A day back here doesn’t go by without remembering the radio stations we listened to for so many years. Back when radio was usually on the AM band and the beginnings of the FM frequency. No podcasts or streaming services. And certainly no, “Alexis, play…” options.
We all had our favorites and, because Tucson was a “captive” market (that is, radio signals were collected between the mountains and cable TV had yet to make its way here), most of what we heard and saw was local. We programmed the buttons on our car radios to these gems.
Let’s do a rundown of the popular stations, by call letters. Do you recall:
KTKT 990. Color radio. The Swinging Seven DJs. The weekly Saturday countdown to the number one song. Frank Kalil in the afternoons, Jerry Stowe then Joe Bailey and then Dan Gates in the morning. This was the station we all listened to and revered.
KIKX 580. The 24-hour revision of the daylight-only KFIF 1550. Now you could hear those hits into the night. But they never could topple KTKT. It was on the number one perch and pretty much unreachable.
KHYT 1330. A daytime rocker who replaced KMOP, a country station, on the dial. Fun DJs, fewer commercials (probably because they couldn’t sell well!).
The country stations, KHOS 940 and KCUB 1280. “Kay-Hoss” was my dad’s favorite. However, when Jim Arnold, the morning guy at KCUB made his way into dad’s Stone Avenue drug store for snacks on station breaks, dad became a convert. Recently a friend who knows Mr. Arnold asked Jim if he remembered “Harry the pharmacist.” He did.
KTUC 790 was the home of Paul Harvey. When I was a college student I worked for Tucson Photo who sponsored the program locally. that meant radio sales guys made an appearance at the store on Fourth Avenue occasionally.
KWFM-FM 92.9 was later. A couple of high school classmates of ours were on-air personalities at the AOR (album-oriented rock) station.
I’m sure I’m missing the classical and news stations. But you write what you know…
Anyone else recall some nuggets about Tucson radio in the 1960s and 1970s?
Relentless
