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KOJO - KLTY Transition (Spring 1989)

J

JRZFM100

Does anyone have tape on, or even remember, the KOJO to KLTY transition that occurred on 94.1 FM in the spring, prior to May, of 1989?

I drove into Dallas to listen to the actual moment of transition the day it happened. Seems like KOJO had a countdown clock speaking and ticking away and at the moment of transition, when KLTY signed on, the announcement said something like "Out of the Darkness.... and Into the Lite: K-L-T-Y"

Anyone remember the event or have it on tape?

I don't know if Jon or Scott or on here?
 
"Out of the Darkness.... and Into the Lite: K-L-T-Y"
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Ahhh, that should have read: Out of the Darkness and Into the LIGHT
 
I get it.... REALLY I get it. No one remembers, nobody gives a rat's... about KLTY.

Then why is there all of the fascination with EMF and Air 1 in the market??
 
I guess over a million DFW radio listeners back in December dont care either.
 
I guess over a million DFW radio listeners back in December dont care either
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Apparently the >1 million KLTY listener base is under represented in the R-I / R-D population!
 
In these days of troubled times, when you can't tell the AC's from the CHR's, why in the world should a 20+ year ago call letter flip even matter to anyone. I don't get it!

Or as it was stated in that silly doo-wop thread: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
 
There is so much activity and buzz on the boards concerning EMF/Air-1 as a new entrant in the market, it made me think there would be interest in discussing memories and the history of the legacy Christian formatted FM station in this market. Identical to the Y-95 versus the Eagle trip down memory lane from some weeks ago, which was a great discussion. Seems all very logical.

The problem here is that I can't get my "F" to appear backwards as in the logo: 94.1 Backwards F; M
 
Truth is, 94.1 was always a dead spot on the dial to me. I remember seeing KOJO 94 bumper stickers around town and tuning to 94.1 and hearing it call itself, "Christian Radio 94.1 KLTY." However, I don't remember when it happened, and I turned the dial as soon as it came out of stopset and mentioned it was a Christian station. Not being Christian, I had no further reason to listen.

If I were as into radio then as I am now, I probably would've sought out the format change for novelty purposes. At the time, 94.1 was just an annoying extra hit of the seek button from 92.5 to 94.5.
 
Not being Christian, I had no further reason to listen.
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--->>> THAT is so funny. Because the KOJO->KLTY xsition happens in the first six months on my faith, and I couldn't spend much time listening to "The Light" either.

And the same problem persists today!

Although it is "Safe for the Whole Family" [a registered trade mark of Salem]... so I can be sure that when I tune in by accident of the seek button, I won't get let astray by Led Zeppelin or go on a acid trip with Jimmy Hendrix or Jim Morrison!

But again, the question is unanswered, what is the board's fascination with Air 1 ?

Perhaps a question that needs to be posed as completely new and different topic
 
I want to say that KOJO became KLTY around April of 1989 and it lasted until January of 2000 when it moved to 100.7 for a bit until Salem brought it back to 94.9 around Christmas of that year.

Todd
 
I think you're right, April 1989... seems like the day I drove into Dallas from West Texas to hear the final transition and sign on.

Thank G~d someone remembers!

A better discussion, what ever happened to Powerline and the Southern Baptist Radio & TV Commission... was located on I-30 in Ridglea area of FtW. They had a direction ham antenna on the roof. The property has been sold off.

Running Powerline about made my early radio career. We called it the G~d Squad!!!
 
JRZFM100 said:
A better discussion, what ever happened to Powerline and the Southern Baptist Radio & TV Commission... was located on I-30 in Ridglea area of FtW. They had a direction ham antenna on the roof. The property has been sold off.

Running Powerline about made my early radio career. We called it the G~d Squad!!!
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Now you're really bringing back some memories!

I was a board operator/announcer/DJ at KWTX (1230 AM) Waco in the late '70s. On Sunday evenings, the station aired "Powerline" with Brother Jon Rivers (JINGLE INTRO: "You're on the powerline...."), as well as another Southern Baptist Radio/TV Commission program: "Master Control" (JINGLE INTRO: "You're on the network of the Master") with hosts Dave Naugle and George Nolen. Jon Rivers is still around. Naugle and Nolen have passed away.

"Powerline" was aimed at a younger audience (teens and 20-somethings), while "Master Control" was for older adults.

The station also aired "Billy Graham's Hour of Decision."

All three programs were on 1/4" reel-to-reel tape.

Check out this link: http://www.musicradio77.com/WOR-FM/stormin.html
Scroll down to hear Powerline from the Summer of 1975.

Here's a 1977 press release on Brother Jon Rivers:
media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/4472,18-Aug-1977.pdf

Here's a blog post about "Master Control":
http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/search?q=master+control


Anyone have recollections of these three influential programs?
 
I don't recall specifics of the KOJO to KLTY flip. I do distinctly remember the KSSA to KOJO flip, which occurred over nine months after the original KLTY signed off. They ran a two to three minute loop, made up of two parts, for a week. The first part was to announce the move to 1600AM. The second was the "Turn On The Light" instrumental of the KOJO/KLTY imaging of the time.
 
sshuffield70 said:
I don't recall specifics of the KOJO to KLTY flip. I do distinctly remember the KSSA to KOJO flip, which occurred over nine months after the original KLTY signed off. They ran a two to three minute loop, made up of two parts, for a week. The first part was to announce the move to 1600AM. The second was the "Turn On The Light" instrumental of the KOJO/KLTY imaging of the time.
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Correct history...

KSSA-FM 94.1 changed calls to KOJO in March 1987, but retained the regional Mexican format. The change to contemporary Christian occurred around the 4th of July that year (same time as country KDNT-FM 94.5 became Z-Rock KZRK next door on the dial).

The change to contemporary Christian included a loop in Spanish directing listeners to KSSA 1600 (which had flipped from news/talk KTNS in the spring). As noted above, the second part of the loop was a jingle to "turn on the light, FM94, KOJO." The KLTY calls were taken at the time by a Kansas City market station (the present day WDAF-FM there). Once that station changed formats, the calls made there way back to D/FW. KOJO changed calls to KLTY (official call sign changed date 4/20/1989).

The former KRJT-FM 100.7 Bowie upgraded and moved into the market and became KLTY 1/2000. KLTY 100.7 and KWRD-FM 94.9 swapped formats and calls 12/2000.
 
Did Jon Rivers also do the early VO work for KXTA-21 as well? I also remember Powerline from the late 80s until sometime in the late 90s broadcasting in the wee hours of the morning, the same time KHKS (1st generation KISS FM before Oasis) ran religious programming in its overnight slot...
 
during the time I lived in your fair city the first KLTY was the station I listened to. I do remember a recording on a telephone number after the first KLTY left the air. After a while, when KOJO was on the air for I think a few months, there was a promotion on the station about "I Want One" trying to get people to come into the station to get a bumper sticker. I left Dallas in 1986, we had a different type of CCM station in the Jackson, MS area where I went to and I missed the breakthrough work they did at the first KLTY. I do remember between the time the first KLTY left the air for a while that on Sunday Mornings on KMGC that Jon Rivers and Sherry Barrett was doing CCM programming.

You know that all the time Jon and Sherry Rivers was on K-Love (EMF's not to be confused with KLUV) and the little bit of time he is currently on American Family Radio now hasn't really changed his style. Another person I remember from KOJO is Tom Dooley. I happened to listen to him years earlier in Philly at WFIL when I lived in the Philadelphia Suburbs. And his Weekend Journey Programs on AFR later on were good. And the musicologist they had on KOJO in the afternoons made things a little more informative. Didn't John Rivers also do some voice over work for a little while at KPBC? Really as I remember Christian Radio in Dallas-Ft Worth during that time, I feel that the first KLTY and KXVI's style and later KOJO's was the pattern that all other CCM stations followed over the years.
 
Wow, glad to see this took off so well.

Here is my KOJO->KLTY story. 1st, I came 180 miles into Dallas the day of the transition, went to the back parking lot of the Rodriguez building and someone let me in and up to KLTY on Day 1. Was very surprised to see that KLTY had the most expensive Pacific Recorders Tomcat Cart Machines and a rotary pot, audio transformer based Autogram console. Great view out the KLTY studio looking at Downtown/Green Building I remember.

About two years after KLTY signed on, I got to work for Jay Jay Hemingway, who did afternoons or nites on KOJO. Jay Jay had the most fabulous 35mm film photography picture of Amy Grant from a KOJO event. Amy was so amazingly beautiful in the shot it was breathtaking.

Hemingway recalled to me how he was let go from KOJO during the transition. According to Jay Jay, Scott Wilder called him on the phone at home and insisted on taking him out for lunch at a restaurant. When Hemingway arrived and sat down at the table, Scott looked at him and said, "Jon said he's not gonna go with you for KLTY." Or, something very close to that.

I believe that Jay Jay is still in the business, and may be on one of the boards, so if he would like to correct my memory of the story, I would love to hear it.

"Jon said he's not gonna go with you..." Guess Jon was too busy?
 
richllewis said:
Really as I remember Christian Radio in Dallas-Ft Worth during that time, I feel that the first KLTY and KXVI's style and later KOJO's was the pattern that all other CCM stations followed over the years.
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KOJO had more in common with KXVI than KLTY did. KLTY wouldn't touch Stryper, for example. But KOJO and KXVI tackled the harder stuff. KXVI itself was comparable to what Air-1 is today, with a few more hard rock tracks. Not quite Power-FM type, but kind of in that direction. No surprise since Chris Goodwin worked at KXVI.
 
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