We hear things today like ‘why on earth would somebody buy that AM station?’ Then we talk of the location on the dial, the power, the noise floor, whether the station is directional or of it’s a daytimer. Then somebody knows if it’s a good owner that has been diligent about keeping their pattern in line and shelled out for decent equipment that is maintained. And frankly, even if all the good checks are checked we still ask, Really, an AM station? Followed by the under the breath utterance ‘sucker’.
Now jump back in the time machine to about 1967 or 1968. What were radio folks saying when somebody wanted to buy an FM stand alone, one that had been dark? Did we utter ‘sucker’? I suspect we did.
How about TV stations? You buy a UHF station, one that had not been on before or it had been long enough to not be remembered by the typical viewer that would play with the rabbit ears to get a partly snowy picture of some B grade programming choices. You can hear the mutterings of ‘sucker’ all over this sale.
Maybe the owner was a ‘double sucker’ because their holdings are an FM stand alone and a UHF TV station, Channel 21. Both proudly sport the calls KFWT, as the city of license is Fort Worth, Texas.
KFWT 102.1 is a 100,000 watt FM. KFWT TV, it’s power I’m unsure about but in my bedroom in Mesquite, Texas with the right position KFWT TV 21 was clear as a bell.
TV 21 wasn’t a fulltime station. They signed on at 4pm on weekdays. They signed off at 10 or maybe 11pm except Friday and Saturday, I think sign off was at Midnight, On weekends the station came on about Noon. I remember Saturday afternoons was a bunch of country music shows. It seems Sunday afternoons was a bunch of westerns and maybe a western movie. Saturday night was wrestling.
It was 1969. I had a 100mw. radio station in the garage. By about 4pm in the summer, this transplant who resided in Kansas City weeks before, found the Dallas heat too much and would turn off the transmitter and go to the AC. Off to my room to watch the Afternoon Movie on Channel 21. It was usually a pretty good black and white flick. I knew the routine. Either at 4:30 or 5:00 there would be a 5 second spot for Buddy’s Supermarket, just long enough for one special. I thought it funny the “we’ll return…” and “now back to the movie” segments were closer to 15 or 20 seconds, way longer than the actual commercial. Or they run the “we’ll return” and “now back to the movie” with only a legal ID between. To fit syndicated shows it was PI spots. Even I knew what those were way back when.
Although it was much like pulling teeth, I made myself listen to KFWT FM. I am going on memory here. I recall the music was very typical Beautiful Music but without the vocals, I think. I recall the jock did breaks on the hour and half hour. Every 10 minutes was a jingle. There was no pause between songs like a typical Beautiful Music station. While tracks did not overlap one another, it was like a wall of melody thirty minutes at a time. For some reason I doubt they used a music service for the format, opting for a home brew or maybe even playing records. If I’m not confused, news headlines were every two hours and weather was once per hour. I listened for commercials and there were very few. Most of my listening was after school or during the day in summer or weekends, but I recall it wasn’t too odd not to hear a commercial in an hour.
Listening to KFWT was a struggle. I much preferred KFAD for album rock and KXOL (versus KLIF) for Top 40. I was a fan of KVIL from the early days, 1969 forward. When my parents gave me the chance to tune in a station in the car as soon as we moved from Kansas City to Dallas, I hit on KVIL 1150. My Mom remarked it was much like my favorite in Kansas City (actually Liberty) KBIL 1140, also an AC before the term was used, and she noted the similar call letters and dial position (KBIL 1140; KVIL 1150).
As far as the DJ on KFWT, it seemed much more informal. The DJ was obviously live and not reading a liner card or spouting the silly liners I heard on the fully automated Beautiful Music stations. While it sure wasn’t personality, the DJ had a name, made reference to the day, weather and such. It wasn’t clutter but made the station feel like there was somebody at the controls. I recall liking that as a kid. It wasn’t quite Joe McChesney enjoying our morning coffee together at KXXK, but it wasn’t canned.
On one occasion I had the chance to listen overnight. Man was that cluttered! From Midnight to 6, they had 5 minutes of news on the hour and half hour plus two PSAs every 10 minutes. I recall the overnight guy was not a very good news reader. It would be years later before I learned about FCC requirements about non-entertainment programming. It was obvious to push as much as they could to Midnight to 6am.
Some of this detail was gleaned years later. You see KFWT FM and UHF TV 21 went bankrupt. The company that got the station continued the FM format but it would be years before TV 21 reappeared. Sometime around 1972, KFWD, as it was known then, became a top 40 without personalities. DJs simply back announced songs at :10, :20, :40 and :50. Weather at :40. News headlines a few times a day, time and temperature on the hour and half hour. During this era I talked to a DJ with all the info on the old KFWT because he was there when the new company took over after KFWT went belly up.
It seems to me the owners of KFWT were ‘suckers’ of the day. They weren’t stupid. They saw the rising sun on the horizon. They were obviously forward thinking but a few years ahead of their time. In only a few years UHF stations were getting viewers and FM listening in Dallas/Fort Worth would equal AM listening perhaps 5 years beyond the time KFWT went belly up. It is likely they saw that coming.
As I mention KXXK FM, I really liked the station’s execution of the format. The station for groovy grownups was supposed to be modeled after WPIX in New York City and I understand a struggling FM in Saint Louis has the same concept. KXXK musically is hard to describe. It was more modern. Original vocals were the rule. You’d hear The Happenings do “See You In September”. No Ray Conniff Singers belting out “Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain”. You got the original hit. After that maybe the Bill Black Combo. It was sort of beautiful music, not quite MOR and not quite lite rock or adult contemporary. If it had a lean, it was surely easy listening and mostly instrumental but more of a Paul Mauriat Love Is Blue or Peter Nero Born Free or even “A Summer Place” style. Ain’t that groovy, man?
Songs were back announced. Every other song the DJ would be heard. There was a great jingle package. News and weather was minimal. Weather on the hour and news was 4 times a day on the half hour for a 5 minute cast of rip and read from a jock who was about as bad as me as a news reader.
I never recall hearing many commercials on KXXK. One or two an hour at most? That’s a guess. My listening was forced. The station went on when my parents got up and began to prepare for the day. My parents didn’t consider themselves groovy grownups but they liked the station a good deal (my Dad preferring WRR AM over KXXK because of their hourly Library of Laffs at 45 past every hour).
Now jump back in the time machine to about 1967 or 1968. What were radio folks saying when somebody wanted to buy an FM stand alone, one that had been dark? Did we utter ‘sucker’? I suspect we did.
How about TV stations? You buy a UHF station, one that had not been on before or it had been long enough to not be remembered by the typical viewer that would play with the rabbit ears to get a partly snowy picture of some B grade programming choices. You can hear the mutterings of ‘sucker’ all over this sale.
Maybe the owner was a ‘double sucker’ because their holdings are an FM stand alone and a UHF TV station, Channel 21. Both proudly sport the calls KFWT, as the city of license is Fort Worth, Texas.
KFWT 102.1 is a 100,000 watt FM. KFWT TV, it’s power I’m unsure about but in my bedroom in Mesquite, Texas with the right position KFWT TV 21 was clear as a bell.
TV 21 wasn’t a fulltime station. They signed on at 4pm on weekdays. They signed off at 10 or maybe 11pm except Friday and Saturday, I think sign off was at Midnight, On weekends the station came on about Noon. I remember Saturday afternoons was a bunch of country music shows. It seems Sunday afternoons was a bunch of westerns and maybe a western movie. Saturday night was wrestling.
It was 1969. I had a 100mw. radio station in the garage. By about 4pm in the summer, this transplant who resided in Kansas City weeks before, found the Dallas heat too much and would turn off the transmitter and go to the AC. Off to my room to watch the Afternoon Movie on Channel 21. It was usually a pretty good black and white flick. I knew the routine. Either at 4:30 or 5:00 there would be a 5 second spot for Buddy’s Supermarket, just long enough for one special. I thought it funny the “we’ll return…” and “now back to the movie” segments were closer to 15 or 20 seconds, way longer than the actual commercial. Or they run the “we’ll return” and “now back to the movie” with only a legal ID between. To fit syndicated shows it was PI spots. Even I knew what those were way back when.
Although it was much like pulling teeth, I made myself listen to KFWT FM. I am going on memory here. I recall the music was very typical Beautiful Music but without the vocals, I think. I recall the jock did breaks on the hour and half hour. Every 10 minutes was a jingle. There was no pause between songs like a typical Beautiful Music station. While tracks did not overlap one another, it was like a wall of melody thirty minutes at a time. For some reason I doubt they used a music service for the format, opting for a home brew or maybe even playing records. If I’m not confused, news headlines were every two hours and weather was once per hour. I listened for commercials and there were very few. Most of my listening was after school or during the day in summer or weekends, but I recall it wasn’t too odd not to hear a commercial in an hour.
Listening to KFWT was a struggle. I much preferred KFAD for album rock and KXOL (versus KLIF) for Top 40. I was a fan of KVIL from the early days, 1969 forward. When my parents gave me the chance to tune in a station in the car as soon as we moved from Kansas City to Dallas, I hit on KVIL 1150. My Mom remarked it was much like my favorite in Kansas City (actually Liberty) KBIL 1140, also an AC before the term was used, and she noted the similar call letters and dial position (KBIL 1140; KVIL 1150).
As far as the DJ on KFWT, it seemed much more informal. The DJ was obviously live and not reading a liner card or spouting the silly liners I heard on the fully automated Beautiful Music stations. While it sure wasn’t personality, the DJ had a name, made reference to the day, weather and such. It wasn’t clutter but made the station feel like there was somebody at the controls. I recall liking that as a kid. It wasn’t quite Joe McChesney enjoying our morning coffee together at KXXK, but it wasn’t canned.
On one occasion I had the chance to listen overnight. Man was that cluttered! From Midnight to 6, they had 5 minutes of news on the hour and half hour plus two PSAs every 10 minutes. I recall the overnight guy was not a very good news reader. It would be years later before I learned about FCC requirements about non-entertainment programming. It was obvious to push as much as they could to Midnight to 6am.
Some of this detail was gleaned years later. You see KFWT FM and UHF TV 21 went bankrupt. The company that got the station continued the FM format but it would be years before TV 21 reappeared. Sometime around 1972, KFWD, as it was known then, became a top 40 without personalities. DJs simply back announced songs at :10, :20, :40 and :50. Weather at :40. News headlines a few times a day, time and temperature on the hour and half hour. During this era I talked to a DJ with all the info on the old KFWT because he was there when the new company took over after KFWT went belly up.
It seems to me the owners of KFWT were ‘suckers’ of the day. They weren’t stupid. They saw the rising sun on the horizon. They were obviously forward thinking but a few years ahead of their time. In only a few years UHF stations were getting viewers and FM listening in Dallas/Fort Worth would equal AM listening perhaps 5 years beyond the time KFWT went belly up. It is likely they saw that coming.
As I mention KXXK FM, I really liked the station’s execution of the format. The station for groovy grownups was supposed to be modeled after WPIX in New York City and I understand a struggling FM in Saint Louis has the same concept. KXXK musically is hard to describe. It was more modern. Original vocals were the rule. You’d hear The Happenings do “See You In September”. No Ray Conniff Singers belting out “Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain”. You got the original hit. After that maybe the Bill Black Combo. It was sort of beautiful music, not quite MOR and not quite lite rock or adult contemporary. If it had a lean, it was surely easy listening and mostly instrumental but more of a Paul Mauriat Love Is Blue or Peter Nero Born Free or even “A Summer Place” style. Ain’t that groovy, man?
Songs were back announced. Every other song the DJ would be heard. There was a great jingle package. News and weather was minimal. Weather on the hour and news was 4 times a day on the half hour for a 5 minute cast of rip and read from a jock who was about as bad as me as a news reader.
I never recall hearing many commercials on KXXK. One or two an hour at most? That’s a guess. My listening was forced. The station went on when my parents got up and began to prepare for the day. My parents didn’t consider themselves groovy grownups but they liked the station a good deal (my Dad preferring WRR AM over KXXK because of their hourly Library of Laffs at 45 past every hour).
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