The WACO mast on top of the ALICO building is one of THREE NGS benchmarks on top of this building (the flagpole and elevator shaft are the others). The radio mast is BZ1282 WACO RAD STA WACO MAST.
WACO-AM signed on in the 1930s, and was one of the few radio stations nationwide whose call letters spelled out the full name of the city they broadcast from. Why WACO-AM gave up those letters in the 1990s I will never understand. The historic WACO call letters are retained by WACO-FM, the FM sister station to WACO-AM.
From the Handbook of Texas Online: (
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RADIO. Broadcasting emerged in Texas on the campuses of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M in College Station. In 1911 J. B. Dickinson, manager of the Texas Fiscal Agency at San Antonio, constructed wireless facilities at both schools to teach electrical engineering students about radio transmissions. As part of his experiments in high-frequency radio, University of Texas physics professor S. Leroy Brown built radio equipment and began broadcasting weather and crop reports from a physics laboratory on the UT campus in 1915. Brown had delivered talks on “wireless telegraphy” as early as 1913; he taught the first radio course in late 1917.
...
One of the earliest broadcasting stations in the United States and the first in Texas was WRR of the City of Dallas, initially established for fire and police dispatch in 1920 by Henry "Dad" Garrett. The station was issued the second broadcast license in the United States by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1921. During these early days of broadcasting, many small, homemade radio stations went on the air on a non-commercial basis, primarily for the amusement of the operators and their neighbors. By the end of 1922, the year that commercial radio broadcasting began in Texas and before there was a federal agency to regulate radio broadcasters, twenty-five commercial stations were in operation in the state. Among them were WBAP, Fort Worth; KGNC, Amarillo; WFAA, Dallas; WOAI, San Antonio; KFJZ, Fort Worth; KFLX, Galveston; and WACO, Waco."
From the The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio
edited by Christopher H. Sterling, Cary O'Dell: (
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"[page 128] For a number of years, WACO in Waco, Texas was another [station to use its location in its call sign -- BMB] but radio station WACO is now KKTK (although there is still a WACO-FM in Waco.)"
From the ALICO building website: (
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"In the early months of 1909, an insurance company was formed in Waco, Texas that embarked on a mission of which changed the face and skyline of that city forever. An accomplishment to leave such a mark for the entire world to hear about and marvel well into the 21st Century.
On February 2, 1909, Amicable Life Insurance Company was chartered and began business on April 2, 1910. . . . Soon talk began of a need for office space or a home office building. They wanted to be downtown, in the heart and pulse of a thriving city that had just completed, in 1870, the only suspension bridge west of the Mississippi. Waco, Texas was the proud owner of a bridge that would be the forerunner to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, both to be designed by John A. Roebling.
In 1909, on the corner of 5th & Austin, stood a three-story bank building. . . . Amicable Life Insurance Company wanted a building, needed a building and also needed to develop a campaign of "something" that would catch the eye of the public. They wanted a building that would represent strength, stability, as well as an attraction that would enhance their sales of insurance since they were such a new young company. Soon the bank sold the three-story structure to Amicable, and Amicable started demolition with plans to erect a building of eight stories…this would be changed to 17 stories and ultimately a 22-story structure. Construction began in August of 1910 with completion exactly twelve months later in 1911.
. . .
Long before the building was completed, a steady stream of people would stroll by to view the construction work. . . Between 1911 and 1940, the ALICO Building was the place to be if you were a doctor, dentist, bookkeeper, lawyer, or a merchant. Office space became precious. There was a beauty shop and a barber shop. In 1933, a young radio station was formed whose call letters were that of the city…WACO. The radio station had a studio on the 8th floor and a tower on the roof of the building for many years. WACO Radio remains one of four radio stations in the United States whose call letters are also the name of the city. All of which enhanced the popularity of the building. . . ."
Which brings us back to WACO-AM. We FINALLY located the histric frequency for WACO-AM in the WPA Guice to the Lone Star State: (
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"[page 354] Radio Station: WACO 1420kc"
WACO-AM has an interesting and confusing history, as it signed on as WACO-AM in 1922, has had many call-sign and frequency changes, and is now silent. (The current KKTK-FM in Texarkana TX is not affiliated with this station at all.) From Wikipedia: (
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"KCLE
City Burleson, Texas
Broadcast area Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
Frequency 1460 kHz
Translator(s) 93.1 K226BM (Cleburne), 95.7 K239CC (Burleson)
First air date 1922 (as WACO)
Format Silent
Power 11,000 watts (day) 700 watts (night)
Call sign meaning Cleburne, Texas, city of license when it was on 1140 and earlier on 1120
Former call-signs:
WACO (1922-1996)
KKTK (1996-2002)
KTFW (2002-2005)
KHFX (2005-2008)
KCLE (1460 AM) is a licensed but silent radio station, in Burleson, Texas. It serves the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and is under ownership of Tron Dinh Do.
History
This station began broadcasting in 1922 as WACO in Waco, owned by three men, including Frank P. Jackson, J. M. Gilliam, and Orville Bullington of Wichita Falls, the 1932 Republican gubernatorial nominee. It had an unknown format, and was a former sister station to WACO/KHOO FM. After 74 years of broadcasting in the Waco area, the station moved to Glen Rose, Texas and was rebranded as KKTK, continuing with an unknown format. In 2002, Lee Glascow sold the station and it became a joint venture between M&M Broadcasters (80%) and George Marti (20%). The owners rebranded the station to KTFW as a simulcast of its KTFW-FM sister station.
In 2005, the station and its city of license were moved to Burleson, and it was revamped as KHFX airing Fox Sports Radio programming after the network's previous affiliate KFXR ceased programming on that station due to lack of ratings. George Marti sold the remaining shares to M&M that same year.
In 2008, the station swapped callsigns with 1140 on September 1.
On April 14, 2009, KCLE lost its fight with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to keep KNIT (now KBXD) (1480 AM) from increasing its daytime power to 50,000 watts.
It was announced on July 23, 2013 that KCLE will jettison its classic country format and become a 2nd ESPN Radio affiliate in the Dallas/Fort Worth area by June 24. The station's schedule will complement KESN ESPN 103.3 that serves the Northern 1/2 of North Texas. While KESN airs Mike & Mike in the Morning and the first two hours of Colin Cowherd, KCLE will air a local sports talk morning show from 6 to 9AM and continue its long-running "DFW Tradefair" radio program from 9 to 11AM. After KESN shifts to local programming at 11AM, KCLE will pick up the network programming.
On February 25, 2015, Intelli, LLC closed on its purchase of KCLE from M&M Broadcasters for $1.6 million.
KCLE went off the air in September 2016.
On February 3, 2017 KCLE transmitted at least two short signals without modulation. This was probably an attempt to get the station back on the air on 1460."
So much for WACO-AM. WACO-FM retains the historic call sign from its debut in 1965. WACO-FM also broadcast from the ALICO building, until moving its transmitter to a better location that would reach the city of Killeen in the 1980s.
From Wikipedia: (
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"WACO-FM (99.9 FM, "WACO 100") is a iHeartMedia, Inc. owned radio station located in Waco, Texas. The station brands itself as "WACO 100, a station so big they named the entire city after it." The station can be heard from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Austin, Texas. Studios are located along Texas State Highway 6 in southwest Waco, and the transmitter is south of city limits, northeast of the town of Moody in extreme southwestern McLennan County.
WACO-FM is one of three stations in the United States where the call letters spell out the name of the city of license. (The other stations are WARE-AM in Ware, Massachusetts and WISE-FM in Wise, Virginia, a satellite of WVTF.) WACO-FM is also one of a small number of callsigns whose beginning letter deviates from FCC standards ("W" is typically assigned to stations east of the Mississippi; Waco's other stations begin with "K" but WACO-FM was co-owned with the original WACO on AM and thus was able to keep the W callsign though the AM moved and dropped the W call in 1996).
WACO-FM
City Waco, Texas
Broadcast area Waco, Killeen, and Temple, Texas
Branding WACO 100
Slogan "Texas #1 Country"
Frequency 99.9 (MHz)
First air date 1965
Format Country
Callsign meaning WACO, Texas"