Several of us from KNUS/Dallas moved to El Paso to launch X-ROK 80. When we arrived, we found an old, run-down facility with one working studio. It would be a two-month wait before we actually went on the air with our new format. The local radio community was abuzz with rumors about what we’d do, and we decided to fan the flames a bit by broadcasting random hours of “sneak preview” programming.

A Mexican radio station, XEROK was required to broadcast at least 50% Spanish-language programming unless it was pre-recorded. We got around this regulation by pre-recording all our programming one day before it aired. That’s right – we’d go in on Monday to do our Tuesday shows, and so forth. No news, no weather, no PSAs. No FCC, either, so no problem. We also had another advantage – signal. At the same time we were waiting to flip the format, we were also waiting for our new 150-thousand-watt transmitter, which, according to Continental Electronics, would provide a local-grade signal at night from downtown San Francisco to downtown New Orleans. Yikes!! I’ll never forget the afternoon when we got a call from Rich Brother Robbin at KGB/San Diego, who said we were booming in to Southern California like a local station, and that was with our “baby” 50kw transmitter!

This aircheck is a rare glimpse at some of what we did prior to the format flip on December 27, 1973. On this aircheck, the music slogan might as well have been, “Music that Randy Likes,” since we didn’t yet have a playlist, and the whole purpose for doing these random hours was to throw the competition off our scent. All the liners, positioners, etc. were produced for just this one hour. Each jock did a few of these “one hour shows,” which were broadcast at random while we were waiting for the studios to be built, and each show had its own flavor. As you will hear, we refrained from identifying ourselves.