KTSB (AM)

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KTSB (1170 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is owned by Griffin Communications and airs a sports radio format. The station is the Tulsa network affiliate for Fox Sports Radio. KTSB studios and offices are located across from Guthrie Green in Downtown Tulsa. The transmitter is on East 11th Street (Route 66) in an undeveloped area of East Tulsa.^[2]

KTSB is a clear channel Class A station broadcasting at 50,000 watts, the maximum power for American AM stations. The station uses a non-directional antenna by day, heard over much of Eastern Oklahoma and parts of Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri. It provides secondary coverage as far north as Wichita, as far east as Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas. At night, it uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array to protect the other Class A station on 1170 AM, WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. Even with this restriction, KTSB's nighttime signal can be heard over much of the Central United States and well into the Rocky Mountains with a good radio.

Programming[edit]

On weekdays, KTSB airs a mix of local and nationally syndicated sports talk shows. The Morning Blitz with Rick Couri is a Tulsa-based wake-up show. The Show with Colby & Pop is heard in afternoon drive time. In middays, KTSB carries The Dan Patrick Show and The Rich Eisen Show. Sports betting is the topic in evenings, with BetMGM Tonight. Fox Sports Radio is heard late nights and weekends.

Live sports include Oklahoma State Cowboys football and basketball, as well as Dallas Cowboys football and Jenks High School football.

History[edit]

Station founding[edit]

Founded by E. H. Rollestone, KTSB first signed on the air on June 23, 1926; 97 years ago (June 23, 1926). The call sign was KVOO, the "Voice Of Oklahoma".^[3] At the time, it was powered at 1,000 watts with its transmitter in Bristow, Oklahoma. Rollestone, a young oil millionaire, had previously founded another station in Bristow known as KFRU, which had already been sold to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.

KVOO was moved to Tulsa on September 13, 1927, after being partially purchased by William G. Skelly. Skelly later purchased the entire company on June 28, 1928. In 1933, radio legend Paul Harvey began his radio career at KVOO.

Country music heritage[edit]

From the 1970s until May 2002, the station was primarily known for its country music heritage, as well as being nationally famous for Western swing music. KVOO hosted such musicians as Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Johnnie Lee Wills and Billy Parker, who has won awards as country music disc jockey of the year. One of the places in Tulsa made famous by KVOO Radio was Cain's Ballroom, located on Main Street. Cain's Ballroom was the performing place for Bob Wills, with live broadcasts on KVOO.

In addition, KVOO hosted The John Chick Show, a full hour of local country music talent, also seen on KTUL Channel 8 until 1979. This program broadcast at 7 a.m., and regularly beat out NBC's Today Show and the CBS Morning News in the local ratings. KTUL's network, ABC, had no morning news program until 1975; when ABC premiered Good Morning America, KTUL continued to air the Chick program instead. When Elton Rule, president of ABC, visited KTUL-TV to see why the ABC affiliate was pre-empting Good Morning America, Jimmy C. Leake, owner of KTUL-TV, showed the Tulsa ratings book to Rule, and ABC backed off. KTUL began carrying GMA in 1979, when Chick left the station due to multiple sclerosis.

Noted DJs and performers[edit]

In 1971, Billy Parker joined KVOO. While at the station, Parker's awards included the Country Music Association Disc Jockey of the Year honor in 1974 and the Academy of Country Music Disc Jockey of the Year awards in 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1984. Parker was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1992, the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1993, and scored the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters' Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

The Interstate Road Show was also hosted on the station by veteran country DJ Larry Scott who is also in the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. The last live country show was broadcast by veteran Tulsa radio personality Bob O'Shea. O'Shea first worked at Big Country AM 1170 KVOO in 1979. He later rejoined KVOO AM in August 1999 and retired on June 26, 2006, after more than 34 years in radio. The last three songs O'Shea played were "Hello Out There" by Billy Parker, "T-U-L-S-A, Straight Ahead" by Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel and "Take Me Back To Tulsa" by Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys.

KVOO-TV and KVOO-FM[edit]

The NBC television affiliate in Tulsa went on the air as KVOO-TV Channel 2 on December 5, 1954. Both KVOO-TV and 1170 KVOO shared the same building for many years. In 1970, KVOO sold off the television station to Scripps-Howard Broadcasting (now the E. W. Scripps Company). In those days, two broadcast stations could not share call letters if they were separately owned. The TV station's call letters became KTEW. In 1980, KTEW became KJRH, which it remains today.

In 1987, KVOO acquired an FM station, 98.7 KCFO-FM, which aired Christian Contemporary music. At the time, KVOO had plenty of disc jockey chatter and information, in addition to playing the country hits. Management flipped KCFO-FM to be a more-music FM country outlet, to contrast with KVOO on the AM dial. First 98.7 became KUSO "US-98.5". Later it became "Country 98" KVOO-FM, using the same call letters as the heritage AM station. The Stuart family sold KVOO-AM-FM to Great Empire Broadcasting in 1990.

Switch to talk[edit]

At midnight on May 15, 2002, the country music ended. KVOO changed to KFAQ with a talk radio format. Most of the DJs moved to co-owned 98.5 KVOO-FM and that station added more classic country. In 2003, co-owned KXBL flipped to all-classic country music, playing many of the same songs KVOO AM aired in previous decades. KXBL calls itself "Big Country", the same slogan KVOO AM used when it was at its height.

Journal Media Group announced on July 30, 2014, that it would merge with Scripps. Scripps would retain the two firms' broadcasting properties, including KFAQ. This deal reunited KFAQ with KJRH-TV.

Griffin Communications[edit]

On June 26, 2018, Scripps announced that it would sell KFAQ, along with sister stations KVOO-FM and KBEZ (92.9 FM), Muskogee-licensed KHTT (106.9 FM) and Henryetta-licensed KXBL-FM (99.5). The new owner of the five stations would be Oklahoma City-based Griffin Communications. The price tag was $12.5 million. The sale would make the radio stations co-owned with CBS-TV affiliate KOTV-DT (channel 6) and CW affiliate KQCW-DT (channel 19), both competitors to KJRH.^[4][5][6][7] Griffin began operating the stations under a local marketing agreement on July 30, and completed the purchase October 1.^[8]

The call letters changed to KTSB on September 6, 2021. On September 7, 2021, "The Talk 1170" and its talk radio format ended. The station turned into "The Blitz 1170" with a sports radio format.^[9] The station became a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, along with several local sports shows on weekdays.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• ‹The template AMQ is being considered for deletion.›  KTSB in the FCC AM station database
• KTSB in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• FCC History Cards for KTSB