Here’s an earlier entry about Fort Worth’s WBAP-AM and the unusual arrangement it had with WFAA-AM for much of its history.

Fort Worth’s WBAP is notable for being the first radio station in the United States with an audible logo signal, the WBAP cowbell, which is featured in this 1947 ad. 

WBAP signed on in 1922, sharing time with Dallas stations WFAA and WRR.  In 1928, WBAP moved to 800 kHz.  WFAA moved there in 1929, having to share time (and the NBC Red network affiliation) with WBAP.  

WBAP’s owner, Amon Carter, bought a Wichita Falls station and moved it to Fort Worth as an NBC Blue (which later became ABC) affiliate at 570 kHz.  It also gave him a second frequency to use when WFAA was on 800 kHz.  

WFAA and WBAP moved one last time to 820 kHz in 1941.  The 820 frequency was a powerful 50,000-watt clear channel signal, so the stations were reluctant to give up.  

The sharing arrangement lasted into the 1960s, when the stations switched frequencies several times a day. The great DFW Radio Archives site includes a 1963 program schedule that shows the confusing checkerboard-style frequency-swapping.  When WBAP changed frequencies between 570 kHz and 800 kHz, it signaled the change with the cowbell.  WFAA gained a reputation as a more refined, higher-brow sound, while WBAP was a little “louder” and more uptempo in its presentation.

The sharing agreement did include one certainty for the listeners: NBC programming always would air on the stronger 820 signal while ABC aired on 570.

You can get a sense of how it all worked in a series of airchecks from WBAP’s coverage of the 1963 JFK assassination:

The sharing arrangement ended in 1970, when WBAP paid WFAA $3.5 million for the sole use of 820 kHz and the NBC affiliation.  WFAA took the 570 kHz frequency and the ABC affiliation.

Free to program full-time on the station, WBAP started a successful country music format.  The station was dominant in the 1970s, but lost audience as FM music formats grew in popularity during the 1980s.

WBAP became a news/talk station in 1993.   The Cumulus-owned satation now simulcasts on WBAP-FM 96.7.  

To learn more about the strange frequency-sharing days of WBAP/WFAA, read this post from RadioDiscussions.com.

Source: Wikipedia (WBAP-AM)

This is a very classy 1960 ad from WFAA-AM-FM-TV in Dallas.

This blog brought you an earlier entry with a WFAA-TV ad and a bit about that station’s history.