Radio station in Nederland, Texas
For the airport in Bedford, Massachusetts assigned the ICAO code KBED, see
Hanscom Field
.
KBED
(1510
AM
; branded as
Sports Radio Beaumont
) is a
radio station
serving the
Beaumont
-
Port Arthur
area with a
sports
format. It is under ownership of
Cumulus Media
, and is simulcast with sister station
KIKR
AM 1450 Beaumont, Texas. Its studios are located on South Eleventh Street in Beaumont and its transmitter is located south of
Vidor, Texas
.
History
[
edit
]
KBED
was initially proposed by Felix & James Joynt in 1959. The Joynts requested to obtain a construction permit to build a 1 kilowatt daytime broadcasting radio station at 1510 kHz, under the name KWEN Broadcasting on October 26, 1959, which was filed by the
Federal Communications Commission
the following day. The proposed facility was constructed 3 miles northwest of 16th Street, on
U.S. Highway 69
in Port Arthur, receiving a License to Cover on February 20, 1969.
The facility was issued its first callsign
KCAW
, standing for
C
ountry
A
nd
W
estern, on November 7, 1968. The Joynts would file to modify the location of the transmission site to a location on
Texas State Highway 347
, .7 miles northwest of 39th Street, which is where the facility signed on from in Port Arthur. That tower now is used as a cell site tower.
The transmitter was moved to its current South Vidor location (where its former FM sister KYKR-FM was located) when the FCC approved a power increase from 1,000 watts to the current 5,000 watts on August 1, 1980. Accompanied by the upgrade in ERP, the Community of License was changed to Nederland, as well. The callsign changed to KYKR, along with its FM sister 93.3, in 1974.
Eventually, owner Jimmie Joynt sold both the AM and FM to different owners. 1510 saw a couple of different owners (including Clear Channel at one time) including various religious owners.
On January 4, 1988, the KYKR tower in South
Vidor
suffered a massive fire believed to be arson. Both 93.3 FM and 1510 AM transmitters were lost. KYKR struggled with borrowed equipment to make it back on the air at low power and eventually recovered.
Because it shares the same frequency as "
clear channel
" radio station
WLAC
in
Nashville, Tennessee
, KBED only broadcasts during the
daytime
hours.
External links
[
edit
]