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KAKC (1300 Hertz) is a commercial radio AM broadcasting radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station airs a conservative talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The radio studio are on South Yale Avenue at the Tulsa Event Center in Southeast Tulsa.
By day, KAKC transmits 5,000 . To protect other stations on 1300 kHz from interference, at night it reduces power to 1,000 watts. It uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. The transmitter site is off South 109th Avenue East in Bixby. Radio-Locator.com/KAKC Programming is also heard on 250-watt FM translator K228BR at 93.5 Hertz in Tulsa. Radio-Locator.com/K228BR
On weekends, syndicated shows include Lee Habeeb, The Weekend with Michael Brown, At Home with Gary Sullivan, Rich DeMuro on Tech, Art Bell, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, Ben Ferguson and Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham. Most hours begin with an update from Fox News Radio.
The current KAKC is not the same as the KAKC in Tulsa from the 1950s through 1980. At that time, the KAKC call sign was used by KCFO, a station founded by Sam Avey, a wrestling promotor and owner of the Tulsa Oilers and broadcast from the Tulsa Coliseum until it was destroyed in the 1952 fire.
The station was started by Harry Schwartz, who also was the president of the Tulsa Federation of Labor, and a business manager for the union's monthly paper, the Unionist Journal. Schwartz created the Oil Capital Sales Corporation business name to run the station and he owned 98% of its stock; in addition to being called the "Magic Empire," Tulsa also was often called the "Oil Capital".
The first KOME broadcast was on Christmas Day and included 'special programs from New York City, Chicago, and Oklahoma City and featured Bob Wills, Governor E.W. Marland, Jimmie Wilson and his Catfish String Band, and the Pioneer Mother's Chorus.' At first, the station's license only allowed daytime broadcasts, but they received special permission to air in the evenings for New Year's celebrations, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1939 President's Birthday Ball to fight infantile paralysis, the Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament, the American Legion birthday party, and the opening week of the 1939 Major League Baseball season.
In 1939, the license was modified to allow unlimited broadcasts, not just daytime, with 250 watts. In 1941, with the 1941 enactment of North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), KOME moved to 1340 kHz. In 1947, the frequency changed to 1300 kHz.
Note that in 1939, their stated policy was "no liquor advertising", and that was not uncommon: A 1939 annual listing of radio stations had 110 stations limiting or refusing alcohol-related advertisements. This would be a controversial issue with the next station owner.
The station and its new owner entered into controversy with an early decision: they would not air advertisements for beer or other alcoholic beverages. Part of this was because Brown was a Methodist and evangelist, part of it was because the university was a Christian one where alcohol was also forbidden, and part of it was because they were marketing their three radio stations as wholesome "stations of the American home". Also, Oklahoma was still dry county. When federal Prohibition ended in 1933, Oklahoma did not end it in their state. Instead, they passed the Oklahoma Beer Act of 1933 and only allowed sales of low-alcohol beer. Regular beer, wine, and liquor were illegal to sale in stores, bars, restaurants, and other establishments. This was true until Oklahoma passed the Liquor Control Act of 1959.
KOME was still affiliated with Mutual Broadcasting System, and the station relayed their programming which included Falstaff beer ads during baseball game broadcasts. As a result, Mutual ended the affiliation. Some other stations followed KOME's lead, and the decision entered into public debate along with the wider issue of continued Prohibition in Oklahoma.
Brown died in February 1957, and in September of that year John Brown University sold KOME.
During the short period of this new ownership, KOME attracted attention with various stunts. For example, the station sent homing pigeons to advertising executives asking for orders. They hired a helicopter to drop toy dogs around Tulsa for a listener contest. Rocky Frisco road his bicycle 500 miles to interview Elvis Presley and get his autograph on the bicycle, which they gave to a listener.
Kluge and Austad sold KOME and three other stations they'd bought earlier (KXLW St. Louis, WUFO Buffalo, WWNL Pittsburgh) when they bought Metromedia.
In 1959, KOME became an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network to air hourly 5-minute segments of global news.
In 1962, Franklin Broadcasting merged with Radio Concepts Inc. of New York, which created and sold radio advertising and promotional items. Although Radio Concepts worked as a division of Franklin Broadcasting, by 1963, Franklin Broadcasting was trying to sell all their radio stations. They tried to sell KOME to Producers, Inc. (wholly owned by Polaris Corporation) for the same amount they paid for it in 1960, but the deal did not go through. They finally sell it to Wagenvoord Broadcasting.
Around this same time, Wagenvoord also was buying other Franklin Broadcasting stations such as WGNO New Orleans, and buying KNIR New Iberia with attorney Fred P. Westenberger, with a company blend word of their names: Wagenwest Inc. Within two years, KOME was reportedly owned by Wagenwest.
At the time, it was against American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As)'s rules for their members (ad agencies) to buy media companies, but when two other advertising agencies also bought media companies and all three left 4As to do so, 4As changed their rule to allow it. In 1971, Hite bought out the controlling stock from Tracy-Locke.
KCNW was the first station in Tulsa to try programming with Nashville sound music.
They changed KCNW's call sign to KXXO. It became a news/talk station, with bad ratings made worse by its poor signal. Meanwhile, KMOD returned on the air as an album rock station, and had good ratings but not many advertisers. They decided to simulcast KMOD-FM's album rock programs on KXXO's AM frequency, which lowered costs for running KXXO while attracting more listeners. Sales staff promoted to advertisers that their album-rock listeners were less "hip" and more "family-oriented", which was advertisers' target audience.
The programming changed to Music of Your Life.
In 1990, the station changed formats again, from oldies to CNN headline News. The popular morning show ended, although John Henry moved to an afternoon slot and a simulcast blues show with KMOD-FM also continued. The next year, Henry's timeslot was moved to afternoons.
In 2007, KAKC changed its format to sports, with programming from ESPN Radio.
In 2008, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners bought Clear Channel Communications for $26.7 billion in a leveraged buyout and took the company private. By that time, Clear Channel owned about 850 radio stations plus other media outlets.
In 2014, Clear Channel changed their name to iHeartMedia, and in 2018 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its $20 billion debt that it still owed from the money borrowed during the leveraged buyout. In 2019, iHeartMedia returned as a publicly traded company.
Meanwhile, during this period of restructuring, the station changed programming formats again. In 2015, KAKC became the local network affiliate of CBS Sports Radio. It was the Tulsa radio home for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Tulsa Roughnecks FC and the Cleveland Browns Radio Network.
In 2021, KAKC changed its format from sports to conservative talk, branded as "1300 The Patriot". 1300 The Patriot Debuts In Tulsa; 1430 The Buzz Launches New Lineup Radioinsight - September 15, 2021 It began carrying many of the hosts from co-owned Premiere Networks, as well as shows from Westwood One and the Salem Radio Network.
On September 9, 2024, KAKC began simulcasting on KTGX-HD2 and translator K228BR 93.5 FM Tulsa. Tulsa's Patriot Comes to FM Radioinsight - September 9, 2024
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