KREL (1947), KWBA (1959), KBUK (1974), KWWJ (1988) - Baytown - 1360 khz

MORE WAS ADDED TO PART 3 AT 5:20 PM 7/25/25.

PART 3, CONCERNING KBUK, WAS LAUNCHED AT 10 AM 7/25/25.  

SMALL ADDITIONS TO PART 2 WERE MADE ON SUNDAY 7/13/25 AS OF 11:30 PM.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WAS POSTED TO THE SECOND PART OF THIS ARTICLE AS OF 11 PM 7/12/25. 

THE SECOND PART OF THIS ARTICLE, CONCERNING KWBA, WAS LAUNCHED AT 1 AM 7/5/25.

CORRECTIONS AND AMENDMENTS TO THIS ARTICLE WERE ADDED ON 7/4/25 @ 5:45 PM

PART 1 - OVERVIEW AND KREL

KREL, owned by Tri-Cities Broadcasting, went on the air on December 2, 1947, licensed to Pelly.  In just a couple of months, Pelly, Goose Creek and Baytown united as one city, taking the name of Baytown, and the city of License changed.  Call letters have changed 3 times (along with ownership) but all have operated out of this facility on Decker Drive (Loop 330) at Wade Road west of Baytown.  

The FCC's History cards are not available online (or may never have been created) but a note on the current licensee's listing says the first license for the facility (FCC # 58724) was issued on March 3, 1948.  

As with many suburban stations, personnel who worked at KREL (and its successors) also found employment at other stations in the market.  A couple are noted in the original mention of KREL in the AM Chronology for the 1940s.  There was also the big nighttime DJ in the 50s who wound up running a Putt-Putt golf course for years.  And the one who went on to become a noted writer, innovator and performer.  

Galveston historian Bill Cherry published an article in 2008 about the nighttime DJ, Bill 'Rascal' McCaskill.  I posted this on the blog but failed at the time to add all the correct Labels so it may have been missed by some.  Here's the link again.  

I had never heard of him.  In fact, I wasn't aware of any station on 1360 before moving to Houston in 1970 - the signal didn't come in where I grew up.  Had I known about this show, I would've been a regular listener.

I got in touch with McCaskill and he filled me in on more of his career in Houston radio.  I don't remember the name, but I may have heard him at some time.  I was up late at night often with the headphones from my Zenith Transoceanic on, listening to the radio and was familiar with the Milkman's Matinee on KLBS.

I wasn't ready to start doing profiles of suburban DJs at the time, still focused on establishing a chronology for Houston radio up to 1970, so I didn't make use of it at the time.  McCaskill passed in June, 2013, but following is one of the letters I received from him, unedited.  Don't skip over page 2 of the obituary just linked to which has information about his broadcast career continuing in Victoria.

Hi Bruce!

Thank for the note!  Yes, Bill Cherry was one of my Galveston listeners back when he was in high school and has become my good friend!

Do you know Andrew Brown?  He put out a magazine called "Taking Off" in 2005 which is a chronicle on Houston radio. It is published by Pine Grove Press, P.O. Box 474, Carthage, Texas  75633.  I did an article for him for it.

I have sent various people information about my radio career.  I am probably the only DJ that worked at KILT under all three of its call letters..KILT, KLBS and KLEE. I was at KLEE from 1950 til 1952, then KCOH in 1952 and 53, then back at KLBS for about three months.

I took over KING records in January 1954, which led me to doing a 10pm to 2am stint at KREL that began in April 1954.  We sold record packages and it was so lucrative that I left KING in July to go full time with KREL.  We later moved the program back to 7pm til midnight and I
maintained it until the station was sold and all of us "jocks" were replaced by high schoolers to save money.

This decision was made by the new owner's brother who came in as station manager. He had no radio experience and his only sales experience was selling washing machines and dryers at Sear-Roebuck!!  Needless to say they didn't own it long!! I then moved to Pasadena and
when KRCT(later KIKK) moved up in 1957 from Baytown I went to work there as a newsman and a salesman. 

Took a job at KILT in early 1958 as the Sunday night DJ on the all night "Milkman's Matinee" and ran one of their "sock-hops" on Friday night. Made surprisingly good money just doing those two stints. 

When my old college chum, Ken Collins, called me Christmas Day about taking KXYZ's all night show the "Night Scene" over for one week(the DJ just got up and walked out at about 2am) I agreed to do it.  He told me New Years Eve that negotiations were still underway
and would I continue on it. January 4th, Pearl Beer renewed their contract and Ken asked me to stay on permanently. I told him I would if I could continue doing the Sunday night shift at KILT.  He agreed and 6 nights a week, I was "Bill Mack and the Night Scene" and 1 night a week as "Rascal McCaskill and the Milkman's Matinee.

In late 1959, KXYZ decided to Start Houston's first telephone call in program and they moved me from all night to 7 til midnight.  I became "Expressions" with Bill Mack.  The station was sold in 1961 and the new owner cancelled "Expressions"  They asked me to stay as a DJ, but I moved the program to KFMK-FM until my son was born in January 1962 and got tired of
working nights.I became DOT records South Texas representative with the same territory as I had with KING.  

My final radio years were spent here in Victoria. I put the firt (sic) FM station on the air here in 1965 and the first TV station on the air in 1970.  Then I just got tired of my profession and built me a 36 hole Putt-Putt Golf Course in 1972 and have been there now almost 35 years.

I can research some of my emails on KREL for additional information for you,  Just let me know.

What is the website on the article you saw that Bill Cherry wrote?  And, how did you know I had just had birthday? 

Stay well!!

Bill McCaskill

According to the Baytown Historical Association, Joe Arrington, a student and baritone sax player in the band at Carver High School in Baytown, wanted to get into radio and was given a shift to play rhythm and blues music on KREL.  He used the name Jivin' Joe at first but his time in radio was apparently pretty short and he moved on to being a writer and performer under the name Joe Tex.  He went on to a long career and a big rivalry with James Brown over stage moves which fans believe he created.  He also is credited with introducing 'soul preaching,' which he called 'rap,' that Isaac Hayes and Barry White copied.  He has been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame several times. Joe Tex died in Navasota in 1982, having changed his name to Yusef Hazziez.  

Perhaps the most famous of KREL alumni in the field of entertainment, there is much available online about Joe Tex.  Here's a brief summary of his career on the website Black Past but he's also in the Texas State Handbook, Texas Highways Magazine, Wikipedia and much more. Most that I have looked at omit any mention of his radio 'career' but Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven notes "in the evenings he became ‘Jivin’ Joe’ on the local low-powered KREL-AM Radio Station, playing songs by ‘black’ R&B acts like Johnny Ace, Lloyd Price and early-50’s doo-wop groups alongside country winners from Hank Williams and co."

Gene Arnold was also a personality on KREL at one time.  Grady McAllister of the Houston radio history site Vasthead, which seems to have disappeared, had an air check of Arnold on KREL in 1958 on Night Train.  Arnold later worked at several Houston radio stations, including KXYZ and KODA.  I believe he later wound up as a television personality in Austin.  I was in touch with Arnold some years ago and promised him I would get back with him to get his whole story but failed to do so.  I will have to see if I can reach him again.  

Parenthetically I will mention there is, or has been in the past, a Christmas tree ornament from the Baytown Historical Association mentioned above with a depiction of the KREL building. Anybody out there collecting radio station commemorative Christmas tree ornaments?

To be continued .... this post is being composed on-the-fly, so to speak.  There will be more as time goes on.  I welcome input from others who have worked at 1360 over the years or listeners with memories to share. 

PART 2 - KWBA

From the Baytown Sun, Thursday June 22, 1959.  I first became aware of this station with these call letters sometime after moving to Houston in 1970.  It may have been while going to visit relatives in Baytown and passing by the studios on Decker Drive.  (I was working in FM radio at the time and didn't do a lot of listening to AM stations).  The station was an affiliate of both Mutual and ABC networks at the same time I think.

Probably the most famous radio alumnus of KWBA is Joe Ladd, pictured on the right in the photo.

Photo from The Radio Historian.

 

Ladd was originally from East Bernard, Texas, and had his first radio job at the closest radio station to his home, KANI in Wharton, starting in sales.  He moved up quickly, taking a job next at KWBA.  He spent 5 years there, serving as Program Director, Music Director and Chief Engineer as well as air personality. 

With 5 years' experience under his belt he leapt to the big times in the big city of Houston, signing on at KIKK-AM and KIKK-FM in 1968.  Like many radio owners and managers who had been in the business for years, management there did not yet realize the huge potential of their big FM signal and were still more focused on the small daytimer, which was, to be fair, extremely successful. Ladd was instrumental in bringing the issue to management's attention.  He went on to work for KIKK until 1994, serving as air personality and Music Director.  He is credited with breaking Gene Watson, Johnny Lee and Mickey Gilley and also served as Beaumont based singer Mark Chesnut's manager for years. He was named Country Music Association Music Director of the year in 1987 and 1988 and has been inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame, Country Radio Seminar Hall of Fame, and Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

Here's more on Ladd's career, much of it in his own words.

Oby Edgar 'Buddy' Starcher, from West Virginia, was a country music performer and singer who also worked in radio a lot.  His biggest hit was 'History Repeats Itself' released originally in 1965, comparing similarities between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.  The re-release the following year on a bigger label made it to # 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  

A few years later, Starcher found himself in Baytown at KWBA.  "Finding out that Nashville success can be "here today and gone tomorrow," even at the age of sixty and with over thirty years of radio experience, Buddy turned to a sometime prior occupation, radio station management. His main job was to turn failing stations around which he did at three stations in Florida, one in Baytown, Texas (KWBA) and finally Albany, New York (WHAZ) around 1978."

Starcher died in 2001 at age 95.  He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Image and quote from Hillbilly-Music dowt com.

Today the call letters KWBA are used on a TV station in Arizona and searching for the initials will get you multiple links to activities by the Kenilworth-Winnetka Baseball Association (youth leagues) in Illinois. 

To be continued .... this post is being composed on-the-fly, so to speak.  There will be more as time goes on.  I welcome input from others who have worked at 1360 over the years or listeners with memories to share. 

PART 3 - KBUK

This image was taken by a passing motorist on Decker Drive/Loop 330 sometime after Alicia passed and shows the awning over the front door had blown off and only one tower was still standing, # 1.  L.D. Tillis worked at KBUK and was at the station the night Alicia blew through.  He says it was right at daybreak and the station manager, Jim Swenson, was on the phone with the owner in California at the time.  The owner heard the racket and asked what the noise was.  Swenson replied that it was probably the awning and he was right.  It flew across Wade Road and landed on the railroad tracks, setting off the crossing signals.

Tillis goes on to write "It was my understanding from talking with people that the old Gates transmitter that we used as a backup transmitter, was made in 1946. It would still limp along and got us on the air when we needed it to, but it was only at about 80% of efficiency. We were using an RCA one kilowatt as our main transmitter. 

"I was there the night that Alicia came through and took down two of our three towers.  Because we were running on a backup generator, that was pretty old in itself, after the power went out, the RCA did not like the dirty power that it was kicking out, so when we got the one tower still standing wired in the phaser cabinet, we went back up on the Gates, and that's what we used until HL&P got our power back on a few days later.

Tillis forwarded this to show the last logo used by KBUK before becoming KWWJ.  The bands at the top actually include lettering, the top one saying Baytown Proud and the lower one AM 1360. 

And yet another Baytown teen wanted to get into radio.  JoJo Wright had a low-level job at KBUK even before starting high school when he jumped at the chance to fill in over-night. Before long, he became the regular over-night jock.  This Wikipedia article has a biography and a link to his website.  This is all I have on him at this time.

The call letters are currently used by an FM station in La Grange, Texas, FM sister station to KVLG.

To Be Continued.  L.D. Tillis contacted me a few months ago about the history of this facility and offered me much that he had collected.  This inspired me to create this post covering all four of the operations that have been on the air and I am very grateful for his inspiration and contributions.   There is much more that he has shared; I don't want to steal all his thunder but much more will be posted  and he will also be commenting.  I welcome input from other former employees and listeners of any of these stations.  

To find other posts concerning any of these four stations or any stations mentioned in posts, click on the Labels below the post or use the search feature.