Guess the station call letters

[mranderson]

What do the following station call letters stand for?

KAUT

[windowphobe]

When the station first signed on back in the 1970s, it was owned by Golden West Broadcasters, an operation founded by Gene AUTry; the call letters were in his honor.

Incidentally, its first format was a lulu: all-news during the day (George Tomek was the primary anchor, if I remember correctly), and subscription ($10 a month, scrambled to non-subscribers) at night. Neither of these lasted too long, and eventually the station mutated into Fox 43.

[mranderson]

I thought that one would be harder. Here is another.

KOKH.

[windowphobe]

Originally owned by the Oklahoma City Public Schools, this station's call stood for Keep Our Kids Happy (I think).

[mranderson]

OK. I'm trying to make this tough. KGMC.

[Keith]

OK. I'm trying to make this tough. KGMC.

Keep Giving Me Country?

[windowphobe]

General Media Corp. (of Illinois) was the original owner of channel 34.

[mranderson]

Maybe this is the hard one.

What do the call letters WWLS stand for?

[windowphobe]

The first W, of course, is a legacy of its WNAD days. WLS comes from Wahleeta (I think that's the spelling) and Larry Steckline, who owned it after OU but before Citadel.

[Keith]

The first W, of course, is a legacy of its WNAD days. WLS comes from Wahleeta (I think that's the spelling) and Larry Steckline, who owned it after OU but before Citadel.

Gosh, windowphobe, you sure know a lot about radio and TV stations....impressive.

[mranderson]

Gosh, windowphobe, you sure know a lot about radio and TV stations....impressive.

It caught me off guard. I did not think anyone would guess WWLS. I guess I need to find some from out of state.

[windowphobe]

I once assembled a Web site on Oklahoma City radio history, but never put it up; about the time I got it done, someone else had put one up, which arguably wasn't as pretty but which definitely had a lot more inside information. It seems to have died, but I can't find my old files.

[muzique808]

I sure would like to see that site (or help with it) if you find your files, or still want to put it up.

[PUGalicious]

Very impressive, windowphobe.

I love little bits of trivia like that. I too would love to see a website with info like that.

And thanks to mranderson for the idea of starting this thread. It fulfilled my daily obligation to "learn something new every day."

[HOT ROD]

Very Impressive.

windowphobe, I do hope you can put up your web site or even have it added to this one - for OKC trivia!

[ColumbiaCowboy]

There was another owner between Waleetka (sp?) and Citadel. Fox was the GM, can't remember if he was the owner or Stevenson, I think the latter. It was a mess, the slowest format change in history, going from a half decent oldies format to sports talk over the course of about 3 years...it was crazy, listening to some good oldies, and all of a sudden Eschbach or Dallas Cowboys or something.
Steely and Eschbach have both been with that company for over 20 years. Esch is a legend, a little hard to imagine how Steely's made it this long.

[windowphobe]

There was indeed, and Fox (now running KNOR) was one of the principals, though I'm not sure it was his name on the license.

(Two minutes later after waiting for the FCC database: Yes, it was. He sold it in 1998 to Caribou, which was later absorbed by Citadel.)

[ColumbiaCowboy]

Fox is still around? I thought he passed away a few years back. Maybe it was Stephenson, but I thought I'd heard Fox died.
The old studios on Indian Hills Road were about as remote as humanly possible, I understand the studio had a large window, looking through the front window into the neighbors yard...a large cattle pasture.
Each fall, the "live audience" the jocks enjoyed would suddenly disappear. I guess they went off to cow camp or something.

[windowphobe]

Well, Fox's company survives, even if he doesn't.

[RockStar]

Very Impressive.

windowphobe, I do hope you can put up your web site or even have it added to this one - for OKC trivia!

Agreed! That would be a very interesting website!!