KRCT, Goose Creek, KIKK, Pasadena

On August 31, 1946, a story in the Houston Post was headlined ‘Tri-Cities Radio to take to the air within 3 months.’ A construction permit had been granted by the FCC on Friday, August 30, to Bay Broadcasting Co. for station KRCT, to operate on 650 kc with 250w. C.Q. Alexander, the 6 foot 9 and a half inch mayor of Goose Creek was one of the principals. According to the Post a site had not even been selected yet but the Chronicle story on the same action said all the equipment had been acquired and the station expected to be on the air by Thanksgiving. The Chronicle reported the calls were to be either KBAY or KOCT, the latter apparently a typo.

The owners of the Goose Creek Daily Sun had applied for a permit for a 250 watt station 5 months earlier but that application had apparently been withdrawn. In its report on the KRCT permit the Chronicle also noted the Daily Sun had applied for a another permit for a full time 1000 watt station to operate on 1360.

I have not been able to pin down just when KRCT got on the air but if a site had not yet been selected it seems unlikely it came about in as little as 3 months. Many new stations in the 40s experienced delays of several months in their efforts to get on the air. The Houston papers reported on FCC actions concerning stations in Houston and the surrounding area and even as far away as Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley, probably taking the information from an FCC press release or the wire services, but did not regularly cover other news of stations in the suburbs. It would have been up to the station to notify the papers of its progress and I have found no mentions.

As the applicants and then permitees of a competing radio station, the Daily Sun also carried little mention of KRCT unless it was legitimate news, such as in November of 1947 when the KRCT tower on Cedar Bayou was knocked down by a strong norther blowing through the area. Other than mentioning the permit for KRCT in August, 1946, the earliest mention I have found in the Goose Creek Daily Sun was on p. 2, June 24, 1947, of a radio address on the issue of school consolidation in the tri-cities area to be aired on KRCT. Just days later the paper reported on page 1 that Sylvia McKinstrey had resigned as City Clerk to go to work for KRCT.

Fortunately, mentions in other papers make it possible to move the date back.  On February 27 the Liberty Vindicator ran a story about a Baptist revival and said one of the sermons was due to be given over the air on KRCT on March 9 at 2:30 pm.   On April 17 the Vindicator reported on a concert in Liberty by a popular quartet, the Stamps-Times Quartet, which was heard regularly on Sundays at 8:05 am on KRCT and on May 22 ran an ad for The Baptist Hour, heard Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Crosby.  Also on May 22, the Freeport Facts ran an ad for a weekly dance at the Surfside Beach Pavilion on Friday nights featuring the Blues Rustlers who could be heard weekdays at 5:15 pm on the station.

Although an exact date still cannot be determined it's clear the station got on the air between late December, 1946, and mid February, 1947.

By the late 1950s the station was owned by Leroy Gloger who may have served as manager of the station before buying it. The first week of October, 1957, KRCT began broadcasting from new studios at 227 East Sterling in Pasadena and the city of license was changed to Pasadena. The station always ran lots of ads in the Chronicle with the first concerning the changeover appearing on October 2 proclaiming a Grand Opening going on the 3rd thru the 6th with everyone invited to stop by and visit the new facilities. There was to be $1000 worth of door prizes. The on-air schedule included Hal Harris from 6a-10a, Gabe Tucker, 10a-1p and Sleepy Bob (Bob Everson) from 1-5pm. Tucker had been a country dj in Houston in the early 50s on KATL and KNUZ and had been one of the last KATL djs after the station switched to KYOK. He spent a couple of years in Nashville managing Ernest and Justin Tubb and the Wilbourne Brothers before returning to Houston to KRCT. His wife was also in the music business.

Broadcasting Yearbook gives the year of origin of KIKK-AM as 1957, reflecting the move to Pasadena.

Gloger liked to claim that 650 was Houston’s only ‘clear channel’ station but the clear was assigned to WSM, Nashville, the Houston station was always limited to daytimes only. Over the years the station was also promoted as the ‘Voice of Labor.’

On May 1, 1961, Gloger opened new studios in the Montagu Hotel at 804 Fannin at Rusk in downtown Houston and changed the call letters to KIKK, again proclaiming the switch in big ads in the Chronicle. A story in the TV section of the Chronicle the previous day advised readers not to worry, it was the same old KRCT, just new calls, and helpfully noted the DJs would refer to the station as ‘Kick, for kicks.’ Gloger told the Chronicle reporter the change came about because research had shown call letter confusion among listeners. The ads just used block lettering for the call letters; it is not known yet just when the familiar boots came to be used for the ‘k’s.

The KIKK calls had previously been used on a station in Bakersfield, CA, which ironically dropped the calls when it changed formats to country music.

The air staff included Hal Harris from sign on to 9am and 12N to 3pm, Gabe Tucker from 9 to Noon, and Tiger Myers from 3pm to signoff. Hal Wallace was the newsman.


The image is an ad for KIKK the weekend the call letters were changed. If anyone has any information about when KRCT got on the air or exactly when it changed hands to Leroy Gloger, I'd appreciate hearing from them.

Anyone wanting more information about the meaning of clear channel stations, not the company, can find an article on Barry Mishkind's Broadcast Archive site listed among the Radio History links on the side-bar (the site does not allow linking directly to individual pages).