KAAY

Early years in Hot Springs

KAAY first signed on as KTHS on December 20, 1924, in Hot Springs, Arkansas.^[3] It operated on 600, 780, 800 and 1040 kilocycles at different times in its early days. By the 1930s, it moved to its current dial position at 1090 kHz, and was powered at 10,000 watts in the daytime, allowing it to be easily heard in the larger capital city of Little Rock, about 50 miles to the northeast. KTHS was an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network, carrying its dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band remote broadcasts during the Golden Age of Radio. It stayed with that network when it became ABC in 1945.

Move to Little Rock

In 1953, KTHS got a big boost in power, going to its current 50,000 watts, and it also switched its city of license to Little Rock. It became an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.^[4] Two years later, it signed on Channel 11 KTHV which affiliated with the CBS Television Network. In 1962, the TV station and radio station were sold to separate owners, with KTHS bought by LIN Broadcasting.

Top 40 era

The new owners turned it into a Top 40 station in 1962, switching the call sign to KAAY. In the 1960s, KAAY had plans to put a co-owned FM station on the air at 98.5 MHz, but due to the limited number of FM radios in those days, the project didn't get off the ground. KAAY was sold to Multimedia Radio in 1975, and the following year, Multimedia bought an FM station at 94.1 (now KKPT). The FM station aired beautiful music as KEZQ.^[5]

During the station's heyday, KAAY featured a full-service Top-40 format, and was the dominant contemporary station for most of the state of Arkansas. During the 1960s and 1970s, on-air personalities included Mike McCormick, Doc Holiday, Jonnie King, Buddy Karr, Ken Knight, Sonny Martin, newscasters George J. Jennings, Wayne Moss, Phil North and Ray Lincoln of the "Ray and Ram Program." The station also broadcast University of Arkansas football games.

KAAY's cult status was forged in the late 1960s, when, after 11pm, the station abandoned the standard Top 40 format for three hours of underground music with the program Beaker Street hosted by Clyde Clifford. Its nighttime signal extended well beyond Little Rock and Arkansas, covering much of the Great Plains, North Central, and Mississippi Valley regions of the United States, leading to its nickname "The Mighty Ten Ninety." KAAY was an inspiration to Cuban rock musicians and rock fans who tuned into Beaker Street late at night, keeping themselves informed about American music and underground music in the 1970s. They listened undercover with Soviet-made transistor radios. In the late 1960s the jingle started out with roaring thunder followed by a deep voice... "FIFTY THOUSAND WATTS OF MUSIC POWER K>>DOUBLE-A Y, LITTLE ROCK."

Switch to religion

By 1980, listening to contemporary hits was shifting from AM to FM. The station tried moving to adult contemporary music and some country music. Eventually the station switched to an oldies sound, calling itself "Oldies 1090." At night, when the station's 50,000-watt signal could be heard over a large territory, the station aired nine hours of paid religious programming. In April 1985, KAAY was sold to the Beasley Broadcasting Group, which switched to a format of Southern Gospel music and brokered religion. (The FM station was sold to Signal Media, which owned 1010 KLRA.)

In 1998, KAAY was bought by Citadel Broadcasting for $5 million.^[6] In 2011, Citadel Broadcasting merged with Cumulus Media, which continued the religious format on KAAY.^[7] Cumulus Media owns scores of radio stations across the country, but KAAY is its only religious outlet.

Transmitter vandalism

KAAY's noted transmission facilities in Wrightsville have been vandalized several times. Copper thieves stole a large amount of transmission line, degrading the stations signal significantly. Roof damage allowed water to enter the 50,000-watt transmitter, knocking it off the air. Since then, the transmission line has been replaced and buried deeper underground to deter thieves, and Cumulus has announced plans to restore the station's nighttime signal. Currently, KAAY is operating at 50,000-watt service during the day, but engineers have yet to rebuild the tower directional array, so nighttime service remains under special temporary authority with 10,000 watts non directional.

KAAY Rewound

On Labor Day weekend of 2003, the station returned to its roots with a historical segment called "KAAY Rewound". KAAY's Barry Mac and sister station KARN's Grant Merrill played 1960s and '70s hits and took calls from all over the South. Clyde Clifford returned to talk about "Beaker Street". The station at various times broadcasts a feature called "Radio Yesterday" which includes the memories of the station's Top 40 heyday.