History
KTOW began broadcasting in 1948. [4] It was owned by the Sooner Broadcasting Company; while KTOW itself was a daytime-only AM outlet, plans called for an FM station—the authorization for which would be surrendered because of the lack of sets in the area [5] —and Sooner pursued television as well. [6] An attempt to move to 1400 kHz, which would have allowed nighttime broadcasts, was denied in 1950. [7] Sooner sold KTOW to Citizens Broadcasting Company of Oklahoma for $50,000 in 1955. [8] Citizens moved KTOW to a newly converted building at the corner of NW 5th and Robinson streets in 1956; that facility stood until it was torn down in 1974 to build the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, [9] being the last structure demolished to make way. [10]
KTOW was sold to KTOW, Inc., in January 1959; the new owners suffered an immediate blow when the Mutual Broadcasting System, the network with which the station was affiliated, jumped from KTOW to KTOK, which boasted a 5,000-watt signal compared to KTOW's 250 watts. [11] On March 1, 1960, [7] KTOW became KJEM, promoting itself as broadcasting "the JEMs of Adult Music". [12] April 9, 1961, brought KJEM-FM, a partial simulcast of the AM station's programming. [4]
In 1964, the owners of KJEM bought KTOK for $625,000, selling KJEM-AM-FM for $315,000 to Radio Oklahoma, headed by the Globe Life and Accident Insurance Corporation. [13] A 1966 blaze at the transmitter site briefly forced the station off the air; [14] months after returning, it made an early move to an all-talk format, branded "Audience Involvement Radio". [15]
Another sale, in 1972, would separate KJEM AM and FM. The buyer for 800 AM was a local electrical firm, Carroll Boyington and Son Electric, who paid $297,000; [16] the call letters were changed to KLEC on September 19. [7] KLEC aired a beautiful music format in its time with the call letters and had relocated to 1919 N. Broadway. [17]
Carroll Boyington and Son Electric sold the station to Bott Broadcasting, Inc., of Kansas City for $284,000 in December 1975. [1] New KQCV call letters, for "Quality Christian Voice", [1] were instituted on January 19, 1976. [7] KQCV was the second Bott station after KCCV in Kansas City. [3]
Bott expanded in Oklahoma City when it acquired contemporary Christian outlet KNTL in 1994; [3] Bott sold that station in 1997 and started noncommercial KQCV-FM. [18]