Aircheck: KFAY (1030 kHz) Farmington-Fayetteville May 1987

[spiritof67]

When I visited northwest Arkansas in the spring of 1984, I recall seeing an ad for the change of frequency of KHOG Fayetteville from 1440 kHz to 1030 kHz. The change would give the station a better signal (from 1 to 10 kW daytime) and allowed the station to run 24 hours. Most AM stations in the region were daytime only during this time. Along with the frequency change, KHOG went AM Stereo.

On another visit in 1985, KFAY (then on 1250 kHz as a 1 kW daytimer) had begun using the local cable company to operate 24 hours through that system (The University of Arkansas had a similar operation with a student-run station after KUAF became an NPR affiliate).

In 1986 KFAY swapped frequencies with KHOG, where it remains today at 1030 kHz.

From time to time, I could hear KFAY in the St. Louis area just prior to sunset, and in May 1987 I rolled tape. During this time, the station's slogan was "Country-Rockin KFAY." While I cannot pinpoint the exact date, an educated guess would be 18 May 1987 (a Monday, and before a Memorial Day race which took place on the 25'th of that month).

Here is around 27 minutes of KFAY from May 1987, DX'ed from my St. Louis QTH. The files are 192/44.1 and can be found at these links:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DzvKtJMMW0ioRSLn3mfyHJLHlAZ8kx7I/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PnP0pmwBE_IQxtlTCf2DmGUr3658FUr7/view?usp=sharing


Do any of you remember KFAY during this time?

 

[Kent]

I don't think I ever listened to KFAY at that time, though I did occasionally tune it in a couple or three years later before it switched to talk. I wasn't into country at that time. So, I rarely tuned it in for very long.

An interesting side note about the 1440 signal is that it was eventually reallocated to Lowell and was owned by Tim Hutchinson, who later became a congressman and senator and whose brother is the current governor. Pretty sure it ran a religious format when he owned it, though it was off-the-air by the time I moved to Fayetteville and never returned. 1250, of course, also went religious and was recently sold to the owners of KXNA 104.9.