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KTOK

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Not to be confused with WTOK-FM or WTOK-TV.
KTOK
Broadcast areaOklahoma City Metroplex
Frequency1000 kHz
BrandingNewsRadio 1000 KTOK
Programming
FormatNews/Talk
NetworkFox News Radio
AffiliationsCompass Media Networks
Premiere Networks
Westwood One
Ownership
Owner
KGHM, KJYO, KOKQ, KTST, KXXY-FM
History
First air date
January 27, 1927; 97 years ago (1927-01-27) (as KGFG)
Former call signs
KGFG (1927–1937)
Call sign meaning
"Talk Oklahoma"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID11925
ClassB
Power5,800 watts
Transmitter coordinates
35°21′29″N 97°27′48″W / 35.35806°N 97.46333°W / 35.35806; -97.46333
Repeater(s)96.1 KXXY-FMHD2 (Oklahoma City)
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen Live
Websitektok.iheart.com

KTOK (1000 AM) is a commercial radio station in Oklahoma City and airs a news/talk format. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and licensed as iHM Licenses, LLC. KTOK and its sister stations, KGHM, KJYO, KOKQ, KTST and KXXY-FM, have offices and state of the art studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue on the Northwest side of Oklahoma City.

KTOK is powered at 5,800 watts, using a directional antenna at all times, with a three to five-tower array. Because AM 1000 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A WMVP in Chicago, KNWN in Seattle and XEOY in Mexico City, KTOK's nighttime signal must protect those stations. The transmitter is in Moore, Oklahoma, off NE 25th Street.[2] KTOK programming is also heard on co-owned KXXY's HD2 stream and on the iHeartRadio app.

Programming

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KTOK has one local talk host each weekday, Lee Matthews, in afternoon drive time. Matthews' show is shared with co-owned KAKC in Tulsa. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated conservative talk shows, mostly from co-owned Premiere Networks. They include The Michael DelGiorno Show, The Glenn Beck Program, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Mark Levin Show, The Jesse Kelly Show, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.

Weekends feature programs on money, health, home repair, real estate and guns. Some weekend shows are paid brokered programming. Syndicated weekend shows include The Weekend with Michael Brown, Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham and Somewhere in Time with Art Bell. Most hours begin with world and national news from Fox News Radio.

KTOK, along with the other iHeart stations in Oklahoma City, simulcasts audio of KFOR-TV if a tornado warning is issued within the Oklahoma City metro area. KFOR-TV channel 4 is Oklahoma City's NBC Network affiliate.

History

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Early years

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KTOK was first licensed with the sequentially assigned call letters, KGFG, signing on the air on January 27, 1927. It was owned by the Full Gospel Church in Oklahoma City.[3] By the 1930s, the station was owned by the Oklahoma Broadcasting Company. It broadcast on 1370 kilocycles with a power of 100 watts.[4] KGFG's studios were housed in the Cotton Exchange Building.

The call letters were changed to KTOK on February 17, 1937.[5] With WKY as an NBC Red Network station and KOMA carrying the CBS Radio Network, KTOK first became a network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. By the 1940s, it had switched to the NBC Blue Network (later ABC).

1940s and 50s

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In 1941, with the enactment of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), KTOK moved to 1400 kHz.[6] The power increased to 250 watts, but management wanted to make KTOK's signal competitive with 930 WKY (5,000 watts) and 1520 KOMA (50,000 watts).

In the late 1940s, KTOK got permission from the Federal Communications Commission to move to 1000 kHz.[7] The power increased to 5,000 watts by day, 1,000 watts at night. The station also added an FM companion. KTOK-FM signed on in 1946 at 104.3 MHz. It mostly simulcast the AM station. However, management saw little hope in making KTOK-FM profitable and gave it up after several years.

By the 1950s, as network programming was moving from radio to television, KTOK switched to a full service, middle of the road (MOR) format of popular adult music, news and sports. As WKY and KOMA became youth-oriented Top 40 stations, KTOK began carrying sports from their former networks, NBC and CBS, including the World Series, championship fights and auto racing. An advertisement in the 1960 edition of the Broadcasting Yearbook said KTOK plays "toe-tapping music (no rock and roll) and all of the announcers are adults," to contrast KTOK with the youthful Top 40 disc jockeys on WKY and KOMA.[8]

1960s - 1980s

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In the 1960s, the nighttime power increased to match the daytime power, 5,000 watts. But it had to use a complicated directional antenna system to make the higher nighttime power work, while still protecting other stations on AM 1000.

In 1978, KTOK was acquired by the Insilco Broadcasting Group, which also bought an FM station at 102.7, KZUE, which aired an adult contemporary music format.[9] (102.7 today is Top 40/CHR KJYO.) KTOK became an affiliate of the ABC Information Radio Network.

KTOK gradually increased the talk programming and cut the MOR music programming. By the 1980s, it had become a talk station.

1990s - Today

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KTOK and its FM station were acquired in 1992 by San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications (the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia).[10] At one time, the news staff numbered 12. iHeart moved its Oklahoma City operations to 50 Penn Place off Northwest Expressway and Interstate 44.

In the 2010s, the station got a slight power increase, going from 5,000 watts to 5,800 watts, day and night. It also got a simulcast on an HD Radio subchannel of co-owned KXXY-FM.

For much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, KTOK's studios and offices were in the 50 Penn Place building on the Northwest side. In early 2022, iHeartMedia Oklahoma City moved KTOK, along with sister stations KGHM, KJYO, KTST, KXXY-FM, KREF-FM (now KOKQ), to new state of the art studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue. further up the road on the Northwest side, just a few miles west from their former studios.

Current and former on-air staff

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Show hosts:

  • Dink Bernardi
  • Larry Bledsoe
  • Jack Bowen
  • Robert D. "Bob" Coker
  • Carole Arnold
  • Jerry Bohnen
  • Gene Collett
  • Carlton Cordell
  • John Dale
  • Jason Doyle (host of "Doyle in the Morning")
  • Tom Furlong
  • Ken Gaines
  • Sharon Gaines
  • Mike Hutton
  • Niles Jackson
  • Dave Marshal
  • Greg Merrick (sportscaster)
  • Mike McCarville (afternoon drive show)
  • Lee Matthews (weekday mornings & afternoons)
  • Greg "Eggman" Moore
  • Steve Neumann
  • Pam Pryor
  • Bob Riggins
  • Billie Rodely
  • Ed Sossen
  • Rick Tasetano
  • Mark Shannon (hosted "The Drive")
  • B. J. Wexler (later hosted "KETA-TV" Movie Club)
  • Jim Rupe
  • Al Eshbach

News reporters and anchors:

  • Tim Allen
  • Phil Bacharach
  • Bill Bateman
  • Natalie Bell
  • Megan Bishop
  • Jerry Bohnen
  • Bill Boren
  • Bob Burke
  • Mike Gannon
  • Stephanie Chase
  • Jack Damrill
  • Chris Davala
  • Bob Durgin
  • Jon Dahlander
  • Bob Davidson
  • Trey Davis
  • Jack Edens
  • Cam Edwards
  • Mike Elder
  • Brian Gan
  • Melissa Gandal
  • Mary Beth Henschel
  • Carrie Hulsey
  • Steve Jones
  • Karen Fuhrmann
  • Gwin Faulconer-Lippert
  • Jackson Kane
  • Delvin Kinser
  • Rand Lavonn
  • Laura Knoll (later with KGOU)
  • Ken Johnson
  • Craig Logsdon
  • Beth Meyers
  • Dan Mahoney
  • Karen McCoy
  • Gene Molter
  • Bill Mondora
  • Reid Mullins
  • Mark Myers
  • Derrick Nance
  • Charles Newcomb
  • Joe Oliver
  • Jim Palmer
  • Jim "Captain" Perdue
  • Randy Pyburn
  • Jim Reagan
  • Jacqueline Scott
  • Bill Reker
  • Randy Renner (sports director, formerly a reporter at CBS affiliate KWTV-TV)
  • Mike "Road King" Rogers
  • Scott Rowland
  • Cynthia Rozmaryn
  • David Rucker
  • Rob Salinas
  • Mary Shea
  • Dawn Shelton
  • Bill Simonson
  • Matt Skinner
  • Linda Steele
  • Larry Stein (later the County Assessor for Oklahoma County)
  • Merrit Thomas
  • Bryan Walke
  • Kim Walkingstick
  • Nate Webb
  • Connie Webber
  • John Williams
  • Calvin Wright
  • John Wright

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KTOK". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "KTOK-AM 1000 kHz - Oklahoma City, OK". radio-locator.com.
  3. ^ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, January 31, 1927, page 3.
  4. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1935 page 50
  5. ^ FCC History Cards
  6. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1942 page 168
  7. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 246
  8. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1960 page A-211
  9. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1980 page C-184
  10. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2000 page D-361
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