KOLE

A four-person consortium trading as the Port Arthur Broadcasting Company applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 23, 1946, for permission to build a new radio station on 1340 kHz in Port Arthur, to broadcast with 250 watts day and night.{{Cite web|url=https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/f1ec7981-0ddf-121a-1023-b217f0499ee4|title=FCC History Cards for KOLE|publisher=Federal Communications Commission|access-date=August 25, 2022}} The principals had worked at newspapers and radio stations in nearby Beaumont.{{cite news|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-03-1946-3392934/|title=New Radio Station Is Sought for City|page=2|date=April 3, 1946}} The FCC granted the application on November 27 and issued the construction permit on December 11.{{r|hc}} Promising "good music, late news, all sports", KOLE began broadcasting at noon on March 30, 1947.{{cite news|page=8|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-mar-30-1947-3392929/|title=On the Air TODAY! KOLE|date=March 30, 1947|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}} By the end of 1948, only two of the four principals, Mary Ann Petru and Socs N. Vratis, owned the company.{{r|hc}} The station would eventually evolve into Port Arthur's heritage Top 40 station, with popular personalities playing contemporary music. In one case, one disc jockey, Ricci Ware, challenged another, Dick Harvey, to a cow-milking contest on the streets of the city.{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|first=June|last=Bundy|title=Vox Jox|page=43|date=March 16, 1957|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/1957/Billboard%201957-03-16-OCR-Page-0041.pdf|via=World Radio History}}

Petru and Vratis sold KOLE in 1959 to Radio Southwest, Inc.{{r|hc}} This firm was a partnership between John Hicks, who moved his family from Dallas to Port Arthur, and Edward L. Francis. The station moved from its original studios on Fourth Street to a new facility in the Adams Building.{{r|hc}} During his father's ownership, John's son Tom, then in high school, worked at KOLE as a disc jockey under the on-air name of Steve King. Tom Hicks went on to be a major private equity investor, including in the radio business.{{cite news|title=Hicks returns as honoree of PA News roast|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-23-2000-3392966/|date=January 23, 2000|pages=1A, [https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-23-2000-3392971/ 2A]|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}} John Hicks sold his interest to Francis four years later in order to buy KFDM radio and television in Beaumont.{{r|hc}}{{cite news|id={{ProQuest|1014822924}}|via=ProQuest|title=KFDM's 400G Sale|work=Variety|date=October 2, 1963|page=48}} Francis died in 1969;{{r|hc}} Radio Southwest continued under bank ownership, increasing power to 1,000 watts in 1971 and then selling to the Gulf States Broadcasting Company in 1972. Gulf States's owners had broadcast and other interests in Dallas and Las Vegas.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1972/1972-10-23-BC.pdf|date=October 23, 1972|page=52|title=For the Record|work=Broadcasting|via=World Radio History}} Northstar Broadcasting purchased KOLE in 1977,{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1977/BC-1977-05-16.pdf|date=May 16, 1977|title=Changing Hands|page=41|work=Broadcasting|via=World Radio History}} creating an AM-FM combo with the acquisition the next year of KZOM-FM 104.5 in Orange.{{r|bc82}} By this time, KOLE had evolved from Top 40 to adult contemporary,{{cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1980/1980-BC-YB.pdf#page=509|page=C-228|title=KOLE(AM)|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1980|via=World Radio History}} having briefly attempted a country music format at the start of the 1980s.{{cite news|title=Channel 4 tries to scare up viewers|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-nov-01-1981-3394048/|date=November 1, 1981|first=Denny|last=Angelle|page=Le Bon Temps 15|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}}

KOLE was then sold to Center Group Broadcasting, based in Tyler, in 1982.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1982/BC-1982-08-23.pdf|date=August 23, 1982|page=46|title=Changing Hands|work=Broadcasting|via=World Radio History}} Center Group attempted to restore some local programming with an emphasis on Port Arthur while also using a satellite-delivered format for most of the music. Insufficient advertiser support led to the cutting back of a briefly restored live morning show.{{cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-sep-04-1983-3394047/|title=KOLE goes in new direction|first=Denny|last=Angelle|page=8C|date=September 4, 1983|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}}{{cite news|title=KOLE-AM drops live morning show|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-29-1984-3394046/|first=Denny|last=Angelle|page=8C|date=April 29, 1984|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}}

UNO Broadcasting of Joliet, Illinois, acquired KKMY and KOLE in 1988 from Center Group.{{cite news|page=8B|work=Houston Chronicle|date=October 5, 1988|title=Radio station sales set}} In 1989, KOLE dropped adult contemporary for an adult standards format of "memory music" as well as local sports coverage;{{cite news|first=Darragh|last=Doiron|title=AM station changes to 'memory music'|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jun-26-1989-3394054/|date=June 26, 1989|page=3A|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}} the main offices had relocated to Beaumont, though at least one member of the air staff, Lee Gower, worked out of the Port Arthur studio, which was commented to be dusty and featured several holes in the floor.{{cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-dec-11-1990-3392958/|date=December 11, 1990|first=Darragh|last=Doiron|title=Gower aids memories|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas|page=1A}} This changed in 1991, when studios for both stations moved to a new facility in Beaumont.{{cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-22-1991-3394053/|title=KOLE to join KKMY|date=February 22, 1991|page=3A|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}}

Uno Broadcasting was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in 1994 after its owner—Robert Tezak, the one-time owner of the card game Uno—fell into financial trouble as a result of an unrelated court case. In 1987, he was alleged to have ordered the arson of a bowling alley he owned in order to collect insurance payments. While awaiting trial in that case, he was arrested for intimidating a witness—his former wife—by sending her a death threat.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99942488/tezak-jailed-on-charge-that-he-threatene/|date=September 4, 1993|page=5|first=Matt|last=O'Connor|title=Tezak jailed on charge that he threatened arson case witness|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|location=Chicago, Illinois|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=April 18, 2022|archive-date=April 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418031632/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99942488/tezak-jailed-on-charge-that-he/|url-status=live}} When a court ordered him to put aside $400,000 in restitution after being convicted in March 1994, he filed bankruptcy for himself, his wife, and three businesses, one of them UNO Broadcasting.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99953289/arson-restitution-triggers-tezak-bankrup/|date=March 9, 1994|page=75|title=Arson restitution triggers Tezak bankruptcy filing|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|location=Chicago, Illinois|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=April 18, 2022|archive-date=April 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418031631/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99953289/arson-restitution-triggers-tezak/|url-status=live}} The filings were made in large part to try and regain control of the radio stations, which had been placed in court-appointed receivership.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99953034/game-entrepreneur-trying-to-save-his/|date=March 9, 1994|page=C1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99955018/game-investor-tries-to-save-hand/ C3]|first=Frank|last=Turco|title=Game entrepreneur trying to save his hand|newspaper=Arizona Republic|location=Phoenix, Arizona|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=April 18, 2022|archive-date=April 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418031630/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99953034/game-entrepreneur-trying-to-save-his/|url-status=live}} Two years later, as part of the purchase of the pair by GulfStar Broadcasting (a division of Capstar, the broadcasting company founded by Tom Hicks), the license for KOLE was assigned to Citygate Media, a part of Voice in the Wilderness Broadcasting, for $80,000; the receiver had permitted GulfStar to designate an assignee for KOLE.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1990s/1995/RR-1995-12-15.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=December 15, 1995|page=19|title=Transactions}} Voice in the Wilderness operated KOLE with a Christian radio format.{{cite news|title=See you on the other side...: Christian radio station moving to AM dial|first=Susan|last=Martinez|page=3A|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-aug-20-2001-3394056/|date=August 20, 2001|via=NewspaperArchive|work=Port Arthur News|location=Port Arthur, Texas}}

Birach Broadcasting Corporation purchased KOLE from Citygate Media in 2008; at the time, KOLE's format consisted mostly of syndicated conservative talk shows.{{cite news|title=KOLE radio plans return|page=B6|work=The Beaumont Enterprise|first=Colin|last=Guy|date=July 15, 2008}}

In 2016, One Point Media, a company owned by Torey Doucette, filed to purchase KOLE from Birach for $400,000,{{cite news|url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/105861/station-sales-week-of-415/|work=RadioInsight|first=Lance|last=Venta|title=Station Sales Week of 4/15|date=April 15, 2016}} but no deal was ever consummated. The station was damaged in Hurricane Harvey when flooding swamped the transmitter site.{{cite news|url=http://www.insideradio.com/free/fcc-reports-fewer-radio-stations-silent-from-harvey/article_fac755a4-8cff-11e7-a659-b34a9f8f8d80.html|work=InsideRadio|title=FCC Reports Fewer Radio Stations Silent From Harvey.|date=August 29, 2017|accessdate=August 31, 2017}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.birach.com/kole.htm KOLE's official website]

{{AM station data|62238|KOLE}}

{{Beaumont-Port Arthur Radio}}

{{Birach Broadcasting}}

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OLE

Category:Birach Broadcasting Corporation stations