Fifty years ago, the first McDonald's restaurant opened, the U-2 airplane was tested, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Lady and the Tramp" were among the year's top movies, "The $64,000 Question" and "I Love Lucy" were the two most-watched TV shows — and Utah's KSOP-AM radio signed on the air.
KSOP-AM (1370) started as a local family operation and has remained so, something of a rarity in today's radio market. Henry Hilton cranked up the station on Feb. 5, 1955, though he said he didn't have the guts to immediately go full-time with country music. For the first four months, until Memorial Day, the station played a 50-50 pop/country mix.
Last week, KSOP-AM (classic country hits from the '50s to the '80s) and its sister station KSOP (FM-104.3, "The Cowboy," contemporary country music) both marked the half-century occasion on the air. Founder Henry Hilton came back to discuss the anniversary with "Country Joe" on his morning show.
KSOP was "country when country wasn't cool," the now-retired Hilton told the Deseret News some years ago. Today, his descendants are operating the station.
When KSOP-AM went to country music full-time nearly 50 years ago, you could count the number of other U.S. country music stations on one hand.
The FM version of KSOP started on Dec. 10, 1964, and is said to be the first-ever FM country music station in the nation.
KSOP-FM started out with an antenna next to KSOP-AM's tower in the center of the Salt Lake valley. In 1971, the antenna was moved to a much higher location — Coon Peak (later renamed Farnsworth Peak), which was at the time the second-highest radio transmitting location in the United States.
Over the years, Henry Hilton has also told the Deseret Morning News many stories about the station's early days. For example, how KSOP isn't the easiest place to get an on-air job. In 1962, Hilton wouldn't hire Waylon Jennings, since he was an unknown when he applied for the Utah radio job. Johnny Paycheck was also not hired by KSOP as a disc jockey, even though he hung around the studio for a week.
KSOP has sponsored a lot of country concerts over the years with artists who were unknowns at the time. The Judds weren't famous when they came to Salt Lake City for the first time. Neither was Glen Campbell when he made a Utah appearance for KSOP, commanding a fee of only $850 a night then (within a couple of years his fame soared and his nightly fee was as high as $30,000).
Hilton also remembers when Slim Whitman and Tex Ritter gave a concert at the old Terrace Ballroom that was so packed with fans that they hesitated walking onto the stage because they were so shocked by the huge crowd.
KSOP is also well-known as a community station, with a high level of involvement. Probably no other Utah radio station participates in more parades each year. KSOP annually participates in more than 35 major community and family-oriented events.
Today, the KSOP stations have some of the most veteran DJs in the market. The stations have studios in West Valley City, located at 1285 W. 2320 South.
RADIO HAPPENINGS — The "Morning Pop Squad" show, on KPQP (FM-101.9), climaxed an unusual contest Monday by awarding a year's free tuition to Southern Utah University for "Joel" in its "Radio Reality" contest. "Jade," the loser, received $100 cash and basketball tickets.
— Ever since KJQN, an alternative-music station, changed formats recently, sister station KXRK ("X-96") has been airing a new promotion. To ease listener concerns, it states that "X-96," which also airs a style of alternative music, has been around for 12 years and isn't going away.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com