Re: [IRCA] New trivia question: WTOP

["Stephen Ponder" <n5wbi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

More trivia ...

Growing up in the "Ark-La-Tex" (my hometown
is Bossier City) I listened to KEEL-710.  Their
call letters were chosen to point to the fact
that, at one time, Shreveport was a busy port
for steamboats, all of which have a "keel."

The city itself is named in honor of Capt.
Henry Miller Shreve, who is famous for
unblocking the log jam on the Red River
that opened the river up north and south
for steamboat trade.  Many of the "old-
timers" there still call it "Shreve's-port."

There is still one railroad bridge across
the Red River that, when it was built, had
a support built in the center of the river
with machinery to rotate the rails 90 degrees
in either direction so that steamboats could
pass by.  Today, that center support is
approximately 50 yards west of the center of
the river!!

Anyway, back to my radio station trivia ...

KEEL-710 had a jingle that they always played
that said "First since 57" meaning that the
station first went on the air in 1957 and that
it was the first station on the AM dial.  The
other stations -- KWKH 1130, KRMD 1340, etc. --
were higher in frequency.

BTW -- Robert Smith (aka Wolfman Jack) had
an afternoon radio show on Shreveport's
KCIJ 980 in the early '60s.  I think his
tag was "Big Smith" back then.

Also, George Carlin did a radio show in
Shreveport on KJOE 1480 while he was
stationed at Barksdale AFB.  Never heard
him, though -- that was back in the early
'50s (I was born in 1953).

More than you asked for I'm sure ...

73 and GREAT DX!

Stephen Ponder N5WBI
Houston TX USA


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