suburb, after misrepresenting that the Bay City location was unusable. FCC rules required that Werlinger use an existing radio tower for any broadcasts from his new locale. But Werlinger built a new tower instead, telling the FCC that it had existed all along. The agency says he was lying, plain and simple.
"I thought it was pretty damn creative myself," Werlinger offered.

—from Mediaweek, May 4th 1998
 
I don't care what you guys say. The call letters K-J-O-X sounds like the perfect call letters to me.
 
ChuckTiller said:
Originally, it was KIOX, licensed to Bay City. It operated on a temporary permit since 1968 until it's death by deletion from the table of assignments. It has to protect 1270 in Ft. Worth and KWHI 1280 in Brenham. It cannot move to Houston. Although one guy tried to do it and found out the hard way that you cannot just load it up on the back of a pickup and move it to a tower in Missouri City. That's the short story. Our good friend JD could elaborate more. I worked at 1270 KIOX in 1973 through 1974.
Click to expand...

Yep!
 
jd said:
That's fairly close to the way it happened, but there were so many twists and turns along the way. The KFCC story is one of the strangest sagas ever, and part of an article from thirteen years ago provides some insight:

Werlinger bought KFCC in 1995 with the intention of moving it closer to Houston, agency records show. He received special FCC permission to move to Missouri City, a Houston suburb, after misrepresenting that the Bay City location was unusable. FCC rules required that Werlinger use an existing radio tower for any broadcasts from his new locale. But Werlinger built a new tower instead, telling the FCC that it had existed all along. The agency says he was lying, plain and simple.
"I thought it was pretty damn creative myself," Werlinger offered.

—from Mediaweek, May 4th 1998
Click to expand...

Yep!
 
johndavis said:
I was working across town when the Melton family lost the license to KUPD/KUKQ Tempe (Phoenix) AZ. Hint: when the FCC declares someone to be unfit to be a licensee, don't tell the commission that he's been demoted to being a salesman... then when the inspector shows up and find he's still in the General Manager's office and everyone calls him boss, don't pick stuff up off your desk and throw it at the guy while saying "get the f*** out of my office." Good times.
Click to expand...

Yep!
 
mrbeasley said:
It was one of a couple of local operators who should be sharing the same jail cell together, but somehow seem to skate, untouched by the law. If you or I tried to pull half the stuff these guys have pulled off with impunity, we'd either be in the federal pen or have our kneecaps shattered.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
 
Mouse, you know the old saying :rolleyes:

To acknowledge a nut is to encourage one! (Thanks to Wayne Green of 73 and BYTE Magazine for that saying back in the 70s and 80s)
 
Mouse, I happened to discover this old KFCC thread today. When I read the comments about broadcasters, I simply agreed with the posts. Turns out all the broadcaster corruption I thought I had discovered has been going on a long long time, and the regulars on this board know all about it...
 
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