Edmond Radio Station Early 1980's

[Cohiba]

Hey All....

Help me with either an Edmond or far North OKC radio station. I went to CSU then in changed to UCO in the early to mid 1980's. Anyways, while up at CSU/UCO I swear I remember an Edmond radio station. NOT THE UNIVERSITY RADIO STATION

I believe it didn't broadcast very far...like outside of Edmond and it was located in an older style house. I drove past it a couple of times and I swear I remember the call letters being either on the front door or on the side of the house. The call letters weren't very large...maybe 4" or 5" in size and if you drove past the house and didn't look at it or know it was a radio station you wouldn't know it was there.

I also....please don't hold me to this....I also thought some broadcasting majors at CSU/UCO said it might have been a pirate station????? Am I dreaming this about an Edmond radio station in a house in the early 1980's???

The reason for this question is my wife listens to a smooth jazz radio station I believe in Edmond when she can pick it up on her radio(we live up around( Danforth/196th) NW Edmond/OKC and this station goes in and out. Meaning I don't think it has much signal strength.....97.7 FM. So it sparked my memory or maybe a dream of an early 1980's Edmond radio station located in a house.

Thanks for the help!!!

[5alive]

I'm thinking it might have been KWHP

[5alive]

This is an excerpt from the June 2012 Oklahoman...

"On June 28, 1962, Bill Payne had a vision. He was 22 and a recent graduate of Oklahoma City University with a degree in electronic engineering when he started the station in his garage at 1305 S Boulevard."

[Pete]

Yes, KWHP and sometime in the 70's it became a full-fledged pop station.

[Newbomb Turk]

Ah yes. The old K-WHIP as we called it. I believe it was the first to broadcast in Dolby as well.
Fond memories.

[Bunty]

Dolby is like today's HD radio. It never caught on.

[Dob Hooligan]

Forgive me for whipping out my radio nerdiness from the1970s-80s.

KWHP was 97.1FM IIRC. Around 1977 one of the dejays wouldn't play the long version of Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like I do" because people thought when Frampton was using the squak box he was saying "I want to f... you", and that violated his Christian beliefs.

Around 1981-82 I recall there was a radio station run by Oklahoma Christian College (now University) that played jazz. Seems like the call letters were KOCC, and they had a guy named Jeremiah who spent a lot of the time on air. Maybe in the 88-89 frequency range. Played a lot of George Benson's "Weekend IN LA" album and the song "Street Life" from the Sharkey's Machine soundtrack.

Mid 80s there was a station played the best Contemporary Christian music around 90.1 or 90.9FM. Seems like their studio was in a little office building just off the SE corner of 33rd & Broadway?

[Bunty]

Forgive me for whipping out my radio nerdiness from the1970s-80s.

KWHP was 97.1FM IIRC. Around 1977 one of the dejays wouldn't play the long version of Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like I do" because people thought when Frampton was using the squak box he was saying "I want to f... you", and that violated his Christian beliefs.

Around 1981-82 I recall there was a radio station run by Oklahoma Christian College (now University) that played jazz. Seems like the call letters were KOCC, and they had a guy named Jeremiah who spent a lot of the time on air. Maybe in the 88-89 frequency range. Played a lot of George Benson's "Weekend IN LA" album and the song "Street Life" from the Sharkey's Machine soundtrack.

Mid 80s there was a station played the best Contemporary Christian music around 90.1 or 90.9FM. Seems like their studio was in a little office building just off the SE corner of 33rd & Broadway?

But I thought KWHP was on 97.7. Central Oklahoma University has always been on 90.1.

[Martin]

Mid 80s there was a station played the best Contemporary Christian music around 90.1 or 90.9FM. Seems like their studio was in a little office building just off the SE corner of 33rd & Broadway?

i want to say it was 90.1... i'm thinking 90.9 was classical... but it's been a few years so i'm not 100% sure. that station sticks out for me in the mid to late 1990's... i was in college and on the weekends would often get home in the wee hours of the morning and would tune into this station for the novelty of it. while it was generic christian contemporary music during the day, they'd play what i can only call christian 'death metal' on friday or saturday nights... pretty funny stuff.

i think i taped some of it on cassette.. i'm going to have to see if i can find it. the weirdest one i can remember was just a bunch of words from an exorcism set to heavy guitar backing... they were trying so hard to be 'dark' but it came off so corny.

[Dob Hooligan]

But I thought KWHP was on 97.7. Central Oklahoma University has always been on 90.1.

You could be right. I'm getting a little confused about frequencies between KWHP and KFJL. I recall KFJL had studio and tower on the south side of Britton Road, just east of either Kelly or Eastern? I think KFJL was 98.9. Disc-o-soul in the mid-late 1970s. I think it is KISS FM now.

[scottk]

i want to say it was 90.1... i'm thinking 90.9 was classical... but it's been a few years so i'm not 100% sure. that station sticks out for me in the mid to late 1990's... i was in college and on the weekends would often get home in the wee hours of the morning and would tune into this station for the novelty of it. while it was generic christian contemporary music during the day, they'd play what i can only call christian 'death metal' on friday or saturday nights... pretty funny stuff.

i think i taped some of it on cassette.. i'm going to have to see if i can find it. the weirdest one i can remember was just a bunch of words from an exorcism set to heavy guitar backing... they were trying so hard to be 'dark' but it came off so corny.

90.1 was classical and KCSC, now KUCO.

90.9 FM was KOKF (K.ing O.f K.ings Forver)., a local christian music station that was innovative for its time and extremely local and played just about anything and everything. I know in the late 90's early 2000's they were in a wood barn studio somewhere in the OKC Metro. From the outside it looked like one of the buildings in the Lowes parking lot. There is a video of it floating around on YouTube.

At some point they moved to office space in far Northwest OKC on the campus of a mega-church off of Wilshire or Council? Sometime in the mid 2000's the station didn't get the financial support as needed, and sold the license to Educational Media Foundation, the parent company of KLOVE, which flipped it to "Air1" In similar fashion. Oklahoma Christian at one point had a local signal on 88.9, they also sold their license in the late 90's or early 2000's and that station became KLOVE.

[scottk]

I'm thinking it might have been KWHP

The studios were at 700 S. Kelly in Edmond. The building is still there with a small tower and now re-broadcasting a Catholic radio station on 100.9 FM.

[Cohiba]

I googled 700 S Kelly and that is EXACTLY the house I was talking about!!! Thanks!!!

[Dob Hooligan]

I’m pretty sure that 90.1 FM has been classical music since the 1970s, at least, and has been operated by the same public college/ university that had different names. When it was Central State College, it used call letters KCSC. The school changed to Central State University in the early1980s, but had a conflict with Colorado State University that hampered it’s attempt to change to KCSU. It then changed to University of Central Oklahoma and was able to use KUCO for their 90.1 station that is currently used.

The private school located on Memorial Road between Eastern and Bryant, which is currently known as Oklahoma Christian University, was named Oklahoma Christian College in the 1980s. And that is who operated the KOCC station in the early 1980s which played jazz music. I think it was around 88 or 89 on the FM dial at the time, and I think it became the Christian K-Love station broadcasting today.

I think the Contemporary Christian station I had referred to was on 90.9 in the early to mid 1980s, and was not associated with any college or university. It was a big deal because the only other station playing Christian FM at the time was KJIL 104.9, which was owned by Jimmy Swaggart Ministries at the time. The call letters stood for “King Jesus Is Lord” and the format was Southern Gospel, with the requirement that one Jimmy Swaggart song was played every half hour.

[Martin]

90.1 was classical and KCSC, now KUCO.

90.9 FM was KOKF (K.ing O.f K.ings Forver).

I’m pretty sure that 90.1 FM has been classical music since the 1970s

gotcha… i can believe that. i'm sure both of them were ninety something, not surprised I switched them up after a little over 20 years.

[scottk]

Found this article in CSU's Vista Newspaper from November 1977...

[rte66man]

90.1 was classical and KCSC, now KUCO.

90.9 FM was KOKF (K.ing O.f K.ings Forver)., a local christian music station that was innovative for its time and extremely local and played just about anything and everything. I know in the late 90's early 2000's they were in a wood barn studio somewhere in the OKC Metro. From the outside it looked like one of the buildings in the Lowes parking lot. There is a video of it floating around on YouTube.

At some point they moved to office space in far Northwest OKC on the campus of a mega-church off of Wilshire or Council? Sometime in the mid 2000's the station didn't get the financial support as needed, and sold the license to Educational Media Foundation, the parent company of KLOVE, which flipped it to "Air1" In similar fashion. Oklahoma Christian at one point had a local signal on 88.9, they also sold their license in the late 90's or early 2000's and that station became KLOVE.

That megachurch is at WIlshire and Council. It has been rebranded at least once and doesn't appear to be as popular now as it was back when it was built (based on a random survey of cars on a pre-COVID Sunday morning). Would assume giving was down so they sold it.

[rezman]

[QUOTE The private school located on Memorial Road between Eastern and Bryant, which is currently known as Oklahoma Christian University, was named Oklahoma Christian College in the 1980s. And that is who operated the KOCC station in the early 1980s which played jazz music. I think it was around 88 or 89 on the FM dial at the time, and I think it became the Christian K-Love station broadcasting today.[/QUOTE]


I used to enjoy listening to KOCC in the evenings. This would have been roughly between ‘84 and ‘87.

[FRISKY]

Was KWHP the radio station that had a late night DJ called 'Poison Ivy'? This most likely would have been in late 1960s.

[rayvaflav]

I seem to remember that the radio station at the 700 South Kelly Avenue (west side of Kelly) area was 97.7FM and might have later changed to 97.9FM. IIRC in the 1990's it was a contemporary jazz station, they played music that you wouldn't hear on any other local stations. They sponsored national acts touring Edmond and Oklahoma City. I believe that brought Boney James and The Rippingtons to perform in concert in the mid-late 1990's. Does this ring a bell with anyone here ?

[baralheia]

I seem to remember that the radio station at the 700 South Kelly Avenue (west side of Kelly) area was 97.7FM and might have later changed to 97.9FM. IIRC in the 1990's it was a contemporary jazz station, they played music that you wouldn't hear on any other local stations. They sponsored national acts touring Edmond and Oklahoma City. I believe that brought Boney James and The Rippingtons to perform in concert in the mid-late 1990's. Does this ring a bell with anyone here ?

Yep, your memory is correct. The station you remember started life as "The Trend 97.7 KTNT" in 1988, before moving to "The Jazz Station 97.9 KTNT" and then "Smooth Jazz 97.9 KTNT" in the mid-90's, and ending it's run under the name "The City 97.9 KCYI" for it's final year of operation. I remember as a kid and teenager that 97.9 KTNT was my Dad's favorite radio station in town and he listened to it all the time - right up to the format flip when it became Wild 97.9 in late January 2000. I wasn't big on jazz as a kid, but they had a great playlist regardless and it was quite a loss when they flipped formats... Dad was certainly NOT pleased by the change.

The station actually got reincarnated a few years ago by Edwards Broadcasting as a non-profit low-power FM station (10W ERP), reclaiming the station's final moniker of "The City" and their last callsign KCYI. They currently broadcast on KTNT's original frequency of 97.7FM from the tower on the UCO campus in Edmond. Since they're only broadcasting at 10W right now, the signal doesn't travel far - it's best heard in Edmond and north OKC - but plans are supposedly in the works to move to 97.5FM in order to boost power and increase coverage.

Some links for you:

https://formatchangearchive.com/the-...c-chrwild-979/
https://kfor.com/news/great-state/it...z-to-the-city/
https://www.97thecity.com/

[OKCexpat]

I worked at KWHP, part time in my senior year at PCHS, then semi fulltime afterwards in 1972. Among other things, I did the midnight to six AM DJ shift on weekdays, and then on Sunday mornings I ran taped recordings paid for by radio evangelists followed by a live local feed from a black OKC church which was also paid. Usually that broadcast ran overtime and owner Bill Payne (William H. Payne...hence kWHP) told me to kill at at 12:00 noon. So, amid the rowdy church feed I'd pot down the feed and start something like "While Lotta Love" by Zepplin!

[OKCexpat]

Once again, having probs posting....perhaps because pause to think. Fortunately I saved my (lost) post to my clipboard.

I'm new here, and it seems if I spend too much time typing, I get an error when attempting to post. So I'm writing these thoughts in "short bursts".

If you do a Google street view of 700 S. Kelley (aka Kelly depending on the OKC or Edmond names) you'll see essentially what was once the KWHP facility. It was a frame house with a boarded up garage door. In that former garage area was the on-air studio at the east end and the 3000 Watt (IIRC) CCA brand transmitter at the north end with a dividing wall between the two. The CCA transmitter fed a "phat piece of coax cable" up the tower visible in the current Google view into the antenna radiating elements at the top.

Traver Hulse worked there as did John Hendrix and Mike Elder. Traver went on to work at KATT. John and Mike went onto creating the "Fresh Air" format at KOFM (104.1, now KMGL).

[OKCexpat]

I HATE breaking this up into so many small chunks, but there is a time out or word counter that gives me an error when I post.

In what was once the kitchen area of the house, Payne had an offset printing press. He cranked out various KWHP promo items and a (weekly?) small newspaper. In the bathtub area of the single bathroom was a "photostat" camera to make the plates for the litho press. There were also trays with photo chemicals to develop the film from the 'stat camera.

[OKCexpat]

Final "mini blab" for today as I quickly type before the post is denied.

What we called the "bread truck" was a smallish delivery vehicle with enough equipment to do remote broadcasts, all painted up with KWHP markings.. Payne drove a car with KWHP logo stuff painted on it. That was the first time I ever encountered a mobile telephone. Think of old "mannix" reruns on MeTV.

Bill wasn't a mogul like Gaylord who could afford the very best equipment, but Payne bought very decent equipment. In one of the former bedrooms at 700 S. Kelly he did a nice production room with two Ampex 440 tape machines. The cart machines were ITC brand, the best at the time.

In the 1970's, after I had left and was working for another company, I "gutted" that production room to install a new mixing console and new wiring. The Ampex machines were still in great shape....hurrah Olde School USA manufacturers!