[BC] KLEO, KOOK & KOMA -- Oooooops....

[Rockwell Smith]

KOMA's change took away an icon of American history.  A tragic thing to lose 
that heritage call on the AM dial.

A few years back, a corporate group here in Boise swapped the call letters 
on two of Idaho's oldest stations, forever blurring and destroying 
historical significance of those calls.  No one I can find has a good 
reason, just some young person's idea of change for no reason.

And we used to accuse the Russians of trying to blur and re-write 
history.....  Oh, well.  Put me in the geezer or Old Fart column I guess.  I 
still see some value in heritage call signs.

We can learn if we cherish history.  Looking back can sometimes give a 
clearer view of the road ahead.  Something I've noticed while recording my 
old air-checks onto the hard-drive --  The big story 35 years ago was 
trouble in Iraq.  Duh!

>
>> Sadly, KOMA's owners, Renda, changed the calls to KOKC a few years ago. 
>> The
>> KOKC calls had been held by a Guthrie, Oklahoma station for years.  It's 
>> one
>> thing to rename a station, but to rename it with calls held by a puny
>> station in the same market, just doesn't make much sense.
>>

>>
>
> Unfortunately, in KOMA's case, the calls and the memories were all that 
> were left. From top-40 to country to 50's-60's oldies to news-talk. I knew 
> that they were dead when they started selling 1/2 hour blocks to preachers 
> in the evening. You could tell they's thrown in the towel. Like going to 
> the funeral of an old girlfriend who hadn't aged well.
>



Rockwell Smith
Radio Engineering Manager
Journal Broadcast Group - Idaho
KJOT,  KQXR,  KRVB,  KTHI,  KGEM-AM,  KCID-AM
(208) 344-3511 - Main      (208) 947-5624 - Direct Line
(208) 947-6765 -Fax         (208) 869-6413 - Cell
Email:      rockwellsmith at journalbroadcastgroup.com
Personal website: http://www.engineer-exchange.com