February 11, 2022
February 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the first broadcast of our podcast production partner KVLF radio in Alpine. In this episode, Chris talks with Martin Benevich, the current owner of KVLF (AM) and KALP (FM), and with Ray Hendryx, who ran the stations for almost 40 years after taking over from his father Gene Hendryx, who started working at KVLF within weeks of its founding in 1947.
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Transcript for “75 years of Alpine Radio”:
Intro
Welcome to the Heart of the Big Bend. It’s time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discuss declare, proclaim, publicize and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.
Chris Ruggia
Hello. Welcome. And thank you for joining us for Heart of the Big Bend. This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly small town nestled in a desert mountain Valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer. I’m Chris Ruggia, director of tourism for the city of Alpine. Today, we’re talking kind of behind the scenes. It’s sort of a meta episode; most folks who listen to the podcast might or might not know this is a production partnership with KVLF and KALP Alpine Radio. And so, I worked with Martin Benevich, the owner of the station. Hi, Martin.
Martin Benevich
Thank you, Chris. Thank you for being here.
Chris R
And so Martin records our episodes every other week and broadcasts them on the radio. This month of this year is the 75th anniversary of KVLF Radio on the 27th of this month. And as a special treat, certainly for me and I’m sure for any other local listeners we also have calling in Ray Hendryx. Hi, Ray.
Ray Hendryx
Hello, Chris.
Chris R
It’s great to hear your voice.
Ray H
Thank you, sir.
Chris R
I’m just going to talk to you, too, about 75 years of Alpine radio. Before we start, we’ll give it the tourism angle. Most folks driving through on the highway, you’re listening to the radio. And so, you want to know that if you’re coming to visit Alpine and the Big Bend region, when you’re on your trip you can find 1240 AM.
Martin B
And 98.7 FM, which is also KVLF and KALP 92.7. Once you’re 10 miles south of I-10. Well, it’s either Us or Marfa Public Radio.
Chris R
There you go. And so those are two great sources for local goings on, but particularly in the morning, if you’re on your trip, tune in and get all the local doings.
Martin B
We do. We take a long time in the morning going through different calendars and of events and different things scheduled. But throughout the day, we have live DJs from six to six on both stations. So there’s always somebody live here to tell you something.
Chris R
Yeah. So when my wife and I moved to Alpine in December of 1994, it was a deep freeze right after we got to town. And we didn’t know anybody. We’re holed up in this little duplex and the frosty clouds. We didn’t want to leave the house. And so our company, the first person we “met” in Alpine was Ray Hendryx on 1240 AM. And Ray, how long did you operate the station?
Ray H
Well, I got started when I was a freshman in high school as a part time announcer, actually, the summer preceding my freshman year. I was there for four years in that capacity and then off to college for one year. And my college grades were so good that I got a letter from the Dean telling me that I didn’t need to report back for further instructions during the fall. So anyway, I did get an invitation from Uncle Sam, and rather than accept the invitation that I got in the mail, I decided I would go down and visit with him in person. So, I spent four years with Uncle Sam and then came back to Alpine. And by that time, I had married and started a family. And my father, who had been with KVLF since just about its beginning in 1947, his health was not in the best. And so, I stepped in in a management role almost from day one in 1976 and stayed with it until 2015, when, again, the health concerns entered the picture. And thank goodness Martin and PJ showed up. Well, a lot has happened since then, and here I am in Eureka, Kansas. But anyway, I was there actually running the station from 1976 until 2015.
Chris R
That is a good long time of service that you gave to the community. And I know a lot of folks in all that time would look to you and they think of your voice when they think of a lot of special events and sometimes difficult events that happened all through those years.
Ray H
Well, it was and I kind of get tickled at people’s expression, “what side of the bed are you going to wake up on today”? Let me tell you, in the radio business, you never know by the time 9:00 in the morning rolls around, which means you’ve already written and produced at least one newscast that morning, you still don’t know how your plate is going to be set for you that day. And that’s what made it interesting because of all the different things that did occur, some good, some not so good, but it indeed was an interesting time in my life, for sure.
Chris R
And you mentioned your father, Gene Hendryx. I was just reading in his book that he came on as an announcer at or very shortly after the station KVLF started broadcasting in February 1947.
Ray H
He did, I think, about two weeks after it actually went on the air.
Chris R
Yeah, he mentioned that it was 250 Watts of power behind that broadcast. Where are we at now, Martin?
Martin B
1000 Watts on the AM There, Ray?
Ray H
Yes, sir. 1000 Watts full time.
Chris R
And when folks are coming through town and looking at where they want to spend the night, the Holland Hotel was the home of the original studios of KVLF. I read in that book.
Ray H
Yes, sir, the studios were there in the hotel and some of the people that are still around will recall where the tap room was at the hotel. That’s what opened there later on after the studios were moved out to where the present location is. That’s where the transmitter site was, where the tower and the transmitter were. And you had a little-bitty building out there where the AM transmitter is now. And you had to have somebody out there full time. And they sat out there. All they had was some magazines and a toilet and a sink. And they had to stay out there and man the transmitter during the daytime hours, which at that time, the radio station was only permitted to operate during the daytime.
Chris R
Oh, really?
Ray H
So they sat out there and of course, at that time imagine this. There was no Carpenter Addition. The road in front of the radio station was a dirt road, and the transmitter site and Kokernot Field actually went up at the same time.
Chris R
Oh, really? For folks who don’t know the town, the location of the radio station now is… Ray mentioned Kokernot Field, which is a gorgeous Wrigley-style baseball park that was built in the 40s by Herbert L. Kokernot Jr. of the 06 Ranch. And that historic ball field is just right next door. There’s one more smaller ballpark.…
Martin B
There’s a little league field in between now, but yeah, right up against it. Ray, one of the things I always admired about your dad especially, I see photographs was even though he was on the radio, he wore that suit and tie every day while broadcasting.
Ray H
You know, though, you think about it back in those days, and I’m talking about even in the 50s and in many occasions on up into the 60s, that was kind of a uniform of the day for most business people. It was the uniform of the day for school teachers, male school teachers, certainly for instructors up at Sul Ross, but it was just part of the regular attire. I know my grandfather, some 30 years after he retired from the Highway Department, he was still wearing a tie every day. Every time he got ready to go to town, he put on a tie. But that was just kind of the norm among most folks back in those days.
Martin B
Well, without being able to see the DJ, you don’t know what they’re wearing, but yeah, I know you’ve seen other DJs come in here wearing stuff that they shouldn’t even be wearing.
Chris R
I will say that every time we’ve recorded an episode, all the staff has been fully clothed.
Ray H
Yeah, times have changed a little bit, but as far as I know, I think everybody’s come to work fully attired in something or other.
Chris R
So, Ray, tell me a little bit about your father’s experience with the station. Any high points or interesting notes about the difference between then and now that come to mind?
Ray H
Well, of course, when KVLF signed on in 1947, the only other radio that you could pick in the daytime anyway, was by a short wave. And that was pretty much it. Of course, understand that KVLF came on the air before the station in Fort Stockton or Monahans. The only other small-town station in West Texas at that time was the one in Pecos, KIUN. And they preceded all of us. They went on the air and I believe 1935. Yeah, they were put on the air by Barney Hubbs, who was also the one that put KVLF on the air twelve years later.
Chris R
Oh, really? Your father mentioned in his book that this was the first station granted a broadcasting license after the war. After World War II.
Ray H
Yes, sir. In fact, there were lots of them. The FCC did not grant any applications for commercial broadcast operations, at least during the latter part of the war. That was just everything was kind of put on hold, and then you had a flood of them that came about as soon as the war was over. The license was actually applied for and granted in 1946. And then, of course, it took a little time to go out there and clear enough pasture to put up a tower and build a little transmitter site and all that stuff. And by February 27, it was all ready to operate. But my dad, he was a student at Sul Ross. Like so many folks, he was a World War II vet that was going to school on the GI Bill and supplementing that with part time jobs. And he had been fascinated with radio all of his life, having grown up in the Valley. Anyway, he applied for and about the second week the station was on the air, he was given part time job. And then actually his first full time job in radio was at KIUN in Pecos.
Chris R
Oh, really?
Ray H
This was while he was still at Sul Ross. They needed management help over there. And so, he was actually going to Sul Ross full time and managing the radio station in Pecos. Okay. And understand, they’re both under the same ownership, the one in Alpine and the one in Pecos. Well, one in Alpine was it just never did quite get off the ground financially.
Martin B
It still hasn’t!
Ray H
(laughing) Yeah. Some people will tell you we’re still bumping our butts as we go along. Anyway, what happened was they got the station in Pecos where it was financially feasible and it wasn’t in dire straits, but it just needed a little boost and they were able to get it on its feet and no problems. So, the station in Alpine that the ownership continued to have to put money into it month after month after month. And they finally decided that they were tired of that and that they they told my dad, they called him up. They said, Gene, we want you to come back to Alpine. They said, you can do one of two things. You can either turn this operation around or shut it down and we don’t care which, but we’re not putting another dime into it.
Chris R
Oh, wow.
Ray H
So anyway, Dad worked out some kind of arrangement to where he would over a period of time, if he could turn it around, he would get a piece of the action. So that’s what happened. And he came back to Alpine full time. Still, I think by this time he was a graduate student at Sul Ross. But anyway, I know he was still going to college and he was not a professional student, but that’s what he did for the first four years after he came to Alpine, he was at Sul Ross and took over management of KVLF. And over a period of time, they were able to financially get it on its feet. And the rest is history, as they say. Dad was with it until he passed. At the end of his last broadcast of any kind on KVLF in 1998, we carried Orson Wells “War of the Worlds”. Anyway, Jerry Sotello, who was with our radio station for many years, went out and sold the broadcast and just thought that people might like to hear that it became an historical kind of broadcast for the effects that it had. Anyway, he sold it, and he had my dad read the introduction to the broadcast and sort of describe what transpired as a result of that broadcast. But that was the last thing that my dad ever recorded and put on the air. And we broadcast that on Halloween night in ’98. But anyway, he was there from ’47 through ’98.
Chris R
Wow.
Ray H
And in one role or another, of course in his latter years there, I’d taken over management. And so, he kind of backed off and went from semi-retirement into basically full retirement, but still kept his hands in it. And it was still the love of his life. Dad was involved in a number of different ventures in his life, and that’s the only one that he never did turn loose over the years.
Chris R
Yeah, and so it was a great blessing to him, I’m sure, that you were able to step in and keep that continuity. And then, of course, it’s a great benefit to Alpine that, as you said, that Martin and PJ have been able to pick up from you as you’ve had to set the microphone down, so to speak.
Ray H
Well, I don’t know how many people are aware of this, but had Martin and PJ not stepped in, that radio station was getting ready to shut down, at least temporarily. We had, as many of, you know, some critical illness issues in our family that had to be tended to that would require me to step away from the radio station at that time. I didn’t know it would be a permanent thing, that I would be stepping away from it. But as it developed, that’s what happened. But Martin and PJ stepped up to the plate, and that’s why we still have a radio station today.
Chris R
Yeah. Well, thank you, Martin. We’re all very grateful for that, and we’re also grateful that there’s a continuity that I see as a resident of community participation, because you’re not only reporting on the things that are happening in town, you’re really encouraging and investing in the community as you go. And that’s definitely something that you always did, Ray, and that Martin and PJ have continued.
Martin B
Well, it’s a “don’t fix it if it isn’t broken” kind of thing. And KVLF has always been sort of this cog that keeps things moving in town. When the weather is bad, people tune into it. When there’s a tragedy in town, they’re tuning into it. When there’s a great local sporting event, they tune into it. So, we didn’t want to change any of those things. We didn’t want to take away. As a matter of fact, we wanted to go back more so than it had been in the previous years. As Ray says, they were having some health issues and the radio was taking a backseat, which it should have at that time for Ray and his family. And so, PJ and I just couldn’t imagine the town being without KVLF, radio or KALP. And the opportunity came upon, and our first impulse was, well, how hard can it be if Ray can do it? And that was the first apology I had to give to Ray about 30 days in for sure. But no, it was something that neither one of us had planned to do. My only experience with radio was as an advertiser. I have another business and we advertise and sponsored the weather on KVLF for I guess over 20 years now. And I knew the value of it because, well, not to toot our own horn, but radio is less expensive and more effective advertising out here, especially against newspapers, since they come out once a week. And anyhow for all, there’s lots of other reasons. So that was the only experience we had in radio. My wife PJ, a school teacher, was fixing to retire, and we thought this would be a different stage of our lives. Now, we didn’t realize that we were both going to be working harder than ever, but neither one of us regret our decision, because it’s going on six years now. It doesn’t seem like it, but in six years it’s been a wonderful experience. We like to say that we always wanted to help the city and the county and be involved, but this way we don’t have to run for a political office and people don’t have to not vote for us.
Ray H
You still get those late night phone calls, though, from people wanting you to know about their lost dog.
Martin B
Oh, for sure. If you see Mrs. Jones’s cat, somebody let her in the house. That’s one of the wonderful things, as you know, about small town radio. You can make a comment about a particular person and everybody knows what you’re talking about or. And it’s a real pleasure because and I think you’ve told me this, that your dad says, “these folks are letting you into their house every day,” and it’s a great responsibility, and it’s an enjoyment because they’re going through the trouble of turning the radio on, and we try to give them good entertainment the way KVLF always has.
Ray H
Dad’s philosophy was always that we in the radio business. We are guests in people’s homes, we’re guests in people’s cars, and we need to always remember that. That’s just kind of an unwritten rule, I guess, that has kind of gone by the wayside, not just in the radio business, but in some other businesses, too, unfortunately. And I think it’s still germane today yeah.
Martin B
Well, we try to do our best, and as I said, we try to keep up all the hard work that you and your dad put in before us, and we’ve been enjoying doing so yeah.
Ray H
The fact that you all stepped up to the plate, but Martin, I’ve been around you and known you enough to know your community spirit. And that is so important. That is so important. I mean, we’ve seen in our business and in other businesses where little places are either put out of business or they’re gobbled up for the bigger chains. They are run by people somewhere in some other part of the country who have no interest in that community. In some cases, they’ve never been to that community. That is very common in the broadcast business. It’s tragic. It really is. And unfortunately, when deregulation came about, that was one of the effects that it had. They deregulated the ownership where they just basically said, well, own as many as you want, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you live there or you’re part of the community anymore. And, of course, they’ll deny that. But truthfully, we know what’s happened, and not just in the radio business. We’ve seen in other business, too. You think about it, back when I got into the radio business back in 67, the number of non-locally owned businesses in Alpine was very small, very small. And I guess that’s true in most of rural America, but much of rural America has either faded away or is not locally owned anymore well.
Chris R
We can be grateful for the percentage that we do still have. A lot of times it’s the smaller businesses, but we still have some significant ones. And I would say that for the visitor, a lot of the shops, the restaurants, things like that, that they’re going to come into in Alpine are going to be those local personalities, those people who love the community, are serving the community every day.
Martin B
We’re very fortunate here in Alpine that we have that type of ownership from the business. Because we’re a small town, we don’t depend on tourism, but it’s a big input, a big input. And all of these small workers, these workers, they have the same small-town mentality of hard work. Roll up your sleeves and let’s get her done. And so that’s a big benefit to Alpine that we have those types of ownerships and the businesses. And being in the radio station here, our success comes from the success of our advertisers. So, we see it every day. We can tell which businesses are going to make it and those who are not. We have a strong number of businesses here in Alpine that are just totally devoted. They get the big picture that, hey, we want to cater and take care of people, not just locally, but the people who come into town. And we want to show off our town to folks. And we’re proud. We have something very proud to show off. So here at the radio station, that’s one reason why we constantly highlight Alpine. We are a gem. As Ray said, when going back to the radio with things getting bought out by bigger companies who put it all automated, that was the one thing we did not want to do. What we wanted to do was kind of go back a little ways where now we have a sports director, we have a news director, we have a salesperson. I think we have five full time employees and nine or ten part time employees. As Ray will tell you, most radio stations, there’s a one man pushing a button in automation and you lose all of that local appeal. So, we didn’t want that to happen to Alpine. Yeah.
Ray H
You’re the exception to the rule nowadays, Martin. And Alpine doesn’t know how fortunate it is that we still have operations like that because most small-town radio business that’s still alive, some of them, even though it’s a violation of FCC rules, I know for a fact that there are a number of them that they don’t even have a studio there in the town where they’re live.
Chris R
Wow. Really?
Ray H
And studio, I mean, a place where a person can go in and conduct business. The only way they can do it is on the Internet.
Martin B
Well, Ray, you and I both have the thought that it’s not just about making money. It’s about providing a service and doing it the right way. Neither one of us would have gotten into the radio business if we were looking to get rich, that’s for sure.
Ray H
Isn’t that the truth?
Martin B
Yeah.
Chris R
Well, hey, I want to thank both of you for sharing with the radio listeners and also the podcast listeners this little history of radio in small town America in West Texas. Thanks so much.
Ray H
You bet. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Martin.
Martin B
Ray. It’s always a pleasure, everybody.
Chris R
Thanks again for joining us for Heart of the Big Bend. You can get more information on the podcast at visitalpinetx.com/podcast or search for Heart of the Big Bend on Apple Podcast, Spotify most other podcast apps and if you’re listening on the radio, of course you’ll hear us in two more Fridays from now. Thanks again, everybody, for joining us again.
Outro
You’ve been listening to the Heart of the Big Bend. Hope you liked what you heard and that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Bend has to offer. See you soon, partner. Bye.