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KLTG History

T

theradioexpert

What is the history of the 96.5 frequency in Corpus Christi? I was trying to find when it first signed on, how long it has been a Hot AC station branded as "The Beach", and any previous call letters, but wasn't having any luck on the net. Does anybody who follows CC radio have anything on the station's history?

Thanks.
 
Wow. Needs a little research to get accurate, but here's what "I" recall.

Prior incarnations. K-lite. an oldies station.

Before that...Also Klite. An MOR/light rock station (K-Lite). Gave up the "MOR" idea and moved to oldies after getting crushed by "The mix 93.9 KMXR."

A while before - KIOU (Co Owned with KDAE) Beautiful music and "John Traphagen". He actually did shows from his bed in the final days of his life. An interesting radio guy.


Lots of history on this frequency. Most of it not lately.

Now run by an egotistical moron from a the location of a former drug rehab hospital. I hear ther station smells like vomit inside. (Not kidding, that's really what I heard about their "New" facility.)

I'm especially fond of the Ice cream truck(s) parked outside/next door. I suspect this is due to the rotten deal they have with Jay Harpol from days gone by. Just my opinion.

YMMV,

Clouseau
 
clouseau said:
Now run by an egotistical moron from a the location of a former drug rehab hospital. I hear ther station smells like vomit inside. (Not kidding, that's really what I heard about their "New" facility.)
Click to expand...

Yeah the smell inside that building is sickening! It smells like a mix of puke and piss. Reminds me of visiting my grandfather in the old nursing home when I was a kiddo. I have no idea how they can work in that building. I was only there a couple of hours and when I left, I reeked of that nasty smell. I had to change clothes when I got home... it was that bad!
 
theradioexpert said:
how long it has been a Hot AC station branded as "The Beach", and any previous call letters, but wasn't having any luck on the net.
Click to expand...

The previous call letters were KIOU. They have been KLTG since 04/25/1987

I believe they have been The Beach since 2000/2001? (Somewhere around that time frame) If I remember correctly, they flipped from K-Lite over to The Beach to compete and go after The Planet 104.5 and in order for The Planet to compete a little better against a C1 station, they moved to 102.3 FM which is 50kw frequency. The format has been tweaked around a few times over the past 8 or so years but the name "The Beach" has not changed.
 
radiodog2 said:
IIRC they became the Beach in late '98 and they sounded more like a AAA station then a Hot AC.
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It couldn't have been 1998. The Planet 104.5 signed on in late 1998 - early 1999ish. The Beach didn't exist for another year or so after The Planet. It had to have been around 2000-2001.
 
In its hey day KIOU was a top notch operation. It executed the beautiful music format as well as any major market station with high standards for both sound quality and local production. KLUX owes them a lot for building an audience and a loyalty for the format in Corpus Christi. Beautiful music is not considered commercially viable anymore, but there are a number of non-commercial radio stations proving there is still an audience for it.
 
fredcantu said:
In its hey day KIOU was a top notch operation. It executed the beautiful music format as well as any major market station with high standards for both sound quality and local production. KLUX owes them a lot for building an audience and a loyalty for the format in Corpus Christi. Beautiful music is not considered commercially viable anymore, but there are a number of non-commercial radio stations proving there is still an audience for it.
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I lived in corpus in the mid 60s. Was in the navy. I agree with cantu. Were well executed. Seemed every office had them on. Boy has radio changed since then!
 
Pretty simple history compared to most stations - signed on as KIOU on 9/1/1967.
Its beautiful music/easy listening format made it one of CC's top-rated stations from the mid 70s to early 80s. (It never hit #1, but would often finish 2nd to KEYS)
The call letter change to KLTG occured on 4/25/1987.
 
Kiou was owned by Steve DeWalt. I worked at KIOU from right after Traphagen died to just before the format change to Light AC. The music was on reel-to-reel and supplied by Churchill in Phoenix. It was the best sounding "easy listening" station I think I ever heard. Great Equipment. Prod studios with 4-track recorders. First time I ever ran a board with "slider" pots. After Traphagen died the sales declined, even though the ratings were very good. The problem was the "older demographic" which the agencies would not buy. When the format changed you would have thought the world had come to an end. Letters to the Editor of the Corpus Christi paper continued for 30 to 45 days.
 
There was another station which ran the same service out of the valley. (KVLY,ISTR.) Back then you could get it as a dx in Corpus regularly. Alway thought it was strange there were 2 stations with the same music.

Clouseau
 
KVLY 107.9 did start off as KESI running a beautiful music format.
Oddly it simulcast then-sister KURV's "Charlie Rankin RFD" farm show in early mornings.
 
And don't forget about KITE at 105.5 FM. They signed on from the roof of the 600 Building with the Schulke Radio Productions "Beautiful Music" format in 1979. It was owned by Jim Phillips and Ron Whitlock as I recall. Chuck McDowell was the PD. The original studios were in the 600 Building on Leopard Street in storefront space sub-let from KORO-TV. I spent a lot of time in that little studio studying and watching the reels go round and round while the street life did it's thing just outside my window. Later KITE moved to 441 Laguna, the former KEYS building which KITE leased when Arnold Malkan moved KEYS to the former Hamburgers Incorporated building at 2117 Leopard to co-locate with KZFM, which he had just purchased. I was also working on the air for AC Formated KZFM as well at the time (talk about format Schizophrenia!) and had the dubious pleasure of helping move KEYS to its new home, then clean up and remodel the space and move KITE in. Now there's nothing left there but dirt.

KITE never did much in the ratings. It was also a well executed format with quarter hour "matched flow" segments instead of random cuts played one a time from category reels. KIOU had us beat hands down as far as an established audience and well know personalities so KITE flipped to Urban some time around 1983 (enter Chuck Dunaway and Marc Driscoll).

Anyone remember Gordon Clark or John Spoffard from KIOU, or know what became of them?

Ah, the memories!

Take care,

Lance Parr
Lanco Technical Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 3483
Bryan, Texas 77805-3483
[email protected]
(979) 820-3468
 
Lance Parr said:
KITE never did much in the ratings... KIOU had us beat hands down as far as an established audience and well know personalities.
Click to expand...

KITE was also signal challenged as a class A up against a class C.
 
Lance, both Gordon, and John have passed away, as have JJ Stone, Eric Chase (John Rabbit), Ed Sharpe, Dan Daniels, John Strealy, and Tom Nix.  Corpus Christi is still a leader in small markets with the biggest talent.  A lot of major market jocks came in and out of KEYS, and lest we forget, that Glenn Beck was hired at KZFM by Jim Sumpter, at the same time I was.
 
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