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Las Vegas Las Vegas Radio Past. Who remembers "The Best on Record" format on KRGN 102

B

Buzz

Sitting behind a glass wall at Garwood Vans Musicland on East Sahara was in plane view, the very impressive automation system that ran the programming for KRGN 102. At the back of the building was the transmitter, mast and antenna. Len E. Mitchel was the Creative Mind behind "The Best on Record" format and I was stunned to see a CBS Audiomax on the output of His Production Console feeding the recorder. Configured correctly, that would produce exceptional recordings. The Creative mind behind the Transmitter would be Gordy Alsum and He was a Las Vegas Legend also. On a visit to KORK FM 97 located on Sandhill Road, Tapes for the Automation would all be set up with a scope to maximize audio quality. Another house maintained by Gordy.

A great sounding setup before Steve Gold and Broadcast Associates would acquire the station and move it to 1555 East Flamingo. Also purchased was KBMI 1400 AM an all news automated setup in a trailer at the Hacienda Hotel. KBMI was once a Beautiful Music Island background music station on AM Radio. When AM could have sounded good.

KENO 1400 AM was the home town top 40 with studio and transmitter on east Flamingo Road and for 1976 we would paint the Radio Station Red White and Blue. KENO had the weekly countdowns and was home to "The Shadow". He drove the streets looking for KENO Radio Bumper Stickers on cars and reveal them on the air. If you called in, you would win a prize.

KLAV 1230 AM was a local station that you could tune in "The CBS Mystery Theatre", one of the last Radio Dramas hosted by E.G. Marshal. Best if you listened in a dark room for the best effect. There studio was close to KRGNs, it was in the Commercial Center, also on Sahara.

Oh, Back to the main subject, "The Best on Record" and Len would move to KVEG 92 FM and I did dead roll airchecks and they are not scoped so the full history. news, commercials and Radio Vibe are all present. What a Time to grow up in. Reels have been transferred to DVD and all still sound great.

I also just bought a 10 pack of Bazooka Bubble Gum and guess what, they still have the comics in them.
 
Gordy Alsum was instrumental in the construction of many broadcast facilities in southern Nevada. 970, 105.1, 101.9, 840, 91.5, 97.1, KVEG in its various forms, among others. "Fort Gordy" on Mount Potosi stands as a monument to his enthusiasm for putting stations on the air, and what corners could be cut and which ones cannot.
 
I can't help making a bad joke out of the typo in your first sentence, Buzz. Sorry.

Buzz said:
Sitting behind a glass wall at Garwood Vans Musicland on East Sahara was in plane view, the very impressive automation system that ran the programming for KRGN 102.
Click to expand...

You mean they got an airplane in there too, alongside the automation? 🤪

Buzz said:
Also purchased was KBMI 1400 AM an all news automated setup in a trailer at the Hacienda Hotel.
Click to expand...

Having had my fun, now a serious question. Do you recall how they managed to automate an all-News format? And why?
 
Was the automated all news programming from the NBC 24/7 news Network? It was short lived in the mid 70s. By the time I moved to Las Vegas in early 1977 KBMI was running a automated AC format, more like Hot AC but that term didn't exist yet. It sounded similar to sister KFMS which was running an automated top 40 format from TM at the time.
 
Jay F said:
Was the automated all news programming from the NBC 24/7 news Network? It was short lived in the mid 70s.
Click to expand...

I should have thought of NIS myself, because my first gig as a PD came when NBC pulled the plug, and the local affiliate AM started simulcasting a badly-done automated FM (which no one had been paying attention to because their focus was entirely on the all-news operation).

NIS, being tightly timed at the local exit/entry "gates", could have been automated, but only if the system was able to make time-based event steps; there were no cue tones on the News & Information Service. Thing is, they were only in operation from June 18, 1975 and May 29, 1977; there were very few automation systems in existence that could have handled precise-time event switches ... maybe a Schafer 903E?
 


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