The Beginning and End of KLCN

1945 KLCN Hymnal

 

I found a hymnal, as I sometimes do. This one is titled Three Hundred Country Chapel songs and Hymns. At 49 pages you'd think it can't possibly have 300 songs, but it does have 4-12 songs squeezed onto each page. What makes it interesting is the words at the bottom of the front cover "Radio Station KLCN, Arkansas Oldest Radio station, Blytheville, Ark." On the back is a calendar from 1954 which firmly dates it. On the back is also the address it was originally shipped to: the 3rd armored division base in Fort Knox, KY.  The hymnal was compiled by Alfred Edward Brumley, a prolific gospel song writer. Also, being Brumley, it's all shape note music. I know his name because in 1938 he wrote the song "Turn Your Radio On." While not the first song about radio, it's notable. 

KLCN often claimed to be the first radio station in Arkansas, and that's technically true. But while it signed on August 15th, 1927 the book Arkansas Airwaves by Ray Poindexter reports that "Arkansas radio pioneers are aware that radio broadcasting was done in the area several years prior to that date." It's mysterious, and unattributed claim, but probably true. The station sign on was also delayed by the timing of the Radio act of 1927. Only 7 radio stations were allowed to proceed under a judges order. [SOURCE] (The other 6 stations were WKBJ, KHMC, WTHS, KFYO, KGGF, and KGGH.) The New York Times wrote: 

"Explaining that the regions involved have only a limited number of stations, Judge E. O. Sykes, Federal Radio Commissioner, in whose district the stations are located, said: "These permits were granted to stations which were constructed prior to the passage of the Radio act of 1927. They were held up by the Federal Radio Commission pending action by stations already licensed, and were assigned frequencies which in the judgment of the Federal Radio 'Commission will not be harmful to other broadcasters. The commission feels that these stations will render a real public service in States which heretofore have had very limited broadcasting facilities, and with their low power will not create material new interference.”

While it started on 1050 kHz it couldn't stay there. (possibly on 800 kHz prior) A year later, after the great frequency move of 1927 it moved to 1290 kHz, still at 50 watts, broadcasting daytime only. The Department of Commerce Service Bulletin of November 20th 1928 listed the owner as Charles Leo Lintzenich. But the New York Times listed the owner as the Daily Courier News. In fact the CN in WLCN stands for Courier News. [SOURCE] But it's all one and the same. Lintzenich was employed at the Courier News as a typesetter and later as the advertising manager for the paper. He got his start in radio serving with the U.S. Signal Corps. The owner of the Courier News, Edgar Harris was supposedly a "major share holder" in the station. But in 1928 Harris sold the paper, and Lintzenich bought him out of the radio station. 

It's worth mentioning that Lintzenich was proudly Dutch, a Dutch nationalist whose nickname was "Dutch" and recollections of him often use that nickname. [SOURCE] But speaking of the New York Times, in 1929 they reported "freak atmosphere" radio reception of KLCN in 1929. 

"For two consecutive nights between midnight and 3 A. M. KLCN, a radio station here, broadcast with seven and a half watts power test programs heard more than a thousand miles away. All previous records for low-power broadcasting on the regular radio channels are believed to have been broken in two test programs put on the air by the station after midnight Sunday and Monday and heard in Lakeland, FL.; New York City, Buffalo and Syracuse; Egg Harbor and Greenfield, NJ; Harrisburg, PA.; Windsor, ON., and Fort Worth, TX, in addition to fifty other cities and towns..."

The Times also reported in that story that the station was co-owned between Lintzenich and J.A. Bass, owner of Radio Sales Co. They went on to explain that the Institute of Radio Engineers, built the transmitter, consisting of one UX210 for an oscillator, while three UX250s as modulators. Later QSL cards confirm reception 1,750 miles away in Alberta, Canada. [SOURCE] A signed letter on Radio Sales Co. letterhead confirms J.A. Bass is James Bass. Their business connection seems to have been brief. 

The Radio Pictoral magazine of 1931[SOURCE] lists Lintzenich as the sole owner as do the 1936, '378 and '38 Broadcasting Yearbooks, but both note the station was operating at 100 watts. The 1933 Kelly's Radio Call book lists it at 50 watts, which is correct. The increase was in 1934. The 1936 issue of Radio Index lists the radio station location as at Main & Division Streets. That 1938 issue also listed off the makes of microphones in use: RCA, Amperite, Sure [sic] and Western Electric. The PD was William Secoy.  [SOURCE] Secoy remains obscure. Other than those 3 issues of the Broadcasting Yearbook heremains elusive.  That appears to be the entirety of his radio career.

Radio engineer Fred O. Grimwood bought the station from Lintzenich in 1939 but Broadcasting magazine described Grimwood as the former licensee by 1945. Grimwood built a new 208-foot tower, and got them a power increase to 250 watts. He also weathered the NARBA frequency allocation changes and moved the station to 13020 kHz. [SOURCE] But it was Grimwood who sold the station to Harold L. Sunbury for $15,865.12. It's an odd number but was recorded in the NAB reports. Broadcasting magazine reported only that after the sale "Mr. Grimwood is now engaged in war work." Later he popped up as the owner of WPAD in Paducah, IL.  [SOURCE] Sudbury was not a fan of Lintzenich. He was once quoted as saying 

"[Lintzenich] was a genius in radio technology.... He was way ahead of his time, but he let time pass him by. With Dutch, radio was a toy. He violated every rule the FRC and the FCC ever formulated, and some they hadn't thought of."

Sudbury wasn't a carpet bagger. He went to high school in Blythville.  He joined the station staff in 1938.  He was also a radio Ham, W5GSY. The 1938 Radio Amateur Callbook puts his station at Tenth and Chickasawba in Blytheville, AL. Somehow he managed to buy out KLCN 6 years later. But it must have been on a shoe string. In the March 1944 issue of Broadcasting KLCN placed an add for new and used recording equipment and 279A and 270A tubes.  

In 1953 Sudbury filed for a modified CP with the FCC to increase power from 1,000 watts to 5k. WCOC in Meridian, MS objected. But KLCN moved to 910 to protect their contour.  In 1954, KLCN-AM broadcast at 1,000 watts on 910 kHz. It was in the Sunbury era that KLCN had it's most famous guest. Johnny Cash performed there while still a student at Dyess High School in 1949. Cash was far from the only musician, The Dixie Stompers, Clayton Hunt Orchestra, Jimmie Boyd, Stoney and Wilma Lee, The Melody Playboys, Calvin Frazier, Houston Stackhouse, Sonny James, James Clecy Haggett, the Leachville String Band, the Sahara singers, and others. Ray Duke and his Sugar Creek Gang were also regulars, and had their own KLCN songbook. (Notably from that list Haggett was also a DJ there.)

When Tom Hill was engineer in the 1970s KLCN was on 910 kHz at 5,000 watts, but still just a daytimer. They owned the FM stick, KHLS 96.1 FM which in 1974 duplicated KLCN 10% per the Arkansas Radio book. Sudbury died in 1987 and W5GSY was reported as a "silent key" in the subsequent call books into 1987.  By the 1990s KLCN was broadcasting an ill-fitting AC format. But by 2002 the paired station flipped to classic country.  The FCC hit them with a $9K public file fine for omissions occurring between 1999 and 2003. They did try a novel argument in 2011 invoking a small business law to no avail. The fine stood. [SOURCE] [SOURCE] 

Around 2003 Sudbury Services acquired 98.7 KOKR. It wasn't the first. By 2019 they also owned KNBY, KOSE, KTPA, KXAR, KAMJ, KHLS, KHPA, and KQMJ across the south. But KLCN was not doing well. After the $9,000 fine the future seemed inevitable. It's not a titanic fine, but apparently it was enough. Sudbury Services Inc surrendered the license for KLCN to the FCC on April 30, 2018. The FCC subsequently cancelled the license on December 31st, 2018. [SOURCE]