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KLAN Lemoore, Ca Info Needed

B

Binkyboy

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any info on a Rock n Roll Station in Leoore, Ca back in the 60`s name KLAN radio. It was an am station. The disc jockeys had scottish names like Sandy McTavish, etc. It was a very good station. I always hought it had something to do with the KLAN in ethnic terms. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who may have info on the station.

Thanks,
Bink
 
Do you realize that was 40 years or more ago? Maybe you do, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it! I was a radio fanatic in those days (maybe I still am), and I waited in great anticipation of the debut of that station (was it in 1962?) It was daytime only, and I think it started out at 250 watts at 1320KC. In the later 60's it was only scraping by. Did it go to Portugese programming for a while? It was eventually bought by the Catholic radio operation. When KRDU in Dinuba was moved from 1240 to 1130 so that it's coverage could be expanded, the 1320 signal was moved to the abandonded 1240 frequency. It is still on the air as KJOP, 1240, Lemoore.

I'm sure it never had any connection to the KKK. The KLAN name was only intended to refer to Scottish clans (the Scottish named "KLANS-men of music").

By the way I was working at KGEN in those days (you're in K-Gen (as in Cajun) country!) I also worked at KNGS and KICU-tv 43.
 
Wow, Binkyboy...you just dissolved a few calcified dendrites. I was pretty short when KLAN was playing up all the Johnny and Judy songs (as we called them), and it was the "it" station in Lindsay where I was at the time (Sharkstooth Capital of the World and Gateway to Strathmore). Later in life I would tell unbelieving radio brains about the call letters of my childhood. How on earth could station calls be so racist?...it ranked right up there with the KRAP's and K---'s and K---'s of the industry call-wise. Now all these millenia later I learn that it was a Scottish thing!

But further info I have not as I was all of 6 or 7 at the time I was giving them my TSL, except their jingles spelled the calls, as I recalls, so...(sung to the tune of "K-F-R-C!"): "K-L-A-N!", and rarely otherwise.
 
Before anybody jumps on me, I have to make some corrections. I don't think my information is entirely correct. It was partly based on information I remembered reading once on the Catholic radio website which says : KJOP Immaculate Heart Radio 1240 AM Lemoore (1,000 watts day, 250 watts night). Format: EWTN 24 hrs. Immaculate Heart Radio. Hanford, CA 93230. Tel.: (559) 582-5567. See Reno, Nevada. On air December 23, 1963 as KLAN 1320 AM (1,000 watts daytime). Moved to 1240 AM when KRDU in nearby Dinuba moved from 1240 AM to 1130 AM. Started Catholic programming on August 20, 2000. (In the Diocese of Fresno).

The fact is KRDU moved to 1240 around 1958, which was before KLAN was ever on the air. KOAD in Armona (near Hanford and Lemoore) was the station on 1240 in the mid 1960's. KLAN does appear to have started out with 1KW, although it has been reported elsewhere that it was 500 Watts, and I confused it with the 250 watts that was what KOAD was running. At some point the KLAN call letters changed to KQIQ, and it may have gone off the air around 1992 while it was still on 1320KHz. Can anybody shed any light on this? Does KJOP really have any connection to KLAN? Did KJOP just take over the abandonded KOAD 1240 frequency? Is the Catholic church playing fast and loose with the facts?
 
Correction again: I meant to say that KRDU moved from 1240 to 1130 (back around 1958). The bottom line is that I have no reliable information about KLAN ever moving from 1320 to 1240. I only personally know of KLAN being a 1000 watt daytime only station on 1320 KHz.

I can't remember for sure when it was that I dropped by to visit with the DJ at KLAN, but it was either around 1967 or around 1973. At that time I definitely got the impression that they were past their glory days.

I dropped by and visited with the DJ at KOAD 1240 sometime around 1966, and they were a real shoestring operation at the time. They were running 250 watts day and night, with the whole operation in a small trailer next to the transmitting tower.
 
I was in my teens in the 80's I remember KOAD-AM 1320 and KQYZ FM-104.9. I think they both went off the air in the late 80's or early 90's. I moved from there in 1988. But I remember there was two AM towers southwest of Hanford. I use to see them all the time driving into town on 11th Ave. They were about 2 miles west of that road around 13th Ave. The AM I last remember was Spanish and the also the FM. The FM would go English at 6PM and they had on several formats. They had a top40 lean mixed with oldies/slowjams tossed in the mix. I know I have a tape of them somewhere. I am slowly converting/repairing old tapes and putting them on CD. They always played the request I made when I called in. The only station that ever did. The FM was 3000 watts and the tower was like 185 feet I think. I need to dig out the old Vane A. Jones North American Radio-TV Station Guide book to look it up. Since the FM dial back then was not as crowed, they got calls from as far south as Delano and up around Fresno with that 3kW.
 
This is getting a bit confusing. First of all it, as far as I know it should be either KLAN 1320, or KOAD 1240. I don't know of KOAD being on 1320. Secondly if there were two towers, were they paired in a directional array, or were they located in different places? I was not aware of KLAN or KOAD having more than one tower each. The two KNGS 620 towers were a directional array, and they were located east of Hanford on hwy 198.

When I worked evenings at KNGS, I would manually turn on the tower lights, switch the antenna phasing at sundown to go directional, and then run out to the base of each tower to log the RF currents. I was the only person on duty that time of night, so I had to do all this while manning the board and handling all the sorting of records, commercials, news, network programming, Angels baseball games, pre-recorded programs, and station breaks.

At one point I was working two jobs on Sundays: I put KGEN 1370 on the air at 5:30 AM and worked until noon, then raced from KGEN in Tulare to KNGS in Hanford to start a shift at 1:00, going until station sign-off. I was 19 years old at the time.
 
I was a 12 yr old radio addict when KLAN went on the air in 1961. I lived 30 miles N/E of Lemoore and listened often. The sign-on roughly cooincided with the opening of Lemoore Naval Air Station, or, NAS Lemoore in 1961. I assumed the call letters were a variation of that name, Lemoore Air Naval. 1000 watts, 2 tower directional, daytime only. KRDU, KOAD, nor the Catholic Church had anything to do with KLAN.
KRDU moved to 1130 from 1240 prior to 1959. KOAD came on the air in the mid 60s on 1240 and still exists, now owned by the Catholic church, as KJOP. KLAN went off the air in 1985 or '86. My GUESS is that it was taken off the air in order for KLBN, 1330 in Los Banos to upgrade. Or, maybe it was just 1330's luck that 1320, Lemoore was eventually deleted.

For a few early 60s listeners to Top 40 in the area south of Fresno and north of Hanford had 1300, 1320, and 1340 to find their favorite songs. I remember a newscast on KLAN reporting that someone had climbed one of their towers during the night and left a Jolly Roger pirate flag flying from it.
 
Good info mofocat! I must have known at some point that KLAN had two antenna towers, but those brain cells are dead now.

Now, here's a question for you or anybody else that knows. I see some obscure references to the call letters KQIQ being assigned to 1320 Lemoore sometime after KLAN ceased to be. One really intriquing reference from around 2004 says that KQIQ 1320 was assigned to Farmersville, with 5KW days and 3.1KW nights. The transmitting location is shown as near the corner of Houston and 2nd (east of Hanford). I'm thinking that was very short-lived, or never really existed. Does anybody know?

I left that area around 1973 (my last job in that area was at KMPH TV 26), so I don't have much direct knowledge of what happened after that.

While I've got your attention, how about the construction permit to move KGEN 1370 from Tulare to Sanger??? What are they thinking???? How could the money that's being dumped into that move ever be recovered? AM radio in itself is marginal these days, the proposed coverage from the new site is very marginal, and they've hired the best consulting engineers in the country for what must be a tidy sum of money. Add the legal fees, and construction costs and you are looking at a real money pit.
 
---? "Now, here's a question for you or anybody else that knows. I see some obscure references to the call letters KQIQ being assigned to 1320 Lemoore sometime after KLAN ceased to be."

Yes, that was KLAN, the last few years it had become KQIQ, before going dark. I seem to remember the last days being syndicated talk, including Dr Laura or some other female hosted advice show. I'm not really sure of that tho - lol - those cells have a way of dis-remembering. I barely remember the FM KQYQ 104.9 in the late 70s early 80s. I can't really say which one went off first or if it was simultaneous. The 104.9 freq went to Tipton in the 90s and is owned by the old KCOK 1270, now KJUG-AM, along with the old KKNU/KWSM/KJUG 106.7, Tulare. That re-incarnation of 104.9 went on the air in the later 90s and became famous (infamous?) as "The Grapevine Station" because there was no money for programming ( I heard) and so the builder just played a continuous repetition of "I Heard It Throught The Grapevine" FOR OVER A YEAR! Actually, around 16 months, until the (former KCOK) KJUG outfit took it off the hands of the builder. Thousands of travelers, north and southbound, on hiway 99 were entertained by the appropriate soundtrack as they traversed mile after mile of vinyards between Delano and Kingsburg. lol

---> "One really intriquing reference from around 2004 says that KQIQ 1320 was assigned to Farmersville, with 5KW days and 3.1KW nights. The transmitting location is shown as near the corner of Houston and 2nd (east of Hanford). I'm thinking that was very short-lived, or never really existed. Does anybody know?"

I remember seeing that too. All I know is that it never got on the air.

---> "I left that area around 1973 (my last job in that area was at KMPH TV 26), so I don't have much direct knowledge of what happened after that.While I've got your attention, how about the construction permit to move KGEN 1370 from Tulare to Sanger???"

I've seen that also. It seems there has been some recent FCC activity on that, with a CP granted. I have no idea if it will happen, just assuming that there's something going on to make it happen. The new site is north of Sanger, right at the intersection of two major roads; state hiway 180 and Academy Ave. I get out that way from time to time- have to make a point of it and see if any towers are going up. I watched the construction of KMJ 580's four 800' foot sticks when they were granted 50kw about 5 years ago. Those displaced an orange orchard that I helped plant as a teenager in the mid sixties for $1.25/hour. About 5 mi. NW of Orange Cove. Those went up FAST.

Little 250 watt KLIP 1220 Fowler finally got a change to 1210 and an increase all the way up to 370 watts! It's now 100% Hmong language as KQEQ. The big advantage, I guess, was being able to go fulltime on 1210. They have a CP to move daytime antenna about 7 miles (guessing) to west edge of Fresno with 5kw.

--> "What are they thinking?Huh How could the money that's being dumped into that move ever be recovered? AM radio in itself is marginal these days, the proposed coverage from the new site is very marginal, and they've hired the best consulting engineers in the country for what must be a tidy sum of money. Add the legal fees, and construction costs and you are looking at a real money pit."

I have no idea LOL
 
For all these posts, very little has been said . I am now jumping in here to take this to semi Modern times
I know something about KQIQ. I jocked there and became PD in 1979. We were always told the FM was just around the corner, yea right. We were doing a late 70's styled Top 40 format with a fairly large playlist.
I hadn't been called KLAN in years so quit referring to it as KLAN or KOAD. KOAD was a few miles away, with their R&B format at the time. The owner was some kind of freaky dude with Hollywood connections. I discoverd that the fruit cake planned to automate the station so I spilled the beans on the air. I had already lined up a new gig. Met some interesting women in that town. Most of my buds and myself went on to major markets. But the Double Q was a fun little station in that stanky desert/farm town.
 
Can't shed much light on the question, but I certainly remember KLAN as a 500-watt daytimer, except for one day in 1968 when their signal was _massively_ better in Bakersfield, sounding as loud as KCOK, Tulare! Don't know hhow much power they were running that dayDick McCormick went to Bakersfield in 1967 and worked for KLYD-1350 as Dick Rogers, later as Dick Parker on KERN and KAFY.
Many competing Top 40 stations. You had KLAN, KOAD, and then KCOK starting in 1967, expanding on the success of Paul Fredericks' hot evening show from around '64 on. As if that weren't enough, both KONG (Visalia) and KNGS (Hanford) played Top 40 at night.
Not sure I've ever heard so much hit radio in such a small geographic area. I'm not sure KOAD ever sounded good, but most everybody else did.
Amazing, since KAFY had a massive daytime signal and did well south of Fresno, and there was Boss Radio KYNO.
I believe KOAD eventually switched to Spanish as KJOP before they were bought by the Catholics.
I also remember when KLAN's 104.9 signed on, which I thought was around '80 or '81. Heard it often from Bakersfield. By the mid-80s, its signal seemed to have deteriorated, (when it was on the air at all.)
 
Mofocat has a good line on all of it. KCOK was granted a CP around 1944 and started out on 1240 and then moved to 1270. KRDU then might have held down 1240 for a short time until moving to 1130 --. However KOAD 1240 in Lemoore began around 1959 or so and had nothing to do with KLAN. The former owner of KLAN might have sold KLAN and bought KOAD and later sold KOAD / KJOP to IHS (the Catholic group). -- KLAN was at 1320 with 1 KW DAYS -- had a CP to relocate to Farmersville -- fulltime with a large DA antenna system. Shortly afer being granted the CP to move to Farmersvile, ( early 1980's ) KQIQ - 1320 - went silent and never returned. The 104.9 - KQYZ - began in Lemoore around 1981 or so and later moved to Tipton -- as a "B1". The CP expired and others had moved in on the 104.9 -- ever preventing an upgade at Tipton. So Tipton ends up as a lifelong Class A. The real joke is that 104.9 could possibly upgrade -- if it moved back towards Coalinga. 1320 and 1330 have both been applied for in the valley and Santa Maria areas. Sooner or later - 1320 or 1330 will return to the air. Regardless of transmitter site locations both KOAD 1240 and KLAN 1320 were both licensed to Lemoore as well as the 104.9 that later moved to Tipton.
 
Multiplex said:
"Many competing Top 40 stations. You had KLAN, KOAD, and then KCOK starting in 1967, expanding on the success of Paul Fredericks' hot evening show from around '64 on. As if that weren't enough, both KONG (Visalia) and KNGS (Hanford) played Top 40 at night.
Not sure I've ever heard so much hit radio in such a small geographic area. I'm not sure KOAD ever sounded good, but most everybody else did.
Amazing, since KAFY had a massive daytime signal and did well south of Fresno, and there was Boss Radio KYNO."


Excellent info there Multiplex! Were you living a Bakersfield in those days, to hear all those stations? '67 seemed to be the peak for number of AM Top 40 stations, I was hearing all those, except KERN going back to '59. Sam Schwan ruled at KYNO before Ron Jabob's KMAKe blasted on the scene in '62. KAFY was good if were just out of KMAKe or KYNO's range south of Fresno. KCOK, KONG and KNGS nightime shows were good, but then Wolfman and KRLA-KFWB skip was available at nite too. "Nightbeat" on KONG always started (@8pm I think) with it's theme song: "The Happy Organ". Anyone remember the jock's name on "Nightbeat"? Bob Meyers? Don't know why I don't recall much of KNGS, except I'm sure they were doing Top 40. Called themself "Channel 62" and had Angels Games at some point. I don't recall if Paul Fredericks had a theme song for his nitetime show or not. KCOK went from 1kw to 5. (around 65-67?) KYNO, KAFY, KMAKe, KLAN, KOAD were MIA at night in Kings, Tulare and the southern half of Fresno counties. KLIP was doing some great R&B and Blues.
Fresno radio at nite was saturated with ads for Smitty's Bail Bonds. Anyone know the title and artist of that theme for Smitty's: "If you're ever in a jam, here I am..."? Who remembers Happy Harold? Fill me in pls. I heard him on KLIP but am curious what became of him.

As we got to the end of that "gilded AM era", KMAKe and KCOK went off into a very cool period when Gary D. Gilbert worked at both simultainiously. (He'd been fired from KYNO a few years earlier.) By the end of the 60s decade I was DXing FM progressive rock from Bakersfield. I think it might have been 107.9 first and then 96.5 that went progressive. Anyone remember that? I think the 96.5 was KIFM at the time. 107.9 - KKXX?? I remember (summer 69?) the mighty KFRE 940 having a late night prog rock show. Wouldn't it be nice to hear an AM and FM bandscan of that time from anywhere between Fresno and Bakersfield?
 
In the mid 1960's my friend Ron Herron ruled the airwaves on the KONG nightbeat program. He started sometime around 1963. Later on he went over to the Santa Barbara area, and he can still be heard on the air over there. I used to hang out with him at KONG when I got a chance. Around that time I used to fill in on the top 40's program on KNGS in the evenings. We were indeed handling the Angels games in those days, and KNGS handled those games for a number of years. My other hangout was KBOS/KGEN, and Gary D. Gilbert was there for a while as well. I filled in for his show on at least one occasion. I used to be the "hired babysitter" for the girls when KBOS went to "All Girl Radio" circa 1966-67.

KCOK must have gone to 5KW sometime before I tracked such things starting around 1963. It must have happened in the 1950's unless my mind is going. That's a long time ago!! Those of us that are still alive from that time period are getting old now.

By the way, KONG was started (with call letters something like KCKN) by my next door neighbor in those days: Lyman Treaster. He was a close family friend until he died a few years ago.

I was always hoping somebody would record the early history of Valley radio before all the facts got lost in the haze. I'm afraid that too many of those facts are already lost. Realistically, there probably aren't many people around that really care, and we will all be gone soon.
 
Worked in area in 1979. There was an amazing array of music radio in the South Valley, and in Fresno.
It was amazing.

KQIQ- Top 40
KBOS Rock 40
KCOK-Pop/Oldies
KONG-Top 40
K100-Rock at night
KKYS-FM Adult Top 40
KJOP-R&B

Of course KFRE was still doing their Pop Adult personality approach with Mike
Webb in the morning.

Y94-Adult Top 40

K104-Rhythmic Top 40

KYNO-AM Hot Ac

KYNO-FM-Top 40

KFIG-Soft Rock
 
mofocat said:
Multiplex said:
"Many competing Top 40 stations. You had KLAN, KOAD, and then KCOK starting in 1967, expanding on the success of Paul Fredericks' hot evening show from around '64 on. As if that weren't enough, both KONG (Visalia) and KNGS (Hanford) played Top 40 at night.
Not sure I've ever heard so much hit radio in such a small geographic area. I'm not sure KOAD ever sounded good, but most everybody else did.
Amazing, since KAFY had a massive daytime signal and did well south of Fresno, and there was Boss Radio KYNO."


Excellent info there Multiplex! Were you living a Bakersfield in those days, to hear all those stations? '67 seemed to be the peak for number of AM Top 40 stations, I was hearing all those, except KERN going back to '59. Sam Schwan ruled at KYNO before Ron Jabob's KMAKe blasted on the scene in '62. KAFY was good if were just out of KMAKe or KYNO's range south of Fresno. KCOK, KONG and KNGS nightime shows were good, but then Wolfman and KRLA-KFWB skip was available at nite too. "Nightbeat" on KONG always started (@8pm I think) with it's theme song: "The Happy Organ". Anyone remember the jock's name on "Nightbeat"? Bob Meyers? Don't know why I don't recall much of KNGS, except I'm sure they were doing Top 40. Called themself "Channel 62" and had Angels Games at some point. I don't recall if Paul Fredericks had a theme song for his nitetime show or not. KCOK went from 1kw to 5. (around 65-67?) KYNO, KAFY, KMAKe, KLAN, KOAD were MIA at night in Kings, Tulare and the southern half of Fresno counties. KLIP was doing some great R&B and Blues.
Fresno radio at nite was saturated with ads for Smitty's Bail Bonds. Anyone know the title and artist of that theme for Smitty's: "If you're ever in a jam, here I am..."? Who remembers Happy Harold? Fill me in pls. I heard him on KLIP but am curious what became of him.

As we got to the end of that "gilded AM era", KMAKe and KCOK went off into a very cool period when Gary D. Gilbert worked at both simultainiously. (He'd been fired from KYNO a few years earlier.) By the end of the 60s decade I was DXing FM progressive rock from Bakersfield. I think it might have been 107.9 first and then 96.5 that went progressive. Anyone remember that? I think the 96.5 was KIFM at the time. 107.9 - KKXX?? I remember (summer 69?) the mighty KFRE 940 having a late night prog rock show. Wouldn't it be nice to hear an AM and FM bandscan of that time from anywhere between Fresno and Bakersfield?
Click to expand...
 
Not sure if my brain will recover from this thread. All too many memories. Ok, how many posting actually worked at KOAD or KLAN? My hand goes up for working at KOAD (until I realized, uh, no paycheck). Looking back, I wonder what really kept that station going? Couldn't have just been the that record store behind the GM's desk...

As to KNGS playing top-40 at night, when was that? For as long as I can remember, they were country.
 
When I worked at KNGS circa 1967, it was top 40 at night, and middle of the road in the daytime. I can't remember a country music era, but I'm missing a lot of brain cells at this point. They have had a Portugese language format for a lot of years now (it seems like a couple of decades). KONG in Visalia was doing the same thing as KNGS at the time (middle of the road daytime, top 40 in the evening). KGEN did the country music back then, with KCOK and KFRE taking it up later on.
 
KNGS 620 was Country in the 80's,then around 1988 it simucasted FM sister KCLQ 107.5 with a classic rock format for a while.After that They had a combination of Portugese and spanish format.
 
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