KONO (AM)

KONO is the fourth-oldest radio station in San Antonio. It was first licensed, as KGRC, on January 17, 1927 to Gene Roth & Company.[2] On January 24, 1930, the station changed its call letters to KONO.[3]

The station began as a hobby for Eugene Roth in a room over his garage in downtown San Antonio. As the broadcasting industry grew, Eugene Roth's son, Jack Roth, began working with his dad, later inheriting the station. At first, it was powered at only 100 watts, broadcasting on 1370 kilocycles and having to share time on the air with other stations. It later moved to AM 1400 before relocating to its current home on AM 860.

In February 1947, an FM station was added, KONO-FM at 92.9 MHz.[4] The FM station later took the call sign KITY and is currently KROM. Eugene Roth served as the president of Mission Broadcasting while Jack was the station's general manager.

In the 1950s, KONO's format was country & western music. In 1957, Mission Broadcasting put Channel 12 KONO-TV (now KSAT-TV) on the air. It was San Antonio's third television station, an ABC Network affiliate.

In the 1960s and 70s, KONO, "The Big 86," was one of the leading Top 40 stations in San Antonio. Some of the on air personnel were Howard Edwards, Don Couser, Woody Roberts, Skinny Don Green, Lee 'Baby' Simms, Dave Mitchell, Johnny Shannon, Charlie Scott, Nick St John and Frank Jolley. KONO won national awards in the 60s for its popularity and creativity. In 1965, Bob Pearson and Howard Edwards were selected as two of the top radio personalities in the country. KONO and its sister station KITY, would remain at 317 Arden Grove, attached to the KSAT 12 building, until the early 1990s, when they moved to a location on NE Loop 410.

In the 1970s, KONO and 550 KTSA battled in the Top 40 format. Although KONO's more recurrent-based style frequently played second-fiddle to the more current-oriented KTSA, it continued to do well. The two stations provided a nice 1-2 punch that made WOAI regret its brief flirtation with the top-40 format in the mid-'70s. The two also ran AM/FM simulcast "Q-100" KQAM 1150/KSAQ 100.3 out of the format after a few years.

KONO began the 1980s with the same recurrent-heavy Top 40 format it had in the 1970s but with a softer sound than before. KONO's days as a true contemporary hits station were numbered, as AM Top 40 stations were rapidly losing audience to FM upstarts. KONO began to evolve to a gold-based Adult Contemporary sound while its Top 40 format replaced the AC format on sister 92.9 KITY.

At the end of 1985, Jack Roth announced he was selling KONO and KITY to Duffy Broadcasting, based in Dallas.[5] Until this point, KONO had been owned by the Roth family for its entire existence. In 1987, Duffy struck a deal with Booth American in 1987 that created Genesis Broadcasting.[6]

About a year later, KONO became a "rock 'n roll oldies" station, jettisoning music from the mid-'70s while adding some older titles. However, in 1988, KSMG "Magic 105" dropped its AC format to go oldies, and KONO, once again, struggled to maintain its audience against an FM upstart.

KONO began the 1990s getting further squeezed within the oldies format. In the summer of 1990, KISS-FM 99.5 announced it was dropping its longtime album rock format to go oldies, and it would flip its sister station, bilingual KRIA 930 (now KLUP), to a nationally syndicated oldies service as "Kool Gold."

Continuing to struggle and looking for answers, Genesis announced it would set up a local marketing agreement (LMA) to operate FM 101.1. KFAN, licensed to Fredricksburg, was an Adult Album Alternative station heavily focused on Texas artists. The plan was to flip it to a simulcast of 860 KONO. KONO-AM-FM and KITY would make San Antonio's first FM/FM combination and, in August 1992, would help lead to the FCC relaxing its rules prohibiting ownership of more than one station per service per market (known as a "duopoly").

KONO-FM launched in late January/early February 1991 and paid immediate dividends. Although it would take another two years for KONO-AM-FM to top KSMG, KISS watched its oldies ratings slip. It fired its entire airstaff that summer to run the Satellite Music Network's "Pure Gold" format. Ironically, after Rusk's attempt to sell KSMG to Jacor Communications failed, KISS-AM-FM were LMA'ed to Rusk to combine with Magic 105.3. Rusk aired Magic 105.3 on both KISS stations in addition to 105.3 beginning in October '91 and flipped KISS 930 to adult standards as "KLUP The Loop." In December, KISS-FM 99.5 returned to its previous active rock format. KONO-AM-FM overtook Magic in the ratings a year later.

In 1992 after the FCC allowed duopoly, Booth American began to prepare for a merger. The resulting company, which combined with Broadcast Alchemy, became known as Secret Communications. It spun off Booth's Top 40 outlet WZPL 99.5 in Indianapolis, and kept two FM stations already owned by Broadcast Alchemy, along with all of the Genesis stations except for Sacramento and Denver. In December 1992, KONO's sister station, KSRR-FM 92.9, was sold to Tichenor Media.[7] In March 1993, it flipped it to Spanish-language programming.

Also in 1993, Genesis announced it would not be exercising its option to buy KONO-FM 101.1. Instead, Gillespie Broadcasting, the owners of KONO-FM 101.1 as well as Fredricksburg-based KNAF 910 and the new KFAN-FM 107.9 in Johnson City, planned to buy KONO 860.[8]

After closing on the sales of KONO and the other remaining Genesis stations, Booth and Broadcast Alchemy announced their merger.[9] Then, KONO-AM-FM were sold once again, this time to longtime San Antonio general manager John W. Barger.[10] Barger had also acquired KWCB 94.3 in Floresville a couple years earlier and moved its tower closer to San Antonio, renaming it KRIO-FM and switching its dial position to 94.1 MHz. During this time, KONO's higher ratings forced KSMG out of the oldies format once and for all, first for a 1970s-driven AC format known as "The Best Mix of the '60s, '70s and '80s...The Oldies Revolution!" and later to a Hot AC sound, as "The Best Mix of the '70s, '80s and '90s."

After successfully moving KWCB into the San Antonio radio market, Barger started working on moving KONO-FM closer to San Antonio from Fredricksburg. The initial proposal called for KONO-FM to broadcast from the tower used by KAJA (which was named for Barger's kids when he was the GM). Barger proposed switching KONO-FM's city of license from Fredricksburg to Castroville. KONO-FM would also downgrade from a Class C to a Class C1. But a counter-proposal was actually granted by the FCC, where KONO-FM would move to KAJA's tower, but be licensed to Helotes, making up for an AM station licensed to that city that went dark several years earlier.[11]

In 1996, radio ownership rules were further relaxed with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In 1998, Cox Radio, entered the market by acquiring New City Communications and its three stations: KKYX 680, KCYY 100.3 and KCJZ 106.7. Then Cox acquired Rusk Communications.[12] and Barger[13] But Cox spun off KRIO-FM 94.1 to comply with ownership rules.[14] Cox had assembled a super cluster that combined the four former oldies stations, once bitter rivals, under the same roof.

The simulcast on KONO 860 and KONO-FM 101.1 ended when the AM station flipped to all sports using the CBS Sports Radio Network, beginning on January 31, 2014.[15]

After three years as a sports station, 860 KONO made a switch. On January 13, 2017 at 6 p.m. KONO returned oldies.[16] This time, KONO 860 concentrates on a 1960s/70s based sound, while KONO-FM focuses a bit younger, with a mostly 1980s playlist with some 70s titles and a few 90s songs.