By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
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.
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.
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.
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.
