KFFA (1360 AM) is an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed by the FCC to serve the community of

Helena, Arkansas Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phil ...

. The station is owned by Monte Spearman and Gentry Todd Spearman, through licensee Spearman Land and Development.

Historical role

In November 1941, Helena's first radio station KFFA went on the air. Station Manager and part owner Sam Anderson offered to sell a block of time to a group of blues musicians on the condition that they obtain a sponsor. Max Moore, owner of Interstate Grocer Company, which distributed King Biscuit Flour, agreed to sponsor the show — thus was born King Biscuit Entertainers and the beginning of King Biscuit Time. The program was first broadcast on November 21, 1941, and featured

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

artists Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Lockwood, Jr. playing live in the studio. Other musicians who played on the show included pianist Pinetop Perkins and guitarist

Robert Nighthawk Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was ind ...

. Musicians such as guitarist

Hound Dog Taylor Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 – December 17, 1975) was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer. Life and career Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1915, though some sources say 1917. He first played t ...

would stop by for occasional appearances. These KFFA broadcasts, heard in the hometowns of Nighthawk, Lockwood, and Sonny Boy, were a draw to young southern blues artists who came to Helena to hang around and learn. Jimmy Rogers and

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him ...

, later central to the sound of the

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

band, were among them.

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for The Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Hel ...

, drummer and vocalist for

Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American rock and roll singer, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He ...

and

The Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...

, grew up outside Helena in Turkey Scratch. He frequently went into town to watch as the show was broadcast. The KFFA studios were on the second floor of the Floyd Truck Lines building, a rickety old structure. The program was broadcast from there for 20 years until the building was condemned and the studio moved to modern quarters on the top floor of the Helena National Bank Building. The show opens with the announcer's, "Sunshine" Sonny Payne's, words, (dinner bell clang) "Pass the biscuits, 'cause it's King Biscuit Time!" With more than 17,000 broadcasts, this show has influenced several generations of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

, and pop musicians. Terry Mross, American actor best known for his role in ''Dazed and Confused'', worked at KFFA in the early 1970s and was a frequent guest host of King Biscuit Time when substituting for permanent host "Sunshine" Sonny Payne. The program is broadcast weekdays at 12:15 PM local time and recordings of the show are available for download from the internet at the station's web site.

References

External links

KFFA official website

King Biscuit Time Radio Show

{{Country Radio Stations in Arkansas FFA Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1941 Phillips County, Arkansas

Historical role

See also

References

External links