Koma

KOMA was born on Christmas Eve, 1922 in Oklahoma City. The southwestern giant was then only fifteen watts of power under the original call letters, KFJF. Dudley Shaw, an energetic business man and an excellent engineer, was KFJF's creator. During this time, the principal function of KFJF was to rebroadcast the programming of larger eastern stations... . By late 1924, there were an estimated 200,000 radio sets in use in Oklahoma. During this period, KFJF increased it's power to 125 watts - reaching as far away as New Jersey, and claimed to have over 100,000 listeners! This was also a time when listeners began to complain about radio stations interfering with each other. In the spring of 1925, Dudley Shaw decided to reduce KFJF's interference problem by moving the transmitter from the Security Building in downtown Oklahoma City, to an outlying area of Oklahoma City. At the same time, the studios were moved to the fourth floor of the Kerr Building in downtown Oklahoma City. KFJF was originating some of it's own programming by this time and original ideas for better broadcasting were of paramount importance. While hundreds of KFJF listeners were visiting the new studios to "see" radio in action, Dudley Shaw was urging President Calvin Coolidge to federally regulate radio. Shaw, backed by other prominent broadcasters, helped motivate the government to form the Federal Radio Commission. The FRC was the forerunner of what we now know as the Federal Communications Commission, and began functioning on March 1, 1927. As a result of commission action, KFJF retained it's power as a full-time broadcast station with a frequency of 1480 kilocycles. In the summer of 1927, KFJF began moving it's transmitter to a site twelve miles east of the Oklahoma City limits. At the same time, the FRC granted Dudley Shaw a permit to raise KFJF's power to a "fantastic" 5,000 watts. The total cost of the new facility was $120,000 and was completed in August of 1928. Two 120 foot towers beamed KFJF's signal a minimum of 900 miles at night. Not ...Read More