DJ Bennie Hess

 

 

Orville "Bennie" Hess was born in Chriesman, TX in 1914, It's is an unincorporated community in Burleson County. In the year 2000 the population was just 30 people. it's the definition of a small town. It's population peaked at about 200 in 1925. Inexplicably it does still have a post office today, it also has one restaurant, Front Street Burgers and one Methodist church. The whole neighborhood is mapped on Google Street view so you can see the locals surprised on their porches, and a dog chasing the Google car. All of this to say... Bennie had humble beginnings.

Jimmie Rodgers Guitar Sidebar:
Interestingly, his father, Vestral Hess worked on the railroad with Jimmie Rodgers who even stayed at their house on occasion. Purportedly Jimmie gave Bennie his first guitar lessons and even gave him a guitar. In one tale this is the first Martin guitar ever made though that is an obvious Texas Tall Tale. The first Martins were made in 1833. These were parlor guitars with gut strings. Even when he was born this would have been an 80+ year old guitar and completely inappropriate for a child. But Jimmie was the first country artist to endorse a guitar brand in 1928. But that was not a Martin, that was the Weymann “Jimmie Rodgers Special” Style 890 [LINK]. But he did also play Martins. That same year he was photographed playing a Martin Model 000-45; and he is known to have played a 00-18 as his Bristol sessions. Did he give a guitar to Bennie? Maybe?  The whole connection to Rodgers is based on Hess's hearsay which as you will learn... is not always a great source.

Back to Bennie: 
In 1940 Bennie Hess formed his first band, The Rhythm Wranglers in 1940 when he was 26 years old. That landed him a show on radio station 1310 KFYO-AM in Lubbock, TX. It's an odd station with tall tales of it's own. The station was founded by the Kirksey Bros. Battery and Electric Company and moved to 1310 kHz in 1932 having been on 1420 kHz since it's founding in Breckenridge, TX in 1927. In 1929 it increased power from 15 to 100 watts. 

But Breckenridge is about halfway between Abilene and Fort Worth... that's odd... In 1928 the station moved to Abilene now daytiming at 250 watts. Then in 1932 in a fit of boldness, Kirksey was approved to move KFYO to Lubbock on 1310 kHz. The full move was about 500 miles. That might be a record. Speaking of records, KFYO is typoed at KXYO in the book Sparks Out of the Plowed Ground by Bob Doll. Good book though. But AI has propagated that error onto various websites since then. They went on to make the first broadcast of a Texas Tech football game which was their patriotic duty in Lubbock. 

By 1944 Hess was performing on the Cornbread Matinee at KRLP in Dallas, TX. Other regulars on the program included host Hal Horton, Ruby Allmond, announcer Johnny Hicks, Georgia Slim Rutland, and Howard Howdy Forrester. This is not to be confused with the Cornbread Matinee that broadcast out of WKYW in the mid 1950s. That was hosted by Thorne Hall then Car Shook. The KRLP program was broadcast out of the Arcadia Theatre through at least 1948. But according to Hess, the show was carried on 43 different radio stations in Texas. But that's another tall tale. 

There is a gap in his career here where he recorded and performed with the Oklahoma Tornadoes 1946–1947 which he self-released on Opera. Multiple artists from the session appear on Gold Star and other Cajun recordings Pee Wee Lyons, Riley Clark, Floyd Leblanc in particular.  But his connection to Gold Star is tenuous.

Bennie was just kind of a grifter, all 6-foot-six of him. It permeated his whole recording career. Bennie cut his first record in 1945 for the Black And White Records. He could only be pleased by sharing a label with greats like T-Bone Walker. It is unknown how many records that sold, but purportedly it won him some appearances in western films as a singing cowboy. But Imdb lists nothing. But that might be him as the singing cowboy in the 1939 Wagon Train starring Tim Holt. More here

However Bennie used pseudonyms frequently in his career: Buddy Page, Benny Leaders, Georgia Harrison. He started his own record label Opera while still under contract to Black And White, which might be after his deal with Bill Quinn and Gulf records in Houston in 1944, but the latter might be another fib attempting to tie himself to the career of Harry Choates. But the book Cajun Breakdown by Ryan Brasseux ties him to Gold Star records, but only to leave without recording anything to found Opera records. 

Thought it was true that he signed to a major label, Mercury in 1948 and recorded a few sides. But Mercury fired him for bootlegging his own release via his bogus Opera label. In fairness Mercury hired Hess because he could mimic Ernest Tubb's style , the same way they signed Allen Flatt in 1954. Bennie Probably didn't see much of a future in that. So in 1953 he launched a new label OK'ed which aped the branding of the Okeh label. I've only seen one 78 rpm release with that imprint.

 

In November, 1955 he managed to get his own single "Queen of Sylvan Beach" reviewed in the C&W section. But it didn't become a hit. Billboard literally wrote "While he does a good job, the material is not strong enough for commercial prospects." That was the story of his whole career. Bennie had a good ear for finding talent. He could have been an A&R man for a major label. But his own recordings didn't have that certain something. He appeared in Billboard again just a month later, in a passing reference in a December 1955 issue of Billboard.

"Denny Denver, C&W deejay at WCMW, Canton OH, has Jimmy Dickens, Del Woods, the Louvin Brothers, Cousin Judy and Dusty Owens going into Memoruial auditorium there January 1 for two shows, same package plays Warren, OH, January 2 and Zanesville, OH January 3... Elsie Pierce Wilks composer of 'Turn Back the Clock to Davy Crockett' and others, has a new Christmas tune, 'Oh the Man in the Moon is Santa Claus,' which has been waxed for Jet Records by Bennie Hess..."

Bennie went on to perform on Louisiana Hayride on KWKH in Shreveport, LA with his new band The Nation Playboys. In January 1957 he's quoted in Cashbox magazine not about about his own hits, or shows, or tour dates but about the artists he's releasing on his new record label, Spade. Thus began a  trend, that Bennie's taste for rockabilly and boogie-woogie would endear him to legions of collectors in the future but never amount to personal fame and fortune.

"Bennie Hess, owner Spade Record Co., Houston believes he has something in these three recent Spade label releases: “It Hurts The One Who Loves Me”, Ray Doggett; “I End Up Crying”, Royce Porter; “Is There No Love For Me”, Johnny McAdams. Spade records are distributed locally by Gulf Record Co."

Some stories about Bennie were true. Bennie did also perform on the Big D Jamboree in Dallas on KRLD-AM and on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville at WSM. George Jones really was in his band and and Billie Collie at KNUZ who discovered Elvis really did believe in Bennie. When listing off artists KNUZ pushed in a 1954 ad in Sponsor, Bennie was top of the list. Collie it seems did try to "break" Hess as an artist. Bennie even has a brief promotional stint as a DJ on KNUZ as described by Radio Daily in October of 1949

"What  is  probably  the  largest  regularly scheduled  western  disc  jockey show  has  made  another "first" for  KNUZ,  Houston  indie.  "Rhythm Ranch"  has  a  new approach  in  that it  will  consistently  use  more  live  recording talent  than  any previous Houston  program.  Each  recording artist  will  emcee  a  15-minute  period in  "Rhythm  Ranch,"  which  hits  the air  at  1:45  p.m.  each  Saturday,  with chatter and  news  about  their  recent releases  and  bands  while  spinning their  own  records  with  the  able  assistance of  KNUZ  staffers  Ken Grant  and  Buddy  Covington. Already signed  for  "Rhythm  Ranch" are  Bennie  Hess,  Tiny  Smith,  Leon  Payne,  Ben  Christian,  Benny  Leaders, Jimmy  Short,  Collie  Cornpatch, Little  Marge,  Pete  Hunter,  Floyd Tillman,  Hank  Lochlin,  Jerry  Jericho, Jerry  Irby,  and  Woody  and Smitty. "

In 1974 after open heart surgery Bennie finally slowed down a bit. Unable to become a big star on his own, Bennie worked hard to build a career for his son Troy Hess. Troy released his first single at the age of four (some sources say two). These early recordings, on Hess's labels are ... not great.  But Troy got to appear alongside huge stars such as Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, Porter Waggoner, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Troy still performs today but he didn't get the recording bug like Bennie did. More here. 

Among Troy's own recordings was a single “Please Don’t Go Topless, Mother” which probably led to some awkward moments at the dinner table. Writer Dan Beck called his young music career "child abuse", and compared him to David Allen Coe. That sure did piss off Hess but it's hard to say which he took as the greater insult. Their letters are worth reading. [LINK] Bennie Hess died November 22, 1984 in Houston (Texas). More here. Troy still has the guitar Bennie said was from Jimmie Rodgers. Bennie Hess died November 22, 1984.

Jack Ruby and KLIF

Anyone with any level of interest in the Kennedy assassination from the student, to the historian, to the conspiracy theorist knows who Jack Ruby is. But many of them won't know anything about 1190 KLIF-AM, and even fewer the connection between the two. The Kennedy assassination was a tragedy of course but also a huge news event so the city was swarming with local news people. So as coverage ramped up for the Kennedy assassination beat it also proliferated a witness list for the Oswald assassination which included a huge number of radio and news people. 552 different witnesses' testimony was presented to the Warren Commission. It included police, attorneys and Oswald's acquaintances.  But that list includes multiple radio staff:

• Corporon, John
• Duncan, William Glenn, Jr
• Jenkins, Ronald Lee
• Pappas, Icarus M.
• Richey, Warren E.
• Stuckey, William Kirk
• Underwood. James R.
• Walker, Ira N., Jr.

That list has zero overlap with the Ruby trial witnesses. Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24th 1963 in Dallas. Access was limited in secure buildings, but KLIF-AM was on the scene for the prisoner transfer of Oswald but did not broadcast the shooting live. NBC was the lone TV network to have broadcast live coverage. NBC News correspondent Tom Pettit, was the voice everyone recognizes shouting “Lee Oswald has been shot!”  The first mention of the shooting on KLIF is at 9:51 on this video:

First the events you already know about.  Sunday morning, November 24th, the police were ready to move Harvey Oswald to the county jail. A distance of one mile.  At 11:20 AM Oswald emerged flanked by officers. Captain J. Will Fritz led two detectives escorting Oswald through a basement garage toward a car. Moments later, Jack Ruby wearing his fedora, stepped out from the mob of detectives and reporters and fired a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver at Oswald's chest. Oswald died at 1:07 p.m.

First you should know a bit more about Ruby.  He operated a strip joint called the Carousel Club. In addition to the local contacts he made through his strip club, he was very social, and made his daily rounds in Dallas visited acquaintances around Dallas. He'd hit the bank, the Statler Hilton, the police station, the courthouse, the bail-bond office, the Doubleday Book Store, the delicatessen, the shoeshine parlor, radio station KLIF. He actually bought that Colt cobra through a police friend of his, Joe Cody to avoid paying sales tax. 

KLIF was owned by Gordon McLendon. Born in Paris TX in 1921, graduate of Yale, and sports  director at WYBC in New Haven, CT. He made a name for himself at the Liberty Broadcasting System. Liberty was a network that mainly broadcast "recreated" baseball games starting in 1948. Reputedly many listeners were not aware the broadcasters were not announcing the live events. [LINK]Ruby once identified McLendon as “the world’s greatest American.” In those days at Liberty McLendon was billing himself as “the Old Scotchman.” He had founded KLIF in 1947.  Ruby name dropped him in his hand-written confession. Later in his career McLendon became a right-wing radio wonk, and made a failed senate run. His career stalled a bit when he started a campaign to ban suggestive songs like “Yellow Submarine” and “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

He also name-dropped KLIF, DJ Russ Knight, better known as The Weird Beard.(No connection to the WAKY weird beard.)  When FBI Agents found Knight's personal phone numbers in Ruby's possession he won an interview. He had been at KLIF since 1960 and left in 1964 for a spot at WXYZ. Somewhere in there he was also on KILT. Knight had known Ruby for a year and had hung out with him half a dozen times, even taking his wife to the Carousel Club. Ruby for his part, ran ads for the club on Knights program at KLIF. [SOURCE]

Another familiar name that pops up at Liberty is sound man Wes Wise. Back in the 50s he was doing foley work to fake baseball games. Somehow he moved from there to at sports director for WFAA in 1961.  By 1963 Wes Wise was at KRLD-TV (CBS).  He was there with Bob Huffaker. He testified that he bumped into Ruby at the now infamous School book Depository building that Saturday Nov. 23rd; just a day before the assassination. In 1971 Wes Wise would be elected Mayor of Dallas, and he'd serve 3 terms despite being originally from Shreveport, LA. It's worth nothing that Wise kicked off a conspiracy theory in December of 1963 taking poor notes about a possible Oswald sighting. He got a plate number correct but the wrong color and make of the car. By random chance (ahem) the car listed was owned by a Carl Mather at Collins Radio, a company that worked with military communications for the CIA. [SOURCE]  

According to Ruby's own account, he he was trying to find a local disc jockey from KLIF and went into the police station to locate him to deliver some sandwiches from Phil's Delicatessen. He worked his way around the police station, and found instead some staff from KBOX. He asked for  KLIF's Gary DeLaune. Witness Willian Duncan Jr. testified that Ruby delivered sandwiches and soda to KLIF around 1:30 on Friday Nov. 22nd. He asked about DJ Russ Knight and left after 20-30 minutes. More here.   

Gary would see Ruby again when Oswald was shot. DeLaune was standing right next to photographer Bob Jackson when the latter took his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Gary's 's presence begat a conspiracy theory of it's own since Jack Ruby had a few connections to KLIF. Despite personally knowing Ruby, DeLaune testified that all he saw was "figure with a gun."  More here. Delaune later worked in Houston, then moved to San Antonio in the early 1970s to cover the San Antonio Spurs. Eventually he joined the sports broadcasting team at KENS-TV where he stayed for decades until his retirement.

Was there any more to any of this?  Probably.  But knowing DJs as I do... the basis of these friendships was probably free sandwiches, and drinks at the carousel club. It an unusual event where in covering the news of one crime find a dozen DJs testifying in the trial over another related crime. I can't think of another event like this one in that one respect.

Humbard Family Radio Favorites

The first print reference I found to the Humbard family was in the Indianapolis Times, September 5th, 1949. The Humbard family was performing at 4:30 PM on 1260 WFBM. I didn't immediately connect them to the evangelist Rex Hubbard. I'll circle back to that in a moment. I had found a Humbard Family hymnal which was notably hefty compared to most radio hymnals, with 201 pages of mostly Stamps-Baxter hymns. A highly unusual book, the music is all in shapenote musical notation. It bore no date, but the individual hymns have copyright dates. The latest of these are from 1945.  I corroborated dates at Hymnary.org. (They need to update their SSL certificate)  Anyway, I'd put publication of the hymnal shortly thereafter, probably in 1946-ish. The interior of the cover states "features on ABC and Mutual networks." The NBC Blue Network became the ABC network in 1943 so that tracks.

Interestingly the Humbards didn't seem to publish much of their own music. They seemed to be primarily live performers. In the Radio Favorites hymnal there are zero originals. Most of the music is by Albert E. Brumley a prolific 20th century, shape note music composer. Almost every hymn in the book is under Virgil O. Stamps publishing.  Their earlier work, the 1939 hymnal,  Humbard Family Songs, only sports three originals (below). I have not found information on their 1942 hymnal, the Humbard Family Radio Book so there may be a few more originals out there.

• The Blood Done Sign My Name - Alpha Edward Humbard
• One Day While I Was Far Away - Martha Bell Humbard
• Better Than Gold - Martha Bell Humbard

The various members of the Humbard Family put out books, LPs, 78s, 8-tracks, and broadcast on radio and television. I even found a translucent red 10" record. They ran an inter-generational ministry which eventually collapsed in scandal and embezzlement in the 1970s. But I'm more interested in the early radio era than the quaaludes and nose-jobs era.  It is with thanks to the 2012 obituary of Maude Aimee Humbard in the Akron Beacon Journal that we can start to piece this together. 

Maude Aimee Humbard was born in 1922 in Dallas, TX. She married the Rev. Rex Humbard in 1942. Rev. Rex Humbard's actual name is Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard and he was born in 1919 in Little Rock, AR. They settled together in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. Their kids were, Don, Charles and both a Rex jr. and an Aimee Jr. 

The father of our Rev. Rex was Rex Alpha Edward Humbard and he was some kind of an itinerant evangelist. His mother was Martha Bell Humbard. Martha and Rex Sr. had 5 children including Rex jr., they were Branson Clement Edward, Anna Mary Esther, Martha Ruth (Davidson), Elizabeth Juanita (Banker), and Margaret Leona Belle. Rex Sr. actually ordained the younger Rex which is how we ended up with a family of traveling musical radio evangelists. This family tree does not even begin to address the husbands and wives, sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws with contributed to broadcasts and recordings like Wayne Jones who was on that red 10-inch. This family needs a flow chart. [LINK]  If they didn't recycle names every generation this would be easier. To quote Shupe Hadden (1988) 

"He included his whole family in the act - wife, children, and grand children. ...A  whole generation grew up with the Humbards, and, for may of them, the Humbard family was a part of their own..."

Branson Clement also became an itinerant musical radio evangelist. He and his wife Priscilla even performed in Canada at 630 CFCO. In 1964 they put out a self-released christian LP "Come Home, It's Suppertime" when they were based in Youngstown, OH. Their twin daughters Drusilla and Susanna handled most the lead vocals. But read the credits carefully, those list Leona Jones and Danny Koker. Leona is a Humbard by birth, Danny is Rex Sr's son-in-law. Leona and Danny had a son also named Danny Koker (Jr). He too is an ordained minister. He would therefore be Rev. Rex Jr's Humbard's nephew. That Danny Koker was the host of Counting Cars on the History Channel.

Anyway, getting back to the Humbards of the 1930s. Purportedly Rex Humbard's religious broadcasting career started on radio in 1932. [SOURCE] If that were true his radio career began at the age of 13 on 1040 KTHS-AM. This is corroborated by the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music by W.K. McNeil which states:

"Their first and best-known child, the future televangelist Rex Humbard, was born in Little Rock, AR... Of their five later children, the oldest three (Ruth, Clement, and Leona) joined Rex in the first and best-known musical Humbard Family. During the late 1930s, they became radio regulars on  KTHS."

Some sources refer to this show as the Saturday Night Jamboree. In the late 1930s that's not possible, because by 1938, KTHS was airing the NBC syndicated National Barn Dance out of WLS on Saturday nights. [SOURCE] The show was picked up by NBC Radio in 1933, so this local jamboree window would have to be short.

There were a lot of Jamboree programs and they are often conflated. Excluding the ones on NBC-TV (1948-1948) and the one on WSAZ-TV (1953-1965) a Barnyard Jamboree and an Old Time Jamboree on WLS, there was also a Saturday Night Jamboree on KWEM in Memphis 140 miles east of Little Rock, and another on KCMO in St. Louis.  There was the Blue Monday Jamboree on KFRC, Tennessee Jamboree on WLAF, (1953 - 1978),  the Saturday Nite Jamboree on CBC Newfoundland (1963),  a Wheeling jamboree on WWVA,  the WNAX Hillbilly Jamboree, the Cornhusker Jamboree on KFAB, the KARK Dixie Jamboree, the Old King Jamboree on KVOO... the list goes on.

KTHS was only briefly a Mutual affiliate in 1938. But they were an NBC Blue affiliate starting in 1929 not switching to CBS until 1951. So it's no surprise to see them airing the WLS National Barn Dance.So If this program existed on KTHS, it had to be earlier. The signed on in 1926, so there is a lot of early to speak of.  But I pulled out a Indianapolis Times radio schedule January 23rd 1932 and lists a Barn Dance at 8:30 PM on Saturdays. Notably this is before the WLS program was syndicated. So that might be it.

Even the meticulously researched book Arkansas Airwaves by Roy Poindexter refers to the dubious Saturday Night Jamboree program. All print sources I have found which give attribution go back to his 1974 book as it's source material.  But even June and September Radio Movie Guides for 1940 thru 1942 [SOURCE] list the Humbards on only two radio stations: KLRA at 7:30 AM Saturday and at 12:45 on Sunday at KTHS. 

The Poindexter book clearly states that in 1940 "Humbard Family switched their religious radio  program from Hot Springs to KLRA."  But schedules in the Radio Movie Guide clearly show they were on both stations at at least into early 1942 intimating they had not fully relocated to Dallas yet. Kevin Keherberg's dissertation [SOURCE] corroborates some of the above. Additionally, Keherberg pointed out the Stamps/shapenote connection on page 186.

 "Brumley’s songs were frequently sung by all of Stamps-Baxter’s radio groups—especially after the composer joined the company’s staff in 1937—and KRLD was Stamps-Baxter’s home station."

Then in 1939 Virgil O. Stamps brought the family to Dallas to play at the state fair. In Dallas they impressed Pastor Albert Ott leader of the mega-church Assembly of God. The Humbards were so well received in Dallas that they relocated there, and stayed for 2 years. [SOURCE]  The church's website today claims that the Christ Ambassadors Full Gospel Hour” began on local radio station KRLD. But Mr. Ott also had another program, the Old Camp Meeting on 1310 WRR which dates back to at least 1937. Documents clearly indicate that the shows aired concurrently. Ott's program on Full Gospel Hour program aired on KRLD at 11:00 AM to noon on Sundays which is immediately after the WRR program ended. But even if the Humbards were playing all of Ott's programs I still only come up with three weekly shows, and not the 13 listed in the encyclopedia. In Billboard magazines 1967 The World of Gospel Music special. It claims that "In 1939 the family moved to Dallas and did 33 radio programs a week for the Bethel Temple, WRR, and the Stamps -Baxter Music Co., KRLD."   So Billboard says 33, the encyclopedia says 13, but I count only 3. You start to get the impression that they were prone to exaggeration.

Their resume isn't all bunk, but clearly there is some incongruity here. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas claims that in the early 1940s, rev. Rex (Jr.) began a daily radio program carried nationwide on Mutual Network and the NBC Blue Network.That Billboard special [SOURCE] goes on to claim they began syndication on Mutual in 1943 and their daily program was carried on 100 stations. In 1944 they were picked up by NBC Blue. There is very little documentation on that syndication. at all save for that single WFBM listing in 1949. But that single listing on 1230 WFBM is an anachronism, as WFBM was a CBS affiliate and they had been broadcasting the Humbards since 1942. Mutual did have 500+ affiliates but mostly either small stations in big markets or just stations in small markets. So airplay there may have been real but poorly documented.

The Humbards also claimed to have broadcast over the Mutual Network for more than 30 years. This is false, not even possible. Their radio career before Akron, OH was under 20 years ⁠—total (1932 - 1942). But there is an obvious doorway to the Mutual network on their resume. In 1940 WRR was already a Mutual network affiliate, and they remained one through the whole decade. But the Ypsilanti Daily Press managed to close the loop. Their Feb 14th, 1944 issue lists " Humbard Family" in their "Pick of the Air Today" column. No call letters are included. It lists them only as "BLU" which means the NBC Blue Network: WLW, CKLW, WJBK and WGN. A November 25th, 1943 issue of the same newspaper lists them under the Mutual Network.

Then came the move to Akron in 1952. First they broadcast on 1350 WADC-AM from 9:15 AM - 9:45 AM Saturday mornings and later they added WXEL in Toledo and then 640 WHLO-AM. Strangely the WADC 30-year anniversary booklet barely mentions them, and does not even list them in the 1955 schedule, leaving the impression they were still very much small potatoes. [SOURCE]

The Humbards made the jump to television via WAKR-TV Channel 49 and WJW-TV. The once itinerant evangelists became televangelists. In the 1970s the ministry started to unravel: internal disputes, lawsuits, financial problems, tax fraud, loans from Jimmy Hoffa, embezzlement, and the IRS was sniffing around. In 1983 Rev. Rex Humbard resigned as pastor. He retired from on-air preaching in the 1990s. In 1994 he sold off his Akron Cathedral and retired to Florida. He died on September 21st, 2007.

Untangling KTHS-AM and KTHS-FM

1090 KTHS-AM is best known as the station where Lum and Abner started out their career.  You'll notice that logo above states "on the air since 1958" but that has more to do with the modern station on 1480.  Today's KTHS has nothing to do with Lum or Abner or Hot Springs AR. I'll explain.

In 1952 KTHS-AM became a bit of an issue for NARBA (docket 9974). They wanted to move from Hot Springs to Little Rock, and increase power up to 50 kw, unlimited time becoming a clear channel station.  This was a challenge to the jigsaw puzzle of existing clear channel AM frequencies that had mostly been settled at the end of NARBA. But their timing was iffy. James Noe, the owner of 1060 WNOE-AM in New Orleans had also filed to move to 1090, for the purpose of increasing the daytime power of his station to 50 kw (night time to 25 k).  1450 KGRH-AM in Fayetteville, AR had also filed to move to 1090 requesting an increase of power from 250 watts to 50 kw daytime with a directional antenna.

The FCC handled this in a pretty even handled manner. They compiled dozens of pages of public documentation on the fitness of their engineering, finances, public service and community connections in validating their decision. The FCC identified 11 different criteria on which they would measure the relative merits of these conflicting applications. It's lengthy but I think this is worth reading to understand their reasoning. There is a very transparent effort here to demonstrate their even-handedness.  I do wish the FCC still operated this way instead of the Ajit Pai's agenda based rule-making. He's a tool.

1. To determine the technical, financial, and other qualifications of the individual applicant, and of the corporate applicants, their officers, directors, and stockholders to construct and operate respectively Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH and with respect with Radio Broadcasting, Inc. to continue the existing operation of Station KTHS.

2. To determine the areas and populations which may be expected to gain or lose primary or secondary service from the operation of Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed, and the character of other service available to such areas and populations.

3. To determine the areas and populations which receive primary service from the present operation of Station KTHS and the character of other broadcast service available to such areas and populations.

4. To determine the type and character of program service proposed to be rendered and whether it would meet the requirements of the populations and areas proposed to be served.

5. To determine whether the operation of Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed, and the continuance of the existing operation of KTHS would involve objectionable interference with any other existing broadcast stations, and, if so, the nature and extent thereof, the areas and populations affected thereby, and the availability of other broadcast service to such areas and populations.

6. To determine whether the operation of Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed, and the continuance of the existing operation of KTHS would involve objectionable interference each with the other or with the services proposed in any other pending applications for broadcast facilities, and, if so, the nature and extent thereof, the areas and populations affected thereby, and the availability of other broadcast service to such areas and populations.

7. To determine the overlap, if any, that will exist between the service areas of Station KTHS, as proposed, and Station KWKH, Shreveport, Louisiana, the nature and extent thereof, and whether such overlap, if any, is in contravention of Section 3.35 of the Commission's Rules.

8. To determine whether the operation of Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed would be in conflict with any international agreement to which the United States is a party.

9. To determine whether the construction of Stations WNOE,KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed, would constitute a hazard to air navigation.

10. To determine whether the installation and operation of Stations WNOE, KTHS, and KGRH, as proposed, and the continuance of the existing operation of Station KTHS would be in compliance with the Commission's Rules and Standards of Good Engineering Practice Concerning Standard Broadcast Stations.

11. To determine on a comparative basis which, if any, of the applications in this consolidated proceeding should be granted.

KTHS-AM first signed on December 20, 1924 first on 600 kHz broadcasting from the Arlington Hotel.  It hopped from 780, 800 and 1040 before landing on 1090 in the 1930s. In 1928 the license was transferred to the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce who claimed they operated it at a loss and transferred it to Radio Broadcasting Inc in trade for 500 shares of stock payable to the chamber and 250 shares of stock payable to the Arlington Hotel. The Chamber further received six daily 50-word spots for a period of 10 years. (The FCC docket has a foot note that lists the current value of the Chambers stock as $32,500.) The book Arkansas Airwaves by Ray Poindexter covers the early years in great detail.

In 1944 80% of the shares of Radio Broadcasting Inc. was sold to Tri-State Broadcasting System Inc in trade for the assets and facilities of KTBS-AM in Shreveport which was complete by September of 1944. At the time all the shares of Tri-State Broadcasting System were owned by the Times Publishing Company which owned KWKH-AM also in Shreveport. (Under the multiple-ownership regulations of the era, this was a good trade.)

So in December of 1944 the new owners of KTHS filed to move the marginally solvent station to West Memphis, AR. This is a surprise move. West Memphis abuts Memphis, TN 180+ miles to the East.  Only 2 years earlier they had abandoned an attempt to move 50 miles North to Little Rock. It shows chutzpah. It was denied. They petitioned to reconsider... that was denied too. Under the terms of NARBA, the FCC was committed to keeping KTHS an Arkansas station. The move to West Memphis would have in effect made them a Tennessee station. No soup for you. So in August 1950, like a consolation prize, KTHS re-filed to move to Little Rock, with an increase from 10,000 to 50,000 watts  (directional at night) was filed on December 8th 1951. The FCC's initial decision was released just weeks later on December 26th approving the move.

The reason for this dance is easy to understand. In 1950 the population of Hot Springs was only 29,000. Memphis was 396,000. Little Rock was just a quarter of that at 102,000. The owners were seeking higher population density and higher ad rates. Simple as that.

Just wait there's more. Under NARBA 1090 kHz is a clear channel frequency on which had priority to our station in Arkansas, WBAL-AM Baltimore, MD and XERB on Rosarito, Baja California in Mexico. KTHS had to use a directional antenna at night to protect the other two stations. They were also required to reduce power if they caused interference. (WBAL was unlimited time and non-directional.) Furthermore they may receive interference from CMBS in Havana, Cuba, CMKR in Santiago de Cuba and XEHR in Puebla Mexico. They also acknowledged that it could cause a little interference to KRLD in Dallas on the first adjacent frequency. KTHS was wedged in tight.

in 1955 they launched a TV station, Channel 11 KTHV and in 1962 they were both sold to different owners. KTHS-AM was flipped to Top-40 and the call letters changed to KAAY. The station 107.1 KTHS used the call sign KSCC prior to 1991. This is a bit of a conflict as even the FCC database claims that KTHS 1480 has been on air since 8/3/1958. Well it's true, but they originally signed on as KTCN-AM as a 1 Kw daytimer under the Ozark Radio & Equipment Co. The brains behind that re-branding was Ernie Howard, former KVLC announcer, KARK-TV reporter and later program Director and then owner and GM of KTCN. Obituary here.

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.

KRLD meets Failblog

I don't normally read Failblog, let alone link to it. But there it was, 1080 KRLD-AM in the background of a failblog post.  It's not a proud moment. The tag line below the logo is hard to make out in the glare but it reads "When News Breaks We Break In First."  In this case the are there before the inevitable mass electrocution.

Virgil Oliver Stamps

Virgil Oliver Stamps was a singer and composer but much more importantly he was a promoter.  He promoted gospel music, and was big on shape-note singing. He was born in 1892 and attended the singing school of Richard M. Morgan in 1907.  Born in Upshur County, Texas, raised listening to Gospel he eventually became a key figure in early gospel music publishing. This story doesn't start with radio.. but it ends there I promise. Let's start with the obligatory quote of reference courtesy of the book "American Popular Music and Its Business" by Russell Sanjek.

"The roots of the modern South's religious-music publishing business which was started prior to World War I by James D. Vaughn, Virgil Oliver Stamps, and J.R. Baxter..."

In 1914 he became a field rep for the above-mentioned James D. Vaughan Music Company. Stamps worked for them until 1924.  Then he started his own music company, the V.O. Stamps Music Company, based in Jacksonville, Texas. The following year he published his first song book  "Harbor Bells" In 1927he joined forces with his J. R. Baxter and formed the Stamps-Baxter Music Company. All very interesting.. but no radio quite yet.

He organized a gospel quartet in which he sang bass. They began playing gigs on the radio.American Beauty Flour sponsored his programs. In 1936 five years later, this group gave Stamps his big break. 1936 at the Texas Centennial Exposition he landed two daily broadcasts on KRLD-AM.Interestingly his brother was also in a gospel quartet; the Frank Stamps Quartet. they had a similar sweet deal at WHO-AM in Des Moines. V.O. Stamps also played across the border in Mexico. The book "Daddy Sang Lead" by Stanley Brobston ran the following quote:

"Mr. Stamps also had a fifteen-minute program on a 50,000 watt radio Station in Mexico just across the Rio Grande River from Del Rio. he sold hundreds of thousands of song books with the program on that station..."

Clearly this is a border blaster that was active in the 1930s.  Across from Del Rio, TX is Ciudad Acuna in Mexico. I thought at first this was 1570 XERF-AM but they only began broadcasting in 1939. More likely this was XER or XERA. XER ceased broadcasting in 1933, but that doesn't rule it out. 760 XERA-AM was on air from 1935 to 1939, making a brief but also possible window. XERA was also 50,000 watts broadcasting from Ciudad Acuna, very closely fitting the description. What Brobston does not note is that those programs were recorded on wire.  It was not live.

Virgil Oliver Stamps died of a heart attack on August 19, 1944.  He was 52 years old.

The Amber Alert System

The AMBER Plan was created in 1996. It was named for Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. These alerts are carried on EAS, NOAA weather radio and some LED billboard signs and some SMS wireless text messages. In some states even the lottery LED displays are tied into the system. Online it's available at CodeAmber.org The website is broken these days so I've copied the "about" section below.  

[The domain expired in 2023 and was bought after a multi-month gap, however it appears not to have been updated since 2012. The new site is registered to an entity that seems to share an address with an identity theft mill. (Kalkofnsvegur 2, Reykjavik, Capital Region, 101)  For that reason I removed the hyper link above.]

The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9 year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special "alerts" over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.

In August 2002 Bryant Harper, Founder and President of Code Amber was horrified by the viciousness of what seemed to be an epidemic of child abductions around the United States and Canada. Being both a parent and grandparent, Harper like other parents and guardians, is concerned for the safety and welfare of his family.

In response to these crimes he developed the Code Amber Alert Ticker to provide every web site and computer owner with the ability to display Amber Alerts on their web site and their computer desktop by adding a Code Amber Alert Ticker to afford law enforcement with millions of concerned and informed citizens extending their 'eyes on the streets."

The Ticker is a single line of code that loads a Java Script from the CodeAmber News Service servers and is updated anytime CANS is notified of an Amber Alert or CodeAmber Alert in the US and Canada.

On average, 2,185 children under the age of 18 are reported missing each day. That adds up to more than 797,500 children annually. Of that total, almost that 204,000, or about 25 percent, were family abductions. An estimated 58,200 were abducted by someone other than a family member. Of those, 115 were taken by strangers and kept for a period or killed. At least 322 children had been recovered safely through the AMBER Alert program. 

The statistics on child abduction are important because it defines the need for, and importance of, quick action on children's disappearances.

In a country with some 59 million children, abductions by a stranger are perhaps the most terrifying of crimes. But they are also the rarest. There are about 114,600 such stranger abductions attempted each year, and about 3,200 to 4,600 or around 4 percent, are successful, according to a study by the U.S. Justice Department.

The vast majority of missing children are not kidnapped at all. They are runaways and throwaways, kids who leave and don't come back or are told not to come back. about 200 to 300, are what the FBI calls "stereotypical" kidnappings, where a child is gone overnight, transported over some distance, intended to be kept by the perpetrator or even killed. These incidents make up far less than 1 percent of the total stranger abductions.

Advocates for missing children would like to see all cases get the attention that high-profile incidents receive, but the vast majority of abduction cases go relatively unnoticed.

"News directors are first and foremost looking for news," Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told Court TV. "So if you look at the recent cases that have gotten so much attention ... those children disappeared from their homes and their own beds. It is a scenario that absolutely terrifies every parent. Thus, it's news." 

"All kidnappings are local events," said Klaas, who founded the Klaas Kids Foundation after his 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. "You don't turn your back on your local media in an attempt to get more national publicity. As good as he is, Larry King is not going to be around when your story stops making headlines."

Law Enforcement, real time information and the media are your best friends when someone goes missing?  And Code Amber News Service is a media leader dedicated in the aggregation and online syndication of both Amber Alerts and Code Amber alerts in the U.S. and Canada.

The media is a parent's best friend when their child is missing?  Nobody gets the word out faster than the media.

Amber's family organized residents to contact legislators and media outlets about doing something. A reporter at 1080 KRLD-AM suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future. Rep. Martin Frost [D] drafted the Amber Alert bill. (For his good works, Tom DeLay re-districted him so severely he lost his seat in 2003.) President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1996. The first trial runs of the amber alert system were performed at KRLD that same year.

Initially, alerts were sent out manually. But by 1998 it was fully automated and by 2002 the FCC had officially endorsed the system. In 2002 the system had spread to Canada and international expansion has continued to the present day.