KGBC (1540 AM, 101.7 FM) is a terrestrial American brokered time AM radio facility, paired with an FM relay translator. KGBC is licensed to serve the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. K269GS is licensed to serve Houston, broadcasting from a location near

Baytown Baytown may refer to: * Baytown, Texas, a city in the United States near Houston, Texas *Baytown culture, an archaeological culture in the United States *Operation Baytown Operation Baytown was an Allied amphibious landing on the mainland o ...

, off of W Baker Road & Texas Highway 330. Established in 1947, KGBC Radio is wholly owned by SIGA Broadcasting, Inc., of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. it is the only radio station in Galveston.

Translator

Programming

In the early 2000s, the station carried a

Catholic radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk programm ...

format. It later shifted to non-English programming until being forced off the air by

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

in September 2008. The station resumed full-power broadcasting in February 2009 with a mix of local

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

and

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

History

Galveston Broadcasting Company Signs On KGBC

The

U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) granted a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

in August 1946 for a new station to broadcast on 1540

kilohertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

and serve the community of

. The station began broadcasting under

program test authority {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) In broadcasting, program test authority (PTA) is an authorization to conduct on-air testing of broadcast station facilities authorized to be built under a construction permit. Once this testi ...

on February 1, 1947, and received its original

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

in May 1947. Chosen to represent original owner James W. Bradner's Galveston Broadcasting Company, the "KGBC"

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

was assigned by the FCC. The station has served the Galveston area since 1947. At its launch, the station broadcast with 1,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s of power and only during daylight hours. In 1950, the station added nighttime service, but in a

directional array An antenna array (or array antenna) is a set of multiple connected antennas which work together as a single antenna, to transmit or receive radio waves. The individual antennas (called ''elements'') are usually connected to a single receiver or ...

and at just 250 watts. The station powers down at night to protect

clear-channel station A clear-channel station is an AM broadcasting, AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The syste ...

KXEL in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls ...

, from

skywave In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvature of ...

interference.

KGBC-FM Launches

After 17 years of continuous operation by Galveston Broadcasting Company, KGBC was sold to Harbor Broadcasting Company, Inc., effective December 20, 1964. On February 11, 1968, KGBC's new owners launched an FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

as "KGBC-FM" (106.1 FM). In 1974, the FM station was sold, moved to 106.5 FM, and re-licensed as "KUFO". With shifting ownership and declining fortunes, the station became "KXKX" in 1979 and "KQQK" in 1986 before signing off forever and having its license cancelled by the FCC in March 1989. , the 106.5 frequency is occupied by an unrelated

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

religious station licensed as "

KOVE-FM KOVE-FM (106.5 MHz) is a Spanish-language radio station serving the Houston and Galveston areas from Galveston, Texas. KOVE-FM is owned by Uforia Audio Network, a division of Univision Communications. The studios are in Uptown Houston and the t ...

Siga Purchases KGBC

On February 20, 2002, Prets/Blum Media Company, Inc., contracted to sell KGBC to SIGA Broadcasting Corporation. The sale was approved by the FCC on April 25, 2002, and the transaction was completed on May 9, 2002. On September 13, 2008,

made landfall on the upper Texas coast causing flooding and widespread damage. The KGBC broadcast facilities suffered both flooding and damage, knocking the station off the air and keeping it

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...

for several weeks. The station resumed broadcasting (albeit with low power) on October 6, 2008, and returned to full power operation on February 3, 2009. After spending all of 2009 as a "live and local" broadcaster, the station began leasing all of its airtime, starting January 1, 2010. In May 2016, KGBC flipped to a

business news Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial activi ...

format with programming provided by the BizTalkRadio network. In October 2017, 1540 imaging was changed to "KGBC Radio" omitting mention of either the AM or FM dial position altogether. In February 2018, KGBC began simulcasting

KLVL KLVL (1480 AM) is a terrestrial radio station, paired with an FM relay translator. KLVL is licensed to Pasadena, serving the Greater Houston area. K235CS (94.9 FM; Channel 235) is licensed to Houston, serving northwest Houston, Cypress-Fairbank ...

fulltime in order to expand the Synergy Radio Network onto the Island and surrounding coastal communities. This proved to be short lived as Siga leased out KGBC and K269GS in April, which both began to air

Tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the ...

, branded as ''Puro Tejano 101.7 FM & 1540 AM''. KGBC's Texas

s with SIGA Broadcasting include

KTMR KTMR (1130 AM) is a radio station licensed to Converse, Texas serving nearby San Antonio as a Spanish radio station playing Christian music and talk programs. It is currently under ownership of SIGA Broadcasting Corporation. Because it shares ...

(1130 AM,

Converse Converse may refer to: Mathematics and logic * Converse (logic), the result of reversing the two parts of a definite or implicational statement ** Converse implication, the converse of a material implication ** Converse nonimplication, a logical c ...

(1480 AM,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

), KAML (990 AM, Kenedy-

Karnes City Karnes City is a city in and county seat of Karnes County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,111 at the 2020 census, up from 3,042 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Henry Karnes of the Texas Revolution. Karnes is sout ...

KHFX KHFX (1140 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Cleburne, Texas, and serving the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It carries a Spanish language Christian radio format and is owned by the Siga Broadcasting Corporation. It calls its ...

(1140 AM, Cleburne), and

KFJZ KFJZ is an AM radio station broadcasting in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex with a Financial News/Talk format via the BizTalkRadio. This station is licensed in Fort Worth, Texas and is owned and operated by SIGA Broadcasting Corporation. Beca ...

(870 AM,

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KGBCKGBC official website
* * {{Authority control GBC Companies based in Galveston, Texas Radio stations established in 1947 Mass media in Galveston, Texas 1947 establishments in Texas Tejano music