KMOD-FM

KMOD-FM (97.5 FM) is an active rock radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station plays a wide variety of rock music from the 1960s through today.

The station is best known as the home of Brent Douglas and Phil Stone, disk jockeys who originated the character Roy D. Mercer, the notorious and popular prank caller who regularly threatened to "open a can of whup-ass" on the person he called (for some fabricated wrong the person supposedly had done), only for the person to find out the call was a prank.

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Theresa de Veto (known by her many fans in later years as 'Mother Theresa') was the all night disk jockey at KMOD for many years, known for her 'New Music Show' during which she would spin punk rock, new wave and other early alternative music (including local music) that was not the usual programmed music of KMOD. During the same time period, actress Jeanne Tripplehorn was also a DJ at this station, known as Jeannie Summers. de Veto and Tripplehorn moved to New York City before Jeanne made her break in the movies, and de Veto established herself as a popular Manhattan night Club DJ and NYC Night Club entrepreneur. de Veto later had her own very popular project, The EOI Network on 92.1 FM in Tulsa in the mid-1990s upon her return from New York.

'Scary Mary' (Mary Cochran) joined the station in 1980, and was also very popular with audiences on her show 'The Graveyard Club'. Scary Mary replaced Theresa de Veto in 1985, and had the midnight to 6 AM show until 1994. At that time the overnight dj did not have a playlist (a list of songs required to be played with no room for creativity) and was free to take requests along with expressing ones personal taste in what was mixed to produce a cohesive sound. Mary (Simmons) Cochran was known as 'Sunny Olson' on KJSR (Star 103), KOOL, and KBEZ; and was also employed as a talk show producer for 'Nightline' on KRMG from 1977 to 1980. She appeared as an extra in 2 movies, 'UHF', filmed in Tulsa, and 'In the Line of Duty - Siege at Waco', the David Koresh story which was filmed in Muskogee.

KMOD, Modesto, California

The original radio station KMOD, Modesto, California, went on the air in 1950 at 1360 kilocycles AM as an affiliate of the American Broadcasting Company Radio Network at 1,000 watts. Although for a brief period of time it had studios in the Hotel Covel in downtown Modesto, the main studios and transmitter site were on east Orangeburg Avenue five miles outside of Modesto in the midst of walnut and fruit orchards and pasture land on which was erected three towers for the directional signal. The station was housed in a cinderblock building and had a General Manager's office, his secretary's office which was also the repository of all papers, including original commercials, a general office room with a half-dozen desks used by air salesmen and other staff. There was one main studio, an announcer's booth which was also an auxiliary control room, and the control room used by the combination men, i.e., the announcer-engineers, from where most program originated. It had up-to-date Ampex reel-to-reel tape machines and a combination of RCA and General Electric equipment ranging from microphones to the audio board. There was also a large room used to hold several transcription libraries and thousands of LP and 45 rpm records and, later, a workshop was added where the news teletype machines were put.

The station was owned by Radio Modesto, Inc., owned by John Schott, a businessman, Judd Stutevant, a local farmer and others. The station called itself "Variety Radio" which it certainly was broadcasting from 5 a.m. to a little after midnight daily numerous programs ranging from Porteguese, Italian and Spanish language programs in the early morning to live country and western music. It carried most of the ABC Radio Network's offerings including "The Breakfast Club" to "The Lone Ranger." Paul Harvey and Martin Agronsky were heard with their unique brand of news reporting. Local shows were primarily popular recorded music shows, local newscasts and special programs from time to time. One of the most popular evening shows was syndicated "Lucky Lager Dance Time," a show done locally by local announcers, but following a scripted format and music list so that a listener traveling north or south in California would hear exactly the same show even though it was not a networked program.

Local personalities heard on the station included Gene D'Acardo, who was the news director, chief announcer and part time programmer. He had been associated with the large independent radio station KTRB for years before KMOD went on the air. Mickey Hart, also known on-air as Jim Brroks, was primarily known as the host of "Teen Turtable Time" although he did numerous other shows. Gene Williams, an expert with regard to popular music and the recording industry, was a popular disk jockey. The names of other personalities has faded from memory.

KMOD was sold in 1957 and the call letters were changed to KFIV, which represented music, news, weather, time and temperature. It was a strict Top-40 station, but broadened out it's play list and eventually was a popular rock and roll station. In 1980, the format was changed to Adult Contemporary. It was later sold again and became KZUN, "Modesto's Country Cousin" station featuring popular country and western music in 1984. In September 1985 KZUN changed its call letters back to KFIV and its format back to Adult Contemporary but this time they utilized the Satellite Music Network's Starstation AC. In 1987, KFIV dropped Adult Contemporary to CHR simulcast of its FM sister station, KFIV-102.3. Early in 1989, KFIV changed its call letters to KASH and its format to Business News And Talk. On October 15, 1989 to News/Talk. From AM KMOD, to KFIV, to KZUN, back to KFIV, then to KASH and again back to KFIV and again affiliated with ABC's Radio Network and others, KMOD has travelled a long way to an FM radio serving Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Most recently, Mediabase moved KMOD to the active rock panel, although Nielsen BDS reports the station on the mainstream rock panel still.

External links

• KMOD official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KMOD
• Radio-Locator information on KMOD
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KMOD