KTOK (1000 AM) 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 ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

and airs a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

format. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and licensed as iHM Licenses, LLC. KTOK and its

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

s, KGHM, KJYO, KOKQ, KTST and

KXXY-FM KXXY-FM (96.1 MHz, "96.1 KXY") is a commercial radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It airs a classic country radio format. In its logo, the station omits one of the two Xs in its call sign, calling its ...

, have offices and state of the art studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue on the Northwest side of Oklahoma City. KTOK is powered at 5,800

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 ...

at all times, with a three to five-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. Because AM 1000 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A

WMVP WMVP (1000 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports radio format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metropolitan area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship st ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, KNWN in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and XEOY in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, KTOK's nighttime signal must protect those stations. 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 in

Moore, Oklahoma Moore is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 62,793 at the 2020 census, making Moore the seventh-largest city in the state of Oklahoma. Located between Okl ...

, off NE 25th Street. KTOK programming is also heard on co-owned KXXY's HD2 stream and on the

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...

app.

Programming

The weekday schedule is made up of

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

shows, mostly from co-owned

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

. They include '' The Michael DelGiorno Show,

The Glenn Beck Program ''Glenn'' (previously titled ''The Glenn Beck Program'') is a news talk and political opinion show on TheBlaze hosted by Glenn Beck. It is produced and recorded at TheBlaze studios in Dallas, TX. The show originally ran on CNN Headline News ...

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'' is an American radio program hosted by former Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis and former '' America Now/The Buck Sexton Show'' host Buck Sexton. It is broadcast on over 400 talk radio stations ...

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

The Mark Levin Show ''The Mark Levin Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Mark Levin. History Levin began his career as a radio host in 2002 in a Sunday afternoon timeslot on WABC. WABC assigned Levin to fill in starting on June 16, 2003, after the ...

The Jesse Kelly Show ''The Jesse Kelly Show'' (formerly known as ''America Now'' and ''The Buck Sexton Show'') is a three-hour early evening conservative talk radio show hosted by Jesse Kelly, and carried by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, Inc. It ...

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

'' and ''

This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal ''This Morning: America's First News'' (formerly ''The Wall Street Journal This Morning'') is a two-hour radio news/talk program hosted by Gordon Deal and Jennifer Kushinka, who replaced long-serving co-host Gina Cervetti on January 2, 2015. I ...

''. Weekends feature programs on money, health, home repair, real estate and guns. Some weekend shows are paid

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...

. Syndicated weekend shows include '' The Weekend with Michael Brown, Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham'' and '' Somewhere in Time with Art Bell''. Most hours begin with world and national news from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

. KTOK, along with the other iHeart stations in Oklahoma City, simulcasts audio of

KFOR-TV KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside KAUT-TV (channel 43), an owned-and-operated station of The CW. The two stations share stu ...

if a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

warning is issued within the Oklahoma City metro area. KFOR-TV channel 4 is Oklahoma City's

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

Network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

History

Early years

KTOK was first licensed with the sequentially assigned call letters, KGFG, signing on the air on January 27, 1927. It was owned by the Full Gospel Church in Oklahoma City. By the 1930s, the station was owned by the Oklahoma Broadcasting Company. It broadcast on 1370

kilocycle The cycle per second is a once-common English name for the unit of frequency now known as the ''hertz'' (Hz). Cycles per second may be denoted by c.p.s., c/s, or, ambiguously, just "cycles" (Cyc., Cy., C, or c). The term comes from repetitive ph ...

s with a power of 100 watts. KGFG's studios were housed in the Cotton Exchange Building. The call letters were changed to KTOK on February 17, 1937. With

WKY WKY (930 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned by Cumulus Media. It is the oldest radio station in Oklahoma and among the oldest in the nation. WKY airs a sports ...

as an

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

station and KOMA carrying the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

, KTOK first became a

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

. By the 1940s, it had switched to the

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Co ...

(later

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

1940s and 50s

In 1941, with the enactment 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), KTOK moved to 1400 kHz. The power increased to 250 watts, but management wanted to make KTOK's signal competitive with 930 WKY (5,000 watts) and 1520 KOMA (50,000 watts). In the late 1940s, KTOK got permission from the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

to move to 1000 kHz. The power increased to 5,000 watts by day, 1,000 watts at night. The station also added an FM companion. KTOK-FM signed on in 1946 at 104.3 MHz. It mostly

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

the AM station. However, management saw little hope in making KTOK-FM profitable and gave it up after several years. By the 1950s, as network programming was moving from radio to television, KTOK switched to a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

, middle of the road (MOR) format of popular adult music, news and sports. As WKY and KOMA became youth-oriented

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 ...

stations, KTOK began carrying sports from their former networks, NBC and CBS, including the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

, championship fights and auto racing. An advertisement in the 1960 edition of the ''

Broadcasting Yearbook ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and in ...

'' said KTOK plays "toe-tapping music (no rock and roll) and all of the announcers are adults," to contrast KTOK with the youthful Top 40

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s on WKY and KOMA.

1960s - 1980s

In the 1960s, the nighttime power increased to match the daytime power, 5,000 watts. But it had to use a complicated directional antenna system to make the higher nighttime power work, while still protecting other stations on AM 1000. In 1978, KTOK was acquired by the Insilco Broadcasting Group, which also bought an FM station at 102.7, KZUE, which aired an

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...

format. (102.7 today is Top 40/CHR KJYO.) KTOK became an affiliate of the ABC Information Radio Network. KTOK gradually increased the talk programming and cut the MOR music programming. By the 1980s, it had become a talk station.

1990s - Today

KTOK and its FM station were acquired in 1992 by

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

-based

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

(the forerunner to current owner

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

).Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2000 page D-361
/ref> At one time, the news staff numbered 12. iHeart moved its Oklahoma City operations to

50 Penn Place 50 Penn Place is an upscale mixed-use development, mixed-use complex in the inner Northwest part of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Shopping mall, galleria-style shopping mall and tower is located at 1900 Northwest Expressway in the Penn Square tr ...

off Northwest Expressway and

Interstate 44 Interstate 44 (I-44) is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, T ...

. In the 2010s, the station got a slight power increase, going from 5,000 watts to 5,800 watts, day and night. It also got a simulcast on an

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

subchannel of co-owned

. For much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, KTOK's

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s and offices were in the

building on the Northwest side. In early 2022, iHeartMedia Oklahoma City moved KTOK, along with sister stations KGHM, KJYO, KTST,

, KREF-FM (now KOKQ), to new state of the art studios at 6525 North Meridian Avenue. further up the road on the Northwest side, just a few miles west from their former studios.

Current and former on-air staff

Show hosts: * Dink Bernardi * Larry Bledsoe * Jack Bowen (years unknown, due to the fact he was later or formerly a news anchor at "

KOCO-TV KOCO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. Its studios and transmitter are located on East Britton Road ( Historic Route 66)—between North Kelley ...

" and later "

KOKH-TV KOKH-TV (channel 25) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside KOCB (channel 34), an independent station. The ...

") * Robert D. "Bob" Coker * Carole Arnold * Jerry Bohnen * Gene Collett * Carlton Cordell * John Dale * Jason Doyle (host of "Doyle in the Morning") * Tom Furlong * Ken Gaines * Sharon Gaines * Mike Hutton * Niles Jackson * Dave Marshal * Greg Merrick (sportscaster) * Mike McCarville * Lee Matthews * Greg "Eggman" Moore * Steve Neumann * Pam Pryor * Bob Riggins * Billie Rodely * Ed Sossen * Rick Tasetano * Mark Shannon (hosted "The Drive") * B. J. Wexler (later hosted " KETA-TV" Movie Club) * Jim Rupe * Bill “ Huge” Simonson * Al Eshbach (Currently hosting Inside Sports with Al Eshbach on "

WWLS-FM WWLS-FM (98.1 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to The Village, Oklahoma, and serving the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a sports radio format, calling itself "The Sports Animal." Local hos ...

" and " WWLS-AM" The Sports Animal) News reporters and anchors: * Tim Allen * Phil Bacharach * Bill Bateman * Natalie Bell * Megan Bishop * Jerry Bohnen * Bill Boren * Bob Burke * Mike Gannon * Stephanie Chase * Jack Damrill (later a news & sports anchor at "

", play-by-play broadcaster for the Oklahoma City 89ers later called the Oklahoma RedHawks, now a spokesman for the

Oklahoma Turnpike Authority The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (formerly Oklahoma Transportation Authority) is an agency of Oklahoma that deals with issues regarding the Turnpikes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma turnpike system. Along with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, th ...

) * Chris Davala *

Bob Durgin Robert Austin Durgin (January 20, 1943 – December 24, 2018) was an American radio personality, prominent in Pennsylvania. Early life and career Durbin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. He joined the ...

* Jon Dahlander * Bob Davidson * Trey Davis * Jack Edens * Cam Edwards * Mike Elder * Brian Gan * Melissa Gandal * Mary Beth Henschel * Carrie Hulsey * Steve Jones * Karen Fuhrmann * Gwin Faulconer-Lippert * Jackson Kane * Delvin Kinser * Rand Lavonn * Laura Knoll (later with

KGOU KGOU (106.3 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio station. It is licensed to Norman, Oklahoma, and serves the Oklahoma City Metroplex.

) * Ken Johnson * Craig Logsdon * Beth Meyers * Dan Mahoney * Karen McCoy * Gene Molter * Bill Mondora * Reid Mullins * Mark Myers * Derrick Nance * Charles Newcomb * Joe Oliver * Jim Palmer * Jim "Captain" Perdue * Randy Pyburn * Jim Reagan * Jacqueline Scott * Bill Reker * Randy Renner (sports director, formerly a field reporter at CBS affiliate KWTV-TV) * Mike "Road King" Rogers * Scott Rowland * Cynthia Rozmaryn * David Rucker * Rob Salinas * Mary Shea * Dawn Shelton * Bill Simonson * Matt Skinner * Linda Steele * Larry Stein (later the current

County Assessor Tax assessment, or assessment, is the job of determining the value, and sometimes determining the use, of property, usually to calculate a property tax. This is usually done by an office called the assessor or tax assessor. Governments need to ...

for

Oklahoma County Oklahoma County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 796,292, making it the most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Oklahoma City, the state capital and ...

) * Merrit Thomas * Bryan Walke * Kim Walkingstick * Nate Webb * Connie Webber * John Williams * Calvin Wright * John Wright

References

External links

KTOK Home pageKTOK described

FCC History Cards for KTOK
(covering KGFG / KTOK from 1927-1980) {{IHeartMedia Radio stations established in 1927

TOK Tok is a census-designated place (CDP) in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2020 census, slightly down from 1,258 in 2010. Geography Tok lies on a large, flat alluvial plain of the Tanana ...

News and talk radio stations in the United States 1927 establishments in Oklahoma IHeartMedia radio stations