Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves made a surprise visit
to the KFEQ studios for an appearance on the Hotline with host Barry Birr to commemorate
the radio station’s 100th anniversary.

Graves earlier read into the Congressional record a short
piece about KFEQ’s history, praising its service to the community over its 100
years on the air.

“It’s good to be here today for the 100th
anniversary and for the fact that KFEQ’s been around so long and a part of the
community,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And, really, it’s broader than
that, because it’s all the counties out there that you have listeners in and
folks paying attention. KFEQ does a great service and I appreciate that.”

Graves says KFEQ’s anniversary prompted him to reflect on the history
of St. Joseph over the past 100 years, especially its tie to agriculture, and
how much things have changed.

“When I first started farming and was raising hogs and I
remember hauling hogs down (to the St. Joseph Stockyards), and you know the
Stockyards were immense down there, and then of course the Exchange Building
that was there,” Graves recollected. “And then you go down there today and we
obviously have the packing houses down there, but the Stockyards themselves, it’s
gone and, of course, we all know what happened with the Exchange Building and
all that’s left is the arch.”

Graves says KFEQ’s history reflects St. Joseph’s history.

“St. Joseph has changed a lot in a hundred years and the radio
station has been there for the entire time and it’s part of the foundation of
the community.”

Graves presented KFEQ officials a commemorative copy of the
speech he gave on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702920215917.jpeg" alt="KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr (left) and Eagle Radio General Manager Liby Waltemath (right) are presented with a copy of&nbsp; Congressman Sam Graves' speech read on the congressional floor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of KFEQ/ Photo by Justin Peacock" />
 <figcaption>KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr (left) and Eagle Radio General Manager Liby Waltemath (right) are presented with a copy of&nbsp; Congressman Sam Graves' speech read on the congressional floor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of KFEQ/ Photo by Justin Peacock</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostNorthern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves made a surprise visit
to the KFEQ studios for an appearance on the Hotline with host Barry Birr to commemorate
the radio station’s 100th anniversary.Graves earlier read into the Congressional record a short
piece about KFEQ’s history, praising its service to the community over its 100
years on the air.“It’s good to be here today for the 100th
anniversary and for the fact that KFEQ’s been around so long and a part of the
community,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And, really, it’s broader than
that, because it’s all the counties out there that you have listeners in and
folks paying attention. KFEQ does a great service and I appreciate that.”Graves says KFEQ’s anniversary prompted him to reflect on the history
of St. Joseph over the past 100 years, especially its tie to agriculture, and
how much things have changed.“When I first started farming and was raising hogs and I
remember hauling hogs down (to the St. Joseph Stockyards), and you know the
Stockyards were immense down there, and then of course the Exchange Building
that was there,” Graves recollected. “And then you go down there today and we
obviously have the packing houses down there, but the Stockyards themselves, it’s
gone and, of course, we all know what happened with the Exchange Building and
all that’s left is the arch.”Graves says KFEQ’s history reflects St. Joseph’s history.“St. Joseph has changed a lot in a hundred years and the radio
station has been there for the entire time and it’s part of the foundation of
the community.”Graves presented KFEQ officials a commemorative copy of the
speech he gave on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.<div><div style="position:relative;overflow:hidden;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/YWpdwoBU-KcBmu4K3.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" title="Sam Graved Kfeq Dec 2023" style="position:absolute;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div>

Graves honors KFEQ by reading history into Congressional record

🎥 KFEQ: A look back over the years

KFEQ celebrates 100 years of broadcasting all this year and
the impact of the station extends beyond St. Joseph and the Midland Empire.

Former Missouri Broadcasters Association Executive Director
Don Hicks recalls the impact former KFEQ General Manager Ted Griffin had on
Missouri broadcasters after Griffin left KFEQ to become the first executive
director of the MBA in 1972.

“Ted came in on ground zero; just built it,” Hicks tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview. “He built the association.”

Hicks says Griffin and his wife, Dottie, inherited a bunch of
boxes in a hallway of an office building in downtown Jefferson City. The MBA
had lost its lease.

Hicks succeeded Griffin and credits Griffin with creating the
structure the association enjoys today.

“They hired the right guy,” Hicks says. “Ted was highly regarded
and well-respected by everyone who knew him. Everybody knew him to be what he
was. He was a hardworking, honest guy.”

Former KFEQ General Manager Gene Millard worked under Griffin at
KFEQ, then worked with his former boss at the MBA. Millard says you cannot talk
about Ted without talking about his wife, Dottie.

“Well, when they got Ted, they got the package,” Millard tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. &nbsp;“They got Ted and Dottie.
Dottie did the book work and did the internal office communication, kept the
files. They were just a great team. Planned great meetings and gathered a unity
among Missouri broadcasters that we were on the same mission in many respects.”

Griffin would serve a lengthy term, leading the MBA, serving
from 1972 until the end of 1993.

A former KFEQ Agriculture Director is making a national impact
still.

Tom Brand directed KFEQ agriculture programming from 1996
until 2011, when he left to become National Association of Farm Broadcasters
Executive Director.

Brand says his work with Millard influences him as he leads
the NAFB.

“Gene was very hands-on when it came to programming and just what
we were engaged in each day,” Brand tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post, “but, at the same
time, he let me do my own thing.”

Brand says the first year he worked at KFEQ, he was trying to
figure out how best to present commodity markets and cover farm news, the second
year he attempted to make it his own, and the third year he began to feel the
department actually was his own.

Brand says the advice and guidance Millard gave him was
invaluable. Brand says his time at KFEQ influences him today, especially with
the goals NAFB teaches its members:&nbsp;
leave your mark on your community, your workplace, and your industry.

“We like that three-step process of, hey, don’t say I’m going
to be involved with NAFB to begin with, say I’m going to get vested here, in my
community,” Brand says. “I’m going to get vested here, in my workplace and
because of the relationships and the investment that I’ve made in those two
things, it’s just natural that I get involved in my industry and then feed back
to the next generation how they can get involved in their community and their workplace,
too.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676917960322.jpeg" alt="Ted Griffin, former KFEQ General Manager, former Missouri Broadcasters Association Executive Director/Photo courtesy of the MBA" />
 <figcaption>Ted Griffin, former KFEQ General Manager, former Missouri Broadcasters Association Executive Director/Photo courtesy of the MBA</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ celebrates 100 years of broadcasting all this year and
the impact of the station extends beyond St. Joseph and the Midland Empire.Former Missouri Broadcasters Association Executive Director
Don Hicks recalls the impact former KFEQ General Manager Ted Griffin had on
Missouri broadcasters after Griffin left KFEQ to become the first executive
director of the MBA in 1972.“Ted came in on ground zero; just built it,” Hicks tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview. “He built the association.”Hicks says Griffin and his wife, Dottie, inherited a bunch of
boxes in a hallway of an office building in downtown Jefferson City. The MBA
had lost its lease.Hicks succeeded Griffin and credits Griffin with creating the
structure the association enjoys today.“They hired the right guy,” Hicks says. “Ted was highly regarded
and well-respected by everyone who knew him. Everybody knew him to be what he
was. He was a hardworking, honest guy.”Former KFEQ General Manager Gene Millard worked under Griffin at
KFEQ, then worked with his former boss at the MBA. Millard says you cannot talk
about Ted without talking about his wife, Dottie.“Well, when they got Ted, they got the package,” Millard tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. &nbsp;“They got Ted and Dottie.
Dottie did the book work and did the internal office communication, kept the
files. They were just a great team. Planned great meetings and gathered a unity
among Missouri broadcasters that we were on the same mission in many respects.”Griffin would serve a lengthy term, leading the MBA, serving
from 1972 until the end of 1993.Ted Griffin died in 1995.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676918194951.png" alt="Tom Brand, former KFEQ Agriculture Director, current National Association of Farm Broadcasters Executive Director/Photo courtesy of NAFB" />
 <figcaption>Tom Brand, former KFEQ Agriculture Director, current National Association of Farm Broadcasters Executive Director/Photo courtesy of NAFB</figcaption>
 </figure>A former KFEQ Agriculture Director is making a national impact
still.Tom Brand directed KFEQ agriculture programming from 1996
until 2011, when he left to become National Association of Farm Broadcasters
Executive Director.Brand says his work with Millard influences him as he leads
the NAFB.“Gene was very hands-on when it came to programming and just what
we were engaged in each day,” Brand tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post, “but, at the same
time, he let me do my own thing.”Brand says the first year he worked at KFEQ, he was trying to
figure out how best to present commodity markets and cover farm news, the second
year he attempted to make it his own, and the third year he began to feel the
department actually was his own.Brand says the advice and guidance Millard gave him was
invaluable. Brand says his time at KFEQ influences him today, especially with
the goals NAFB teaches its members:&nbsp;
leave your mark on your community, your workplace, and your industry.“We like that three-step process of, hey, don’t say I’m going
to be involved with NAFB to begin with, say I’m going to get vested here, in my
community,” Brand says. “I’m going to get vested here, in my workplace and
because of the relationships and the investment that I’ve made in those two
things, it’s just natural that I get involved in my industry and then feed back
to the next generation how they can get involved in their community and their workplace,
too.”<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/02202023-Journal--The-impact-of-KFEQ-is-felt-beyond-St--Joseph-e1v975e" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>

KFEQ's impact stretches beyond St. Joseph

KFEQ Radio adapted over the past 100 years, always striving to
inform its audience and entertain as well.

This is the final segment of our five-part series

No longer a music station, KFEQ now offers agricultural, news,
talk, and sports programming.

Former News Director Barry Birr continues to host the KFEQ
Hotline even in retirement, a program he started in 1992, after KFEQ became a
Rush Limbaugh affiliate.

“That’s a national program,” Birr tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post
in an interview. “What if we had a local program that addressed issues in the
news and took calls?”

Never did the Hotline format prove its worth more than during
the 2007 ice storm, a storm so severe it knocked other broadcasters off the air
for days.

“For quite a while we were the only broadcast facility that
was operating,” Birr says.

Soon after the storm created widespread power outages
throughout the St. Joseph area, it became apparent to Birr and others that KFEQ
needed to expand the Hotline, take calls, and serve the community more
directly.

“This became a kind of place where ideas were exchanged,” Birr
says. “People would share information about, well you can get water here;
different things at different places. And here’s what it’s like in my
neighborhood.”

Former General Manager Gene Millard says KFEQ stepped up to
serve its community in a very personal way.

“People didn’t have power. The ice storm knocked down all the
power,” Millard tells us. “But we had a generator that kept us on the air. And
it was people calling in, saying I’ve got power now, no I don’t have power now.
Everybody giving their personal reports. And that went on all night long. I
mean, that was a service that nobody else could perform except this radio
station; couldn’t be done.”

KFEQ kept operating, powered by a generator and even those
without power could tune in with battery operated radios.

Retired Eagle St. Joseph General Manager Gary Exline remembers
it well.

“We were it. A battery radio was all people had for
communication,” Exline tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, we thought it was our
job to be the clearinghouse for KCP&amp;L at that time, because the number one
question everyone wanted to know was when’s my power coming back on?”

It wasn’t the first disaster that proved the value of the KFEQ
Hotline and its news department.

Birr remembers well the 1993 Flood when the Missouri River
swelled to new heights.

“We got into the upper 20s on the river level,” Birr says. “We
never thought we’d ever see 30 feet. And, we got to 30, and then 31, and then
32. And then the levee on the Elwood side breached.”

KFEQ opened its phone lines and news reporters covered the
flood and its aftermath. The same can be said for the 2011 and 2019 Missouri
River floods.

A huge decision came for Eagle Communications in 2009, when a
farmer mowing the pasture ground around the four-tower KFEQ configuration off
I-29 in Andrew County clipped a guy wire and brought down one of the towers.

“So, when you get the call, I laughed, because you think, boy,
a farm station gets taken off the air by a farmer doing what farmers do,” Eagle
Communications chairman Gary Shorman tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And, it’s
never a good day. It turned out to be a better day long-term, because we now
have a brand-new tower system.”

Eagle, which has owned KFEQ since 1969, spent $1.1 million to
repair and upgrade KFEQ’s four-tower configuration.

Former KFEQ newsman and recently retired Senior Pastor of
Wyatt Park Christian Church, Scott Killgore, says throughout its history, KFEQ
has been flexible.

“It’s still serving farm families in northwest Missouri and
northeast Kansas, southwest Iowa, and southeast Nebraska,” Killgore tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “It’s been doing that a hundred years and that, to me, is
an amazing accomplishment.”

Millard, the former KFEQ General Manager, says that can
continue if KFEQ continues to adapt.

“I think radio has had a major part of making people’s lives
better and I think it can continue to do that, but it’s going to have to be
very flexible,” Millard says.

KFEQ, the voice of St. Joseph and the Midland Empire, now 100
years old, one of the earliest radio stations in the United States.

“Oak, Nebraska, one of the earliest radio stations. Who would
have guessed?”

Who would have guessed, Derrick Drohman, that that radio
station begun in the back of a bank building in Oak would be going strong 100
years later?

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676578445250.jpeg" alt="KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr interviews many city and regional leaders on the KFEQ Hotline that began in 1992. Here he is interviewing then-City Manager Bruce Woody/file photo" />
 <figcaption>KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr interviews many city and regional leaders on the KFEQ Hotline that began in 1992. Here he is interviewing then-City Manager Bruce Woody/file photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ Radio adapted over the past 100 years, always striving to
inform its audience and entertain as well.This is the final segment of our five-part seriesNo longer a music station, KFEQ now offers agricultural, news,
talk, and sports programming.Former News Director Barry Birr continues to host the KFEQ
Hotline even in retirement, a program he started in 1992, after KFEQ became a
Rush Limbaugh affiliate.“That’s a national program,” Birr tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post
in an interview. “What if we had a local program that addressed issues in the
news and took calls?”Never did the Hotline format prove its worth more than during
the 2007 ice storm, a storm so severe it knocked other broadcasters off the air
for days.“For quite a while we were the only broadcast facility that
was operating,” Birr says.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676576957656.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Soon after the storm created widespread power outages
throughout the St. Joseph area, it became apparent to Birr and others that KFEQ
needed to expand the Hotline, take calls, and serve the community more
directly.“This became a kind of place where ideas were exchanged,” Birr
says. “People would share information about, well you can get water here;
different things at different places. And here’s what it’s like in my
neighborhood.”Former General Manager Gene Millard says KFEQ stepped up to
serve its community in a very personal way.“People didn’t have power. The ice storm knocked down all the
power,” Millard tells us. “But we had a generator that kept us on the air. And
it was people calling in, saying I’ve got power now, no I don’t have power now.
Everybody giving their personal reports. And that went on all night long. I
mean, that was a service that nobody else could perform except this radio
station; couldn’t be done.”KFEQ kept operating, powered by a generator and even those
without power could tune in with battery operated radios.Retired Eagle St. Joseph General Manager Gary Exline remembers
it well.“We were it. A battery radio was all people had for
communication,” Exline tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, we thought it was our
job to be the clearinghouse for KCP&amp;L at that time, because the number one
question everyone wanted to know was when’s my power coming back on?”It wasn’t the first disaster that proved the value of the KFEQ
Hotline and its news department.Birr remembers well the 1993 Flood when the Missouri River
swelled to new heights.“We got into the upper 20s on the river level,” Birr says. “We
never thought we’d ever see 30 feet. And, we got to 30, and then 31, and then
32. And then the levee on the Elwood side breached.”KFEQ opened its phone lines and news reporters covered the
flood and its aftermath. The same can be said for the 2011 and 2019 Missouri
River floods.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676578764186.jpeg" alt="2019 Missouri River flood/file photo" />
 <figcaption>2019 Missouri River flood/file photo</figcaption>
 </figure>A huge decision came for Eagle Communications in 2009, when a
farmer mowing the pasture ground around the four-tower KFEQ configuration off
I-29 in Andrew County clipped a guy wire and brought down one of the towers.“So, when you get the call, I laughed, because you think, boy,
a farm station gets taken off the air by a farmer doing what farmers do,” Eagle
Communications chairman Gary Shorman tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And, it’s
never a good day. It turned out to be a better day long-term, because we now
have a brand-new tower system.”Eagle, which has owned KFEQ since 1969, spent $1.1 million to
repair and upgrade KFEQ’s four-tower configuration.That move kept KFEQ on the air.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676578837249.jpeg" alt="Scott Killgore/Photo by Matt Pike" />
 <figcaption>Scott Killgore/Photo by Matt Pike</figcaption>
 </figure>Former KFEQ newsman and recently retired Senior Pastor of
Wyatt Park Christian Church, Scott Killgore, says throughout its history, KFEQ
has been flexible.“It’s still serving farm families in northwest Missouri and
northeast Kansas, southwest Iowa, and southeast Nebraska,” Killgore tells
KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “It’s been doing that a hundred years and that, to me, is
an amazing accomplishment.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676578553745.jpeg" alt="Gene Millard/Photo by Drew Ames" />
 <figcaption>Gene Millard/Photo by Drew Ames</figcaption>
 </figure>Millard, the former KFEQ General Manager, says that can
continue if KFEQ continues to adapt.“I think radio has had a major part of making people’s lives
better and I think it can continue to do that, but it’s going to have to be
very flexible,” Millard says.KFEQ, the voice of St. Joseph and the Midland Empire, now 100
years old, one of the earliest radio stations in the United States.It all began in Oak, Nebraska.“Oak, Nebraska, one of the earliest radio stations. Who would
have guessed?”Who would have guessed, Derrick Drohman, that that radio
station begun in the back of a bank building in Oak would be going strong 100
years later?<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/KFEQ-100-Journal-2172023---Part-Five-And-now--talk-radio-where-we-are-today-e1v35dg" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>

KFEQ innovates, adapts over its 100 years

KFEQ might have featured farm markets from the beginning, but
it also established itself as a music station from the start.

This is the fourth in our five-part series on the history of KFEQ.

John Scroggin recruited his wife, Artha, to play the piano and
gathered local musicians from Nebraska and Kansas to play on KFEQ in Oak prior
to records. KFEQ kept the tradition going in St. Joseph, employing between 35
and 40 entertainers, mostly musicians, a few for its soap operas.

Entertainers included The Bohemian Orchestra, the Prairie
Serenaders, the West Siters, Kentucky Jess and His Gang, among others. There
was the Little Jane Breakfast Food Team. KFEQ, in the early days, was called
“The Hillbilly Station.”

Announcers included Dee D. Denver, Charles Niles, Rose Herzog,
Harry Packard, Paul Roscoe, and Dward Moore.

Live entertainers would be featured on KFEQ until 1956 when
the last of the live acts would leave the station.

Live would switch to records, music would continue to be
featured.

Former Program Director Bob Orf came to KFEQ in 1975, retiring
at the end of 2013.

“I think about playing music,” Orf recollects during an
interview with KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I think about 45 rpm records back in the
day. We played a lot of music. We got a lot of results from that music. A lot
of people listened to the station. I always think of the old days, the old
times, and how good it was.”

Orf and his staff created the KFEQ play list, listening to
country music, deciding what went on the air.

“We’d listen to anything that came in, any record we got;
could be an independent label or could be a big label, RCA, Capitol, whatever
it is, Decca Records,” Orf says. “We listened to the song and say, you know, it’s
a good song, let’s play this song. Didn’t matter if it was a bigtime company or
not.”

One of KFEQ’s former DJs, Bill Price, went by “The Roadmaster,”
which came to him as he went to get into his 1950 Buick Roadmaster Special.

“I walked out the door and I saw that and it just went through
my mind,” Price recalls in an interview with KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I didn’t
speak it, but it went through my mind, Roadmaster Special. And I said, hey,
Roadmaster Special, that’s a good name for my show.”

While KFEQ’s night pattern might not have been good for
agriculture, Price used it to his benefit, talking with truckers up and down
I-29 with the Figure 8 nighttime pattern covering a surprising distance.

“A lady that used to live in St. Joe called me periodically
from Galveston, Texas. She said, ‘Hi, Roadmaster, I’m getting lonesome, home
sick, I thought I’d call you and see if you would play a record for me.’”

Gallopin’ Gill, Galen Johnson, who worked for KFEQ from 1977
until 2014, credits Price with creating KFEQ’s Country sound.

“He interviewed a lot of famous artists and we all got to interview
some of the great country acts,” Johnson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Stonewall
Jackson stopped by, driving through, and I interviewed him. David Allan Coe
stopped on his bus right in front of KFEQ and Bill Price took him to a motorcycle
shop. Bob Orf and I once emceed a show in Atchison, Kansas with Jack Green,
Jeannie Seely, Tommy Jennies, Hal Cochran, and some of the pickers from the He
Haw TV show.”

Retired DJ Brother Brent Harmon remembers the call that led to
him coming to KFEQ in 1977.

“I was amazed,” Harmon says. “I was working in a little town
in Nebraska, Falls City. I had been there a couple of years and got a call from
a guy I had went to college with at Northwest (Missouri State University) and
said they’ve got an opening. I said, oh yeah, I’m going to go for that. It was
the all-night show. I was thrilled.”

Harmon worked at Eagle St. Joseph from 1977 until retiring in
2022. Harmon worked at KFEQ from 1977
until 1999, then switched to become a mainstay on KFEQ’s sister radio station,
Q-Country.

John “Flatbush” Christopher worked at KFEQ from 1980 to 1994
and says it was the people that made KFEQ special.

“KFEQ, I would say, is the best radio group that I have ever
worked for,” Christopher tells us. “And it was because of our closeness, because
of our chemistry, and there was a certain freedom allowed me that I’ve never
experienced in any other radio outfit.”

Music along with farm and news programming created a
following, but it was a change in ownership that provided stability.

Scroggin retained ownership when KFEQ moved from Oak to St.
Joseph, selling 51% of his share in 1935 to Barton Pitts and Associates. A year
later, Scroggin would sell his remaining shares to the St. Joseph News Press.
Pitts bought out the newspaper in 1947 to become sole owner. Other owners came
and went.

The Federal Communications Commission created a shakeup that
eventually led to stable ownership of the radio station.

The FCC ruled a single person or entity could not own both the
only radio station and the only television station in a market. KFEQ had
flirted with a FM signal before dropping it to put KFEQ-TV on the air on
September 27, 1953.

When the FCC forced the split of the television and radio
station in 1969, Ross Beach and Bob Schmidt, acting as KAYS, Incorporated out
of Hays, Kansas, bought KFEQ radio. They were the founders of Eagle Radio,
which continues to own KFEQ.

Former General Manager Gene Millard says Eagle brought a new
energy.

“What it is, we focus on radio,” Millard says. “We focused on
who we are and where we are and what we can do that nobody else can do.”

KFEQ is still here, after 100 years, but the programming has
changed, that tomorrow as we conclude our series on the radio station’s 100th
birthday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676483838501.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ might have featured farm markets from the beginning, but
it also established itself as a music station from the start.This is the fourth in our five-part series on the history of KFEQ.John Scroggin recruited his wife, Artha, to play the piano and
gathered local musicians from Nebraska and Kansas to play on KFEQ in Oak prior
to records. KFEQ kept the tradition going in St. Joseph, employing between 35
and 40 entertainers, mostly musicians, a few for its soap operas.Entertainers included The Bohemian Orchestra, the Prairie
Serenaders, the West Siters, Kentucky Jess and His Gang, among others. There
was the Little Jane Breakfast Food Team. KFEQ, in the early days, was called
“The Hillbilly Station.”Announcers included Dee D. Denver, Charles Niles, Rose Herzog,
Harry Packard, Paul Roscoe, and Dward Moore.Live entertainers would be featured on KFEQ until 1956 when
the last of the live acts would leave the station.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676483885244.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Live would switch to records, music would continue to be
featured.Former Program Director Bob Orf came to KFEQ in 1975, retiring
at the end of 2013.“I think about playing music,” Orf recollects during an
interview with KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I think about 45 rpm records back in the
day. We played a lot of music. We got a lot of results from that music. A lot
of people listened to the station. I always think of the old days, the old
times, and how good it was.”Orf and his staff created the KFEQ play list, listening to
country music, deciding what went on the air.“We’d listen to anything that came in, any record we got;
could be an independent label or could be a big label, RCA, Capitol, whatever
it is, Decca Records,” Orf says. “We listened to the song and say, you know, it’s
a good song, let’s play this song. Didn’t matter if it was a bigtime company or
not.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676581352556.jpeg" alt="Bill "The Roadmaster" Price/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Bill "The Roadmaster" Price/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>One of KFEQ’s former DJs, Bill Price, went by “The Roadmaster,”
which came to him as he went to get into his 1950 Buick Roadmaster Special.“I walked out the door and I saw that and it just went through
my mind,” Price recalls in an interview with KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I didn’t
speak it, but it went through my mind, Roadmaster Special. And I said, hey,
Roadmaster Special, that’s a good name for my show.”Price worked at KFEQ from 1973 to 1996.While KFEQ’s night pattern might not have been good for
agriculture, Price used it to his benefit, talking with truckers up and down
I-29 with the Figure 8 nighttime pattern covering a surprising distance.“A lady that used to live in St. Joe called me periodically
from Galveston, Texas. She said, ‘Hi, Roadmaster, I’m getting lonesome, home
sick, I thought I’d call you and see if you would play a record for me.’”Gallopin’ Gill, Galen Johnson, who worked for KFEQ from 1977
until 2014, credits Price with creating KFEQ’s Country sound.“He interviewed a lot of famous artists and we all got to interview
some of the great country acts,” Johnson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Stonewall
Jackson stopped by, driving through, and I interviewed him. David Allan Coe
stopped on his bus right in front of KFEQ and Bill Price took him to a motorcycle
shop. Bob Orf and I once emceed a show in Atchison, Kansas with Jack Green,
Jeannie Seely, Tommy Jennies, Hal Cochran, and some of the pickers from the He
Haw TV show.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676485161791.jpeg" alt="A mini KFEQ reunion - (Left to right) former KFEQ Ag Dir. Mike Railsback, KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr, former KFEQ Program Dir. Bob Orf, Brother Brent Harmon, Galen Johnson, and John "Flatbush" Christopher/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>A mini KFEQ reunion - (Left to right) former KFEQ Ag Dir. Mike Railsback, KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr, former KFEQ Program Dir. Bob Orf, Brother Brent Harmon, Galen Johnson, and John "Flatbush" Christopher/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>Retired DJ Brother Brent Harmon remembers the call that led to
him coming to KFEQ in 1977.“I was amazed,” Harmon says. “I was working in a little town
in Nebraska, Falls City. I had been there a couple of years and got a call from
a guy I had went to college with at Northwest (Missouri State University) and
said they’ve got an opening. I said, oh yeah, I’m going to go for that. It was
the all-night show. I was thrilled.”Harmon worked at Eagle St. Joseph from 1977 until retiring in
2022. Harmon worked at KFEQ from 1977
until 1999, then switched to become a mainstay on KFEQ’s sister radio station,
Q-Country.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676581269892.jpeg" alt="Mike Railsback tells a story to the gang (from left to right), Bob Orf, Galen Johnson, Brent Harmon, John Christopher, and Barry Birr/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Mike Railsback tells a story to the gang (from left to right), Bob Orf, Galen Johnson, Brent Harmon, John Christopher, and Barry Birr/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>John “Flatbush” Christopher worked at KFEQ from 1980 to 1994
and says it was the people that made KFEQ special.“KFEQ, I would say, is the best radio group that I have ever
worked for,” Christopher tells us. “And it was because of our closeness, because
of our chemistry, and there was a certain freedom allowed me that I’ve never
experienced in any other radio outfit.”Music along with farm and news programming created a
following, but it was a change in ownership that provided stability.Scroggin retained ownership when KFEQ moved from Oak to St.
Joseph, selling 51% of his share in 1935 to Barton Pitts and Associates. A year
later, Scroggin would sell his remaining shares to the St. Joseph News Press.
Pitts bought out the newspaper in 1947 to become sole owner. Other owners came
and went.The Federal Communications Commission created a shakeup that
eventually led to stable ownership of the radio station.The FCC ruled a single person or entity could not own both the
only radio station and the only television station in a market. KFEQ had
flirted with a FM signal before dropping it to put KFEQ-TV on the air on
September 27, 1953.When the FCC forced the split of the television and radio
station in 1969, Ross Beach and Bob Schmidt, acting as KAYS, Incorporated out
of Hays, Kansas, bought KFEQ radio. They were the founders of Eagle Radio,
which continues to own KFEQ.Former General Manager Gene Millard says Eagle brought a new
energy.“What it is, we focus on radio,” Millard says. “We focused on
who we are and where we are and what we can do that nobody else can do.”KFEQ is still here, after 100 years, but the programming has
changed, that tomorrow as we conclude our series on the radio station’s 100th
birthday.<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/KFEQ-100-Journal-2162023--Part-Four-KFEQ-the-music-station-e1v1ce9" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div><div><div style="position:relative; overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/3QyaoI26-KcBmu4K3.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" title="Join a mini KFEQ reunion" style="position:absolute;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div>

🎥: From Hillbilly to Country, KFEQ once played music

A featured program on KFEQ in Oak was the report from the St.
Joseph Grain Exchange. It was the Grain Exchange, along with the St. Joseph
Livestock Exchange, and the St. Joseph Boosters that persuaded John Scroggin to
move KFEQ from Oak to St. Joseph. The Grain Exchange put up $4,000 to offset
the expenses of the move.

KFEQ would soon become “Your Midwest Market Station.”

This is the third in our five-part series on the history of
KFEQ.

“Every farmer, and you learn this if you’re in the farming and
ranching business, every farmer listens to the radio station with the market
news on it. And that’s KFEQ. I mean, that’s KFEQ in this country,” Greg Clement
tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.

Greg Clement began broadcasting on KFEQ from the St. Joseph
Stockyards in 1989, taking over for his brother, Del.

But Clement learned as a child the importance of KFEQ.

“Mom always had us sit down, 12 o’clock noon, for dinner,
especially during the summer time when we were home,” Clement recalls. “At
noon, there was no talking at the table, because KFEQ markets were on.”

Legendary broadcasters:&nbsp;
Ed Loutch, Nelson Thomas, Don Spalding, Harold “Smitty” Schmitz, Walt
Drannan, Jim Sprake, Bob Azelton, Bryce Anderson, Gene Millard, Gene Williams,
Gary Wergen were among those providing markets and agricultural news.

Walt Drannan, the longtime voice of the St. Joseph Grain
Exchange, states in his short history of KFEQ, that Loutch propped his microphone
on the steam radiator on the 14th floor of the Corby Building in
downtown St. Joseph to give the first broadcast from the exchange in 1927,
beginning the longest continuous commodity market broadcast in history.

National Association of Farm Broadcasting Executive Director
Tom Brand understood that history when he became KFEQ Agriculture Director.

“Coming to KFEQ, they had quite the lineup of folks who had
been here in the past; industry giants and people that were still in the
industry,” Brand tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview.

Brand says KFEQ stands among the best in farm broadcasting.

“When you think about what KFEQ looks like compared to some other,
quote-unquote, big stations that are out there, it does a great job of covering
a lot of acres as well as a lot of head of livestock,” according to Brand.

Former Ag Director Mike Railsback remembers how important KFEQ
was to Midland Empire agriculture. 

“A heritage station with a lot of history and a station that you
were proud to say you worked at,” Railsback tells us. “It’s a station that is
unique these days, because it’s been around so long.”

KFEQ founder John Scroggin began with a 200-watt transmitter
in the back of that bank building in Oak. Scroggin soon increased the power to
500 watts.

In 1936, KFEQ applied for and received a federal license for a
2,500-watt non-directional daytime-only license. KFEQ caught a break in 1942,
when it got permission from the Federal Communication Commission to buy the
steel needed to build a four-tower transmission arrangement during World War II
steel restrictions, which allowed it to increase its power to 5,000 watts.

It was that 5,000-watt signal at 680 AM that gave KFEQ such an
impact, according to former Agriculture Director and General Manager, Gene
Millard.

“We knew that we had a boomer of a signal, reaching into the
region and most of the other stations that were around were very low power,
maybe a thousand watts or 250, and didn’t have much coverage area where we
could cover a hundred mile radius with ease,” Millard tells KFEQ/St. Joseph
Post during an interview. “In fact, the signal goes probably 200 miles.”

That signal, though, got clipped when the FCC removed an
exemption that allowed KFEQ to switch to its huge day pattern at 5am, rather
than wait until sunrise, despite a concerted lobbying effort by St. Joseph to
keep the exemption. KFEQ sued. The courts sided with the FCC.

Millard says the Figure 8 nighttime pattern simply cut off too
many farmers.

“Because we didn’t get across the river. You couldn’t get us
in Troy,” Millard says. “I mean, it was ridiculous. And you can see the towers
and you couldn’t hear it. So, it was really a frustration, extreme frustration.”

The FCC removed the waiver granted KFEQ after KNBR, 680 AM on
the dial in San Francisco, complained that the KFEQ signal caused interference
with its signal. KFEQ questioned whether its signal caused any real
interference with a station based in California. 

KFEQ joined with KCMO of Kansas City and KHMO of Hannibal to
file a federal lawsuit, attempting to block the FCC from removing the exemption
all three enjoyed. KFEQ gathered an impressive list of backers in its effort to
maintain an early daytime pattern. State Agriculture Directors from Missouri,
Kansas, and Nebraska protested the decision by the FCC, contending it would
hurt the agricultural economies in those states. The loudest voices of protest
came from the St. Joseph Stockyards and the St. Joseph Livestock Marketing
Foundation, both arguing it would severely hurt their business, the St. Joseph
economy, and farmers throughout the Midland Empire.

A federal appeals court in New York rejected the appeal and
upheld the FCC decision. The United States Supreme Court declined to take up
the case. The FCC order from July of 1967 went into effect in 1969, ending an
exemption KFEQ had enjoyed since 1947.

KFEQ expressed its frustration a year later when it filed for
its renewal with the FCC. That 1970 renewal application actually expresses a
bit more than frustration, pointing out that after the FCC forced KFEQ to
maintain its nighttime pattern until sunrise, rather than allowing it to go to
full power at 5am or even 6am, the Swift Packing Plant announced it would
close, leaving 1,000 workers unemployed. Armour announced it would build a
newer, smaller plant, employing 400 instead of 1,000.

“Part of this is due to decreasing livestock availability in
St. Joseph,” KFEQ wrote in its renewal application, adding it was sure the FCC
didn’t intend to destroy or damage a local economy with its pre-sunrise ruling,
but in St. Joseph that was the result.

Millard, though, plays down a direct impact, instead seeing
the loss of the early daytime signal as a tipping point in a changing
meatpacking industry.

“Because it wasn’t long after that that Seitz closed, too. Dugdale
closed. Those were totally different reasons, there,” according to Millard. “The
Seitz plant was not that old.&nbsp; It was not
old like the Swift plant or Armour plant.”

No doubt, the FCC move had an impact on the St. Joseph
economy, but Millard says it came at a time of change in the industry.

“If anything, it kind of coincided with and was a tipping
point,” Millard says.

From live music to country records, that tomorrow, as we
continue this series on the history of KFEQ.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676396723508.jpeg" alt="St. Joseph Stockyards/file photo" />
 <figcaption>St. Joseph Stockyards/file photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostA featured program on KFEQ in Oak was the report from the St.
Joseph Grain Exchange. It was the Grain Exchange, along with the St. Joseph
Livestock Exchange, and the St. Joseph Boosters that persuaded John Scroggin to
move KFEQ from Oak to St. Joseph. The Grain Exchange put up $4,000 to offset
the expenses of the move.KFEQ would soon become “Your Midwest Market Station.”This is the third in our five-part series on the history of
KFEQ.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676396931008.png" alt="KFEQ programming from 1944" />
 <figcaption>KFEQ programming from 1944</figcaption>
 </figure>“Every farmer, and you learn this if you’re in the farming and
ranching business, every farmer listens to the radio station with the market
news on it. And that’s KFEQ. I mean, that’s KFEQ in this country,” Greg Clement
tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.Greg Clement began broadcasting on KFEQ from the St. Joseph
Stockyards in 1989, taking over for his brother, Del.But Clement learned as a child the importance of KFEQ.“Mom always had us sit down, 12 o’clock noon, for dinner,
especially during the summer time when we were home,” Clement recalls. “At
noon, there was no talking at the table, because KFEQ markets were on.”Legendary broadcasters:&nbsp;
Ed Loutch, Nelson Thomas, Don Spalding, Harold “Smitty” Schmitz, Walt
Drannan, Jim Sprake, Bob Azelton, Bryce Anderson, Gene Millard, Gene Williams,
Gary Wergen were among those providing markets and agricultural news.Walt Drannan, the longtime voice of the St. Joseph Grain
Exchange, states in his short history of KFEQ, that Loutch propped his microphone
on the steam radiator on the 14th floor of the Corby Building in
downtown St. Joseph to give the first broadcast from the exchange in 1927,
beginning the longest continuous commodity market broadcast in history.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676397016577.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>National Association of Farm Broadcasting Executive Director
Tom Brand understood that history when he became KFEQ Agriculture Director.“Coming to KFEQ, they had quite the lineup of folks who had
been here in the past; industry giants and people that were still in the
industry,” Brand tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview.Brand says KFEQ stands among the best in farm broadcasting.“When you think about what KFEQ looks like compared to some other,
quote-unquote, big stations that are out there, it does a great job of covering
a lot of acres as well as a lot of head of livestock,” according to Brand.Former Ag Director Mike Railsback remembers how important KFEQ
was to Midland Empire agriculture. “A heritage station with a lot of history and a station that you
were proud to say you worked at,” Railsback tells us. “It’s a station that is
unique these days, because it’s been around so long.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676397071809.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>KFEQ founder John Scroggin began with a 200-watt transmitter
in the back of that bank building in Oak. Scroggin soon increased the power to
500 watts.In 1936, KFEQ applied for and received a federal license for a
2,500-watt non-directional daytime-only license. KFEQ caught a break in 1942,
when it got permission from the Federal Communication Commission to buy the
steel needed to build a four-tower transmission arrangement during World War II
steel restrictions, which allowed it to increase its power to 5,000 watts.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676397790440.png" alt="The St. Joseph Livestock Exchange" />
 <figcaption>The St. Joseph Livestock Exchange</figcaption>
 </figure>It was that 5,000-watt signal at 680 AM that gave KFEQ such an
impact, according to former Agriculture Director and General Manager, Gene
Millard.“We knew that we had a boomer of a signal, reaching into the
region and most of the other stations that were around were very low power,
maybe a thousand watts or 250, and didn’t have much coverage area where we
could cover a hundred mile radius with ease,” Millard tells KFEQ/St. Joseph
Post during an interview. “In fact, the signal goes probably 200 miles.”That signal, though, got clipped when the FCC removed an
exemption that allowed KFEQ to switch to its huge day pattern at 5am, rather
than wait until sunrise, despite a concerted lobbying effort by St. Joseph to
keep the exemption. KFEQ sued. The courts sided with the FCC.Millard says the Figure 8 nighttime pattern simply cut off too
many farmers.“Because we didn’t get across the river. You couldn’t get us
in Troy,” Millard says. “I mean, it was ridiculous. And you can see the towers
and you couldn’t hear it. So, it was really a frustration, extreme frustration.”The FCC removed the waiver granted KFEQ after KNBR, 680 AM on
the dial in San Francisco, complained that the KFEQ signal caused interference
with its signal. KFEQ questioned whether its signal caused any real
interference with a station based in California. KFEQ joined with KCMO of Kansas City and KHMO of Hannibal to
file a federal lawsuit, attempting to block the FCC from removing the exemption
all three enjoyed. KFEQ gathered an impressive list of backers in its effort to
maintain an early daytime pattern. State Agriculture Directors from Missouri,
Kansas, and Nebraska protested the decision by the FCC, contending it would
hurt the agricultural economies in those states. The loudest voices of protest
came from the St. Joseph Stockyards and the St. Joseph Livestock Marketing
Foundation, both arguing it would severely hurt their business, the St. Joseph
economy, and farmers throughout the Midland Empire.A federal appeals court in New York rejected the appeal and
upheld the FCC decision. The United States Supreme Court declined to take up
the case. The FCC order from July of 1967 went into effect in 1969, ending an
exemption KFEQ had enjoyed since 1947.KFEQ expressed its frustration a year later when it filed for
its renewal with the FCC. That 1970 renewal application actually expresses a
bit more than frustration, pointing out that after the FCC forced KFEQ to
maintain its nighttime pattern until sunrise, rather than allowing it to go to
full power at 5am or even 6am, the Swift Packing Plant announced it would
close, leaving 1,000 workers unemployed. Armour announced it would build a
newer, smaller plant, employing 400 instead of 1,000.“Part of this is due to decreasing livestock availability in
St. Joseph,” KFEQ wrote in its renewal application, adding it was sure the FCC
didn’t intend to destroy or damage a local economy with its pre-sunrise ruling,
but in St. Joseph that was the result.Millard, though, plays down a direct impact, instead seeing
the loss of the early daytime signal as a tipping point in a changing
meatpacking industry.“Because it wasn’t long after that that Seitz closed, too. Dugdale
closed. Those were totally different reasons, there,” according to Millard. “The
Seitz plant was not that old.&nbsp; It was not
old like the Swift plant or Armour plant.”No doubt, the FCC move had an impact on the St. Joseph
economy, but Millard says it came at a time of change in the industry.“If anything, it kind of coincided with and was a tipping
point,” Millard says.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676397154542.png" alt="KFEQ Agriculture Director Jim Sprake sits in the KFEQ Farm Dept. Mustang. Outside is Asst. Farm Director Gene Millard, who would become KFEQ General Manager." />
 <figcaption>KFEQ Agriculture Director Jim Sprake sits in the KFEQ Farm Dept. Mustang. Outside is Asst. Farm Director Gene Millard, who would become KFEQ General Manager.</figcaption>
 </figure>From live music to country records, that tomorrow, as we
continue this series on the history of KFEQ.<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/KFEQ-100-Journal-2152023--Part-Three-KFEQ--Your-Midwest-Agriculture-market-station-e1uvfpb" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>

KFEQ moves to St. Joseph, becomes "Your Midwest Market Station"

KFEQ began modestly enough, in the back of a bank building in
Oak, Nebraska.

This is the second of our five-part series on the history of KFEQ.

A bout of measles forced University of Nebraska engineering
student John Scroggin home to recover where he began to earn the moniker of a tinkerer. While at back in Oak,
Scroggin began to experiment with a new technology, radio. He began with
crystal sets, then in the winter of 1921, Scroggin operated a ham radio under
the call letters of 9BEY.

Scroggin passed all the federal requirements to operate a
radio station before setting up a 200-watt station in the back of his father’s
bank with transmitting towers made of lath outside. He operated under the call
letters KFEQ.

The most complete history of the radio station we have,
written by long-time KFEQ Engineer Kenny Lux in 1966, states Scroggin began the
first broadcast at three o’clock the afternoon of February 15th,
1923. A provisional “License for Land Radio Station” issued by the Department
of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation, Radio Service to Scroggin contains the date
February 16th, 1923.

Either way, KFEQ began on a cold winter afternoon in the small
town of Oak, in south-central Nebraska, approximately 190 miles from St. Joseph.
Data maintained by the National Weather Service reports a temperature of 27
degrees on the 15th in that area, and 30 degrees on the 16th
when John Scroggin and his brother, Grover, began broadcasting on KFEQ.

Mark McLaughlin, John Scroggin’s great-grandson, recalled the
family stories about the beginnings of KFEQ during a visit to Oak.

“Mom would talk about it a lot and grandma talked about it, of
course, a lot. She grew up with it,” Mark McLaughlin told KFEQ/St. Joseph Post during
an interview in the old bank building.

“We’ve seen the memorabilia and all that,” John McLaughlin,
his older brother, added. “Always wondered about it. It’s just history.”

John and Mark both got to know their great-grandfather before
he died in early 1985 at the age of 94.

“Wise man,” Mark McLaughlin says with John agreeing. “He was
not like a jokester or anything. He was always a serious guy, very nice guy. I remember
he really like ice cream. He loved ice cream.”

The bank now is empty, but full of memories for the two
great-grandsons of John Scroggin.

“I can remember when the bank was still going here. I’m not
from Oak, but I feel like I’m from Oak,” John McLaughlin says, noting the two grew
up in nearby Edgar, “but we spent a lot of time at our great-grandpa’s house
here. I can remember the grocery store here; a lot of good times here.”

Mark McLaughlin remembers spending every Christmas Eve at the Scroggin
home.

While KFEQ began in Oak, its tie to St. Joseph started from
the beginning. Scroggin or, actually his brother Grover who served as the
announcer, broadcast the market report from the St. Joseph Grain Exchange in
the afternoon; live music at night. Alex Washington would provide the market
report from St. Joseph via telegraph.

Some orchestras moved to Oak, playing on the radio as well as
at dances held in the Oak Opera House. John’s wife, Artha, played piano. Local
groups, such as the “King’s Entertainers,” performed.

Performers and visitors wrote their names on the wooden studio
door and the door to the coal room. Arlington Brugh played cello on KFEQ. He
would change his name to Robert Taylor when he moved to Hollywood to make
movies.

Few radio sets existed at the time. Those with radios would
call friends on party lines and lay the receiver next to the radio for all to
enjoy.

The station outgrew the bank, eventually moving into the
basement of the Scroggin home across the street, now owned by Derrick Drohman
and his family, who gave us a tour of the one-time studio, now empty.

“I don’t know,” Drohman said when asked about what goes
through his mind while we stood in the empty basement room that once house the
KFEQ studios. “I guess I wonder what it would have been like back however many
years ago when they were standing right here in the same spot.”

Drohman’s great-grandfather, Gottlieb Schmitt, performed live
on KFEQ in those early days as part of the Acorn Trio.

“Oak, Nebraska; one of the earliest radio stations,” Drohman
said. “Who would’ve guessed?”

In three years, KFEQ would move to St. Joseph.

“I’m proud, proud to be the roots of that,” John McLaughlin said.
“100 years.”

It is a heritage carried proudly by the great-grandsons of
John Scroggin.

“Whenever we got to South Padre (Island) or down to Kansas
City to a Chiefs game, I’ll bring it up to everybody that’s in the car,” Mark
McLaughlin said. “Great grandpa started a radio station in this town: KFEQ,
still going.”

Still going as a voice of agriculture. We’ll explore that on
part three tomorrow.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676316209390.jpeg" alt="The old Scroggin Bank of Oak, Nebraska, where KFEQ started in 1923 still stands/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>The old Scroggin Bank of Oak, Nebraska, where KFEQ started in 1923 still stands/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ began modestly enough, in the back of a bank building in
Oak, Nebraska.This is the second of our five-part series on the history of KFEQ.A bout of measles forced University of Nebraska engineering
student John Scroggin home to recover where he began to earn the moniker of a tinkerer. While at back in Oak,
Scroggin began to experiment with a new technology, radio. He began with
crystal sets, then in the winter of 1921, Scroggin operated a ham radio under
the call letters of 9BEY.Scroggin passed all the federal requirements to operate a
radio station before setting up a 200-watt station in the back of his father’s
bank with transmitting towers made of lath outside. He operated under the call
letters KFEQ.The most complete history of the radio station we have,
written by long-time KFEQ Engineer Kenny Lux in 1966, states Scroggin began the
first broadcast at three o’clock the afternoon of February 15th,
1923. A provisional “License for Land Radio Station” issued by the Department
of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation, Radio Service to Scroggin contains the date
February 16th, 1923.Either way, KFEQ began on a cold winter afternoon in the small
town of Oak, in south-central Nebraska, approximately 190 miles from St. Joseph.
Data maintained by the National Weather Service reports a temperature of 27
degrees on the 15th in that area, and 30 degrees on the 16th
when John Scroggin and his brother, Grover, began broadcasting on KFEQ.Mark McLaughlin, John Scroggin’s great-grandson, recalled the
family stories about the beginnings of KFEQ during a visit to Oak.“Mom would talk about it a lot and grandma talked about it, of
course, a lot. She grew up with it,” Mark McLaughlin told KFEQ/St. Joseph Post during
an interview in the old bank building.“We’ve seen the memorabilia and all that,” John McLaughlin,
his older brother, added. “Always wondered about it. It’s just history.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676317526301.jpeg" alt="Mark McLaughlin (l) and John McLaughlin stand in the empty room in the back of the now vacant Scroggin bank, where KFEQ made its first broadcast/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Mark McLaughlin (l) and John McLaughlin stand in the empty room in the back of the now vacant Scroggin bank, where KFEQ made its first broadcast/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>John and Mark both got to know their great-grandfather before
he died in early 1985 at the age of 94.And, what do they remember?“Wise man,” Mark McLaughlin says with John agreeing. “He was
not like a jokester or anything. He was always a serious guy, very nice guy. I remember
he really like ice cream. He loved ice cream.”Both laughed at the recollection.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676317656971.jpeg" alt="John McLaughlin (in the foreground) and Mark McLaughlin stand in the now vacant Scroggin Bank/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>John McLaughlin (in the foreground) and Mark McLaughlin stand in the now vacant Scroggin Bank/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>The bank now is empty, but full of memories for the two
great-grandsons of John Scroggin.“I can remember when the bank was still going here. I’m not
from Oak, but I feel like I’m from Oak,” John McLaughlin says, noting the two grew
up in nearby Edgar, “but we spent a lot of time at our great-grandpa’s house
here. I can remember the grocery store here; a lot of good times here.”Mark McLaughlin remembers spending every Christmas Eve at the Scroggin
home.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676317749086.jpeg" alt="Tile at the entrance of the old Scroggin Bank/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Tile at the entrance of the old Scroggin Bank/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>While KFEQ began in Oak, its tie to St. Joseph started from
the beginning. Scroggin or, actually his brother Grover who served as the
announcer, broadcast the market report from the St. Joseph Grain Exchange in
the afternoon; live music at night. Alex Washington would provide the market
report from St. Joseph via telegraph.Some orchestras moved to Oak, playing on the radio as well as
at dances held in the Oak Opera House. John’s wife, Artha, played piano. Local
groups, such as the “King’s Entertainers,” performed.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676317810056.jpeg" alt="Mark McLauglin (l) and John McLaughlin stand next to the wooden doors from the old KFEQ studio in Oak. Both the studio door and the door to the coal room contain signatures from performers on and visitors to KFEQ. The doors are on exhibit at the Nuckolls County Museum in Superior, Nebraska/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Mark McLauglin (l) and John McLaughlin stand next to the wooden doors from the old KFEQ studio in Oak. Both the studio door and the door to the coal room contain signatures from performers on and visitors to KFEQ. The doors are on exhibit at the Nuckolls County Museum in Superior, Nebraska/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>Performers and visitors wrote their names on the wooden studio
door and the door to the coal room. Arlington Brugh played cello on KFEQ. He
would change his name to Robert Taylor when he moved to Hollywood to make
movies.Few radio sets existed at the time. Those with radios would
call friends on party lines and lay the receiver next to the radio for all to
enjoy.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676318060637.jpeg" alt="Derrick Drohman gives Mark and John McLaughlin a tour of their great-grandfather's home in Oak, which he now owns/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Derrick Drohman gives Mark and John McLaughlin a tour of their great-grandfather's home in Oak, which he now owns/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>The station outgrew the bank, eventually moving into the
basement of the Scroggin home across the street, now owned by Derrick Drohman
and his family, who gave us a tour of the one-time studio, now empty.“I don’t know,” Drohman said when asked about what goes
through his mind while we stood in the empty basement room that once house the
KFEQ studios. “I guess I wonder what it would have been like back however many
years ago when they were standing right here in the same spot.”Drohman’s great-grandfather, Gottlieb Schmitt, performed live
on KFEQ in those early days as part of the Acorn Trio.“Oak, Nebraska; one of the earliest radio stations,” Drohman
said. “Who would’ve guessed?”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676318158644.jpeg" alt="Derrick Drohman stands in the empty basement room that once housed the KFEQ studio/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Derrick Drohman stands in the empty basement room that once housed the KFEQ studio/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>In three years, KFEQ would move to St. Joseph.The memories of KFEQ in Oak remain.“I’m proud, proud to be the roots of that,” John McLaughlin said.
“100 years.”It is a heritage carried proudly by the great-grandsons of
John Scroggin.“Whenever we got to South Padre (Island) or down to Kansas
City to a Chiefs game, I’ll bring it up to everybody that’s in the car,” Mark
McLaughlin said. “Great grandpa started a radio station in this town: KFEQ,
still going.”Still going as a voice of agriculture. We’ll explore that on
part three tomorrow.<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/KFEQ-100-Journal-2142023--A-trip-to-where-it-all-started-in-Oak--Nebraska-e1uto7a" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div><div><div style="position:relative; overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/z8NBSRj3-KcBmu4K3.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" title="Kfeq Oak Ne Feb 2023" style="position:absolute;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676318246028.jpeg" alt="Signatures on the wooden KFEQ studio door/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>Signatures on the wooden KFEQ studio door/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676318296078.jpeg" alt="More signatures. Performers on KFEQ would sign their names, doodle, or draw on the wooden studio door as well as the door to the coal room/Photo by Brent Martin" />
 <figcaption>More signatures. Performers on KFEQ would sign their names, doodle, or draw on the wooden studio door as well as the door to the coal room/Photo by Brent Martin</figcaption>
 </figure>

🎥 KFEQ, the voice of St. Joseph, actually began in a small Nebraska town

KFEQ celebrates 100 years on the air this week.

To celebrate, we will run a series of stories on the rich
history of the station each day this week.

But, what does it mean for a radio station to celebrate its
100th birthday?

“It is a remarkable achievement. In fact, I believe this is
the first centennial that I’m aware of in radio stations that I know about,
certainly here in the rural Midwest,” retired Kansas State media professor
Steve Smethers of Manhattan says, who adds a misperception is that broadcasting
started in the East and moved westward.

“And KFEQ was likely one of those radio stations that was put
on as an experiment,” Smethers says. “It was probably put on with the idea
that, gee, isn’t it fun to play with radio without any kind of an idea of what
it was going to be used for.”

Smethers, who also taught at Northwest Missouri State
University in Maryville and knows KFEQ well, says that in 1923 there was no
formula, no guidance for radio. 

“KFEQ would have gone on at a time preceding all of the
standards of local programming and broadcasting and that’s what makes, I think,
your centennial so significant,” Smethers says.

Put this in perspective:&nbsp;
KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the first commercial radio station
in the United States. It first hit the airwaves on November 2nd of
1920, broadcasting the Harding-Cox presidential election results. KFEQ would
come on the air less than three years later.

Smethers says though KFEQ was born at a time of no rules or
regulations, nevertheless radio stations sought to serve their communities.

“People would turn on the radio to hear information,” Smethers
says. “There was no mandate that radio stations would have done news back when
KFEQ was in the kind of the pre-Federal Radio Act. That didn’t happen until
1927.”

The Encyclopedia Britannica reports that by two years after
that first broadcast by KDKA, the federal government would issue licenses to
more than 500 radio stations. Those early years proved to be chaotic,
unplanned, and unregulated, according to Britannica.

Retired Eagle St. Joseph General Manager, Gary Exline, says
the fact that KFEQ turns 100 says a lot in and of itself.

“Well, it means it was one of the early players on the air,
period,” Exline says. “It’s a 1920s radio station, right? There’s not a lot of
those, let alone not a lot of those that are high-powered stations like KFEQ
is.”

It might have power. It might broadcast to that mass audience.
It’s the one-to-one connection that makes it special, according to Exline.

“It’s an amazing thing,” according to Exline. “And, you know,
they say the more things change the more they stay the same and the great thing
about radio, while it brags about reaching all these thousands and thousands of
people, there are many, many cases and KFEQ certainly has those cases, where
being the one-to-one friend to the listener is the most important thing.”

Eagle Communications Chairman Gary Shorman says KFEQ’s power,
a 5,000 watt station located at the low end of the AM dial that covers
northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas, southeast Nebraska, and southwest Iowa, often
called the Midland Empire, attracted Eagle to add KFEQ to its radio stations in
1969.

“But, when KFEQ came on, it took that to a different level,
because of the signal strength of KFEQ during the day,” according to Shorman.

Shorman remembers coming to St. Joseph to visit KFEQ.

“You’d walk up the steps of the station and take a look around
and the big KFEQ sign that was there; it was an institution in St. Joe,” Shorman
says.

But, KFEQ didn’t start in St. Joe – it actually started in a
small town in Nebraska.

We’ll have that story when the series continues tomorrow.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676145699394.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ celebrates 100 years on the air this week.To celebrate, we will run a series of stories on the rich
history of the station each day this week.But, what does it mean for a radio station to celebrate its
100th birthday?“It is a remarkable achievement. In fact, I believe this is
the first centennial that I’m aware of in radio stations that I know about,
certainly here in the rural Midwest,” retired Kansas State media professor
Steve Smethers of Manhattan says, who adds a misperception is that broadcasting
started in the East and moved westward.“And KFEQ was likely one of those radio stations that was put
on as an experiment,” Smethers says. “It was probably put on with the idea
that, gee, isn’t it fun to play with radio without any kind of an idea of what
it was going to be used for.”Smethers, who also taught at Northwest Missouri State
University in Maryville and knows KFEQ well, says that in 1923 there was no
formula, no guidance for radio. “KFEQ would have gone on at a time preceding all of the
standards of local programming and broadcasting and that’s what makes, I think,
your centennial so significant,” Smethers says.Put this in perspective:&nbsp;
KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the first commercial radio station
in the United States. It first hit the airwaves on November 2nd of
1920, broadcasting the Harding-Cox presidential election results. KFEQ would
come on the air less than three years later.Smethers says though KFEQ was born at a time of no rules or
regulations, nevertheless radio stations sought to serve their communities.“People would turn on the radio to hear information,” Smethers
says. “There was no mandate that radio stations would have done news back when
KFEQ was in the kind of the pre-Federal Radio Act. That didn’t happen until
1927.”The Encyclopedia Britannica reports that by two years after
that first broadcast by KDKA, the federal government would issue licenses to
more than 500 radio stations. Those early years proved to be chaotic,
unplanned, and unregulated, according to Britannica.Retired Eagle St. Joseph General Manager, Gary Exline, says
the fact that KFEQ turns 100 says a lot in and of itself.“Well, it means it was one of the early players on the air,
period,” Exline says. “It’s a 1920s radio station, right? There’s not a lot of
those, let alone not a lot of those that are high-powered stations like KFEQ
is.”It might have power. It might broadcast to that mass audience.
It’s the one-to-one connection that makes it special, according to Exline.“It’s an amazing thing,” according to Exline. “And, you know,
they say the more things change the more they stay the same and the great thing
about radio, while it brags about reaching all these thousands and thousands of
people, there are many, many cases and KFEQ certainly has those cases, where
being the one-to-one friend to the listener is the most important thing.”Eagle Communications Chairman Gary Shorman says KFEQ’s power,
a 5,000 watt station located at the low end of the AM dial that covers
northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas, southeast Nebraska, and southwest Iowa, often
called the Midland Empire, attracted Eagle to add KFEQ to its radio stations in
1969.“But, when KFEQ came on, it took that to a different level,
because of the signal strength of KFEQ during the day,” according to Shorman.Shorman remembers coming to St. Joseph to visit KFEQ.“You’d walk up the steps of the station and take a look around
and the big KFEQ sign that was there; it was an institution in St. Joe,” Shorman
says.But, KFEQ didn’t start in St. Joe – it actually started in a
small town in Nebraska.We’ll have that story when the series continues tomorrow.<div><iframe src="https://anchor.fm/kfeq-news/embed/episodes/KFEQ-Journal-Part-1-of-5--KFEQ-Celebrating-100-years-of-Radio-e1utduv" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676145744032.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>

A Century Of Service