KOKC (1520 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is locally owned by the Tyler Media Group and airs a talk radio format. The studios and offices are located on East Britton Road in Northeast Oklahoma City. It is central Oklahoma's primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System.
The transmitter site is off Southwest 4th Street in Moore, Oklahoma. KOKC is a Class A clear channel station, broadcasting at the maximum U.S. AM station power of 50,000 watts. By day, the signal is non-directional. But at night, to protect WWKB Buffalo, New York, the other Class A station on AM 1520, KOKC must use a directional antenna. With a good radio, KOKC can be heard across much of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states at night.
KOKC is also heard on a 250-watt FM translator K237GE at 95.3 MHz, which covers Oklahoma City and adjacent communities. KOKC programming can also be heard on sister station 92.5 KOMA-FM's HD4 digital subchannel.
Programming KOKC's weekday schedule is mostly nationally syndicated conservative talk programs. Including America in the Morning, Chris Plante, Chad Benson, Markely, Van Camp and Robbins, Guy Benson, America At Night, and Red Eye Radio heard overnight.
On weekends, KOKC features shows on gardening, money, health, technology, the outdoors and pets. Syndicated shows on weekends include Kim Komando and Brian Kilmeade, as well as repeats of weekday shows. Some local news and weather is supplied by KWTV channel 9, the CBS Network affiliate in Oklahoma City. Most hours on KOKC begin with world and national news from iHeartMedia's 24/7 News.
History Early years The station's first license, with the sequentially assigned call letters of KFJF, was issued in July 1923. The station was owned by the National Radio Manufacturing Company in Oklahoma City, using a transmitter power of 20 watts on 1190 kHz."New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, August 1, 1923, page 3. The station made its first broadcasts in early July."KFJF Birthday is Observed", The Oklahoma News, July 2, 1932, page 2."First Birthday of KOMA Gala Event", (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Radio News-Guide, November 4, 1923, page 8. In early August, station founder Dudley Shaw and partner George H. Gabus announced that KFJF had begun a regular daily schedule of news and music each afternoon at 3:00."To Broadcast Music, News", The Oklahoma News, August 7, 1922, page 10.
In late 1924, KFJF was licensed for 225 watts on 1150 kHz,"Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, November 1, 1924, page 10. with the station claiming to have over 100,000 listeners. Power was increased to 500 watts in late 1925."Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, December 1, 1925, page 7. In June 1927, its frequency was changed to 1100 kHz. On November 11, 1928, as a result of the FRC's General Order 40, KFJF changed to 1470 kHz, a "high power regional" frequency,"Revised list of broadcasting stations, by frequencies, effective 3 a.m., November 11, 1928, eastern standard time", Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission (for the year ended June 30, 1928), page 213. and raised its power to 5,000 watts. In early 1930, KFJF, along with WKBW in Buffalo, New York, was reassigned to 1480 kHz, another "high power regional" frequency."Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, February 28, 1930, page 23.
KOMA
In 1932, the station changed its call letters to KOMA,"Broadcasting Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, August 31, 1932, page 21. and moved its studios to the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. The station was purchased in 1938 by J.T. Griffin, who also owned the Griffin Grocery Company, which made condiments and baking products for distribution around the region.
In March 1941, KOMA shifted to its current "clear channel" frequency of 1520 kHz as a result of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, with the provision that it and WKBW in Buffalo, as "Class I-B" stations, had to maintain directional antennas at night in order to mutually protect each other from interference."Assignments of United States Standard Broadcast Stations Listed by Frequency", page 1442.
KOMA became an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network. It carried the CBS line up of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio". KOMA began operating at 50,000 watts in early 1947."KOMA" (advertisement), El Reno (Oklahoma) Daily Tribune, February 2, 1947, page 5."KOMA Oklahoma City Now a 50 KW Outlet", Broadcasting, February 10, 1947, page 20. A new transmitter site was constructed around the northeast corner of Kelly and Britton where the present-day Oklahoma Centennial High School sits. KOMA-FM was granted a license on 105.9 MHz and went on the air in the 1948.Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 246 It mostly simulcast the AM station, but management didn't see much future in FM broadcasting and gave up the station by the late 1950s.
J.T. Griffin, along with Griffin's son John and his brother-in-law, were all involved in securing a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission to start a television station. KWTV on channel 9 went on the air December 20, 1953, initially broadcasting from a shorter temporary tower on the studio grounds while the permanent tower was under construction. The new tower was at one time the tallest in the world, at . The call sign KWTV was chosen, instead of KOMA-TV, standing for World's Tallest Video.
Top 40 years By the late 1950s, network programming was moving from radio to television. In May 1958, KOMA ended its long-time affiliation with CBS to become "an independent", with a brief affiliation with NBC Radio. KOMA management decided to turn from serving adults to focusing on the growing youth market. The station became the third in Oklahoma City to flip to a Top 40 format, behind KOCY and WKY.
Todd Storz, one of the early pioneers in Top 40 radio, purchased KOMA in 1958. He added it to his list of hit radio stations, including WHB in Kansas City, KXOK in St. Louis, WTIX in New Orleans, WDGY in Minneapolis, and WQAM in Miami.
Prior to the sale to Storz, a preliminary agreement was reached with Gordon McLendon in February 1958 to purchase the station.Broadcasting Magazine, "Closed Circuit", page 5 February 10, 1958 Had the McLendon sale been approved, KOMA would have been co-owned with KLIF in Dallas and KILT in Houston. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during the 1950s and 1960s, the commercially successful Top 40 radio format created by Storz.
In 1961, KOMA became an automated station, but by 1964, returned to "live" programming.
Competition with WKY Even with its 50,000-watt signal, KOMA faced a serious challenge during the 1960s and '70s from cross-town competitor WKY.
Many times, WKY led the ratings in the Oklahoma City metro area, while KOMA was much better known outside the market, due to its greater nighttime skywave coverage. In 1974, Billboard named KOMA the medium-market "station of the year" and program director J. Robert Dark was named Billboard's medium-market Program Director of the year.
With little adjacent channel interference, KOMA had a tremendous reach with its 50,000-watt signal. In many areas of the Plains states and the West, KOMA was the only Top 40 station serving some rural areas and small towns. At night, KOMA could be picked up in such far away locales as Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Phoenix. Concert promoters advertised their up-and-coming acts (e.g. "Spider and the Crabs") appearing at various towns' National Guard armories, etc., on KOMA. Sometimes, these were some of the only ads aired during nighttime hours on KOMA, as Oklahoma City advertisers got better results from local OKC stations such as WKY.
Country, adult standards, oldies KOMA's Top 40 era officially ended on September 12, 1980, when the station flipped to country music, and "KOMA Country" was born. The first song played was John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy". KOMA would remain in the Storz family until July 1, 1984, when it was purchased by Price Communications. By the 1980s, many country music listeners were shifting from AM to FM stations.
Price Communications kept KOMA's country format in place until September 1985, when it was determined that FM competition was too much to overcome. KOMA adopted the slogan "Forty Years of Favorites," and specialized in an adult standards format. In January 1986, the station began broadcasting in AM stereo using the C-QUAM system.
On September 1, 1988, Chicago-based Diamond Broadcasting, Inc. purchased KOMA along with sister station KRXO. On September 22, KOMA returned to its glory days by switching to an oldies format, bringing back the hits of the 1950s and 1960s to a familiar spot on the dial for those who grew up listening to the station.
The KOMA call letters made the transition to 92.5 FM on June 22, 1992, after Diamond Broadcasting entered a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Wilks Schwartz Broadcasting, which owned that FM station. It was the first agreement of its kind in the Oklahoma City area; listeners now could hear their favorite oldies on either the AM or FM station.
Ownership changes In May 1998, KOMA and KRXO were announced as being purchased by Renda Broadcasting. New state-of-the-art digital studios in northeast Oklahoma City were constructed for the arrival of the legendary station. At 3:00 pm on November 9, 1998, KOMA began broadcasting from the new location. The studios, ironically, once housed KOMA's rival, WKY. Danny Williams, Ronnie Kaye, and Fred Hendrickson all worked in the building during the 1970s when they were disc jockeys for WKY.
After 37 years of broadcasting in Moore, KOMA's studios became vacant and remained unoccupied until 2016, when the building was razed. KOKC's tower and transmitter facility remained at the former site.
On July 15, 2012, Ty and Tony Tyler's "Tyler Media" entered into an agreement with Renda Broadcasting to purchase that company's Oklahoma City radio cluster (KMGL, KOMA, KRXO, and KOKC) for $40 million. In accordance with limits imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on the number of radio stations a single broadcasting entity can own in a single market, Tyler sold KTLR and KKNG to WPA Radio for $1.6 million.Is Renda Cashing Out? , RadioInk, July 16, 2012.In Oklahoma City, Tyler spins two so it can buy four from Renda (for $40M) , RadioInfo, July 16, 2012.Renda Sells Oklahoma City Cluster RadioInsight July 16, 2012 Tyler's purchase of KOKC and its sister stations was consummated on November 13, 2012.
Switch to talk and call letter change to KOKC In 2002, the station added The Radio Factor with Fox News Channel star Bill O'Reilly, as well as CBS Radio News at the top of the hour, fueling speculation about a move to a talk format. Later that year, KOMA's then-parent company, Renda Broadcasting, announced it was discontinuing the simulcast with KOMA-FM. The oldies format would remain on the FM station, while the AM station would switch to all-talk.
The launch date for the talk format was originally set for Monday, February 3, 2003, but the disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia on re-entry prompted the change two days earlier.
To distinguish the station from the oldies programming on KOMA-FM, KOMA changed its call letters to KOKC on August 27, 2004. The call letters had previously been used since the 1950s at KOKC 1490, a station based in Guthrie, Oklahoma. In 2004, KOKC switched its news network to ABC a short time later.
In February 2011, KOKC dropped its network affiliation with ABC, returning to CBS. During the 1930s and 1940s, CBS provided the station over 90% of its programming. The station had been affiliated with the network on several occasions, most recently when KOKC (then KOMA) flipped to a news-talk format in 2003.