KPET

KPET
City of license Lamesa, Texas
Broadcast area Lamesa, Texas & Terry, Lynn, Garza, and Borden Counties
Branding Real Country
Slogan "Lamesa's HomeTown Radio"
Frequency 690 kHz
First air date 1947
Format Country/News/Talk
Power 250 watts (unlimited)
Class B
Facility ID 71649
Transmitter coordinates 32°42′27″N 101°56′11″W / 32.70750°N 101.93639°W
Callsign meaning PETroleum
Affiliations Cumulus Media Networks ABC, Texas State Network
Owner Dawson County Broadcasting LLC (Don Sitton/David Stewart)
(DCB License Sub LLC)

KPET (690 AM) is an independently owned and operated radio station licensed to serve Lamesa, Texas, USA. The station is owned by Dawson County Broadcasting LLC and the broadcast license held by DCB License Sub LLC. The station's 280-foot tower is located at the south edge of the city of Lamesa.

Programming

Its format is accurately (if awkwardly) described as Local Happenings, Local News and Sports, Area News and Sports, Farm and Agribusiness News, and Country Music. The station is on air 24 hours a day on 105.1 FM, 690 AM, and on Northland Cable across the area. The audio can sometimes also be found on a subcarrier of FM station (KJJT).[1] Since April 2010, KPET has also been heard on FM translator K286AO on 105.1 FM.

Slogan: "Lamesa's Home Town Radio, KPET"

KPET airs many play-by-play sporting events. The station airs Lamesa High School football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball and football, Dallas Cowboys NFL football, and Texas Rangers Major League baseball.

KPET is an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network, a service of Cumulus Media Networks, and of Texas State Network, a Dallas-based news and information service owned by CBS Radio.[2] KPET(AM) carried Paul Harvey News and Comments, the daily noon report, and "The Rest of the Story". Paul Harvey had aired since the station was new in 1947 until his death in 2009.

The station airs mostly news, sports, farm commodities info, and the occasional country song. In earlier days, the station featured a Top-40 format, and in some years a large dose of country tunes. The hosts for the mornings reports are Don Sitton, Carl Crouch, and Jim Rush.

In the late fifties and sixties, many of the country artists travelled the area, playing clubs in Lamesa and the areas north and south. "Gentleman" Jim Reeves not only performed in the area, but he also once owned stations in nearby counties.

History

The call letters stand for "PET"roleum, found and pumped in the surrounding oil fields (Texas Permian Basin). The station was authorized by the FCC in 1946, and went on the air around May 10, 1947.[3] The founders were Kermit S. Ashby, R. O. Parker, and R. A. Woodson doing business as Lamesa Broadcasting Company. Mr. Ashby was onetime owner or cofounder of several Texas stations, including KPET, 1400 AM KVOP Plainview, TX, and 1050 AM KCAS Slaton, TX. Studios were located on Radio Road, south of Lamesa and across from the Lamesa Country Club Golf Course. The studios were located on south first street, west of the town square and the tower sat/sits on a high knoll overlooking the city of Lamesa. Directly below the station is Sulphur Draw, which forms the headwaters of the Colorado River, one of the main rivers in Texas.[4] The station has had the same call letters since it signed on in 1947.

The station was later owned by the Parkers and the Bradburys. In 1959, Thomas E. Conner and Bob Bradbury purchased KHEM and KFNE (FM) in Big Spring, Texas. In 1960, they bought KPET. They reorganized as The Cobra Corp. in 1963. Thomas E. Conner purchased the station on October 1, 1968 as The Conner Corporation. An FM station on 100.3 was added in 1966 (founded as KPET-FM, changed to KELE[5] in early 1969, and voluntarily taken off air in 1972 or 1973); the station was sold in 1973 to a company headquartered in Dallas.

It was acquired by the current owners in January 2008. KPET is owned by Dawson County Broadcasting LLC and its license-holding subsidiary DCB License Sub LLC. The station is managed by and partly owned by Don Sitton, who has worked at the station since 1989. Don is a long-time resident of West Texas.[6]

The station founded and later spun off stations now known as KMMX (FM) Tahoka, Texas (Lubbock area) and KTXC (FM) Lamesa (Midland–Odessa area). KPET works with the schools in its home area, including the Lamesa Independent School District, Klondike schools, Odonnell School District, Sands schools, and Borden County schools. It has broadcast programs of the churches of Lamesa for more than 60 years.

References

  1. ↑ KJJT
  2. ↑ http://www.tsnradio.com/stations.php
  3. ↑ 1960 Broadcasting Yearbook p. A-237 says May 21
  4. ↑ "Directory of AM and FM Stations and Market Data for the United States". 1948 Broadcasting Yearbook-Marketbook. Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1948.
  5. ↑ (Broadcasting Magazine "For The Record" section page 85 dated 12-2-68)
  6. ↑ http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/080604/lif_080604042.shtml

External links