Talk:KABR (1935–1949)

Jim Stokes information

While trying to unknot the contradictory New Mexico and South Dakota edits to this article, I found the following edits from "Jim Stokes" in the edits 2007-02-10T06:42:18 and 2007-04-05T20:33:12; they are otherwise unsourced WP:OR but look like they give helpful information:

Jim Stokes, broadcaster, 1956-1957, KABR Radio KABR was started by Dell Hunt. To my knowledge, the station "went dark" while Mr. Hunt served in the US Army Signal Corp during WW2. The KABR that I worked and knew was located in Dell's Drive In along Highway 280, on the outskirts of Aberdeen. When I worked there, it was a 250 watt daytimer, which meant it was on the air during daylight hours. KABR was my first job in radio.

KABR was the first radio station I worked for while a student in my freshman year at Northern States Teachers College in Aberdeen, during 1956. And I recall vividly my experiences. My mentor was Jim Barnes, an announcer/DJ and NSTC student as well. The station was a wonderous collage of a relatively new transmitter and an Ampex 350 tape machine. The rest of the equipment was quite vintage or consumer brands. However it all worked very well and was well-maintained. Of course the most fascinating was equipment that even then in the mid 50s was museum vintage.

And here we bring in Del Hunt, the man who started KABR. His very hard work and memory lived on although he had since passed away. However he had the tenacity to launch Aberdeen's first radio station in the early 40s. At that time it was a multi-tower directional station housed in an art deco building that carried the Mutual Network. I recall hearing the 5pm "kid" hour long before I thought of getting into radio. In my hometown of Britton, some 40 miles away, I recall "Superman," "The Green Hornet" and "Tom Mix." Then it was suppertime. Now years later, that station was in it's second act. Del Hunt's first station became "the new" KABR: a single antenna located in Del's Drive Inn on Highway 281, just outside of downtown Aberdeen. And there were plenty of audio and transmitter relics left from the original transmitter site, up the road and now a cement factory! Thus the backup transmitter was comprised of World War Two Army Signal Corps components. It took up a lot of real estate in the backroom, compared to the smaller main transmitter. The more fascinating Signal Corps transmitter had a plethora of dials and meters. Why? Del had been in the Signal Corps during WW2. Going into the control room, there was a control board that was one of the first Western Electric consoles. There were but two turntables. A contemporary model was next to a huge old Presto 16-inch transcription turntable, complete with two tone arms. One for the obsolete vertical transcriptions, which the station maintained in their record library; and a huge standard tone arm. All in all, a fascinating world for my first radio job! On to the announcer DJs. My mentor Jim Barnes sort of held the place together, unofficially. Like the excellent schoolteacher he was to become, he would gladly announcer and fill-in, as needed. Jim Jackson is also worthy of mention. He was then student-teaching, but pulled down an air shift as well. He also coached me into the radio biz. Another friend worthy of mention was engineer/announcer Jerry Zastrow. If it hadn't been for Jerry, we would not be on the air. He knew how to fix everything in the mix of new and vintage equipment. Del Hunt's daughter pretty much ran the station and managed the Drive Inn. KABR's format was pretty standard with popular records being the mainstay. However the radio biz was in transition. So there were at least two, 15-minute newscasts, a half hour or more live band performing on Sunday afternoon from the big studio, and at least one 15 minute live religious program or other specialty block program. I have one hilarious anecdote to relate. Jim Barnes cautioned me that a half-hour taped church service was shipped "tails out." Wanting to appear well-informed, I casually nodded. Then he left the station in my hands, with an hour to sign-off. I had my mind and hands full trying to cue up the records, read the commercials and follow the program log. So I threaded the German language service on the recorder, congratulating myself that I could do it. Then when the timer record ended. I hit the tape deck switch. Confident that the service was underway, I tuned down the monitor and cleaned up the place for sign off. Now then, I know very little German now and knew even less back then. But even with the monitor low, it sounded like a very strange language. Finally, the service ended. I read the sign off and turned off the transmitter. Then the phone rang. It was the pastor of the church. He asked in a most polite way why the service was run BACKWARDS! Alas, "tails out" meant the tape had to be REWOUND before playing it! KABR was sold a few years later and the drive inn/studio/transmitter/tower location is now meadowland. One would never know that "KABR, 1220 On Your Dial" was once there! I was glad I was. It was a wonderful experience with wonderful people.

Written by Jim Stokes.

--Closeapple (talk) 06:11, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Is this KGIM?

I can't figure out whether this article should be merged. This station may still exist as 1420 KGIM (AM) Aberdeen (FCC facility ID 1172); not sure how (or if) it got from 1220 to 1420, based on the previous talk section. Can anyone tell if what is now KGIM (AM) was the original KABR, or whether the original KABR lost its license and a new station used its frequency? FCC callsign database says the active station was once KABR, but doesn't say how long ago, and it could be that entries before 1979 were later matched to the station in the database by frequency or something rather than by the standards used now, but I don't know. --Closeapple (talk) 06:11, 3 October 2010 (UTC)