KHJK

KHJK (103.7 FM, "Air 1") is a Christian rock-formatted radio station serving the Houston and Beaumont, Texas, areas. It relays the satellite delivered Air 1 format by owner Educational Media Foundation.

History

KHJK-FM previously operated as KVST, "K-Star Country 103.7", which was licensed to service Montgomery County, Texas, prior to being purchased by Cumulus Media in 2005. Originally owned by Ben Amato of Conroe (who sold his chain of grocery stores around that area to finance the radio station), it signed on as KVST in Huntsville on 103.5; however, interference from KEYI (now KBPA) in Austin caused the station not to reach down to the intended audience of Conroe and a look at a move-in frequency was done. Amato moved the station's frequency up one channel to 103.7, and also physically moved the tower site south to Willis. This resulted in an excellent signal in Conroe, Willis, and the exploding community of The Woodlands. However, the signal was all but lost in Huntsville, which was solved by Amato bringing to a new station licensed to Huntsville to simulcast KVST. That station became KUST at 99.7 MHz. Ironically, in 2005, Cumulus Media purchased the license for 103.7, and once KVST relocated to La Porte, KUST made the same journey down Interstate 45 that 103.7 had made before it. As a part of the move of 103.7, KUST switched call letters with KVST, resulting in the current KVST in Willis, and the short lived KUST in La Porte. These calls were only used for the "TV 103" stunt format utilized while Cumulus prepared for the move of 97.5 KIOL's rock format and call letters to the debuting 103.7. KUST soon went dark after the stunting and Cumulus, in the meantime, moved 103.7 to its current location in Devers to service the Houston and Golden Triangle areas. KUST returned to the air on May 23, 2005 simulcasting 97.5 KIOL until May 31, when KIOL's AOR format moved to 103.7 (which adopted the KIOL calls as a result) entirely, and the new station on 97.5, KFNC, signed on with an all-news format.

On August 30, 2007, the Houston Chronicle reported that KIOL would be switching to the Jack FM format at 10:37 a.m. the following day, and adopting new call letters, KHJK . The final songs on "Rock 103.7" were "Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty, "Cold As Ice" by Foreigner (followed by a promo that "your world will change after this song" and to "tell everyone you know to listen"), and "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix, while the first two songs on "Jack" were "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones" and "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince.

On May 6, 2009, KHJK shifted from adult hits to AAA as "103-7FM." ^[1]

As part of a prepackaged bankruptcy filing, the lenders took over the license of four Cumulus Media Partners stations; two in the Kansas City metro area (KCHZ and KMJK) and the two rimshot signals in the Houston metro, KHJK and KFNC, in November 2011.^[2] Station broker Larry Patrick became majority owner and set out to sell the stations to recover the value for the lenders. After the filing, Cumulus continued to program the stations under LMA. While Cumulus could have purchased the stations back, the highest bidder for KFNC was David Gow, owner of KGOW (1560 The Game) and the highest bidder for KHJK was Educational Media Foundation, who programs Christian AC and Christian Rock formats.^[3]

EMF switched the format of KHJK to Air 1 at 5:00 PM on July 17, 2012.^[4] The last songs played on 103.7 FM were The Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies, Eyes Wide Open by Gotye, Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, In The End by Linkin Park, Closing Time by Semisonic, and It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M..

Between In The End and Closing Time, KHJK voiceover Mike McKay gave this goodbye message:

The first song on "Air 1" was "Me Without You" by TobyMac.^[1] The purchase of KHJK by EMF was consummated on October 15, 2012 at a price of $5 million. Because the station rimshots from Devers (where its transmitter is located), KHJK's signal is either marginal or weak in the northern and western areas of the Houston metropolitan area. These areas, however, are largely served by competing Christian station, KSBJ.

Callsign history

• KTDD - 05/03/1990
• KVST - 07/22/1991 (K-Star Country)
• KUST - 03/30/2005
• KIOL - 05/31/2005 (Rock 103-7)
• KHJK - 09/01/2007 (103.7 Jack FM, 103-7 FM, Air-1)

HD radio

Cumulus Broadcasting began upgrading its stations to HD Radio broadcasting in 2005. One of the first ten stations to be upgraded was KIOL.^[5] The station had been simulcast on KRBE HD-2, but this was replaced by a feed of the True Oldies Channel in June 2012.^[6]

References

External links

• 103.7 changes format on Houston Chronicle 29-25
• The first sign-on of 103.7 KIOL in 2005
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KHJK
• Radio-Locator information on KHJK
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for KHJK