Eighty years ago today was a big day in the history of Brownwood, Texas.  On Sunday, August 17, 1941 Brownwood joined the 20th Century.  At precisely 12:30 p.m. KBWD-AM radio went on the air.

It was a big deal.  At the time Texas had only a couple of dozen radio stations.  The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) had licensed four “Clear Channel” radio stations, which were the biggest and most powerful stations:  WFAA and KRLD in Dallas, WBAP in Ft. Worth, and WOAI in San Antonio.  Then there were a number of “Regional” stations, of lesser power in Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Ft. Worth, El Paso, Houston, Longview, Port Arthur, San Antonio, Sherman-Denison, Weslaco, and Wichita Falls.

If you notice, all those stations were around the perimeter of the state.  There was no radio anywhere in the Central Texas area.  And then on August 17, 1941 KBWD went on the air.

It was a big deal!  Many Brown County residents (including this writer’s mother) first heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 on the brand new, local radio station, KBWD.  Without KBWD, it probably would have taken another day or two for that news to reach Brownwood.

The station was (and still is) operated by Brown County Broadcasting, which initially was owned equally by four prominent business men in Brownwood:  Wendell Mayes (Mayor of Brownwood), Joe N. Weatherby (Vice-President of Weatherby Motors), B.P. Bludworth (owner of the Brownwood Poster Service), and J.S. Mc Beath (former owner of the Brownwood Bulletin from 1938-40).  Mayes was the managing partner of the business.

The first day of broadcasting, a Sunday, started with a Formal Dedication at 12:30 p.m., a Standard Inaugural Program at 1:00 p.m., and then a long parade of local musicians, including Patsy Farren, The Howard Payne Trio, Marie Sapenter, and the Cats-N-Jammers.  Also local optometrist Dr. Mollie Armstrong was featured at 2:30.  Dr. Armstrong was the first woman optometrist in Texas.  United Press news reports were sprinkled throughout the first day.  Standard commercial broadcasting began the next day, Monday August 18, from 6:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. daily.

Early publicity for the station boasted of a music library of over 3000 songs, “ranging from classical to hillbilly music.”  The hillbilly music presaged the country music now played on the sister station KOXE.

KBWD went on the air with 500 watts of broadcasting power (today KBWD has 1000 watts), and a transmitter tower on the Williams Ranch Road, where it is still in use today.  The station itself was located downtown at 800 Hawkins Street, near the current Union Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Mayes came from a very prominent Texas family.  His father had once been Lt. Governor of Texas, and was the founder of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas.  Wendell Mayes eventually bought out the other partners of Brown County Broadcasting, and then built quite a broadcasting empire.  At one time he owned eleven AM radio stations, two FM stations, one television station, and five Muzak franchises.

Wendell Mayes died in January 1970, but the business has remained in the family ever since.  His daughter and son-in-law, Jane Ellen and Bill Jamar, ran the business for many years.  Under their guidance they built a new broadcast station, the current building at 300 Carnegie, and added the FM station KOXE, in 1975.  With 100,000 watts of power, KOXE covers a 100-mile radius, and is the flagship station today.  The Jamars handed off the management of the business to their daughter and son-in-law, Bonnie and Don Dillard, who ran the business for many years and still own it, and now the station is managed by their son, Mitchell Dillard.  That’s four generations of the same family.

A number of big names have worked at KBWD.  An early broadcaster was Bob Gooding, who went on to a prominent career as a television newscaster on WFAA-TV in Dallas.

Don Newbury, who served as President of Howard Payne University in the 1990’s, worked as a sportscaster on KBWD when he was a student at Howard Payne.

And a 21-year old Ken Schulze joined KBWD in 1959 and held positions such as program director, commercial manager, and general manager.

He also did play-by-play for the Brownwood Lions football games in the early 1960’s, before he handed that off to another employee, a young man they called Dallas Huston.

Dallas Huston went on to call virtually every Brownwood Lions football game for 57 years, until his retirement earlier this year.  He also covered basketball, baseball, and many other sports.  Dallas became a legend in high school sports broadcasting, and was named by Texas Monthly Magazine the best high school football announcer in the state.

By the way, KBWD began broadcasting the Brownwood Lions football games in that first year, 1941, and has never missed a game in 80 years.  Over the years they have added Brownwood Lions basketball and baseball (now on KOXE), and Brownwood Lady Lions basketball and softball.  These days you can hear Bangs Dragons football on KBWD, and Coleman Bluecats football (and other sports) are streamed on koxe.com.

Current owner Don Dillard commented:  “We are very proud of our family heritage with KBWD.  Along with KOXE-FM I think our radio stations are the only ones in Texas locally owned and locally operated by the same family continuously since they first began in 1941.  We are now in our fourth generation with Mitchell  at the helm.  Thanks to our listeners for their support these past 80 years!”