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KCLE/Cleburne goes dark

Huff

Huff

Administrator
Here is the message posted Friday on their Facebook page:

"We have some bad news folks. As of this morning the Outlaw has officially gone off the air. We'd like to thank all of our sponsors and schools over the year for allowing us to cover a variety of sports and venues and most importantly the listeners for tuning in every once in awhile and keeping us company. We appreciate everything the schools and cities of Cleburne and Burleson and many more for the great times. We here at the Outlaw say farewell for now."

So are the owners going to try and sell the facility? are they just going to turn in the license?

Of course, this KCLE is not the same facility as the original KCLE that was put on the air by George Marti in 1947 (that station became KHFX), but it is disappointing just the same to see one of the few remaining small-town operators throwing in the towel.
 
This is not good, especially for the City of Cleburne. They have had a radio station or two for years! 1460 was selling allot of commercial time - loaded in morning and afternoon drive, nice facility in downtown Cleburne and no Jocks.....hard to figure. 1460 is not that bad of a spot on the daytime dial for most of Fort Worth. Sad. Someone might be able to pick up a nice facility there. The last time I was there the facility was in nice condition, plenty of room, private parking lot. Good spot for Classic Country.
 
Based on information I have seen, I think it is fair to say the station is not down and out. I believe billing was sufficient to turn a profit. In addition, based on the two translators, it would make me think the station is being sold or will be leased. Per the FCC database, it seems KCLE sold in 2015 for 1.6 million.

As for local Cleburne radio, the community has evolved over the decades. As the metro has encroached, Cleburne has become much less of a town where you worked there and lived there. That means more DFW station listening and less 'local' listening. I saw that over the decades. Long ago when I was growing up in Dallas, Plano had a local station. McKinney did too. The stations are still around but adopted formats that catered to the metro as the towns were swallowed by the metro. I would not be surprised to see KCLE return with a format targeting Fort Worth and the southern DFW metro.
 
Man that is a huge bummer. How many small AMs around us are still serving their communities?
Like B-Turner mentioned several towns in the Metroplex had their own AM/FM at one time.
KGVL, KGAF, KJIM, KNTX, and KFYN are the only ones that come to mind.
 
LibertyNT said:
Man that is a huge bummer. How many small AMs around us are still serving their communities?
Like B-Turner mentioned several towns in the Metroplex had their own AM/FM at one time.
KGVL, KGAF, KJIM, KNTX, and KFYN are the only ones that come to mind.
Click to expand...

The bigger story here, to me, is that the former WACO's future is in question. This facility signed on in Waco in 1922. To see it possibly darkened not too long before its 100th is disheartening. KCLE Clebune is long dead, now @ 1140 and living in Burleson.

There is hope, though. In our neck of the woods, KCTI Gonzales appeared to be dead in the water, but an operator has stepped up, purchased it, and now KCTI appears to be on the path to resurrection. Let's just hope a similar future awaits WACO/KCLE.
 
purpledevil said:
The bigger story here, to me, is that the former WACO's future is in question. This facility signed on in Waco in 1922. To see it possibly darkened not too long before its 100th is disheartening. KCLE Clebune is long dead, now @ 1140 and living in Burleson.
Click to expand...

The current KCLE facilitty is/was the 7th oldest surviving radio station in the state, having signed on as WJAD/Waco on July 21, 1922.
http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/FirstAMs.htm
 
Huff said:
The current KCLE facilitty is/was the 7th oldest surviving radio station in the state, having signed on as WJAD/Waco on July 21, 1922.
http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/FirstAMs.htm
Click to expand...

Thank you for providing the link, Huff. You mentioned what I failed to. 1460 did not actually become WACO until 1930, and then stayed that way some 70 years, until the move to Glen Rose in the mid 90's...1996 or '97.
 
KBEC in Waxahachie is still doing quite well I understand. It appears KCLE as a local station was not for some reason.

KPYK in Terrell hangs on but I wonder how much longer. I suspect most of their billing comes from weekend religious programs and maybe specialty shows. I doubt they run hardly any commercials.
 
You know, I don't recall ever hearing commercials on KPYK. Surely they must, unless the Sunday churches foot the bill. (Which is pretty common with small town AM stations)
Normally small town AM stations earn their money from High School Sports, Church, and other paid programming. With KPYK being a daytimer sports is almost totally ruled out, unless that 6 watts actually does something useful at night.
 
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I actually worked at KPYK back when it was KTER in 1980. As I recall Sunday was almost entirely paid programming. Some of Saturday was as well. Weekdays only a few commercials aired daily, many being news sponsors. The commercial rate was not cheap and there was a limit of 7 commercials an hour with every spot playing alone in the stop set by design. The owner, not Bill Pirtle at that time, added public service announcements to keep the jocks from getting too bored. I think the billing was sufficient to cover the cost of the operation although I am not sure what the note payment might have been.

There are quite a few small town daytimer stations where the money gets made on the weekends and the rest of the week is pretty barren.

It will be interesting to see how KCLE plays out in the coming days/weeks.
 
KCLE

Just discovered this by accident, but www.radio-locator.com is now using Google maps for the transmitter location coordinates, and you can click on those and then change the view to Google Earth, and see the view of the towers from space. Here are the 3 towers of KCLE and their SHADOWS
 

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I Actually picked up KPYK signal at night in downtown dallas a couple of years ago. It was kind of half and half with XERF. So their nighttime signal do does make a difference in kaufman county and somewhat dallas county. Now for KCLE that is a bummer that they went dark i am able to pick up that station sometimes in sherman in the daytime it had some good country music i like on it. Maybe someone will buy it or maybe i will if i have to, who knows. I hope they'll be able to bounce back.
 
Is 1460 KCLE still dark? There is no STA in the database for being silent. I am in Houston and can't monitor. I used to work there 1976 to 1978 when it was on 1120 250 W-D and owned by Earle Fletcher.
 
Maybe I am radio ignorant on this one, but I don't see how a Vietnamese (?) station can survive and KCLE as we last knew it couldn't.....(???)
 
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