October Anniversaries

Lots of anniversaries are due in October.

Broadcasting Yearbook gives October 1952 for the launch of KBRZ, Freeport, at 1460 kHz. The station is still on the air with the same call letters but has recently been re-licensed to Missouri City.

In the first week of October, 1957, Baytown’s KRCT, 650, completed it’s move to new studios at 227 East Sterling in Pasadena. Three and a half years later it flipped call letters to KIKK.

October 1st is the anniversary for two FMs. KQUE-FM, 102.9 MHz took to the air on that day in 1960, occupying the frequency that had been vacated by KHGM-FM 17 months earlier when it moved to 99.1 MHz. The station on 102.9 now is KLTN-FM.
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Broadcasting Yearbook gives 10/1/73 for the launch of KTSU-FM, 90.9 but whether that’s the date of the license or the start of actual operations I don’t know. According to the station’s website the station launched with just 10 watts of power.

Two more stations share October 4th as a birthday. KHUL-FM, took to the air on that date in 1959 on 95.7 MHz. The station became KIKK-FM in the 1960s and is now KHJZ-FM.

Meanwhile KXYZ-FM returned to the airwaves on that date in 1961 after being silent for 8 years (that was the date of the first listings in the Chronicle). It returned to the air on its original frequency of 96.5 which it had occupied from 1948 to 1953. The station has undergone a number of call letter changes and is now KHMX-FM.

10/7/22 was the date the license was issued for WTAW, Bryan-College Station, the oldest station in southeast Texas outside of the Houston/Galveston or Beaumont/Port Arthur market.

On the weekend of October 15-16, 1960, KARO-FM took to the air at 94.5 MHz. Other calls used on that frequency have included KLEF-FM, a full time classical station, KLDE-FM, an oldies station, and it is now KTBZ-FM, The Buzz.

October 22, 1953, brought the launch of KNUZ-TV, Channel 39, Houston’s fourth television station overall and first UHF. The station was a DuMont Network affiliate but lasted only 8 months.