LBI's 850 history and other LBI AM'S 1230, 880

[thebeach33445]

Hey Guys:

With all the research I have done so far I came up with a timeline for 850 from LBI:

was a Ranchera format called La Ranchera from 1984 to August 14, 2002 when LBI aquired 850.

August 14, 2002 KEYH to Grupera as Sondido 850

May 1, 2003 KEYH to Spanish/AC as Concierto 850

Jan 1, 2007 KEYH to Nortena as La Nortena 850

Mon Oct 29, 2007 back to Ranchera as La Ranchera 850

If I am correct 880 KJOJ was religous until LBI aquired them from CC on March 9, 2001. Then became Vietnamese as Little Siagon Radio?

Now with 1230 KQUE LBI Aquired then from CC also on March 9, 2001 too. They were big band and then changed to Ranchera as Radio Rancherito? Did Radio Ranchero last till Oct 29, 2007 and became Nortena as El Norte 1230?


If anybody would like to add or correct any mistakes plesae go right ahead. I would really love any imput.

Thanks
T.J.

 

[gabigley1]

Hey Guys:

With all the research I have done so far I came up with a timeline for 850 from LBI:

was a Ranchera format called La Ranchera from 1984 to August 14, 2002 when LBI acquired 850.

From what I understand, LBI had a LMA with Artlite Broadcasting until the end of 2002 when LBI acquired KEYH 850 from Artlite.

This may not be what you are interested in but KEYH 850 was the second all Spanish radio station in Houston. They went from all local news to
Spanish in early 1979. Prior to that there were Spanish on Sunday only but they decided to go all Spanish because of the Sunday ratings.
They said in a TV News interview at the time that the rating on Sunday were much higher then the rest of the time when they were all local
news.

What is KEYH 850 up to these days?

 

[fredcantu]

KEYH was Houston's 2nd fulltime Spanish language station after KLVL?

 

[willdav713]

Hey Guys:

With all the research I have done so far I came up with a timeline for 850 from LBI:

was a Ranchera format called La Ranchera from 1984 to August 14, 2002 when LBI aquired 850.

August 14, 2002 KEYH to Grupera as Sondido 850

May 1, 2003 KEYH to Spanish/AC as Concierto 850

Jan 1, 2007 KEYH to Nortena as La Nortena 850

Mon Oct 29, 2007 back to Ranchera as La Ranchera 850

If I am correct 880 KJOJ was religous until LBI aquired them from CC on March 9, 2001. Then became Vietnamese as Little Siagon Radio?

Now with 1230 KQUE LBI Aquired then from CC also on March 9, 2001 too. They were big band and then changed to Ranchera as Radio Rancherito? Did Radio Ranchero last till Oct 29, 2007 and became Nortena as El Norte 1230?


If anybody would like to add or correct any mistakes plesae go right ahead. I would really love any imput.

Thanks
T.J.

Acutally 880 KJOJ and KQUE 1230 simulcasted KTJM and KJOJ FM 98.5/103.3 "Jammin Hits up and down the dial" back in May 13, 2001 until the flip of Jammin Hits to La Raza on July 4, 2001. I picked up both 880 and 1230 in San Antonio heard Double Dutch Bus, Chic Good Times and KC and the Sunshine Band.
Before that KJOJ 880 was Christian "Good News Radio AM 880" and KQUE was News Opinon with KNUZ flipping to another format in 1998 the same time KBME "Unforgetable 790" came on the air.

 

[purpledevil]

KQUE also simulcasted 93.7 The Arrow for a brief time in '98 after the Standards music ended at 1230. IIRC, KQUE and KBME were not on the air at the same time with Standards music. KQUE moved from 102.9 down to 1230 when 102.9 "The Planet" was introduced which was in 1997. KQUE was subsequently sold and dropped the Standards format, which led to the birth of KBME at 790, in 1998. KBME lasted until "The Sports Animal" came about in 2000...or 2001, I know it flipped during Christmas, but can't remember what year, and KQUE simulcasted 93.7 and then 98.5. Once it broke from the simulcast it then became "Radio Ranchito", then "La Ranchera", then "El Norte", now Hum Tum City's Fun Asia Radio splitting time with the Little Saigon folks.

KJOJ's history begins way back when with a little Conroe station called KIKR located at 900. The owners of 900 KIKR and the FM sister 106.9 KRNO decided to upgrade the cluster to keep up with the times. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong property to upgrade. KIKR was moved down the dial to 880 and increased power to 10,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 watts night, all the while 106.9 was left to serve Conroe and some of north Houston, with minimal power. I don't recall how long that lasted, but the stations were eventually sold to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and given new calls of KJOJ AM/FM Conroe. JOJ calls actually stood for "Joy of Jesus". Now, the old memory isn't what it used to be, but somehow 103.3 fits into the equation too, which is how the KJOJ calls ended up on Freeport's 103.3. 900 KIKR was replaced by a station relocated from Oakdale, Louisiana, given a COL that doesn't exist in Pecan Grove and has been brokered, I believe, since it was moved into the Rosenberg area as KREH.

Now, if you really want your head to spin, start researching the great Univision movements of the late 1990's. That will keep you busy for quite some time, tracking all of that flip flopping.

 

[ChuckTiller]

Spin it a little more! AM 900 KIKR was originally KMCO.

 

[thebeach33445]

willdav713 and the other guys: Thanks for the reply!! I finally got 1230 down pat.

Willdav said "Acutally 880 KJOJ and KQUE 1230 simulcasted KTJM and KJOJ FM 98.5/103.3 "Jammin Hits up and down the dial" back in May 13, 2001 until the flip of Jammin Hits to La Raza on July 4, 2001."

So does that mean Little Saigon Radio started on July 4, 2001? How long was Little Saigon Radio on 880? 880 KJOJ''s format timeline is really confusing after the religious format ended.

OH yes I just noticed this the other day from 1230 Hum Tum web site I found by accident, when did Hum Tum City's Fun Asia Radio start on 1230? I thought it was still El Norte?

Thanks Guys for all of your help.

T.J.

 

[willdav713]

KQUE also simulcasted 93.7 The Arrow for a brief time in '98 after the Standards music ended at 1230. IIRC, KQUE and KBME were not on the air at the same time with Standards music. KQUE moved from 102.9 down to 1230 when 102.9 "The Planet" was introduced which was in 1997. KQUE was subsequently sold and dropped the Standards format, which led to the birth of KBME at 790, in 1998. KBME lasted until "The Sports Animal" came about in 2000...or 2001, I know it flipped during Christmas, but can't remember what year, and KQUE simulcasted 93.7 and then 98.5. Once it broke from the simulcast it then became "Radio Ranchito", then "La Ranchera", then "El Norte", now Hum Tum City's Fun Asia Radio splitting time with the Little Saigon folks.

KJOJ's history begins way back when with a little Conroe station called KIKR located at 900. The owners of 900 KIKR and the FM sister 106.9 KRNO decided to upgrade the cluster to keep up with the times. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong property to upgrade. KIKR was moved down the dial to 880 and increased power to 10,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 watts night, all the while 106.9 was left to serve Conroe and some of north Houston, with minimal power. I don't recall how long that lasted, but the stations were eventually sold to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and given new calls of KJOJ AM/FM Conroe. JOJ calls actually stood for "Joy of Jesus". Now, the old memory isn't what it used to be, but somehow 103.3 fits into the equation too, which is how the KJOJ calls ended up on Freeport's 103.3. 900 KIKR was replaced by a station relocated from Oakdale, Louisiana, given a COL that doesn't exist in Pecan Grove and has been brokered, I believe, since it was moved into the Rosenberg area as KREH.

Now, if you really want your head to spin, start researching the great Univision movements of the late 1990's. That will keep you busy for quite some time, tracking all of that flip flopping.

You are correct about the Arrow Simulcast, I remember in 1998 1230 AM was the Arrow music, 97.1 was began simulcasting the buzz, 102.9 already went Regional Mexican. The KJOJ calls ceased on 106.9 and moved to 103.3 around 1990 with 106.9 being a jazz station, then KKHU You1069 News Oldies (after KFMKs demise) then ZRock then sold to become"The Word" then sold again to Cox. I think KBME started in late 1997 around November KQUE standards on AM was very short lived. ABC Radio Networks which owned KQUE sold that station at the same time.

Little Saigon is a time brokered thus being on different frequences, I think it was once on 1540 before KILE AMs ethnic format.

 

[Mediafrog+]

IIRC, KQUE and KBME were not on the air at the same time with Standards music. KQUE moved from 102.9 down to 1230 when 102.9 "The Planet" was introduced which was in 1997. KQUE was subsequently sold and dropped the Standards format, which led to the birth of KBME at 790, in 1998. KBME lasted until "The Sports Animal" came about in 2000...or 2001, I know it flipped during Christmas, but can't remember what year

790 flipped to Standards in January, 1998. 1230 didn't drop Standards until later that same year, so there were several months when both stations were running that format.

790 launched the current SportsTalk format on 12/17/04.

 

[bturner]

Little Saigon Radio was with my station, KYND for around 6 years (ending in June of 2010...around 18th or so) prior to going to 1230. Prior to KYND, Little Saigon was on 880 and in fact, Little Saigon was heard on 880 and 1520 during that first year (give or take a month or two). I know that since they were on my station and they asked me to do their legal IDs.

For the life of me the brain cells containing the name of the station Little Saigon was on before KJOJ are just not working but it seems Little Saigon was on KJOJ around 3 years. I remember when they went to KJOJ because I was trying to get them on KYND. I told them even if they didn't choose me they should try for another station because wouldn't like KJOJ's coverage (and they didn't). It seems they might have been on 1070 but I'm not sure.

The way I understand it, at one time the folks at KREH 900 and Little Saigon Radio were together as the same company but there was a split. I think they began during KGOL 1180's early ethnic programming days.

Hum Tum has a long history. Rehan had started on KYND when one of our programmers brought him into the fold by selling him an hour or two of his time each week. If I recall, he bounced around at a couple of Houston stations, then went to Dallas and leased time there. I know Rehan always wanted to get back to Houston. A co-worker said he heard Rehan on KJOJ shortly after Little Saigon left 880.

KJOJ as a Christian format station was more of a market leader in the format. Haygood Hardy was involved in the last few years (spelling might not be correct). There were many competitors such as 1110 KTEK, 1180 KGOL and even KYND. With all the Christian Teaching stations on the dial, I recall it was really tough to find a national ministry to buy time since almost all of them had a home in Houston on another station. So, as I put it, KYND didn't get a slice of the pie, but the crumbs. We nabbed those ministries with lousy airtimes on the other stations and they generally wouldn't give up the lousy time, but instead wanted a second station at a better time at rock bottom prices. By the time an ethnic programmer started waving cash, I was sick of living on mac and cheese and ready to step up to the 99 cent nenu. Thus, how KYND evolved.

I'll note here that a 'Preaching & Teaching' format is exactly like brokered radio because you're mostly selling daily or weekly 15 and 30 minute blocks instead of hours on end. Programming is diminished to how clever your legal ID sounds and any promos.

As for Jamming Oldies, there was a point where they tweaked for a few months and played an incredible variety of music, sounding more like an earlier version of top 40 but oldies based. I thought they really had something coupled with live jocks who seems to have just enough patter to involve the listeners. The jocks were good as well. It is too bad they were on a more fringe frequency. I have a few airchecks somewhere.

 

[ChuckTiller]

.... ABC Radio Networks which owned KQUE sold that station at the same time.

KQUE was never owned by ABC.

 

[thebeach33445]

Hey guys:

Thanks for all the replys. I think I have come up with a time line for both 1230 and 880


880 Timeline:
KJOJ simulcast 103.3 98.5 to Vietnamaese L.S.R. July 4, 2001

KJOJ to ethnic brokered programming in 2004 (Don't know the exact date)

KJOJ to Indian Music and talk Hum Tum City April 2007

KJOJ to Spanish Tropical Azucar 880 around June 2007

KJOJ to Spanish Oldies La Bonita April 1, 2010

1230 Timeline
KQUE simulcast 98.5 and 103.3 to Ranchera "Radio Rancherio" July 4, 2001

KQUE to Ranchera "La Ranchera 1230" (from 850) Aug 14, 2002

KQUE to Nortena "La Norte 1230" Oct 29, 2007

KQUE to Spanish Oldies "La Bonita 1230" Jan 3, 2010

KQUE to Indian Music and talk Hum Tum City April 1, 2010

KQUE to Vietnamese L.S.R. June 18, 2010.

If I left anything out or if anybody wants to put in their input please do.

Thanks

T.J.