#2: KLAS-AM 1947

Las Vegas’ 2nd Radio Station

The 1948 Broadcasting yearbook shows a sign-on date of that same year, but in later editions it’s shown as 1947.  I suspect there was a rivalry between them and competing station KRAM for that number two designation; but the 1948 broadcasting yearbook does show KRAM had not yet signed on the air yet.  Las Vegas Broadcasters, Inc. were the owners with C. L. McCarthy as its first president.  A familiar face on the roster in the early years was sports director Chuck Hull, who in later years would appear on KLAS-TV and was the ring announcer for the big fights of the 1980s in Vegas and the 1984 Olympic games.  By the second year they would become the CBS radio affiliate. 

Frontier Broadcasters acquired the station in September 1959,  Former engineer Gordon Atteberry told me the station went totally automated around 1960 using a jukebox-style player to play the records, and reel-to-reel tapes with the commercials and news elements. “King Klas” was their slogan, but the attempt to take on market leaders KENO and KRAM failed.  The equipment collected dust at the original transmitter site behind Montgomery Wards on East Charleston near Boulder Highway.  This was the site of the original KENO transmitter, and when I was last in this building in 1977 there remained many old artifacts of the old days.  Radio KLAS Inc. took over in January 1, 1962. A year later the station fell into receivership until purchased by Arthur Powell Williams in July 1964; Frontier Broadcasters took control in June 1971, the call letters would change to KLAV and a boost in power, from 250 to 1000 watts daytime came in 1972.  The 1970s would start with a period of success.  They picked up the UNLV Rebel basketball broadcasts with Jerry Tarkanian’s crews going to the final four in 1977;  the broadcasts gave the station high ratings and a solid advertiser base.  

The on-air lineup was solid with Chris Corey in the mornings, middays started with talk shows featuring Muriel Stevens and Sig Sakowicz, and afternoons with Tru Hawkins. Joe Delaney did two hours live from the Sahara from 5 to 7pm, Gene Harvey did evenings and Johnny Farrow did the overnight show featuring jazz.  Johnny had pull with big stars as he was a talented songwriter, and penned the song “I Have But One Heart” from the Godfather.  The format was Sinatra, Streisand, and Sammy…weekends would often feature Sinatra specials with host Joe Tyrell.

Tru Hawkins took over as program director in 1973, and in 1976 George Thomas took over the PD position…that’s me.  It was my first management role in broadcasting and I’d only been in the business for 3 years.  Immediately my morning guy Chris Corey quit, I replaced him with Jon Paul who had just been furloughed by KENO.  Jon would go on to do voicers and work at KLAS-TV master control for years.  I continued the Middle of the Road (MOR) format, which was very loosely structured.  The only requirement was that we play at least one cut an hour from an artist in town…there were no format clocks, no pre-written music logs…when you were on the air, you played what you want

We were pioneers in the nostalgia craze during the time I was in charge, we were the first station to play Big Band music and when KBMI went all news we countered with block programming of news.  In 1975 when 50,000 watt KDWN signed on they went right after us and the station never could compete with their monster signal.  Financially the station fell onto hard times, and was purchased by Alvan Korngold in 1977. 

Alvan was an in-your-face kind of owner, and he immediately made us move the control room into the guest talk studio, with his office where the old control room was–now he could sit and stare at you through the glass while you did your show.   He also replaced me with Chip Austin who also worked at KLUC as program director. Chip implemented a tight contemporary format.    This was the beginning of a move to contemporary music as the end of the decade saw the station become “Disco 123.” 

As disco faded “Radio 123″ continued with contemporary music, including rap/hip hop and urban in the early 80’s.  They also vacated the commercial center studios to a location nearby on Maryland Parkway, then Bob Stupak’s Vegas World. 

In the mid 80’s came a flip to easy listening and a temporary call letter change to KEZD, the format was dropped and call letters reverted back to KLAV.  Today the station broadcasts talk and time brokered programs from studios on Desert Inn Road in a converted bank building which was originally occupied by Clear Channel.  That former First Western Savings bank was used in the movie “Casino” to film the bank scenes.

KLAV-AM was the place many local broadcasters got their start in the business, like me.  Most veteran Southern Nevada radio pros have a favorite story or two to tell about their experiences at the big 1-2-3.