 | |
| Broadcast area | Oklahoma City Metroplex |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1000kHz |
| Branding | NewsRadio 1000 KTOK |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Network | Fox News Radio |
| Affiliations | Compass Media Networks Premiere Networks Westwood One |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KGHM,KJYO,KOKQ,KTST,KXXY-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | January 27, 1927; 98 years ago (1927-01-27) (as KGFG) |
Former call signs | KGFG (1927–1937) |
Call sign meaning | "Talk Oklahoma" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 11925 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,800watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°21′29″N97°27′48″W / 35.35806°N 97.46333°W /35.35806; -97.46333 |
| Repeater | 96.1KXXY-FMHD2 (Oklahoma City) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | ktok.iheart.com |
KTOK (1000AM) is acommercialradio station inOklahoma City and airs anews/talkformat. It is owned byiHeartMedia, Inc., with the license held by iHM Licenses, LLC. KTOK and itssister stations,KGHM,KJYO,KOKQ,KTST andKXXY-FM, have offices and studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue on the Northwest side of Oklahoma City.
KTOK's power is 5,800watts. It uses adirectional antenna with a three to five-tower array. BecauseAM 1000 is aclear channel frequency reserved forClass AWMVP inChicago,KNWN inSeattle andXEOY inMexico City, KTOK's nighttime signal must protect those stations. Thetransmitter is inMoore, Oklahoma, off NE 25th Street.[2] KTOK programming is also heard on co-owned 96.1 KXXY'sHD2subchannel and on theiHeartRadio app.
The weekday schedule is made up ofnationally syndicatedconservative talk shows, mostly from co-ownedPremiere Networks.[3] They includeYour Morning Show with Michael DelGiorno,The Glenn Beck Program,The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Sean Hannity Show,The Mark Levin Show,The Jesse Kelly Show,Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory.
Weekends feature programs on money, health, home repair, real estate and guns. Some weekend shows are paidbrokered programming. Syndicated weekend shows includeAt Home with Gary Sullivan,Rich DeMuro on Tech,Tom Gresham's Gun Talk,The Weekend with Michael Brown,Armstrong & Getty,Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham andBill Handel on the Law. Most hours begin with an update fromFox News Radio.
KTOK, along with the other iHeart stations in Oklahoma City, simulcasts audio ofKFOR-TV if atornado warning is issued within the Oklahoma City metro area. KFOR-TV channel 4 is Oklahoma City'sNBCNetwork affiliate.
KTOK was first licensed with the sequentially assigned callsign,KGFG,signing on the air on January 27, 1927. It was owned by the Full Gospel Church in Oklahoma City.[4] By the 1930s, the station was owned by the Oklahoma Broadcasting Company. It broadcast on 1370kilocycles with a power of 100 watts.[5] KGFG's studios were housed in the Cotton Exchange Building.
The callsign changed toKTOK on February 17, 1937.[6] WithWKY as anNBC Red Network station andKOMA carrying theCBS Radio Network, KTOK first became anetwork affiliate of theMutual Broadcasting System. By the 1940s, it had switched to theNBC Blue Network (laterABC).
In 1941, with the enactment of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), KTOK moved to 1400 kHz.[7] The power increased to 250 watts, but management wanted to make KTOK's signal competitive with 930 WKY (5,000 watts) and 1520 KOMA (50,000 watts).
In the late 1940s, KTOK got permission from theFederal Communications Commission to move to 1000 kHz.[8] The power increased to 5,000 watts by day, 1,000 watts at night. The station also added an FM companion. KTOK-FM signed on in 1946 on 104.3 MHz. It mostlysimulcast the AM station. However, management saw little hope in making KTOK-FM profitable and gave it up after several years.
By the 1950s, as network programming was moving from radio to television, KTOK switched to afull service,middle of the road (MOR) format of popular adult music, news and sports. As WKY and KOMA became youth-orientedTop 40 stations, KTOK began carrying sports from their former networks, NBC and CBS, including theWorld Series, championship fights and auto racing. An advertisement in the 1960 edition of theBroadcasting Yearbook said KTOK plays "toe-tapping music (no rock and roll) and all of the announcers are adults," to contrast KTOK with the youthful Top 40disc jockeys on WKY and KOMA.[9]
In the 1960s, the nighttime power increased to match the daytime power, 5,000 watts. But it had to use a complicated directional antenna system to make the higher nighttime power work, while still protecting other stations on AM 1000.
In 1978, KTOK was acquired by the Insilco Broadcasting Group (the forerunner to Clear Channel Communications aka iHeartMedia), which also bought an FM station on 102.7, KZUE, which aired anadult contemporary music format.[10] (102.7 today isTop 40/CHRKJYO.) KTOK became an affiliate of theABC Information Radio Network.
KTOK gradually increased the talk programming and cut the MOR music programming. By the 1980s, it had become a talk station.
KTOK and its FM station were acquired in 1992 bySan Antonio-basedClear Channel Communications (the forerunner to current owneriHeartMedia).[11] At one time, the news staff numbered 12. iHeart moved its Oklahoma City operations to50 Penn Place off Northwest Expressway andInterstate 44.
In the 2010s, the station got a slight power increase, going from 5,000 watts to 5,800 watts, day and night. It also got a simulcast on anHD Radio subchannel of co-ownedKXXY-FM.
For much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, KTOK'sstudios and offices were in the50 Penn Place building on the Northwest side. In early 2022, iHeartMedia Oklahoma City moved KTOK, along with sister stationsKGHM,KJYO,KTST,KXXY-FM,KREF-FM (now KOKQ), to new state of the art studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue. further up the road on the Northwest side, just a few miles west from their former studios.
Show hosts: