"Larry London" is our very own Jerry Sims! A short time later, when he came to KAAY, he became the second "Sonny Martin". A word from Jerry himself:
"This was my first radio job and was very exciting for me. I grew up listening to the station, and knew that is what I was going to do. A.J. hired me there as well as later at KAAY. It has not been overly important to me to know the exact dates I was at either place, but now I may try to get it from some source.
Thanks for all you do for us,
Jerry/Larry/Tom/Jerry/Sonny.......(I was all these on the radio)"
And it is a pleasure that I, and we, do this for you and others to enjoy!
Jerry also sent along some more pictures of himself at KXLR and the control room, for your enjoyment:
Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)
KXLR is yet another station (along with KLRA 1010) that went silent and was deleted as a Little Rock metro AM frequency. I remember KXLR being a country station years ago (prior to fall of 1983) but they were obviously a victim of the FM Revolution.
ReplyDeleteIn September of 1983, there was an TV ad campaign for a "new" radio station that was a CHR/Top 40 format on "AM 12". Even in those days, it seemed quixotic and it was also my Senior year in HS. The callsign was KBOX and it imaged its dial position as "AM12" instead of 1150. That experiment in Top 40 AM radio didn't last long and by Christmas of 1983, KBOX had flipped to what would now be called "adult standards" with some Music Of Your (Grandfather's) Life type-fare although I don't think it ran the MOYF imaging. That gave way a few years later to some automated traveller's information, then finally in its final years as a "Urban" gospel station. I think KXLR went dark sometime in the late 1990's, but not sure.
Oh, BTW the KXLR calls are in use in Fairbanks Alaska for a FM rock station. Another set of historic Arkansas callsigns lost to an out of state station.
ReplyDeleteStation Website: http://www.xrock959.com/
Modern-day KXLR in FCC FM Query:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=49622
I suppose it is obvious that the KXLR comes from the "X", meaning across from "LR"...Little Rock. (Fairbanks across from Little Rock??)
ReplyDeleteOur KXLR studios were upstairs in the Cotton Belt Train building, right at the foot of the old Main Street Bridge in North Little Rock. For those who may not know, Little Rock and North Little Rock are different cities with different everything. They are just across the Arkansas River from each other.
We used to call ourselves broadcasting from the Pent House of the Cotton Belt Building. Kind of like building up of the Blue Goose at KAAY. The "Goose" was not a fine restaurant, and the "Pent House" of the Cotton Belt Building was, actually, a bit scary, if you worked the late shift on the radio. I recall stumbling over a homeless guy one night after getting off the air, at the bottom of the stairs. Normally, I and my friend Gary Weir (who was John Scott) would go out to eat after which ever one of us got off the 'til Midnight show. We would usually have a date, who would like to drop by the station (while the other was on). After taking the date home....out to eat....and back to the station, usually for hours, to work on things in the production room. A.J. Lindsay was Program Director, and allowed us to use about anything we produced on the air. A.J. was A.J. Lyons...."A.J. in the Lions Den". I remember one time we positioned a stuffed Lion on the rail at the bottom of the bridge over the river with a mic. He invited listeners to drop by and talk to the Lion. Not too High Tech by today's standards, I know, but we tried to keep something going, even if simple. By the way, we are coming up on one year since A.J. died (May 17, I believe). We all miss him too. He was a great radio man, and loved his work.
Jerry Sims...yes, Larry London KXLR...Sonny Martin KAAY
KXLR was originally KNLR on 1450. It moved to 1150 around 1952 after winning the channel over a competing applicant for Forrest City.
ReplyDeleteThe equipment in the pictures must be from the Cotton Belt building. That is not the equipment that we used at Protho Junction.
I went out to the old KXLR transmitter site about 10 years ago. The #2 tower was down and the transmission lines were gone. It looked like a toxic waste dump. The old KLRA site looked even worse.
My father, Jon Holiday, worked at KXLR in the 1950's doing the news. Would love to have pictures & stories from when he was at the station.
DeleteThanks,
Toni