“KPRC-TV, the starlit station that lights the way, forever.”
#tx
“Cactus” is Richard “Cactus” Pryor, a legendary Austin broadcaster. Read more about his life.
Jackson “Peg” Moreland, who once sang over Dallas’ WFAA Radio (today’s KLIF-AM), died in 1973. Here’s a 1929 recording of him singing “When I Had But Fifty Cents:”
El Paso’s KTSM signed on in 1929, owned by W.S. Bledsoe, Karl Wyler and the Tri-State Music Company. It shared a frequency with WDAH, which was the city’s first licensed radio station.
KTSM offered mostly local programs with local artists and eventually absorbed WDAH’s operation. In 1935, KTSM became El Paso’s first radio station to offer a news program, called “Newspaper of the Air.”
In 1938, KTSM affiliated with NBC, bringing network programming to El Paso.
KTSM-TV launched in 1952. KTSM-FM signed on in 1962.
Wyler and his Tri-State Broadcasting owned KTSM-AM-FM-TV until Wyler’s death in 1990. He donated his controlling stake in the company to The El Paso Community Foundation, which hired Richard Person, the station manager at rival KVIA-TV, to operate the KTSM stations. KTSM-TV flourished, becoming a dominant force in the market, according to Wikipedia.
Communications Corporation of America purchased KTSM radio and TV in 1998.
As of 2016, iHeartMedia owns KTSM-AM and KTSM-FM. Nexstar Broadcasting owns KTSM-TV.
Sources: El Paso Broadcasting History, Wikipedia (KTSM-TV)
