The radio station later moved from downtown on South Sixth Street to this location.

Radio first came to Waco in July 1922, when the broadcasting license was granted for the pioneering WJAD-AM’s owner, Frank P. Jackson. That station, which was re-named WACO just before the Great Depression, monopolized the field for decades.

But 65 years ago Sunday, KWTX-AM Radio 1230 was launched by a team of entrepreneurs that included a future Texas governor and a consortium of Waco tycoons.

The enterprise was managed by 28-year-old Milford Nelson Bostick, known since his early days of yodelling and cowboy guitar playing as “Buddy” Bostick.

Buddy Bostick of KWTX-AM was one of Waco’s radio pioneers 65 years ago.
KWTX Radio Reunion and Mike Braun photo

At 11 a.m. May 1, 1946, reported the Waco News-Tribune, KWTX hit the airwaves from “attractive studios” at 108 1/2 S. Sixth St., just off Austin Avenue.

The second-story facility was joined a few blocks away — at a lot between “the (traffic) Circle and 12th Street” by a 200-foot tower.

The transmission equipment, which included more than five miles of copper wire buried six-inches deep, meant the broadcast signal would be heard as far north as Waxahatchie, east to Mexia, south to Belton and west to Gatesville.

KWTX’s founders applied to the Federal Communications Commission in May 1941 for the new radio station, but war-time restrictions because of shortages of equipment and construction materials meant the job had to wait until the war ended in 1945.

Beauford Jester (1893-1949), a Corsicana attorney and University of Texas regent with political ambitions, put up half the $50,000 initial investment (about $550,000 in today’s dollars) for the operation.

Providing the rest of the funds were Waco businessmen Wilford W. Naman, Hilton E. Howell, W.W. Callan, Robert Levy, Ross Sams, Davis Stribling and Dewitt T. Hicks.

Jester was elected the 36th governor of Texas and served from 1947 until July 1949, when he died of a heart attack — the only Texas governor ever to die in office.

Bostick auditioned more than 150 announcers for the new station, which would carry programming from the Mutual Broadcasting System in those early years — crowd-pleasers like “Captain Midnight” and “Tom Mix” for the children, game shows like “Queen for a Day” and “Double or Nothing;” and lots of big-band music between news, sports and weather spots.

Local talent

But the primary focus was to be on cultivating local talent to tickle the ears of their fellow Central Texans.

Indeed, one of the performers lined up for the inaugural broadcast was Waco’s own Hank Thompson (1925-2007), a country-western musician who got his start on WACO-AM.

KWTX sometimes used mobile loudspeakers, such as these mounted on the DeSoto next to Johnny Watkins, to make sure Central Texans heard their radio reports.
KWTX Radio Reunion and Mike Braun photo

Mike Braun, a Fort Worth resident who was a board operator, disc jockey and announcer at KWTX-AM 1230 and the FM station in the late 1970s, was the primary organizer of a KWTX Radio Reunion this weekend.

The reunion for all past and current employees of the broadcasting empire, which started Friday with a barbecue dinner at Uncle Dan’s in Waco, included much reminiscing from Bostick, founding manager.

Bostick, who lives in a suite atop the American Plaza at 200 W. Highway 6, will be 93 years old in May.

He got involved in radio as a pre-teenager, warbling western tunes each weekend on WACO, and then running the campus radio station while earning his degree at Baylor University.

His tuition, books and fees, as well as room and board, were paid for by President Pat Neff himself, who recognized the young man’s media talents and gift for public relations, especially when it came to touting Baylor University.

The first day of broadcasting at KWTX, in fact, included a 15-minute variety show of Baylor talent — several numbers from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta “The Gondoliers” and “a dramatization of human interest stories in the news.”

Additional sources: Tribune-Herald clip files; Mike Braun interview; and KWTX Radio Reunion Facebook group page.

Republican presidential candidate and World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower makes a campaign stop in Waco in 1952 at James Connally Air Force Base and the local radio stations were there to capture every word.
KWTX Radio Reunion and Mike Braun photo

In May 1946, this advertisement for the formal opening of “Texas’ most beautiful broadcasting station” was published in the Waco News-Tribune, touting the staff of the upstart operation.
KWTX Radio Reunion and Mike Braun photo