KLLL-FM
City | Lubbock, Texas |
---|---|
Slogan | "Lubbock's Country Leader" |
Frequency | 96.3 MHz |
Format | Country |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 249 meters |
Class | C1 |
Facility ID | 36954 |
Owner |
Alpha Media Group (Alpha Media Licensee LLC) |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website |
www |
KLLL-FM 96.3 MHz is a Country music station licensed and broadcast in Lubbock, Texas, owned by Alpha Media Group through licensee Alpha Media Licensee LLC. Its studios are located in south Lubbock on Avenue Q west of Interstate 27, and its transmitter is located separately two miles away south of the studios.
Waylon Jennings is a notable former personality of KLLL, working there before joining Buddy Holly on tour. When Buddy died, Jennings returned to KLLL, which had been taken over in 1958 by Sky Corbin and his brother, Slim. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal described the Corbins as "a force locally and were influential throughout the industry". Sky was a manager and disk jockey for some twelve years; Slim was a personality on the station. Slim was the advisor and confidant of Jennings. When Jennings took his band, the Waylors, to Phoenix, Arizona, where he became a local sensation, Slim moved his band to Scottsdale, where the two would be close enough to maintain their friendship. Slim was in Nashville, Tennessee, when Jennings got his break.[1]
The Corbins co-authored songs recorded by Jennings and Holly. They participated in some of the recording sessions at the Norman Petty studio in Clovis, New Mexico. One song co-written by Jennings and Sky Corbin was "Young Widow Brown", recorded by Jennings and Frankie Miller in 1960.[1]
KBFM, the forerunner to KLLL, began in 1958 as an easy listening station. It transmitted an SCA (Subsidiary Communications Authority) to transmit Muzak brand background music. The transmitter was located at the Great Plains Life Building (now known as Metro Tower) at Broadway and avenue M. Studios were originally at 2442 14th street, but were shortly moved to the fifth floor of the same building as the transmitter and antenna. The station was founded by a Mr. Blankenship. KLLL (AM) was in the same building with its studios on the top (20th) floor. In 1968, KLLL's owners, the Corbins, bought KBFM. It kept its call letters, stayed easy listening by day but carried the country format of KLLL at night when the 1460 AM daytimer signed off.
KBFM changed to KLLL in 1971, the year after the 1970 Lubbock tornado. The studio building was damaged and the station relocated to the former KSEL studios on East Broadway; KSEL had moved to 84th and L where at the site of the new channel 28 KSEL-TV (now KAMC). KLLL moved to 50th and L in 1976.
The Corbin family hired Jerry "Bo" Coleman as a radio host and made him a stockholder.[2] In 1978, the Corbins sold KLLL AM/FM to Lubbock County Broadcasting, owned by James Thrash and John Frankhouser. Thrash and Frankhouseer in turn sold the company in 1987 to Pinnacle Broadcasting.
KLLL is currently owned by a privately held company Alpha Media Group. [3]
References
- 1 2 Elvis E. Fleming, "Long Before Luckenbach", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. LXL (2014), p. 72.
- ↑ "Ray Westbrook, Jerry Coleman continuing marathon radio career: Coleman's mark on local radio has endured for half a century, May 6, 2012". Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/139443/alpha-buys-4-in-lubbock-from-wilks
External links
- KLLL-FM's official website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KLLL
- Radio-Locator information on KLLL
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for KLLL