KHCB (1400 kHz) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 ...

owned by Houston Christian Broadcasters, Inc. It is licensed to League City, Texas, and serves

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

. KHCB airs a

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. The studios and offices are on South Boulevard in Houston. KHCB is powered at 1,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, using a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is off Crews Road in League City. Its programming is also carried by an

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

station, K268CW at 101.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

History

KHCB is believed to be the oldest continuously licensed radio facility in the Houston-

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

area, as well as the oldest Texas Gulf Coast station."1923 - KFCV, Houston, and KFLX, Galveston, the oldest surviving radio station in the Houston-Galveston area"
May 10, 2007 (houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com) The station's first license, with its sequentially assigned

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

KFLX, was granted on November 28, 1923, to George R. Clough. The original studios were at 1214 40th Street in Galveston. (Some accounts trace its history to an earlier station, WHAB, which was licensed to Fellman's Department Store on June 29, 1922, and deleted in June 1924.) On November 11, 1928, as part of a major reallocation enacted by implementation of the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...

's General Order 40, KFLX was assigned to 1370 kHz. In 1933 the call letters were changed to KLUF, after another Galveston station using a similar call sign, KFUL, signed off the air. As a result of the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

(NARBA) of 1941, KLUF moved to 1400 kHz. In 1957, after George Roy Clough sold the station, the call letters were changed to KILE, and the station became Galveston Island's legendary "Big 14 KILE" with the adoption of a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format on September 2, 1957. In 1991, the station was sold to Houston Christian Broadcasters, which changed the call sign to KHCB and adopted a Spanish Christian format. After nearly 80 years of broadcasting from Galveston Island, the facility was relocated to the mainland, near Texas City, Texas in 2009.

FM Translator

In addition to the main station on AM 1400, beginning on August 15, 2016, KHCB is heard on an

on 101.5 MHz.

References

External links

KHCB Radio Network

FCC History Cards for KHCB
(covering KFLX / KLUF / KILE from 1927-1980) * * {{Galveston, Texas HCB (AM) Mass media in Galveston, Texas Radio stations established in 1923 HCB (AM) 1923 establishments in Texas