HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

KYFI (630 AM) is a
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
broadcasting from
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. KYFI is owned and operated by
Bible Broadcasting Network The Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) is a listener-supported global Conservative Christian radio network staffed and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1971 by Lowell Davey, who was the network's president until his de ...
, Inc.BBN Stations – KYFI
BBN Radio. Accessed October 28, 2013
KYFI's transmitters are located near
Gateway Motorsports Park World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly Gateway International Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park) is a motorsport racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, close to the Gateway Arch. It features a ...
in
Madison, Illinois Madison is a city in Madison and St. Clair counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 3,891 at the 2010 census. It is home to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and the first Bulgarian Orthodox church in the United States. ...
. The 630 frequency had previously been KXOK, which in the 1960s was one of the leading radio stations in St. Louis, and religious station KJSL from 1994 to 2013.


History


Construction of KXOK

In 1935, Elzey Roberts, publisher of the ''St. Louis Star-Times'', applied for a license to put a new radio station on the air. He already owned station
KFRU KFRU (1400 AM) is a radio station located in Columbia, Missouri. Its programming format consists primarily of news and talk. The station is licensed to Cumulus Media. The station is also audible on translator K255DJ 98.9 FM in Columbia. History ...
in Columbia, and wanted a station in the larger St. Louis market. But his license request was challenged by two other stations in the market, KSD and WIL; the legal battle dragged on until late 1937, when the court granted Roberts' request and the FCC assigned the KXOK call letters. WIL attempted to appeal the case to the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, but in late March 1938, they lost when the court refused to review the case, affirming the FCC's grant; KXOK was given permission to begin building the new station. General manager Ray V. Hamilton announced the station would be dedicated in mid-August 1938, but there were further delays in building it. KXOK finally made its debut on September 19, 1938. Allen Franklin was the first program director; he came from station
WLW WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One. WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
in Cincinnati. Among the air staff was Paul Aurandt, who came there from KOMA in Oklahoma City and would later become famous as
Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...
. KXOK began its life at 1250 kHz and was affiliated with the
Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
; however, on October 26, 1940, it moved to 630 kHz and became affiliated with NBC Blue (later called the Blue Network). The KXOK shift to 630, which also saw the station move from
Venice, Illinois Venice is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,890 at the 2010 census. History Venice was platted in 1841. Geography Venice is located at (38.673796, -90.167885). According to the 2010 census, Venice has a to ...
to its site at Madison, also benefited Roberts's station in Columbia, which went full-time on 1270 kHz, and WGBF of
Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
, which ceased sharing time with KFRU and went full-time on 1250. Elzey Robert continued to own the station until 1954, when his son, Elzey Roberts, Jr., and an associate, Chester L. Thomas, took it over, doing business as KXOK Broadcasting, Inc.


Change of ownership

In early November 1960, the station changed hands, when Roberts and Thomas sold the station to Robert and
Todd Storz Robert Todd Storz (May 8, 1924 – April 13, 1964) headed a very successful chain of American radio broadcasting stations and is generally credited with being the foremost innovator of the Top 40 radio format in 1951. The selection of records t ...
, for the sum of $1.5 million. The station changed format not long after to a new Top 40 sound. Nicknamed "The Sound and the Spirit of St. Louis" and "The Fun Spot," KXOK became part of the Storz family of stations (other stations in the group included
WHB WHB (810 AM) is a commercial radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Union Broadcasting and it airs an all-sports radio format. For most of the 1950s through the 1970s, while it was broadcasting at 710 AM, ...
across the state in
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
,
WQAM WQAM (560 AM, "AM 560 Sports") is a radio station in Miami, Florida. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts a sports talk format carrying a mixture of local and CBS Sports Radio programming. Its studios are located in Audacy's Miami office on Nort ...
in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, WTIX in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
, KOMA in
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
, and
WDGY WDGY (740 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Hudson, Wisconsin, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is owned by WRPX, inc. and airs a Classic Hits/Oldies radio format. The station's studios and offices are ...
in Minneapolis-St. Paul). During the mid-60s, KXOK was one of the two dominant radio stations in the St. Louis market, along with
KMOX KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...
. KXOK was so successful during this period, that its
Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
competitor, WIL (AM 1430) dropped pop music in 1967, and switched to
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
; it helped that WIL refused to play
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
.


Top 40 DJs

A number of legendary air personalities graced the KXOK airwaves during the station's glory years, including Ed Bonner, Ray Otis, Bill Addison, Mort Crowley,
Danny Dark Danny Dark (December 19, 1938 – June 13, 2004) was an American voice-over artist. For nearly four decades, he embedded pop culture with memorable lines in advertisements for Budweiser ("This Bud's for you"), Raid Ant & Roach Killer ("Raid - Kil ...
, Ron Elz aka Johnny Rabbitt, British DJ Paul Martin, Shad O'Shea, William A. Hopkins, Don Pietromonaco aka Johnny Rabbitt, Don Shafer, Delcia Devon, Louise Harrison Caldwell (
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
's sister), Lou Cooley, Davey O'Donnell, Peter Martin, Keith Morris, Richard Ward Fatherley and Bob Shannon. Other outstanding personalities of the 1970s included Jerry Butler, Mason Lee Dixon, Jack Mindy, Craig Roberts and Scott Sherwood. The news staff included veteran reporters Bob Shea, Robert R. Lynn and Steven B. Stevens. It was under the leadership of Station Operations Manager Bud Connell and program directors Ray Otis and Mort Crowley that KXOK became one of the highest-rated stations in the country. It was quite common for the DJs such as Rabbitt and Otis to travel to various teen venues with their specially selected escort bands to gage their audiences' interest in music and to make personal contact with their fans. The KXOK Sound Waves of Centralia, Illinois, were a fan favorite featuring members Ron Bousman, Mike Atchison, Greg Flanigan, Tommy Lee, and Joey Rhodes. Rhodes went on to become a Nashville recording artist and songwriter. Many of the station's DJs over the years went on to successful careers as national talk show hosts, television news anchors, actors and nationally known freelance talent.
Danny Dark Danny Dark (December 19, 1938 – June 13, 2004) was an American voice-over artist. For nearly four decades, he embedded pop culture with memorable lines in advertisements for Budweiser ("This Bud's for you"), Raid Ant & Roach Killer ("Raid - Kil ...
became the voice of
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
-TV, a post he held for an entire generation. Craig Roberts continues to work as a national television voice actor and announcer, still heard locally in St. Louis as the "voice" of ABC 30.


Talk and news

With the departure of key air talents and the advent of Top 40 music on FM—most notably from KSLQ (now known as KYKY)—KXOK went through several
format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...
changes toward the end of the 1970s The music format ended in April 1983, when KXOK flipped to
talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...
and
oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
. After being sold along with
KHTK KHTK (1140 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Sacramento, California. KHTK broadcasts a sports radio format as "Sactown Sports 1140" and is an affiliate of the CBS Sports Radio network. It is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonnevil ...
to Legends Broadcasting for $6.5 million in 1989, KXOK went to an all-news format, calling itself "All News 630". KXOK started adding an audio simulcast of
CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...
in overnights in May 1990, replacing a syndicated
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
/trivia show from Boston, with CNN audio replacing much of the locally produced daytime news blocks by September. The station also featured ''Sports Extra'', a nightly local evening talk show hosted by Howard Balzer and Mark Eissman. When KXOK dropped the all-news format in favor of
Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
-oriented
soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
in February 1991, ''Sports Extra'' was retained due to listener demand, but also became known for frequent technical issues that plagued the program's production.


Religion as KJSL

KXOK was sold in 1994 to
Crawford Broadcasting Crawford Broadcasting is a family-owned media company based in Denver, Colorado.Contact information
crawfordbro ...
, which changed it to a religious station as KJSL; as part of the changeover, Crawford moved the station to new facilities in west St. Louis County. Under Crawford ownership, KJSL featured multiple locally originated programs, including a morning drive program hosted by Al Gross and Tim Berends; KJSL attempted to promote the show to non-Christian listeners with a 1998 billboard that read "Hell Hates Tim & Al", trimmed in flames. Motivational speaker
Debra Peppers Debra D. Peppers (born c. 1951), Ph.D., is an educator, motivational speaker, television host on WTJR and radio co-host on KJSL/KYFI. She was educated at the University of Alabama (1973, BA English/speech communication) and Webster University (1 ...
hosted a daily inspirational talk program from 1996 through 2006. Bob Wells hosted a
conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...
show, once attracting local attention for protesting
Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...
's local sponsorship of
St. Louis PrideFest PrideFest St. Louis is an annual LGBT pride event in St. Louis, Missouri. The event is organized by Pride St. Louis, an LGBT non-profit organization in the Greater St. Louis area. Overview PrideFest St. Louis began in 1980 as the ''St. Louis G ...
. Area broadcaster Hank Thompson also hosted an overnight show on KJSL in the early 2000s.


Sale to BBN

Crawford opted to spin off the stronger of its two St. Louis stations, KXOK, to the
Bible Broadcasting Network The Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) is a listener-supported global Conservative Christian radio network staffed and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1971 by Lowell Davey, who was the network's president until his de ...
in 2013. BBN paid $2 million and shuttered the station's local operations to carry the network feed from its headquarters in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
.


References


External links


KYFI official website
{{Bible Broadcasting Network YFI YFI Radio stations established in 1938 Bible Broadcasting Network