As I got into researching the history of KFLX, Galveston, I discovered several stories published in the Galveston Daily News in November and December, 1924, purportedly about KFLX that actually were about the brand new station KFUL. It took the News several weeks to straighten out the call letters.
This new information has necessitated a rewrite of the first part of the KFUL station history, moving the first air date back by several weeks.
Here are a couple of radio related features from Galveston-born writer Bill Cherry.
The first is about Baytown's DJ of the 1950s, Bill 'Rascal' McKaskill. This article answers a question posed in a comment here on this blog several years ago about the use of 'Night Train' as a theme, an answer I should have had since I had corresponded with Rascal.
And a story about how George Roy Clough of KLUF invented call-in radio. There are some problems with the dates in this story - the Moody's station (he's referring to KFUL) was off the air long before 1938 and Clough had also changed calls long before then. There may be other issues but that's two I noticed.
For Part 1 of this station history, go here.
For Part 2 of this station history, go here.
The Galveston Daily News began carrying more complete schedules of the programming on KFUL instead of just isolated mentions. In August a special program was dedicated to the round the world flight of the Graf Zeppelin. A local concert orchestra led by Felix Stella would play 'appropriate' music and an announcer would give details about each of the countries being traversed by the historic flight.
As 1930 rolled around KFUL broadcast coverage of the Mardi Gras Festival and and started covering baseball games plus live coverage of the opening of Tokio Garden for the season. In April, the station conducted on-air announcer try-outs. Aspiring announcers gave a five minute talk on the air and listeners voted, by mail, to determine the winner. Toward the end of the year, KTSA renewed its request for a full-time assignment on 1290 kilocycles and KFUL also requested a new channel, arguing that if KTSA, which by that time had allied with the Columbia Chain (CBS), received its allocation, KFUL should also get a full time assignment.
Information on the last two and a half years of KFUL is scant, unfortunately. Issues of the Galveston Daily News are missing (from my source) for all of 1931 and 1932 and up until October, 1933, and the earliest issues of Broadcasting Magazine, which began publication in the second half of 1931, had no mentions of the station. But the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported on May 1, 1931, that the Radio Commission had once again denied the application by KTSA for a full time allotment, at the same time authorizing a renewal of KFUL’s license as a share-time station.
On June 4, 1931, the Bryan Eagle reported the station had been taken over by the News Publishing Co, the Galveston Daily News and Tribune parent company. Louis C. Elbert was Vice President and General Manager of the company. A similar story appeared in the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen and reference was made to the station formerly being ‘operated by the Buccaneer Hotel.’ The September, 1931, issue of Radex listed the change of ownership among it’s ‘Summer Changes’ column and also reported in it’s last issue of the year that the station slogan was ‘The City of Perpetual Sunshine.’
Despite the lack of better identification of the seller, so far as I know the license for the ‘community station’ had always remained in the name of Thomas Goggan and Brothers up until the sale to the News.
Listings continued in Radex for these years, showing Galveston’s radio stations as KFLX, operating on 1370 kilocycles with 100 watts, and KFUL, operating on 1290 with 500 watts.
The last listing for the station in Radex appeared in the May, 1933, issue. I have no information about the reason for the sale or the end of operations but perhaps the Great Depression was impacting tourism and straining Galveston’s economy.
After KFUL ceased operations, George Roy Clough moved his KFLX into the Buccaneer Hotel studios and changed his calls to KLUF, pronounced to rhyme with his last name. Some accounts of broadcasting history on the island refer to KLUF as a continuation of KFUL and it’s possible some of the established programs of KFUL were picked up by KLUF, but Clough continued to operate on 1370 kc with 100 watts where he had a full-time allotment and the government would consider KLUF a continuation of KFLX, but the history of that station is for another post.
See Part 1 here.
More reports of distant reception continued to be received. On February 10, 1927, the paper reported the station had received a letter from Mission House, Nukulonpa, Panga, in the Friendly Islands, estimated to be as much as 15,000 miles away, where a broadcast by KFUL had been received on January 18th.
On the 19th of February a big squall blew through wrecking planes at the air field, damaging houses and businesses and knocking down the KFUL antenna. The squall affected a wide swath of Texas and Louisiana and reports from as far away as the Valley mentioned the incident. A temporary aerial was put up the next day.
Rev. Raimundo De Ovies of Trinity Episcopal, who had delivered a sermon on the very first broadcast of WHAB, Galveston’s first radio station in 1922, became an announcer at KFUL and the youth group at his church organized a regular Sunday evening program featuring youth groups from churches all over the island. Fred Richardson and his California Syncopators, in town appearing at the Winter Garden, made regular appearances on the station and KFUL station artist ‘Happy’ made an appearance at the opening of a new Star Electric Shop, pawing the ivories and singing ‘the blues’ it was reported. It isn’t clear if ‘Happy’ was a mascot or an actual person but a couple of months later the paper reported on the opening of the Airdome Dance Pavilion, 25th and Boulevard (what we now know as Seawall Boulevard) where KFUL broadcasting star ‘Happy’ Roy Thomas was to be the manager.
‘Radio’s Latest Marvel’ - hypnotism by radio - hit the Galveston airwaves in late March, 1927, when Noah the Great came to town to demonstrate his skills. A booth was set up at Joyland Park where a woman was going to be put under for 48 hours and made to perform several acts before going to sleep. Men were going to be made to ride bicycles and perform tricks and the public was invited to stop by the park to view the demonstrations.
A report in the paper in April claimed bathing crowds at the beach had been breaking all records for so early in the season with a large group from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and others from Oklahoma and Kansas reported. Efforts of the Beach Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the power of KFUL were credited.
In May, 1928, new management took over the station. Will H. Ford became the new station manager, Art Johnson of Chicago became announcer and station director, Jack H. Rogers was named as pianist and Roy Cole from Oklahoma City became engineer, apparently replacing George Roy Clough. Goggan’s named a new head of it’s radio department, too, Bernard McComb. An all night program was scheduled for May 29 to launch the ‘new’ station, starting at 8:15 in the evening and running until daylight. Many Galveston performers took part.
The Colorado Joy Boys, who played Hawaiian music, were in town and had a regular daily slot at 12 Noon. They had recently been a big hit on WBAP.
Will Ford was an insurance man and was closely allied with the W.L. Moody, Jr., interests on the island. On the 27th of February, 1929, The News carried a big story about the new Buccaneer Hotel, a project of Moody, getting the final touches at 23rd and Boulevard and revealed KFUL was to have brand new studios on the second floor, which is where the lobby was located.
This postcard on eBay shows the new hotel which has since been demolished. The studios were located on the east end of the building (right side). There were also several meeting rooms on the second floor and my understanding is that there was a picture window into the studio from one of those meeting rooms but not from the lobby itself.
The station was already collecting equipment for the new facility but before the hotel was completed a big fire broke out at Goggans in the second week of March. Traffic was backed up all over the island as fire equipment and onlookers converged on the scene. Damage was said to total $80,000 from the fire which was believed to have started in the Goggan’s workshop on the 3rd floor, next to the radio station. KFUL was practically a complete loss and the Palace Theatre, on the ground floor, suffered extensive water damage. Draperies and other soundproofing in the studio were thought to have accelerated the fire. The transmitter, on the roof, was inaccessible but believed to have been destroyed. Equipment for the new facility had also been lost. It was the 2nd fire in a month at Goggan’s.
Will Ford announced within a few days the station would be back on the air in 60 days from the new facilities in the Buccaneer and would be broadcasting with 1000 watts. It was estimated it would cost $20,000 to get the station back on the air. In the interim, a few regular KFUL programs were picked up by KFLX.
Ten days after the fire, Ford filed for the office of Commissioner of Finance and Revenue for Galveston and the campaign featured charges by his opponent that he and the Moody interests had ‘appropriated’ Galveston’s community radio station and were trying to 'get a stranglehold' on Galveston. In response, Ford claimed the the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, which had been managing KFUL at a loss, had come to him and asked him if he would take over. After consideration he had agreed to take the job and continue to operate the station at a loss. He said he was paying the full cost of the new studios out of his own pocket.
In the meantime in early April the Federal Radio Commission released it’s decision on a petition by KTSA, San Antonio, and KFUL to each be assigned their own frequencies. KTSA had applied to continue on 1280 kilocycles, which the two stations had been sharing since National Radio Allocation Day in November, 1928, and KFUL had applied for 1120 kilocycles (and 1000 watts). The FRC ruled the two stations were to continue to share time on 1280.
By the end of June, 1929, KFUL was once again ready to take to the airwaves. A big gala opening was announced for Monday, June 19, with a 8 hour program that would start at 7:15 pm and the public was invited. Pat H. Wilson, Jr., was the new station announcer and representatives from KTSA, WRR, KPRC and KWKH would be taking part. The broadcast would also include a remote from the Shrine Temple. Six days later another new announcer was introduced. Pvt. C. J. Simmons, with the Third Artillery Group at Fort Crockett, was added to the staff. He had only recently been assigned to Fort Crockett from California and he was said to be known to radio listeners in the West for his sports announcing. He would work evenings at the station using the air name Ace Simmons.
This postcard showing the station orchestra in the studio at the Buccaneer could have been taken anytime after June, 1929.
Continue to Part 3.
This article has been edited 5/3/2014 to reflect new information about the earliest broadcasts of KFUL which were wrongly attributed by the Galveston Daily News to KFLX.
The Radio Service Bulletin published by the Commerce Department on January 2, 1925, listed KFUL, Galveston, as a new station. Licensed to Thomas Goggan and Brothers Music Co., KFUL was authorized on 288 meters, 1160 kilocycles, with 10 watts. Goggans had a big store in the 2100 block of Market Street which housed the station, apparently on the third floor next to a workshop. The firm had been founded in Galveston in the late 1800s and had branches all over the state at one time including a store in downtown Houston. It was considered the largest and oldest musical firm in Texas, supplying sheet music and instruments of all kinds. For more on Goggans, go here.
The earliest mentions of the station's broadcasts in the Galveston Daily News erroneously attributed the broadcasts to George Roy Clough's KFLX but all of the stories mentioned Goggan's and station manager J.R. Davis. The error is emphasized even more by the fact that though KFLX had been licensed a year earlier it had never been mentioned in the paper up until that time and wouldn't be mentioned again by name until 1929.
The first mention on Sunday, November 23, 1924, reported on a concert by St. Mary's Cathedral Choir which was scheduled to start at 9 pm instead of 8 pm which would, it was asserted, eliminate much of the static problems experience on a previous broadcast. And the article reveals that even from its inception the station was seen as a promotional vehicle for the island. The story began ''The air will again be the medium of advertising the 'Treasure Island' Wednesday night..." The paper reported 'many notices of congratulations' were received on the new station from as far east as Cleveland, OH, and stated that concerts would continue on a weekly basis until demand built up. Another story on the 26th reminded readers that another concert was scheduled that evening, mentioned an earlier broadcast on November 19 and reported that more than 300 phones calls had now been received about the previous broadcasts.
One more article with the erroneous calls was published on the 2nd of December and cited letters received from Eugene, OR, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Banes, Oriente, Cuba. The last letter reported receiving a broadcast on November 11, with loudspeakers set up so many could listen so the first broadcast of the station was at least that early.
of a Galveston radio listener, October 4, 1930.
The Galveston Daily News had published brief blurbs about KFUL's programs since it went on the air in December, 1924, and carried listings of other stations courtesy of RADEX, but when KFUL boosted power to 500 watts the local programming listings expanded.
Note KPRC was carrying 'chain' programs from both WEAF and WJZ; further down in the listings there are complete schedules for both KPRC and KTRH but there are no mentions of KFLX, Galveston, or KTLC and KXYZ, Houston. Also note KYW is still a Chicago station at this time. Listings other than KFUL are from the Associated Press.
KFUL was sharing time on 1280 kilocycles with KTSA, San Antonio, at this time, hence the gaps in the program schedule.
- of a Galveston radio listener, Sunday, February 2, 1947. KGBC had signed on the previous day but there were no listings in the Galveston News for that day; these are the first published listings. The News also published the listings for the three Houston stations whose signals would reach Galveston. The only other Houston AM on the air at that time, KTHT, was still operating on 1230 kc with only 250 watts and probably was not listenable to most Galvestonians.
KNRO-FM, Conroe, signed on in February, 1965, at 106.9 MHz. The exact date of the first broadcast is not known but Broadcasting Yearbook gives the date as February 14. A permit had been issued 2 weeks earlier for remote control operation. In early August of 1968, the station went to 24 hours a day, launching an all-night country music program hosted by a former Nashville musician, Bill Board. The midnight to 6am show was call the Tennessee Bill Board Country Music program according to Station Manager Bob Brown. (Note: I did not make this story up; it was published in Billboard). The station operated with 40,000 watts at that time.
The station was acquired by the Jimmy Swaggert Evangelical Association on March 31, 1978. In the 1979 Broadcasting Yearbook the calls are given as KMCV-FM but it is not known when those calls were adopted. The listing shows the station operating with 98,000 watts from a 530 foot tall antenna. Subsequently, Swaggert was to adopt the calls KJOJ-FM. The station was eventually sold to Regan Henry and US Radio which programmed jazz and shock talk as KKHU. It has also been known as U106.9 and ZRock.
Currently KHPT-FM, the Eagle, a Classic Hits station owned by Cox, operates on 106.9, simulcasting with KGLK-FM, Lake Jackson, on 107.5.
Billboard Magazine reported on December 25, 1965, that KHUL-FM, 95.7 MHz, had switched to a country format. Jack Hayes was Program Director. Eight months later, on August 12, 1966, Industrial Broadcasting acquired the station. Industrial was also the owner and operator of KIKK, 650 kHz which it had acquired on October 1, 1958. The two stations maintained separate facilities and staffs. Charles Temple was General Manager of KHUL and Mike McCann was Program Director; Leroy Gloger was General Manager of Industrial. A Market Profile of Houston published in Billboard Magazine, March 5, 1966, indicated KHUL-FM was already broadcasting 100% country music by that time, well before being taken over by KIKK.
A story in Broadcasting in May, 1967, said Industrial was also managing WENK in Union City, TN, doing business as KIKK, and was also going to manage stations in Paducah, KY.
On November 11, 1966, Industrial applied for permission to change the call letters of KHUL-FM to KIKK-FM. The date of the call letter flip is not known but the station was operating with the new calls by by March, 1967, when Billboard published a Houston market profile. KIKK-FM had 15.5 kilowatts of power from atop a 235 foot antenna at the site of the former KHUL studios at 1700 Holcombe Blvd. Leroy Gloger was listed as President and Art Posner was in charge of Operations. On August 10, 1968, Nortemp Broadcasting acquired KIKK-FM.
The station maintained a Country Music format until November 7, 2002, when it flipped to The Wave, KHJZ-FM, a smooth jazz format. Currently the station is known as Hot 95.7. It is owned by CBS and the calls are KKHH which were adopted on April 1, 2008.
On February 11, 1968, Harbor Broadcasting, licensee of KGBC, Galveston, signed on their new FM station on 106.1 MHz, with the call letters KGBC-FM. Harbor had acquired the AM station on December 20, 1964.
The FM station was sold to Beacon Broadcasting in 1974, moved to 106.5 MHz and re-branded as KUFO-FM. Before the sale to Beacon the calls had been flipped to KESY which frequently appeared in print as K-ESY. Subsequent calls on the station were KXKX and KQQK but the station ceased broadcasting and had it’s license cancelled by the FCC. (See also the comments below).
On August 4, 1968, a license was issued for KFRD-FM, Rosenberg, to operate on 104.9 MHz. The station does not appear to have gotten on the air immediately, however. An FCC notice in late November appears to authorize programming operations and in Billboard Magazine for November 30, General Manager Bill Sloan indicated the station would broadcast daily from 3:30 pm to 11 pm, duplicating the programming of the AM station until 5:30 pm and then airing a program to be known as the Town and Country Time Program. The music would include both pop and country. Subsequent call letters used on the station have included KMIA-FM, KMPQ-FM, KLTO-FM, KOVA-FM, and KPTY-FM. Currently the station is licensed to Missouri City, Texas, and operates as KAMA-FM, Tu Musica. It is owned by Univision.
The license for WHAB, Galveston’s first radio station, was issued by the Commerce Department on June 29, 1922, to Clark W. Thompson, president of Fellman’s Department Store. A radio department had recently been opened on the ground floor of the store at 22nd and Post Office.
The Galveston Daily News carried no notice of the license on June 30 but Fellman’s ads for that day announced the store would be hosting a radio concert at 10:30 for the benefit of the membership drive of the Galveston American Legion Argonnne Post # 20. The concert would be broadcast by the government station at Fort Crockett and Fellman’s would receive it and ‘broadcast’ it over loudspeakers in the store.
The Ben C. Doherty Co. also would host the concert. Doherty’s bragged they had bought all their radio equipment from Fellman’s.
On Sunday July 2, Fellman’s was ready to begin it’s own broadcasts and the Daily News carried the story on page 1. The first offering at 10am would be a sermon by Reverend Raimundo DeOvies of Trinity Episcopal Church.
Plans for the new operation included market reports, concerts and baseball results. The Shrine Band would also be performing and Mr. Thompson had already offered the use of the station to the Galveston Police Department for broadcasting crime reports, a partnership which he noted had been tried in numerous large cities elsewhere with excellent results. Cotton reports would be obtained form the W.L. Moody Co., in-laws of Mr. Thompson, and market reports from C.P. Munn and Co. Weather reports would be offered daily at 9:45am and 5:15 pm. Ora W. Chancellor, formerly a chief radio electrician in the Navy, would be in charge of the station and Fellman’s radio department.
The New’s account of the first broadcast in it’s Monday edition bragged that despite the temptation of being able to listen to a sermon without even getting out of bed, churches across the island had been packed on Sunday. Rev. Ovies said that he had purposely chosen an undenominational message for his talk since it was the first ever broadcast from the island and reported the phone at his home was ringing as soon as he opened the door and had rung throughout the afternoon with calls from across the island as well as Texas City, Alvin and points beyond congratulating him and commenting on the excellent reception. Mr. Thompson stated that the station was operating at only 1/10th power.
In response to a question from the reporter, De Ovies said he did not think radio sermons would ever supplant church attendance because radio had no ‘personality.’
During the first week of operation WHAB broadcast another concert benefitting soldiers at Fort Crockett, a children’s story teller, the Sandman, was brought on board to appear each evening, and the Galveston Police exchanged fingerprint and stolen car information with the Houston Police through a Houston station (possibly WGAB but not named). The Elks were holding a convention on the island and a concert by the Dallas Elks band was also aired. The First National Bank installed speakers so its customers could hear the stock reports and on Saturday evening, July 8, WHAB aired a program consisting entirely of Edison reproductions.
A second church service was broadcast on Sunday, July 9, this time from the First Methodist Episcopal Church. The question of whether radio sermons would mean people wouldn’t bother to go to church anymore seemed to be of particular concern to the Daily News. In its roundup of church activities in it’s Monday edition the paper once again took pains to point out that churches across the island had been full on Sunday despite the advance notice of the availability of a radio sermon.
On the 11th, the paper reported on the Radio Club meeting at Fellman’s. Thirty five had attended and officers had been elected and a committee was put to work drafting a constitution.
Curiously, Fellman’s seems never to have mentioned WHAB in it’s ads but in Galveston
as in Houston and elsewhere, other businesses tried to capitalize on the public’s fascination with the new medium. Just a week after WHAB’s launch, the Purity Ice Cream company touted the addition of a new flavor to its line-up, Radio Custard. You could have a gallon delivered to your home for just $1.50.
By the end of the month, Fellman’s had been renamed Thompson’s. Clark W. Thompson was well connected on the island; he had been stationed at Fort Crockett in the Marines and married into the Moody family. After his service he and his wife returned to Galveston to live. On July 28 the paper reported that he and 3 other Galveston businessmen had formed The National Radio Show and Exposition Co., chartered by the State of Texas and said to be the first of its kind in the nation. The company would stage radio expositions around the country, with the first slated for Houston in September, due to be carried by a Houston station (not named). Others were in the planning stages for Dallas, New Orleans and Oklahoma City. National manufacturers would participate as would local radio dealers - it would be like the already popular car shows put on by automobile makers and dealers.
Like another early Galveston broadcaster, George Roy Clough, and Roy Hofheinz in Houston, Thompson entered politics.. In the 30s he was elected to Congress from the 7th Congressional District but stepped down when his district was realigned. During the war he returned to active service, serving in the SW Pacific; after the war he served as director of the Marine Reserves in Washington before returning to Galveston and running for Congress again. He served as the Representative of the 9th Congressional District from Galveston from 1946 to 1966 specializing in Defense issues. He died in December, 1981.
The Clark W. Thompson bio in the Handbook of Texas on-line mentions his early retail experience but omits reference to the fact that he put Galveston’s first radio station on the air.
The images above are from the archives of the Galveston Daily News at the Rosenberg Library, Galveston.
