Kebe

Things have been busy around here. FYI, from today's FCC Daily Digest:
Actions of: 08/13/2014

AM STATION APPLICATIONS FOR ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE GRANTED
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TX BAL-20140609ABW KEBE 70741 WALLER BROADCASTING, INC. Voluntary Assignment of License
E 1400 KHZ JACKSONVILLE, TX From: WALLER BROADCASTING, INC.
To: CHALK HILL COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
Form 314

Wow man - good work and good luck!

Congratulations, Chuck! It's great to hear you are the one that will continue on the long history of Jacksonville's 1400 KEBE. I know you will be an excellent steward of the old "corral". Now that you are no longer going to be LMAing the signal, will you continue to air QX-FM across it, or are there other plans for KEBE?

Man, this really made my day. I'm really happy for you.

For now, KEBE will still rebroadcast the QX-FM format. The first task is to make it a reliable, decent sounding signal. I've been working on the transmitter site for the last three or four months, knowing the sale would probably happen. I've made some improvements, but there is still a lot to do. Where we go from there is a good question, but I have several ideas. I suppose that is the curse of having a vivid imagination!

As a former jock that did morning drive on KEBE in 85 it's nice to see the station continue.

Congrats Chuck. Hopefully you can improve it's signal like you've done with KDOK-AM.

billyg said:

Congrats Chuck. Hopefully you can improve it's signal like you've done with KDOK-AM.

Click to expand...

That's number 1 on the list of things to do.

We closed on Monday, September 8. Now the real fun begins... Lots to do, but all things considered it's a decent facility. I recently went with a friend to inspect a couple of other stations that are currently on the market. Holy $hit... They make KEBE look look NBC, New York.

This brings a blast from the past. I worked for Waller Broadcasting from 1988 until 2008 for both KOOI and KEBE as I went through high school and college and then full-time work as a lab technician. I saw the transition from turntables and reel-to-reel, the Bonneville CD changer system and then to the touch-screen Scott System. I was the studio technician for many of the high school football and basketball games working with the late Rick Watson.

I still keep radio in the blood. I have been licensed as an amateur radio operator since 1992 (first licensed as N5ZIS, then AD5KM and now K5BDL).

Best regards,

Brad Low
Tyler, TX

Are these AM or FM stations? It's a shame so many stations are being maintained so badly now.

KEBE, licensed to Jacksonville, and KDOK, licensed to Kilgore, are both 1kW graveyard AM stations, KEBE @ 1400 and KDOK @ 1240. Both stations are heritage signals in east Texas, with KEBE being the longtime home of the "KEBE Corral" as a country and western outfit. KDOK, on the other hand, is a heritage call sign in the area, but did not originate on 1240kHz. 1240 is the 3rd oldest signal in the area, behind 1490 KGKB in Tyler (which also held the KDOK call for a period in the 80s), and KFRO Longview. 1240's original call was KOCA (Kilgore, Oil Capital of America) and signed on in 1936. KFRO beat that by a year, lighting up in '35, KGKB in '30.

Edit: Billy, you won't need to worry about the maintenance of KEBE any longer, and the difference of sound quality on KDOK is like night and day, compared to how it had deteriorated under previous ownership groups.

Chalk Hill, and its leadership, is a group that respects the heritage of these old east Texas signals that were as ingrained into the community at one time, as the oil itself. KEBE will be maintained very well now, I'd put money on it. I don't know how Chuck feels about the genre, but my own guilty pleasure is to have KEBE flip from QX-FM, to classic country (returning it to its roots), and I mean the Lefty Frizzell, Hank Sr., Ernie Ford classic country, not the current Alabama, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakum "classic country" offerings.

Whatever Chuck does with KEBE, I am sure it will be top notch.

For now, KEBE will continue with the QX-FM oldies and standards format. It already has quite a few listeners, since we've been simulcasting on it for the last couple of years. We now have local studios in the Waller building in Jacksonville as well as at our main studios in Chalk Hill. The last couple of weeks, my main focus has been making the Jacksonville studios work properly. The transmitter and processing, although they work OK do have some "issues" that need to be cleaned up. I think it can sound better, but it already sounds better than it did a few weeks ago.

Incidentally, at the closing, Dudley Waller told me what KEBE means. I'd always wondered. It's "Keeping EveryBody Entertained." I think you will hear that on the air from time to time. I told Mr. & Mrs. Waller that I felt like I have inherited an important part of East Texas Radio History. I really meant that. I think they were happy that I thought so.

I know I am certainly glad to know you recognize that, Chuck. Of course, I never had any doubt personally. Whatever you plan with KEBE, I'm sure it will be a fitting tribute to the glory years of that heritage Jacksonville dial position.

Edit to add: Something you certainly don't hear as much of in this day and age, but in all the years of KEBE operation, Chuck is only the 3rd person who can rightfully claim "I own KEBE-Jacksonville". Bill Laurie signed it on in 1947, Dudley and Dot Waller purchased it in 1958(?), and now Chuck Conrad in 2014.