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

KIOX, Bay City - Part 1

On March 8, 1946, the FCC granted a Construction Permit for a new standard broadcast station in Bay City, Texas, to operate on 1110 kilocycles with 1000 watts, daytime only.  The original application apparently had been filed in February, 1945.  Principals of Bay City Broadcasting included John George Long, T. C Dodd, a cattleman, and J.A. Clements, apparently of Angleton, who had formerly been with KPAC, Port Arthur, and at the time was with the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation in Houston.  The estimated cost of construction for the new station was $30, 597.

Long, also known as John G. Long and Johnny Long, was the most important party.  Apparently a native and resident of Bay City, he would, through his Long Broadcasting Enterprises, own or operate KVIC, Victoria, KSAM, Huntsville, KNET, Palestine and KTLW, Texas City, in addition to KIOX.  Bay City Broadcasting also applied for a 50 kw station in McAllen to operate on 1560 kc.  Long was also an owner and operator of as many as 70 theaters across Texas, including the Showboat theater in Texas City, where KTLW would be located.

Information about the early years of KIOX is difficult to find for a number of reasons:  the station has been deleted and it’s FCC records are not accessible online, copies of the Bay City Tribune for that era apparentlly are non-existent, and online scans of the fine print notations in Broadcasting Magazine are often illegible.  As a result, I do not know when the call letters were applied for and approved, what they stood for, if anything, and when the station actually got on the air, but by July 29, 1946, the station was listed along with 6 others joining the Mutual Broadcasting System as of August 1 so presumably it was on the air by that time.  In the meantime, on May 20, 1946, the FCC had accepted for filing an application for modifications to the original CP to change the frequency from 1110 to 1270 kc, change the power from 1000w, daytime, to 1000w, unlimited, and install a new transmitter and antenna.  These modifications were not approved by the FCC until January 27, 1947, along with extensions for the dates of commencement and completion of the changes.

Long’s purchase of KSAM, Huntsville was approved in October, 1946, and his purchase of KVIC, Victoria, from Morris Roberts, was approved in December, 1946.  In February, 1947, Clements' interest in Bay City Broadcasting was transferred to Harry Reading, Jr., for $8000. Reading had been an IRS Collector and was then employed as accountant by Long.  Clements was partner in other broadcast enterprises, either applied for or operating, in Del Rio, San Angelo, and Houston. 

Long’s application for KTLW was approved in June, 1947, and then in early October, the move of  KIOX to 1270 kc was authorized.  In it’s November 17, 1947, issue, Broadcasting ran a story about the formal opening of the new station on November 10. Cost of the facility was estimated at $200,000.  There was a list of important officers and staff of Long Broadcasting Enterprises including some of the air talent.  As the operator of a small group of stations, Long had been able to attract staffers from far and wide including such major markets as Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, San Antonio and Houston.

A year later, in November, 1948, tendered for filing with the FCC was an assignment of the license of KIOX eliminating Dodd and Reading from the ownership.  The consideration was something in the vicinity of $12-13,000 for their two 12.5% shares as best I can make it out.  It was mentioned that the station was losing money.  Thus did John G. Long become sole owner of KIOX.

See Part 2 here.

The 1940s - Part 6 - More Suburban Stations

The 1979 Broadcasting Yearbook gave August 1, 1947, for the launch of KIOX, Bay City, but that appears to be far off.  A CP was granted in March, 1946, and the station was apparently on the air by the end of July of that year as a 1000 watt daytimer on 1110 kilocycles.  It then moved to 1270 kc and became a full time station in November, 1947.  The station is no longer in existence.  For more on the launch and history of this station, go here.

KTLW, Texas City, was first licensed on November 1, 1947.  A construction permit had been issued just weeks after the Texas City explosion.  The original owner was John Long, doing business as Texas City Broadcasting Service.  Long also had an interest in KIOX, Bay City.  KTLW operated on 920 kc with 1000 watts, daytime only.  The transmitter and studios were located north of 146 and west of Logan Ave. originally but FCC records show the address changed several times in the early years.  After the Showboat Theater was rebuilt in 1949 (it had been destroyed in the explosion in April, 1947), KTLW established studios there.  The theater was also owned by Long. In 1949, the station filed for a permit to increase hours of operation to unlimited and reduce power to 250w but withdrew the application days later before the FCC could act.  Long sold the station to Roy Henderson of Henderson Broadcasting as of June 24, 1980.  Robert Miller, VP and GM of the station announced a change of call letters to KYST and a change of format to adult contemporary and oldies with the intention of offering a service to the metropolitan Houston area while continuing to serve the bay area.  Henderson requested and received permission from the Zoning Commission to build a new facility in the 5700-5800 blocks of FM 1764.  In April, 1981, Henderson was granted a permit by the FCC to increase hours of operation to unlimited, using 5000 watts daytime and 1000 watts nighttime.  The station subsequently was sold to Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. and still operates as KYST. Information about KTLW has been very difficult to discover; it received only scattered mentions in the Galveston Daily News over the years, mostly program notes about individual programs.

Tri-Cities Broadcasting announced on October 31, 1947, that it planned to put the Tri-Cities area’s second station on the air by the 10th of November but it was just over a month before it hit the airwaves. The original calls were KREL and it was licensed to Pelly as a full-time station on 1360 kilocycles with 1000 watts. The owners had explained the call letters referred to Robert E. Lee High School. Virgil G. Evans was the GM, having worked before at WMTC, Ocala, Florida. Harold Rench was to be the Chief Engineer; he was from Battle Creek, MI, and had worked at WSAM, Saginaw. Other staff members included Byard Sooy of Troy, AL (WTBF) who would cover sports, a strong point for the station; Bob Postner of Chicago (WBAU); Robert T. Nolan of E. Liverpool, OH, who had worked at KXLA, Pasadena, CA, and who would become station manager in a couple of years; George Vance of Detroit who had worked at KPRC; Bill Bates of Oklahoma City who had worked at WBBZ, Ponca City; and Harold Orton, a Lee College Student who wanted to get in to radio. The station would operate from 6a to 11pm from new studios on Decker Drive ‘at the InterUrban Crossing,’ near the Humble Refinery.

According to a post on ourbaytown.com, KREL played Rhythm and Blues but like most stations in that era that were not network affiliated, it was block programmed. Houston radio legend Dickie Rosenfeld got his first job in radio at KREL, doing sales and disc jockeying a country music show as Cowboy Dickie, before moving on to work at KPRC and then KILT. Another well known personality was Marvin Daugharty of Highlands, the morning show host, known as ‘The Deacon.’ He had studied at the National Radio Institute at Rice and also at the University of Kentucky, was also on the engineering staff at KREL and helped to put KLEE-TV on the air plus stints at KTHT and KRCT.

The station had a Fire Fighters Club for kids and also reminded teens not to forget the Three Rs: Rhythm, Records and Requests, daily at 6pm.

The station signed on with a special 2 hour program at 7pm on December 2nd. Regular broadcasting started on the 3rd. When Pelly and Goose Creek were consolidated in the newly incorporated Baytown in 1948, the city of license changed to Baytown. The station at 1360 has seen a number of call letter changes over the years including KWBA and KBUK; currently it is KWWJ, a Black gospel station.

The Houston papers did not include listings for suburban stations until the 50s.

ETA:  Google Street View image of the KWWJ facilities, still operating out of the original KREL building.  The garage structure, which possibly houses a remote unit, has been added.  Decker Drive/Loop 330 has been widened considerably; it is now a multi-lane, elevated expressway with frontage roads so the building sits much closer to the road than it used to. 

NOTE: The Robert T. Nolan of E. Liverpool, OH, one of the original staffers at KREL, Baytown, became much better known in Houston radio circles and to listeners as Tim Nolan, one half of the long-running Tim and Bob morning show on KPRC.

UPDATED 2/12/14 WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT KTLW, TEXAS CITY.