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Show r ' 1 ... n. . .! X ... ... rr. ; s'fwl U r! j tK w A-. ) , KVEL PERSONNEL celebrate with John '. Millecam, center, Utah Motors, the expanded 19 hour service at the radio station which began The Uintah Basin's first radio sta- tion, KVEL. has received its long awaited authorization for night time P. operation, and is now on the air each ki' day from 5 a.m. until midnight, accor-$i accor-$i ding to Dick Winters, general manager. :" The authorization was finalized on January 15 by the federal communica-tions communica-tions commission in Washington, DC, 1 Monday, January 18. and was the first c day of 19 hour broadcasting. ' 1 Although it was not in the planning, the date of the first night time operation comes on the eve of KYEL's 35th Anniversary An-niversary of service to the Uintah u Basin, said Winters. It was on a Sunday morning, of v. January 19,' 1947 that KYEL's ." predecessor, KJAM, began operation. On that date, James C. Wallentine, president of the Uintah Broadcasting Company welcomed listeners to local radio broadcasting. At that time, . KJAM operated at a frequency of 1340 iif kilocycles w ith a pow er of 250 watts us-: us-: ing a transmitter w hich w as hand built 5 by KJAM engineer Howard Johnson of Salt Lake City. That transmitter, by the way, is currently cur-rently being restored and w ill soon be placed in the Utah Broadcaster's Hall of Fame in Salt Lake City. Wallentine and Johnson were the major n shareholders of the Uintah Broad-casting Broad-casting Company and continued in that ''J. ownership role until the company was c( purchased by the present owner, Com-;i Com-;i munications Investment Corporation in - September of 1979. KJAM began its broadcastine career in the basement of the Hotel Vernal, (now Lamplighter Inn). The original transmitter and tower were also lcoated there. In those early days. KJAM was on the air until 10 p.m. offer-c. offer-c. ing a variety of radio programming. j In June of 1955, the call letters were ! changed to KVEL to more closely identify iden-tify the station's hometown. In 1957, a new transmitter building was con-'structed con-'structed at the present site of KVEL, Monday. Pictured are Dick Winters, manager; John Bailey and Alan White, Roger Curtis and Diane Ortiz. r . KVEL begins night airing on 35th anniversary the frequency was changed from 1340 to 1250, power was increased from 250 to 1000 watts, and KVEL was limited to daytime operation. That daytime designation has continued until now. In May of 1962, KVEL was granted permission to increase power to five thousand watts using a Gates radio transmitter. That transmitter was in continuous service until 1981, when it was replaced by a new solid state broadcast transmitter. The Gates equipment is now used on a stand by-basis. by-basis. The next major advancement for KVEL came in November of 1968 when the entire operation was moved into a new building at the transmitter site. That building is currently undergoing its third major remodeling, a project that will almost double the studio and office area to meet expanding needs. Another frequency change was granted in June of 1971. as KVEL moved from 1250 kilohertz to its present spot on the dial at 920. In March of 1975, KVEL announced the birth of a new radio station, KVEL FM. now KU1N FM 93, w hich added yet another dimension to broadcasting in the Basin. In 1979. James Wallentine and Howard Johnson of the Uintah Broadcasting Broad-casting Company ended over 32 years of service to Uintah Basin listeners as they sold their two stations to Communications Com-munications Investment Corporation of Salt Lake City. With the backing of C.I.C., KVEL has continued to grow and devplon. with nipht timp nnpratinn being one of the major goals in that process. pro-cess. Current executives at KVEL include Dick Winters as general manager, Margaret Hemmert as business manager; Dale Ross, sales manager; John Bailey, program director; Alan White, news and sports director; Roger Curtis, music director; Bob Pike, production pro-duction manager and Diane Ortiz, traffic traf-fic manager. |
