Radio Artifact #77

This is a 78 RPM record that comes to me from the former library of 980 KDSJ-AM in Deadwood, South Dakota.Presently they are an oldies station, but clearly in the past they were a country music station.  It was first launched in 1947 By Harry Daniels and his brother Eli. They retained ownership of the station for 35 years. In 1952, the station moved to it's present location, a former funeral home, at 745 Main Street in downtown Deadwood. In 1953 they opened 1340 KRSD-AM, then two television stations KRSD-TV and KDSJ-TV in 1958 and 1960. Harry retired in 1982 and sold off KDSJ.

It might have been then in 1982 when harry handed over the reins or maybe it was later on that they flipped to oldies and dropped country.  Maybe it was a more recent modernization, dropping turntables for the all-digital realm.  I don't really know. But this 78 makes a nice example of what a good studio library used to be like. every piece of physical media needed numbered and shelved.  This one was C689 which is marked on both sides of the sleeve and Recordvelope. Just a note, Dusty Taylor was most active in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I usually see his name in compilations of California western swing. Nugget records was started by earl Peterson, who previously recorded for Sun records. There may be no way to know when thsi disc left the station, but it certainly arrived very early on in Harry's tenure.

KRSD played a little rock n' roll in the 160s, but now its a standard fare News Talker. it's current calls are WTOQ-AM.   KDSJ is st least still in the music business, the marketing on their website is somewhat comic boasting "5,000 Watts!" omitting their power-down to 1,000 at night. Then "5 States Coverage!" Which is pretty dubious. They certainly cover the town of Deadwood, and the nearby metro of Rapid City, SD. But without being specific, but intimating wildly more, they are claiming that they also cover Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. I'm sure the coverage in that corner of Wyoming is quite real,but the rest is strictly DX.