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1300 KKOL...

It still draws interest because it shows that instead of leaving the air permanently, like some AMs are apparently doing across the country, KOL might have a little life left in it.
 
And they can definitely prove with this forum KKOL returned to the air and was heard. It's back now. Better to get the operational issues worked out before they kick in the high power.
 
It still draws interest because it shows that instead of leaving the air permanently, like some AMs are apparently doing across the country, KOL might have a little life left in it.

KOL died in 1975. KKOL is the station now. Salem has this weird habit of rechristening historic local former Top 40 AM stations they acquire into things they never were (The original KOL NEVER ran far-right talk shows, blocks of religious programming. Or ceaseless business blabber.) Nor did the original WIND, WMCA, KCBQ, WAVA, WHK, etc., for that matter.

Until Burl Barer gives us a sermonette between the CCM hits on 1300 kHz, this is where I tune out....
 
KOL died in 1975. KKOL is the station now. Salem has this weird habit of rechristening historic local former Top 40 AM stations they acquire into things they never were (The original KOL NEVER ran far-right talk shows, blocks of religious programming. Or ceaseless business blabber.) Nor did the original WIND, WMCA, KCBQ, WAVA, WHK, etc., for that matter.

Until Burl Barer gives us a sermonette between the CCM hits on 1300 kHz, this is where I tune out....

I still refer to it as what it was. Same thing with KOH, KOB, etc. I think the FCC's rule on blocking three letter calls is ridiculous, especially when no ships use them anymore. Ships don't even use morse code anymore, much less radio. There is no reason whatsoever to block the new use of historic three letter calls.

As for Salem's practices, point taken, but at least they are tipping the hat to whatever heritage a station had in the market. I find some call letter changes spurious and stupid, especially in the day of the PPM and consumers calling up streams online that may or may not have the call letters present at all.

RE: Burl Barer in between CCM songs. LOL. It would definitely liven it up a bit, though, wouldn't it.
 
I think the reuse of classic calls is an interesting homage to the past, given that's about all it could be.

Most every station around here is running a format that drastically differs from the old 3-letter days. (K)KOL, (K)KXA, (K)KJR and (K)KMO bear no resemblance to their former selves. Now, the venerable KGY is just a slogan on a translator. KLSY, KNBQ, KAYO, KGHO, KUUU, KSND and KBRD still exist, but not where they started. KRSC is a Spanish station in Othello. Except for, maybe, KGY, you'd have to be near your '50s to remember what these stations were in their heyday.

As for bringing back the good old days on one of these stations... please recall "Oldies 570, KVI". That effort... not that long ago, lasted only a short time before less-sentimental folk wrested back programming authority.

BTW... none of the above examples are Salem stations.

Were I to get sentimental, I'd take Yakima's KUTI back to 980, where it started, and put country back on it. The community would be expected to turn out in vast droves whenever we were to show up at a local auto parts store in our gaudy-yellow Corvair remote van, merely to show off and sell windshield wipers... as we did in the early '70s. During the Yakima County Fair, our full-day remotes from the pig barn would be enthusiastically attended as well. KMWX would return... back on 1460, with their adult hits format. KQOT (quote radio) would resurface on 930, replete with its normal, awful, RF-infused, teen-ager-presented top-40 audio and barely-working Mackenzie repeaters. KAAR (Kay-All-American-Radio) would return as Yakima's first, struggling, country FM station. KIT, then Yakima's version of KOMO, would take home most of the advertising revenue.

Why not? :)
 
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I think the reuse of classic calls is an interesting homage to the past, given that's about all it could be.

Most every station around here is running a format that drastically differs from the old 3-letter days. (K)KOL, (K)KXA, (K)KJR and (K)KMO bear no resemblance to their former selves. Now, the venerable KGY is just a slogan on a translator. KLSY, KNBQ, KAYO, KGHO, KUUU, KSND and KBRD still exist, but not where they started. KRSC is a Spanish station in Othello. Except for, maybe, KGY, you'd have to be near your '50s to remember what these stations were in their heyday.

As for bringing back the good old days on one of these stations... please recall "Oldies 570, KVI". That effort... not that long ago, lasted only a short time before less-sentimental folk wrested back programming authority.

BTW... none of the above examples are Salem stations.

Were I to get sentimental, I'd take Yakima's KUTI back to 980, where it started, and put country back on it. The community would be expected to turn out in vast droves whenever we were to show up at a local auto parts store in our gaudy-yellow Corvair remote van, merely to show off and sell windshield wipers... as we did in the early '70s. During the Yakima County Fair, our full-day remotes from the pig barn would be enthusiastically attended as well. KMWX would return... back on 1460, with their adult hits format. KQOT (quote radio) would resurface on 930, replete with its normal, awful, RF-infused, teen-ager-presented top-40 audio and barely-working Mackenzie repeaters. KAAR (Kay-All-American-Radio) would return as Yakima's first, struggling, country FM station. KIT, then Yakima's version of KOMO, would take home most of the advertising revenue.

Why not? :)

Those are some interesting observations, though could you elaborate on where some of those calls were in the market? I'm only 25, and I remember the last few years of the AC format on KLSY, still miss it. KSWD kind of reminds me of it sometimes. I know KNBQ was a top 40 station in the '80s, then reappeared as a country station in 2005, not a bad station itself. Though I don't remember it, I know where your next set of calls come from, KAYO was the big country station on 1150 back in the day before eventually winding p on 99.3 in Aberdeen for a few years before moving to the Anchorage area. Fortunately that station is sill doing country. I am less certain about KGHO, but wasn't that a big station on the coast, which is now KBKW? The only stations I've known with the KBRD, KUUU, and KSND calls are the current stations, though KSND has changed format.
 
Those are some interesting observations, though could you elaborate on where some of those calls were in the market? I'm only 25, and I remember the last few years of the AC format on KLSY, still miss it. KSWD kind of reminds me of it sometimes. I know KNBQ was a top 40 station in the '80s, then reappeared as a country station in 2005, not a bad station itself. Though I don't remember it, I know where your next set of calls come from, KAYO was the big country station on 1150 back in the day before eventually winding p on 99.3 in Aberdeen for a few years before moving to the Anchorage area. Fortunately that station is sill doing country. I am less certain about KGHO, but wasn't that a big station on the coast, which is now KBKW? The only stations I've known with the KBRD, KUUU, and KSND calls are the current stations, though KSND has changed format.

KOL, KJR and KXA were legacy Seattle stations. KRSC (Kelvinator Radio Sales Corp) was one of Seattle's first radio stations. FM was later added, then TV (eventually owned by the Bullitts and becoming KING-5). The stations were located at the 4th ave studios of what would house the city's country giant, KAYO. As you noted, that call is now is Alaska. KGHO was Aberdeen's version of KJR. Buzz Barr was the station's GM and SM for many years. KBKW was not associated, but was the country station in Aberdeen. KBRD was a beautiful music station out of Tacoma (once KTAC's FM). KSND and KUUU (Kay-You Sixteen) were short-lived calls, given to AM-1590 during the Drake-Chenault days. KNBQ was out of Tacoma back then, broadcasting from a tower it shared with the city's 1400 AM signal, just before highway 16 meets I-5. At the time, those stations were part of the Tacoma News Tribune's cluster... KTNT AM, FM and TV. KNBQ is now KIRO-FM. KTNT-AM became KPMA (positive mental attitude), which then went dark and was eventually moved to Silverdale as KITZ.

Depending on how you look at it, there are arguments to support the positions that KGY or KJR were the state's first radio stations. KGY leads a bit if you add in its beginnings as a ham station on the campus of St. Martin's College. The KGY call was deleted as part of the station's recent sale to the Catholic network. It's now KBUP (I have no idea).


http://www.historylink.org/File/9342
 
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Depending on how you look at it, there are arguments to support the positions that KGY or KJR were the state's first radio stations. KGY leads a bit if you add in its beginnings as a ham station on the campus of St. Martin's College.

KJR was technically the first broadcast station in Seattle signing on in 1918 with the experimental "Special Land Station" license 7XC. KJR was issued one of the original batch of licenses in 1921 along with stations like KGO and KHQ.

Here is more about the experimental stations:

SPECIAL LAND STATIONS

Special Land stations were generally assigned to operate on uncluttered wavelengths between 600 and 200 meters (500 to 1500 kilohertz). The standards for issuing Experimental licence authorizations appeared in the Experimental Stations clause, from Section 4 of the 1912 Act to Regulate Radio Communication:
The Secretary of Commerce and Labor may grant special temporary licenses to stations actually engaged in conducting experiments for the development of the science of radio communication, or the apparatus pertaining thereto, to carry on special tests, using any amount of power or any wave lengths, at such hours and under such conditions as will insure the least interference with the sending or receipt of commercial or Government radiograms, of distress signals and radiograms, or with the work of other stations.
while the requirements for Special Amateur grants were included, as an exception to the standard licencing of amateur stations, in the 15th Regulation of Section 4:
No private or commercial station not engaged in the transaction of bona fide commercial business by radio communication or in experimentation in connection with the development and manufacture of radio apparatus for commercial purposes shall use a transmitting wave length exceeding two hundred meters, or a transformer input exceeding one kilowatt, except by special authority of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor contained in the license of that station...
 
KRKO also claims to be the first. So did KTW (their successor, KKFX "K-Fox 1250" ran a promo during the '80s that went "This is it.....Seattle's first radio station....Licensed August, 1920....1250, K-Fox. Now celebrating over 60 years of broadcasting to the Pacific Northwest....") Although KJR is the best documented, I think the point is they all came on within weeks/months of each other.

And it only makes you wish you could go back those magical days to personally scramble up the time/space continuum by starting your own station among them.
 
...but wait, there's more! Didn't KJR and KOMO swap frequencies?

Yes they did in 1941. There were several reorganizations of the AM band between 1918 and I believe 1924. I believe 7XC (later assigned KJR) originally on 1010Khz, then moved to 1000Khz. When the government decided one licensee couldn't have two stations, Fisher (owners of KJR and KOMO at the time), decided to swap frequencies and move KOMO from the West Waterway transmitter site.

I was fortunate to have discovered quite the treasure trove of archives from KJR's past at the old TX site. Included in all the boxes were dozens of scrap books going back to the 20's, including original radio program schedules from the day. It was great to see daily programming schedules published in the Seattle Times showing hourly programming from all three letter calls: KGO, KFI, KJR, KTW, and KHQ-Spokane. It looked like someone had been tasked to collect every schedule and radio promotional material from back in the day and save it all. There were also books of letters and correspondence between KJR/7XC founder Vincent Craft to and from the Government about licensing 7XC with one of the new K-call signs. I also found letters between well known engineers at Westinghouse and Truscon Tower about what type of antenna would present the best sky wave signal for KJR.

In 2002 when the sale of KJR and the other Ackerley TV, outdoor and radio properties was announced to Clear Channel, I asked the Ackerley's if they would mind if I donated all those photos, scrapbooks, and materials to MOHAI. The timing was good, because MOHAI was in the process of building a archive of Pacific NW broadcasting history. Of course they agreed, because Barry wanted very much to protect the Northwest broadcasting history.
 
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In 2002 when the sale of KJR and the other Ackerley TV, outdoor and radio properties was announced to Clear Channel, I asked the Ackerley's if they would mind if I donated all those photos, scrapbooks, and materials to MOHAI. The timing was good, because MOHAI was in the process of building a archive of Pacific NW broadcasting history. Of course they agreed, because Barry wanted very much to protect the Northwest broadcasting history.

Nice, Kelly!
 
KBKW Aberdeen had an FM. KBKW and the FM took the KAYO call letters and simulcast the country format for some time. In the 90s, the AM returned to the KBKW call and began new and sports programming, while the FM remained KAYO (99.3). KAYO moved transmitter to South Mountain and studios to Olympia. The station was sold to Amador Bustos and switched to Hispanic music programming. Bustos lost the station, and later was able to buy it back from Adelante. Meanwhile, the call letters ultimately were bought by Morris for use in Alaska.
 
Back to KKOL... I know where they are transmitting from temporarily . Pretty much in my back yard. They are operating on an STA and diplexing from KBRO's tower at Forest Ridge Park here in Bremerton, which is now causing some problems here at home. Most notably ever since they fired up the additional signal, my wireless thermometers haven't been functioning properly. No notice for public comment or anything around my neighborhood. I'd be interested in seeing if there's any other complaints...

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101799917&formid=911&fac_num=20355
 
Back to KKOL... I know where they are transmitting from temporarily . Pretty much in my back yard. They are operating on an STA and diplexing from KBRO's tower at Forest Ridge Park here in Bremerton, which is now causing some problems here at home. Most notably ever since they fired up the additional signal, my wireless thermometers haven't been functioning properly. No notice for public comment or anything around my neighborhood. I'd be interested in seeing if there's any other complaints...

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101799917&formid=911&fac_num=20355

There is no requirement that a new station individually notify the local neighbors, and only certain devices fall into the category of RFI mitigation. Your thermometers wouldn't be one of those devices.
 
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