Tuesday, January 12, 2010

David B. Answers Jim's Questions

RE: Walt Sadler and KLRA

Jim, Walt was indeed Brother Hal's newscaster at KLRA and he used his own name on the air. Jerry Hendrix worked there at the time and his voice sounded a good deal like Walt's. Perhaps that's it?

KLRA Little Rock does not exist as an AM station anymore. It was bought in the mid-90s (I think!) by the company that owned 1010 WINS in New York City. They shut it down in a bid to avoid interference on the frequency at night.

KLRA's nighttime pattern was one of the strangest I ever saw. It basically ran along I-40 to Memphis and along I-30 toward Dallas. In its time, it was a great favorite with truck drivers.

A television company applied for the KLRA call letters for one of their low-powered stations, as they did with the KKYK calls when Signal Media (which owned KLRA) abandoned them. I hope this helps a little!

David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII

2 comments:

  1. Wasn't KLRA previously KELC...when Ron Sherman owned it back in the late 70's-early 80's. That picture of KLRA seems very familiar of the KELC building in England, AR. Steve Martone briefly worked their also.

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  2. I worked for Pat at KITA-AM..while Tom Rusk was the engineer. That was my first radio gig. Pat used to make copies of his monthly FCC newletters so everyone would have a copy. Pat was a great guy. His daugher was a dorm-mate of my old girlfriend at UofA. Oh..I was told that KITA stood for "Krist Is The Answer." When Pat left Gary Vaile took over.

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