AM 930 Bellingham FCC History Cards

Steven Smith says:
December 19, 2016 8:42 am at
That is the station I owned from the early 80s until selling it in 1998….deal closed in 1999. The cards are interesting, I saw them a few months back when doing research for an article I plan to write. But they got more sophisticated at the FCC in the 80s so the data kind of fades out on the cards as they went to a new file system. But it is interesting to see the sometimes cryptic notes on the beginnings of the stations.

mikec says:
December 19, 2016 3:00 pm at
I remember KENY going off air in ’65 & assumed, as a young teen, that was the end of the station since 3 years later, 930 would sign on as KBFW. At the time, I had thought this was a completely new station & knew nothing about STA’s or the ability to apply for authority to go silent. Someday I will locate the cassette I have with a winter 1968 sign-on of KBFW at 8am since 930 has no PSA to sign on at 6am. Buck Owens’ instrumental “Buckaroo” was used as the music bed for sign-on/off at that time. I really enjoyed the country music played & the ‘small-town’ feel of KBFW…it always felt like an old friend!

mikec says:
December 19, 2016 3:25 pm at
Steven – you accidentally made a KBFW posting under the KARI History card & I have a reply there for you under that thread…

Steven Smith says:
December 20, 2016 3:37 pm at
I sure did post it wrong. Sorry about that. I had forgotten about the whole KARI 930khz thing. It is a little known fact. But sometime in the late 1980s to mid 1990s, Don Bevelacua (spelling may be off) who owned KARI for many years told me that he almost had our freq. He was interested in buying KBFW and told me that story when we met to discuss that possibility. I think he was involved with KARI from the earliest days.

mikec says:
December 20, 2016 7:31 pm at
no worries…took me a minute to figure out the reference to SRO but as I’ve been reading your posts, knew you meant KBFW

Yes, Don Bevilacqua (sp?) along with George Wilson & L. Ostrander established & owned KARI until approx 2002. Don Bevilacqua had worked at KTW , then KRKL/KNBX/KBLE owned by Wilson & Ostrander until KARI was licensed by the three of them. The KARI history card indicated the initial 1956 application was for 930 with 5 kW daytime, which I knew nothing about until these cards were posted. I’m sure Don B was interesting person to talk to!