KFFA

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For the airport with this ICAO airport code, see First Flight Airport.

KFFA is an AM radio station, 1360 AM on the dial, located in Helena, Arkansas. It is still in operation today. However, its fame lies in the role it played in the history of blues music by providing one hour of live blues music called King Biscuit Time played by blues musician who are now considered legendary. Today the program is still broadcast weekdays and after more than 14,000 broadcasts, has influenced several generations of blues, rock, and pop musicians. It is now called the King Biscuit Flour Hour.

[edit] Historical role

In November 1941, a white businessman put together the staff for the town's first radio station KFFA. A group of blues musicians were given a one hour radio spot on the condition that they obtain a sponsor, which the locally distributed King Biscuit Flour agreed to do. Thus was born King Biscuit Entertainers and the beginning of King Biscuit Time.^[1]

The program was first broadcast on November 21, 1941 and featured blues artists Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Jr. Lockwood playing live in the studio. Other musicans who played on the show included the pianist Pinetop Perkins and guitarist Robert Nighthawk.^[2] Musicians such as guitarist Hound Dog Taylor would stop by for occasional appearances.^[3] The KFFA studios were on the second floor of the Floyd Truck Lines building, a rickety old structure. The program was broadcast from there for 20 years until the building was condemned and the studio moved to modern quarters. The show opened with the announcer's words, "Pass the biscuits, 'cause it's King Biscuit Time!"^[1]

The KFFA broadcasts, with the presence in town of Nighthawk, Lockwood, and Sonny Boy, was a draw to young, southern blues artists who came to Helena to hang around and learn. Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter, later central to the sound of the Muddy Waters band, were among them.