KWHI/KTTX - AM/FM, Brenham

An application was tendered for filing with the FCC on April 15, 1946, for a new standard broadcast station to operate on 890 kc with 250 watts, daytime, in Brenham, Texas.  The applicant was Tom S. Whitehead, owner and publisher of the Brenham Banner Press. 

Less than 2 weeks later, the FCC announced it was revamping it’s policies regarding daytime and limited time stations operating on Class 1-A clear channel frequencies and all pending applications were being put on hold.  890 was a Class 1-A frequency and WLS, Chicago, was the protected signal.

On September 30, 1946, Whitehead submitted a modified application, requesting operations on 1280 kc with 1 kilowatt of power and also changing specifications in the proposed antenna and transmitter.  The amended application was approved on November 4, one of 46 new stations granted on that day,  a record for the FCC up until that time.

When the call letters were applied for and approved  has not been discovered nor, for that matter, exactly when the station got on the air.  Broadcasting Yearbook cites the date April 15, 1947, but that source is frequently in error. The calls must’ve been taken from the first three letters of the owner’s last name. 

The Banner Press archives are not available online anywhere but newspapers from several communities in the vicinity are and from the Bryan Eagle it is apparent the station was on the air by May 9, 1947 when the first ad appeared. The Eagle also ran a story on the 31st of May announcing the formal opening and dedication for the station would be held on Saturday, June 6, at the St. Anthony Hotel.  Ernest Jones was named as station manager. 

As the day drew closer there were more details in the Eagle.  There would be an all day celebration and open house of the new studios on the north side of the courthouse square in downtown Brenham, there would be many live bands performing, Attorney General Price Daniel would attend and offer some remarks, Governor Beauford Jester and US Representative Lyndon Johnson would be heard by transcription. 

The station was mentioned often in newspapers; during political season, there were political broadcasts mentioned in candidate’s print ads and coverage of school sports also merited mentions.  Live music was apparently a big part of the programming, too.  Honky-tonks and nightclubs advertising appearances by live bands frequently noted the bands were heard daily on KWHI.  Besides T. C. Bigley, Charlie Helmer and his Boys and Bennie Murski and his Melody Kings were some of the bands promoted as having daily broadcasts in papers including the Hearne Democrat, Weimar Mercury, Colorado Co. Citizen (published at Columbus), Taylor Daily Press and as far away as the Freeport Facts and Galveston Daily News.  The ad above came from the Taylor Daily Press in September, 1947.

My earliest memories of hearing KWHI were almost a decade later when I was DXing from my home in Brazosport and I remember a lot of polka music.  If memory serves correctly, and it may not, there were regular live broadcasts of polka music from a band shell on the courthouse square.  A little bit of polka music went a long way with me and I didn’t listen much to KWHI.

Tom Whitehead applied for an FM station in October, 1963, and a CP was granted in January, 1964.  The proposed facility would operate on 106.3 mc, Channel 202A, with 3 kilowatts from an antenna of 223'.  The estimated cost for construction was $11,375 and the first year operating costs were pegged at $7500.  The calls KWHI-FM were approved just a couple of weeks later.  In April, 1964, modifications to the application were approved to change the transmitter and antenna locations and reduce the tower height to 130'.  Broadcasting Yearbook  gives the date April 15, 1964 for the launch of the station and ads were run in the Houston Chronicle saying the station was on the air 5pm to 11 pm daily.  The first ad mentioning KWHI-FM I have found in newspapers in the Brenham area was not until October, 1968, in the Colorado Citizen.

In July, 1974, KWHI-AM changed calls to KTTX while the FM continued as KWHI-FM.  Eighteen years later, in March, 1992, the stations flipped; the heritage calls went back on the AM and the FM became KTTX-FM, known as K-TEX.  Both stations are still on the air, both owned by Tom S. Whitehead, Inc.  The FM now operates on 106.1 with 50,000 watts, the AM has a nighttime power of 72 watts. 

KWHI Website
KTTX-FM Website

Images above from the archives of the cited papers at newspapers.com

KIOX, Bay City - Part 2

See the First Part here.

Broadcasting Magazine took note of a promotion on KIOX in the fall of 1949.  'Cowgirl Sweethearts on Parade' was based on the popularity of disc jockey Charlie Walker, the Singing Cowboy, and his Half Circle W Roundup program on KIOX,   All the Long stations were participating and there were said to be 300 entrants.  Culmination of the promotion would be at the Bay City Rice Festival that year and a short film would be produced.  Billboard Magazine also noted the contest in it’s January 14, 1950, issue, the earliest mention of KIOX in that trade publication.  Walker was said to be touring 56 of the Long theatres in Texas with the 15 minute film which also featured some of his show.  Other mentions of Walker and KIOX in Billboard included his Texas Ranger Club, in conjunction with a beverage sponsor, which offered premiums to members based on the number of bottle caps collected, and when he sent out an invitation for country artists to stop by his show.  In March, 1951, Walker departed KIOX for a gig at KMAC, San Antonio, and mentions of KIOX in the pages of Billboard became much rarer.

Charlie Walker was born in Copeville, Texas, and while with the 8th Army Signal Corps in the Tokyo Occupation forces was credited with being the first dj to play country music for the troops in the Orient.  After the war, he and his band, the Texas Ramblers, performed in and around Corpus Christi before he got into radio again.  He became a hugely popular country disc jockey in San Antonio, scored a recording contract and a number of hits, moved to Nashville where he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and eventually was inducted into the Country Radio DJ Hall of Fame.  According to the Encyclopedia of Country Music, he opened his show with ‘This is ol’ poke-salad, cotton-picking, boll-pulling, corn shucking, snuff-dipping Charlie Walker.’  Neither his Wikipedia entry nor his entry in the Encyclopedia of Country Music mentions his stint at KIOX, however.

Another famous alumnus of KIOX was Texas and Georgia Radio Hall of Famer Kent Burkhart, who, in the book Turn It Up!  American Radio Tales 1946-1996, relates walking into Johnny Long’s office at KIOX when he was not yet 14 and asking him for a 15 minute show to play records for kids.

Though the Bay City Tribune is not available, more insight into the early programming of KIOX comes from the pages of the Freeport Facts (later Freeport Facts and Daily Review when it became a daily).  The Brazosport area is only about 35 miles from Bay City and possibly even at that time had a greater population than all Matagorda Co. and was undoubtedly the largest populated area within the range of the KIOX signal that didn’t have its own radio station.  KIOX tried to function to some extent as a local station for the Brazosport area, taking advantage of Johnny Long’s Showboat Theater on 2nd Street in downtown Freeport as a stage for many broadcasts.

The earliest mention of KIOX in the Facts occurred on July 24, 1947,when it was reported two representatives of the station (not air personalities) had visited a meeting of the Freeport Kiwanis Club.  The station’s coverage of that fall’s Freeport Lions Carnival had to be postponed in August because of a storm and a live broadcast in conjunction with the carnival from the stage of the Showboat failed to make it on the air because of technical difficulties but even by that time the First Baptist Church of Freeport had a program and the station had covered a meeting of the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce.  

One of the most ambitious offerings by the station was a quiz show ‘Ladies be Good,’ beamed from the Showboat on Thursday afternoons, offering prizes not only for those who were contestants on the show but also for members of the theater audience.  There was also a baking contest, a live concert of the Freeport High School Band (staged before the beginning of the evening’s features and included in the price of admission) and a staging of Handel’s Messiah by a choir and orchestra composed of members from all over the area plus many other broadcasts.  There was also regular coverage of the Brazoria County Fair in the autumn.  The fair billed itself as the largest county fair in Texas and KTHT, KLUF and KLEE also covered some events.  There were also sponsor remotes from clothing stores, furniture stores and appliance stores.  Incidentally, none of the mentions in the Facts ever listed the frequency as 1110 kc.

If the station was doing this much in a community other than it’s City of License, it’s likely it was doing at least as much in Bay City and possibly in other towns within its coverage area.


To Be Continued.

Images above from the archives of The Facts on newspapers.com