This isn't even the first time KCKY has gone dark and lost its license. If you look up "Gila Broadcasting" from 1960 in the Broadcasting Magazine archives at DavidEduardo's site, there is a backstory on a number of Arizona radio stations that were having FCC problems at the time.
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KCKY AM Coolidge License Cancelled
- Thread starter Outlaw
- Start date
DrAkbar
Star Participant
The Red Light Display System means business - pay up in 30 days, or you're toast. When you read the FCC's letter to Cortaro telling them their license was terminated, you realize how lax Cortaro was in observing regs and responding to the FCC. The FCC even left a phone message, but Cortaro didn't return the call. Heck of a way to declutter the Ancient Modulation band...especially when this Class B had a decent signal (day and night) covering Coolidge and Casa Grande.
Sammi Brie
Star Participant
Interesting? I'd describe the final years of KFAS/KKER in Casa Grande that way too. And then I discovered what happened to KIKX (whose demise actually helped bring us KCKY's sister KSAZ...)...
DrAkbar
Star Participant
No sooner said than done (at least asking the FCC for reconsideration). Just wait until you get to the last paragraph. KCKY - Florence's Fav: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101760170&qnum=5370©num=1&exhcnum=2 (Tower lights optional)
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Somehow I don't see this going very far. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Sammi Brie
Star Participant
"Asociacion Internacional de Comunicaciones Cristianes"...there's a spelling error in there, too.
I can see why they are trying to sell the FCC on "all these inmates in these jails listen to us". Might as well flip to a new format and call yourselves Hazard to Aviation Radio.
I can see why they are trying to sell the FCC on "all these inmates in these jails listen to us". Might as well flip to a new format and call yourselves Hazard to Aviation Radio.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
They must think the Commission is stupid,gullible, or both. The licensee is actually Cortaro Broadcasting, which in turn is owned by the religious group. So the Commission is to forget about late fines, failing to illuminate towers, failing to keep records, etc. because they're a minority religious group serving the locally incarcerated and operating on a shoestring budget?
Darned shame this facility has lost its license, but the blame rests solely with Cortaro. And if the Commission digs a little deeper into this group which is also owns 5~Eighty in Marana and 15~Forty in Phoenix, who knows what else they'll find!
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landtuna
Walk of Fame Participant
580 (then KCNA) used to be my favorite "first" radio station until KTKT hit it big with rock 'n roll in the mid 50's. I don't know if I ever knew where their studio was but I do remember their multiple towers at the north end of Swan Road in the Catalina foothills. Last time I was in Tucson they were still there and blinking like always. How did their COL ever change to Marana?
Sammi Brie
Star Participant
You're in luck as I just did some Wikipedia research. Because the license for KCNA/KTAN/KIKX managed to live into the early 80s, we have the FCC history cards for it! (Thanks John B. Walton for your endless appeals!)
KCNA wasn't at Swan Road until the 50s. They were initially at Cherry Avenue and 16th Street. They moved to the Swan site in 1952, and their studios were placed there in 1971 after being located at the Sands Hotel (they had previously been at the Cherry transmitter site and remained there until five years after the stick moved to Swan).
When Elliott-Phelps proposed reviving 580 in the mid-80s, they obtained the KIKX facilities from Frank Kalil who bought them shortly after the station went silent. In 1987, KJMM was licensed using those facilities. In 1990, KJMM applied for its move to Marana.
C
CAVEMANager
Guest
I'm not sure what the history of 580 in Tucson has to do with the demise of 1150 in Coolidge but as long as the subject has been brought up, the story is interesting. In 1974 KIKX staged a phony kidnapping of their morning guy, Gary Craig. This led to a full scale FCC investigation and legal wrangling that went on for years. Eventually KIKX's owner, John Walton, gave up the fight and KIKX went dark for years. As luck would have it, I rolled a tape circa 1980 and recorded the final hour of KIKX and you'll find it here: http://www.cavefm.com/Track 1 thru 7.mp3. I don't believe anyone else has this recording. As for Mr. Craig, for years he's been the morning star on WTIC-FM in Hartford and is as goofy as ever.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
The connection is the current common ownership of what is now KSAZ 5~Eighty Marana and the recently shut down KCKY 11~Fifty in Coolidge. Here's how Tucson TV covered the demise of KIKX (big hair and big glasses seemed to go together back in the day): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaZQJjJ6duM
Gary Craig's "goofiness" continues to cause headaches for station owners: http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-gary-craig-video-0629-20160628-story.html
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