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KXEG
KXEG (1280 AM) is a radio station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, United States and broadcasts a Spanish AC format. The station is owned by KXEG AM LLC. The station is simulcast on FM translator 96.1 K241CS, also licensed to Phoenix. First put on the air on October 23, 1956, the station has also gone by the call letters KHEP and KTKP, and it was said to be Arizona's oldest Christian radio station until it fell silent in February 2019.
In 2016, KXEG 1280 AM celebrated its 60th anniversary. The radio station—which has also gone by the call letters KHEP and KTKP—is believed to be the oldest Christian radio station in Arizona and has a very long history.
Phoenix's 1280 AM started out as KHEP, the area's first full-time country music station. Pronounced k-hep (“You ain’t hep if you don't listen to KHEP!” went the tagline), the station was launched on October 23, 1956, by Texas transplant Ray Odom, who went on to own several other stations in the area. “There was no country music in town, and people were just screaming for it,” Odom told Phoenix magazine in 2014. The licensee was Bam Ray Broadcasting Company, which consisted of Odom and A.V. Bamford.
KHEP featured shows like “Hillbilly Hit Parade,” “Cheyenne Kid,” and “Mesa Mack.” Largely because he frequently played Elvis songs, Odom's station quickly became one of Phoenix's most popular radio stations.
A year after its launch, Odom sold the station to Grand Canyon Broadcasters, a trio of evangelical businessmen who raised funds by selling stock to almost 500 Valley Christians. At that time, television had forced scores of religious radio programs off the air, and their aim was to start a wholly Christian radio station. John Hoeksema was recruited in 1957 to be the station's first general manager, and his wife Bea served as his executive secretary. The station's call letters were referred to as shorthand for “Keep Heralding Eternal Promises.”
The station featured a mix of music and preaching, and early programs included “Gospel Echoes,” “The Baptist Hour” with preacher Roy O. McClain of Atlanta, and “Streams in the Desert,” as well as broadcasts of services from local churches like Eastside Church of the Nazarene and First Southern Baptist Church.
Bea Hoeksema also hosted a 25-minute women's ministry show called “Studio Bea” that featured music and interviews with local notables and visiting celebrities. “She interviewed the astronauts and vice presidents, anybody that was important that came to Phoenix,” said Bea Hoeksema's daughter, Jan Aul. “She got to be very, very popular.”
KHEP kept up with the times, producing programs like a special five-night series on communism in 1960, and another the next year on “The Christian Answer to Communism.” It also aired shows with well-known preachers like Jerry Owen, healer Leroy Jenkins (“The man with the miracle arm”), and Oral Roberts.
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KXEG
KXEG (1280 AM) is a radio station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, United States and broadcasts a Spanish AC format. The station is owned by KXEG AM LLC. The station is simulcast on FM translator 96.1 K241CS, also licensed to Phoenix. First put on the air on October 23, 1956, the station has also gone by the call letters KHEP and KTKP, and it was said to be Arizona's oldest Christian radio station until it fell silent in February 2019.
In 2016, KXEG 1280 AM celebrated its 60th anniversary. The radio station—which has also gone by the call letters KHEP and KTKP—is believed to be the oldest Christian radio station in Arizona and has a very long history.
Phoenix's 1280 AM started out as KHEP, the area's first full-time country music station. Pronounced k-hep (“You ain’t hep if you don't listen to KHEP!” went the tagline), the station was launched on October 23, 1956, by Texas transplant Ray Odom, who went on to own several other stations in the area. “There was no country music in town, and people were just screaming for it,” Odom told Phoenix magazine in 2014. The licensee was Bam Ray Broadcasting Company, which consisted of Odom and A.V. Bamford.
KHEP featured shows like “Hillbilly Hit Parade,” “Cheyenne Kid,” and “Mesa Mack.” Largely because he frequently played Elvis songs, Odom's station quickly became one of Phoenix's most popular radio stations.
A year after its launch, Odom sold the station to Grand Canyon Broadcasters, a trio of evangelical businessmen who raised funds by selling stock to almost 500 Valley Christians. At that time, television had forced scores of religious radio programs off the air, and their aim was to start a wholly Christian radio station. John Hoeksema was recruited in 1957 to be the station's first general manager, and his wife Bea served as his executive secretary. The station's call letters were referred to as shorthand for “Keep Heralding Eternal Promises.”
The station featured a mix of music and preaching, and early programs included “Gospel Echoes,” “The Baptist Hour” with preacher Roy O. McClain of Atlanta, and “Streams in the Desert,” as well as broadcasts of services from local churches like Eastside Church of the Nazarene and First Southern Baptist Church.
Bea Hoeksema also hosted a 25-minute women's ministry show called “Studio Bea” that featured music and interviews with local notables and visiting celebrities. “She interviewed the astronauts and vice presidents, anybody that was important that came to Phoenix,” said Bea Hoeksema's daughter, Jan Aul. “She got to be very, very popular.”
KHEP kept up with the times, producing programs like a special five-night series on communism in 1960, and another the next year on “The Christian Answer to Communism.” It also aired shows with well-known preachers like Jerry Owen, healer Leroy Jenkins (“The man with the miracle arm”), and Oral Roberts.