The History of
KDNT RADIO
By Mike Shannon, Mike Ehrle and Sandy Shepard

PART 3:  1964-1972
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

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Mike Ehrle at KDNT studios, 1968

"Thirty-five years ago, while a student at North Texas State University in Denton [TX] [now The University of North Texas,] my place of employment was at radio stations KDNT and KDNT-FM, owned by the late Harwell V. Shepard of Denton.

"Harwell had established KDNT-AM in 1938 and its 100 watts of power in the early days had eventually been increased to 5000 watts days and 500 watts nights, while KDNT-FM, which had gone on the air in 1949, broadcast easy listening music at 100,000 watts, the maximum power allowed by the Federal Communications Commission.  Both stations penetrated the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with primary signals, but Harwell had elected to target the immediate Denton County area audience with heavy local programming.

"The studios occupied the second floor of the Radio Center Office Building at 235 West Hickory, a one-way thoroughfare that fed heavy volumes of traffic from the busy west end and the university campus into downtown Denton.  A huge glass window the size of the control room wall allowed passing motorists to view disc jockeys at work and provided announcers with an unobstructed view of traffic on Hickory Street.  An outdoor microphone/speaker system was near curbside and listeners would stop in the parking lane, visit with the disc jockeys and request their favorite songs.

"KDNT was unlike the larger stations in the Metroplex that catered to specific audience demographics.  Carefully selected, easy listening rock music was blended in the mornings with time and temperature announcements, local news, weather, sports and farm reports, all key elements of morning and noon hour information programming.  Sales staffer Buford Harrell read the farm news and covered breaking local and area news in a mobile unit.

"The early morning show, entitled 'The Dawn Patrol,' was followed later in the day by other special programs, including one that was specifically tailored for women.  'Of, For & About Women' addressed cooking, sewing and other homemaking issues by a local hostess.  Morning announcer Ken Rench gave money away to listeners during the daily 'Money Tune' promotion. [Ed. note:  Rench died on September 14, 1983 at age 68]

"Saturday's programming copied that which aired weekdays, save for Saturday night when KDNT's most popular program hit the airwaves.  'Saturday Night Hoedown' with 'Country Cuz' (KDNT's chief engineer Hal Whatley) catered to a vast country and western music lover audience.

"Hal's theme song was 'Orange Blossom Special' and it signaled to listeners every Saturday night at seven that their favorite program was on the air until midnight.  Country Cuz accepted requests from listeners for their favorite songs and visited with them live on the air.  His sincere attention to his loyal listeners drew an incredibly huge audience for KDNT.  Hal was a small, down-to-earth man.  His slow, gentle manner was reflected in his popular show that aired through the 1960s and early 1970s.

"The end came in 1972 after both stations were sold.  There were major format changes and all of the locally-flavored programming that had created KDNT's longstanding, special image in the community was eliminated in favor of a 'big city radio sound,' the wave of the future.

"And so KDNT's hometown, local identity vanished.  It later experienced call letter and location changes and thus became part of the region's history--and just another radio station jukebox that blended in with hundreds of others that could be found up and down millions of dials across North Texas."

During the 1960s, Harwell Shepard teams with friend George Marti of KCLE-Cleburne to rig a portable studio in Fort Worth that is connected by phone to the weather bureau, various churches and the commodities market, all accessible at both their home studios via a transmitter at the FW site.  This gives both stations up-to-the-minute access to these services, and saves on toll calls to retrieve this information otherwise.  This setup is the precursor to Marti's invention of the microwave transmitter!

In 1968, a faulty neon tube in the "Radio Center" building sign caused a fire at the station in May.  The control room sustained fire damage, and smoke damage spread throughout the rest of the building.  Also in the same year, AM morning man Ken Rench departed the station.

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Listener Joe Martin recalled some of the finer points of KDNT's success in the 1960s:  "Like many teens in Denton, I cut my teeth on KLIF in Dallas, but when nighttime rolled around, we listened to KDNT.  As a pre-teen, I remember my folks and grandparents listening to KDNT.  I recall a mid-day contest called, "Shout That Slogan," which ran weekdays.  My mother won the contest several times.  I believe the payout was less than $5, maybe $4.40.  As a kid, I called and bugged the DJs with requests, and I fondly remember listening to the Saturday night country show in the early 1960s.

Daryl Stephens lived in Denton then, and was a fan of the station and "Shout That Slogan:"  "My mom used to listen to KDNT for local news in the 1960s and 70s.  Also, there was a show on in the mornings around 10:45 called, "Shout That Slogan."  The announcer would pick five random numbers from the Denton phone book.  If the person at the other end answered not with 'hello,' but with an advertising slogan they announced at the beginning of the show (such as 'Shop at Craven's and save,') the person would win money or a prize of some sort.  If they answered with 'hello,' they got a consolation prize.  That was back in the day when Denton only had two telephone exchanges (382- and 387-) and you only had to dial the last five digits...although the show was still on when Denton got the 383- exchange."

Stephens continued:  "Of special note, I remember the KDNT Mobile News Unit #3...I bought it!  That white 1964 Chevy II 4-door was my first car in 1966.  I guess Harwell traded it in for a new one.  I bought the car from Chester Morris Autos.  The high school kids really gave me the business for rolling around Denton in that thing."