Koresh is on the Radio

David Koresh, leader of an apocalyptic Christian sect, was dying to be on the radio. We all heard his CNN interview, but his broadcast on KRLD-AM was first. [I first read of this event in a VOX JOX column written by Phillis Stark in an issue of Billboard from March of 1993.] Most of the news media attention happened in the first 72 hours, and the siege lasted for 51 days. But if you look at Waco as the center of a media event and not just it's topic, other stories emerge...

Sunday, February 28th

• 9:30 AM - Failed ATF assault on Branch Davidian Compound
• 11:00 AM - FBI is belatedly notified
• 11:30 AM - Texas Rangers Arrive
• 4:00 PM - Koresh broadcast over KRLD.  (Repeated 12x).
• 5:00 PM - Gunfight
• 8:00 PM - CNN carries live telephone interview with Koresh.
• 10:00 PM - Koresh talks for about 20 minutes on KRLD

Monday, March 1st

• 3:00 PM - Koresh promises to exit if his taped message is played nationwide.
• 6:00 PM - Armored vehicles arrive
• 6:30 PM - 10 children are released

Tuesday, March 2nd

• 1:30 AM - Two children are released
• 8:00 AM - Two adults and two children are released
• 1:30 PM - Koresh's taped message played on KRLD and the CBN Network
• 6:00 PM - Koresh states that he is waiting for a sign from God

Let's go back to KRLD. Today KRLD-AM is only a 2.1 share in Dallas today. Back in the 90s they still pulled in double-digit numbers. The station sat on 1080 Mhz for most of it's existence but it didn't get there until 1941. Prior to 1934 it was on 1040, 890, 840 and 650. The 50,000 watt station was chosen by Koresh and the FBI not just for it's ratings book, but also for it's reach. CBN is a christian radio network, but KRLD is a powerhouse commercial talk radio station. At night the signal is clear from Oklahoma City to Austin. Between February 28th and March 1st KRLD aired Koresh's statement 12 times. In exchange for those broadcasts he released children in pairs for several days. You can hear the taped Koresh statement here.

Wednesday, March 3nd

• 4:30 AM - One child released with puppies
• 8:00 AM - Two adults and two children are released

Thursday, March 4th

• 7:30 AM - One child released 

Friday, March 5th

• 8:30 AM - One child released

You can credit all those saved lives to KRLD. The FBI reached out to the station, and possibly others but KRLD gave away their airtime to a civic cause and historically they get little credit. It's worth nothing that Koresh also agreed to KRLD because of Phillip Arnold. Arnold was from the Reunion Institute of Houston. he was a religious scholar who has been on KRLD and discussed the seven seals. (He also did an interview on the topic over KGBS-AM during the siege.) Some credit also goes to CBN. Some sources claim local affiliate KBBW aired the tape at locally. Billboard claims that CBN aired it on 41 affiliates on the Craig Smith program. Smith had invited Koresh to speak on his program if he would end the ordeal. It was perhaps a poor choice of words.

Before the negotiations degenerated into incoherent preaching and idle threats, there was one last radio event. On March 2nd Koresh had said he was waiting for a message from God. The FBI tried their hardest to give him one. On March 11th, radio personality Paul Harvey happened to describe a comet called the “Guitar Nebula" due to the odd shape of it's wake. The FBI called Paul Harvey and asked him to repeat and expound on the stellar event on his next show. He obliged. In Waco, TX his program was carried on WACO-AM. It was for naught. Almost everyone left in the building was killed by federal agents on April 19th. Harvey didn't admit his involvement until he wrote about it for the Los Angles times on April 26th. You can read a complete timeline here.

Art Laboe is still alive

In 1981, the city of Los Angeles declared that July 17th would be "Art Laboe Day." That day Art received his star on Hollywood Boulevard. Sadly nobody under the age of 60 had any idea who the hell he was.Art Laboe is the main that coined the term "Oldies But Goodies." The phrase is used on Oldies stations cost to coast but Art was the originator. Art put together the first Top-40 comps. There were already best-of compilations, but he was the first to gather hits by multiple artists. His were called "Oldies But Goodies™" and the idea was so novel that the releases stayed on Billboard's Top 100 LP's chart for years. He owned Original Sounds and Starla records. He began as a DJ. He was on KSAN, KPOP and KDAY.

"The Art Laboe Show" was on 1020 KPOP-AM in Los Angeles. He'd come there fresh from KCOP-AM. From 1955 to 1960 1220 was known as K-Pop. Prior to that it was KFVD. More here. Despite the fact that the station was a daytimer until 1976, Art Laboe had the the #1 radio program in the Los Angeles area in 1956. (This was pre-Arbitron so that is a Hooperrating) More here.

K-Pop was primed for rock n' roll. Before the new called debuted the station was already playing rhythm & Blues. DJ Hunter Hancock was on the air in that era. The Standard Broadcasting Company bought 1020 AM from Frank Burke and took the station Top-40 rock, pop and all. But in 1960 Standard sold it to Storer broadcasting who changed the calls to KGBS who went Easy Listening. So sad.

Though KPOP was dead, Art Lived on. He's been putting out records, playing record hops and already emceed shows on KTLA-TV (for Prez Prado for example.) He founded Original Sounds in 1951. He put out records by all kinds of artists rhythm & Blues, country and even that Bongo Rock 45 by Preston Epps. Art wasn't #1 anymore but he kept busy. In 1974 his "Oldies but Goodies" comps were selling like mad. In 1972 he opened his own club, The Art Laboe Club... they focused on oldies. He started doing a show on KRTH our of the second floor. IN 1960 he started Now records and putting out soul 45s.

...And let there be no doubt, he's still alive and still on air. More here.