KGHM (AM)

KGHM (1340 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Midwest City, Oklahoma, and serving the Oklahoma City Metroplex. It is among a cluster of stations in the market owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.. KGHM carries the syndicated Fox Sports Radio Network and also airs local high school and college sports.

KGHM
CityMidwest City, Oklahoma
Broadcast areaOklahoma City Metroplex
Frequency1340 kHz
Branding1340 The Game
SloganMost Local Games in Oklahoma City
Programming
FormatSports
Ownership
OwneriHeartMedia, Inc.
(iHM Licenses, LLC)
KBRU, KJYO, KTOK, KTST, KXXY-FM
Technical information
Facility ID58388
ClassC
Power1,000 watts (Daytime)
1,000 watts (Nighttime)
Links
WebcastListen Live
Website1340thegame.iheart.com

KGHM's transmitter is located blocks from the Oklahoma State Capitol. It broadcasts at 1,000 watts around the clock using a non-directional antenna. The studios and offices are located at the 50 Penn Place building on the Northwest side.

History

KGCB/KOCY

The station first signed on the air in 1922, making it among the first radio stations in Oklahoma City.[1] It started as KGCB, a church-owned station. It was purchased in the late 1930s by Matthew Bonebrake - a former OPUBCO and WKY radio sales manager - who changed the call letters to KOCY.

KOCY was a Mutual Broadcasting System network affiliate during the 1940s and early 1950s. It became Oklahoma City's first full-time Top 40 station in the mid-1950s. It was also the first radio station in the country to offer "News Every Hour - On the Hour".

After WKY and KOMA also switched to Top 40, with more powerful transmitters, KOCY management realized the station couldn't compete with the two new Top 40 outlets. KOCY had a "funeral" for its Top 40 format, by giving away records in a coffin. It then switched to a middle of the road (MOR) format of popular adult music.

Urban music

In the mid-1990s, KGHM aired an Urban Contemporary format in the evenings and overnights as "The Groove 1340".

In 2000, Clear Channel Communications went into an agreement with Perry Broadcasting to broadcast KVSP and its Urban format on KEBC from 7 p.m.-7 a.m. as "The Power Jammin' Network" after KVSP signed off at sunset. Between 7 a.m.-7 p.m., KGHM aired Regional Mexican programming directed at Oklahoma City's Mexican-American community.

The agreement between Clear Channel and Perry Broadcasting discontinued when Perry purchased KRPT in Anadarko, Oklahoma and upgraded the station to target Oklahoma City, then moved KVSP's Urban format to the FM dial. The Regional Mexican format was ended as the station switched to a Talk radio format.

"Keeping Everybody Country"

KEBC's call letters were previously used for KEBC-FM, later a property also owned by Clear Channel. The station's slogan, "Keeping Everybody Country." Ironically, KEBC's competitor at the time, KXXY-FM, simulcast their FM signal at 1340 AM.

The call letters KEBC stood for Electronic Broadcasting Company which was the original ownership of KEBC. KEBC originally had its offices and transmitter at the "Rambling Ranchstyle studios" in Southeast OKC before moving to 31st and Western to studio space owned by Ralph Tyler.

Mounting debt to Tyler for rent and other financial obligation created a situation where Tyler became controlling owner of KEBC radio. After Ralph Tyler's controlling ownership of KEBC, the slogan "Keep Everybody Country" was formed on a suggestion from a friend of Ralph's.

Sports radio

As a talk station in the early 2000s, KGHM simulcast some programming of sister station KTOK along with some original shows. In January 2007, Clear Channel flipped the station to "Fox Sports Radio 1340." It later became "1340 The Game," making it the fourth all-sports station in Oklahoma City.

Former Dallas Cowboys play-by-play broadcaster David Garrett was KGHM's sports director. Garrett had worked as sports director for co-owned KTOK in the late 1980s. Garrett also hosted an afternoon sports talk show on KGHM from January 2007 to early 2008 and returned to hosting in late spring/early summer of 2008. Garrett was also did play-by-play for some on the Oklahoma City High School Football games that aired on KGHM as well. In the Spring 2013, KGHM and KTOK's sports director job went to Randy Renner, a former reporter for Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV-TV.

In mid March 2003, it was announced that then KEBC would carry the Oklahoma City Blazers hockey games for the remainder of the 2002-2003 Central Hockey League season and playoffs. KEBC also aired the Blazers radio talk show "Strictly Hockey Blazers Style", a weekly show that aired live every Monday night through out the Blazers season from the location of an Oklahoma City restaurant. It featured interviews with players, coach's, trainers and team staff.

KEBC carried the Blazers again for the 2003–2004 season. In 2006, the Blazers returned to 1340 AM along with the Oklahoma City RedHawks baseball team after WKY 930 flipped from News/Talk to Spanish. The Blazers stayed on 1340 AM until the team folded in the Summer of 2009 after 17 seasons. KGHM carried selected games of the Oklahoma City Barons Hockey team from 2010-2011 thru the 2014–2015 seasons, when the team was discontinued. Whenever there were scheduling or programming conflicts with sister station and primary radio home of the Barons KXXY-FM. KOCY was also the station that carried the games of the original Oklahoma City Blazers Hockey Franchise in the original Central Hockey League from the late 1960s and through the late 1970s.

For a time, local sports talk shows were simulcast with KREF 1400, also a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, in Norman, Oklahoma. For several years KGHM also carried University of Central Oklahoma Broncos Football and Men's & Women's Basketball games. KGHM also airs select Oklahoma State University Cowboys football games with local Oklahoma high school football games on Friday and Saturday nights. Some Oklahoma high school basketball games also aired.

Friday Night Finals, a weekly two hour show of statewide high school football scores and highlights, aired on Friday nights. Game Day Saturday, a look at collage football games, specifically University of Oklahoma & Oklahoma State football was on the weekend schedule.

Since 2003, and again from 2006-present, KGHM has carried the games of the Oklahoma City Dodgers Minor League Triple-A baseball team, the Pacific Coast League affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Starting with the 2015 Major League Baseball season, the station began carrying some games as part of the Los Angeles Dodgers radio network. In late 2018, KGHM's affiliation with the Los Angeles Dodgers radio network was not renewed, ending sixteen years of professional baseball airing on both stations.

References
  1. Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 246

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