FM Chronology - The 1960s Part IV - KNRO-FM, KIKK-FM, KGBC-FM, KFRD-FM

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.

Gallery I - People

This gallery will be a collection of miscellaneous pictures of people. Most photos will be in galleries associated with the stations they worked for or in individual posts but for some, I don't have enough material to have a separate station gallery or they occur as a part of a collection, as with the first listing here. Station galleries are listed on the respective station profile page under Stations on the sidebar; if there isn't a station profile yet for a station, there is no gallery for that station.

I am always happy to receive photos of Houston radio personnel to publish on the blog, along with some personal information, from any time period.  It is not necessary of course to give up any precious family keepsakes - just scan the image and email it to me (email address on my Profile on the sidebar).  JPEG and PDF files are acceptable (JPEG format is preferred).  Put each image in a separate file please.   Photos which include studio equipment are desirable but not necessary.

A group of photos at the University of Texas, part of the Bob Bailey Collection, concerning some sort of public expo arranged by Aylin Advertising and presenting personalities from several Houston radio stations. Some personalities and stations are identified on placards but others are not and I would appreciate hearing from anybody who can supply any names. Since one of the stations identified is KLBS the photos date from the period 1952-1957 and I would guess earlier in that time period. The first photo, obviously, has historical significance but is not related to radio history.  Note:  Checking this link out I see numerous photos that were not in this group originally now appear, only a few of them related to radio.  hrhwebmaster 1/9/2015.

Chester McDowell, aka Hotsy Totsy, KYOK, date unknown. Photo courtesy of Bud Buschardt.

Dan Shelton, Mornings, and Dan Parsons, News, KODA-FM, ca. 1980. We had formed some sort of athletic team, hence the jerseys. Behind them is the Shafer Automation unit for KODA-AM and to the right, the unit for KODA-FM.

Debra Forman, Evening announcer on KODA-FM, ca. 1980.

His name was Dave and he did evenings on KYND-FM in the waning days of that station before it flipped too KKBQ-FM but I have not been able to remember his last name. Shown is the KYND-FM control room in Greenway Plaza with the station reception area visible through the window.

Michael Sheehy (air name: Michael) in the KAUM studio, ca. 1973.  The board was a McCurdy.  Michael came to Houston from Santa Rosa, CA.  After several years in Houston he went on to work in radio in Honolulu and Los Angeles and then started a production studio.

The following 6 photos come from the May/June 2003 issue of the now defunct Inside Houston magazine.  The cover story was entitled 'Radio Active - Putting faces with the voices of Houston's top radio personalities.'  The article was written by Laurette M. Veres, identified on the masthead as Publisher/Editor-in-Chief.  The photoghraphs were taken by Pam Francis.

Donna McKenzie - Smooth Jazz 95.7, photographed at Scott Gertner's Sky Bar (McKenzie also graced the cover of the issue).  The text noted her 13 years in Houston radio up to that point including the original staff of KZFX, Classic Rock 107.5, KLOL, KHYS, and The Arrow.

Hudson and Harrigan - KILT-FM, 100.3.  The text noted their 22 years on KILT and revealed Hudson - on the left - almost became a lawyer and Harrigan began his career as an aspiring actor in a church production of 'Annie Get Your Gun.'

Heather Walters - KHPT-FM, 106.9, 80s Rock.  The text noted she was the only solo female morning show host in Houston at the time; from Houston originally, she got her start on Power 103 Abilene while attending Abilene Christian College.

Maria Todd, Psycho Robbie and Sam Malone - Top 40 KRBE-FM, 104.1.  The text noted Malone had a degree in finance and was headed to Wall Street when he noticed the girls and glamour surrounding a 'dorky' disc jockey and badgered a friend about how to get into the business.

J.P. Pritchard and Lana Hughes -  News/Talk - KTRH-AM, 740.  The text noted the duo had been together 18 years up to that point delivering the morning news block.

Tom Richards - Classical - KTRS-FM, 92.1.  The text noted he was another native Houstonian and had been hosting the KRTS morning show for 14 of his 20 years in broadcasting and also that he was officially a Deadhead, with more than 300 Grateful Dead concerts on tape.

From the 1965 Baytown Lee High Yearbook, courtesy of Tori Mask of the South Belt Houston Digital History Archive.