People listen as Scott Rice, owner of the KFRO radio station, speaks about the station's history Saturday at the Gregg County Historical Museum. (Jordan Green/Longview News-Journal Photo)

Normally, it’s not a good situation when lightning strikes a radio station. But some kind of electric phenomenon occurred at the KFRO AM 1370 in Longview — known as “The Voice of Longview” — the first time Scott Rice showed up in 2004.

“It was like a bolt of lightning hit me,” he said. In that moment, he knew he wanted to own the station.

Thirteen years later, his dream came true when he purchased the city’s first radio station for the rock-bottom price of $5,000. Of course, it was in rock-bottom condition, too. The previous owners let it practically fall apart, and the transmission equipment was almost inoperable.

After a six-month hiatus, Rice got the East Texas station back on air. On. Feb 8, he celebrated KFRO’s 90th anniversary alongside a group of community members who came to hear him tell its story at the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview.

In December, Rice expanded, purchasing FM 99.7 from UT Tyler, which the university opened as an NPR affiliate in 2021 and closed in May 2024.

Purchasing that station means Rice now has coverage in Tyler and Jacksonville via FM 99.7 and Longview and Gregg County via FM 94.1 — in addition to AM 1370.

“Hopefully soon we get some more stations because they’re all coming up for sale and rather cheap,” he said. “The multinational conglomerates that own the other stations are really in trouble now, and so little operators able to buy these stations fairly inexpensively.”

‘Keep Forever Rolling On’

James R. Curtis Sr. was an entrepreneur with a dream: open his own radio station in Fort Worth. And he had a life motto: “Keep Forever Rolling On.”

In 1924, as radio stations were popping up across the country, 17-year-old Curtis received a license to operate a station under the call sign KFRO, the acronym of his mantra. But opening a station was too costly for him to do on his own. Fortunately for him, however, he had a wealthy uncle: Longview resident Rogers Lacy, who became a legendary Texas oilman.

Lacy recruited Curtis to bring his license to Longview. Lacy offered to pay $5,000 to help get the equipment.

“His uncle funded it because he wanted Longview to become a real city,” Rice said.

A house was built on what became Radio Street in Longview, and it’s not hard to figure out why the street was named such. The station signed on Feb. 6 1935.

“That’s where KFRO was born,” Rice said.

Two years later, Curtis paid off his uncle’s loan and moved the station to the Glover-Crim Building in downtown Longview, the first of several locations the station would have.

Making history

KFRO made history in East Texas. The station’s first broadcast was a prayer from the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Longview. The station broadcast the church’s messages until 2015, making the church’s broadcast one of the longest-running in the history of radio, Rice said.

The station’s staff were the first radio broadcasters on the site of the 1937 New London school explosion.

The station also has notable alumni. Jerry Doggett, a longtime announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, began his broadcasting career at the station. Grant Turner, the longtime host of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, worked there, too.

The station played pop music throughout the 1950s, Rice said. It was kind of “mellow.”

“That’s why my grandfather loved it,” said Marc Welch, president of the museum.

Curtis’ son, J.R. Curtis Jr., got involved with the station when he was 15 and was the announcer for the station’s “Teen Time” program, according to his obituary. Curtis Jr. was an active community member and served as Longview’s mayor from 1977 to 1978. He became the station’s owner and operator in 1986. Also in the mid-‘80s, the Curtis family purchased FM 95.3 in Gilmer, which became KFRO-FM.

Curtis sold KFRO in 1998, and he died in 2000. (His father, the founder, died in 1999). The station changed hands and formats several times, and the FM station eventually was split from the AM station. Today, FM 95.3 is a Christian station known as “The Well” owned by Encouragement Media Group.

Buying the station

By 2017, KFRO was a semblance of its former self. The company that owned it was being forced to sell it for financial reasons, and its building and equipment had been “trashed out,” Rice said. But Rice, who had moved between California and East Texas through the years, was still interested in it.

A company official offered to sell the station to Rice for $8,000, but he ended up paying $5,000 after showing the company official the poor state of the building and equipment. (Perhaps ironically, that’s the same amount of money Curtis Sr.’s uncle offered to help fund the station’s outset all those decades ago.)

“There was just nothing that worked when I got there,” Rice said.

Rice shut the station off for six months in 2017 while he rebuilt its facilities. When it fired back up, he put on a nostalgia talk show called “The Galaxy Moonbeam Night Site” for baby boomers.

In 2020, Rice purchased the home Curtis Sr. lived in from the 1930s until his death. That’s where KFRO broadcasts from today and where Rice lives, surrounded by radio memorabilia. His transmission station for the AM station remains on a piece of property behind the home. He said he’s got the largest broadcast studio in East Texas.

In 2022, Rice re-launched the station with a classic hits format and returned to branding itself “The Voice of Longview.”

He also brought the station back to FM with KFRO FM 94.1, and the transmitter is on top of the VeraBank tower in downtown Longview. The Tyler expansion happened at the end of 2024, expanding the radio’s coverage area even farther.

Rice is KFRO’s sole employee, and he also works for another radio station as an engineer.

“I program every piece of music that’s on the radio station,” he said. “I pick every single thing. So if it’s terrible, it’s my fault. If it’s great, it’s my fault. I do every aspect of the radio station, from engineering to cleaning the toilets.”

The problem, however, is selling advertising for the station. He’s looking for a strong sales person, he said. As the station’s sole employee, and an employee for another station, he can’t do it alone.

KFRO has a show featuring Pastor Bob Page’s preaching at Victory Baptist Church; “Yacht Rock,” a two-hour weekly show of classic hits and soft rock; an oldies show produced by Bob Mayben; and the “Galaxy Moonbeam Night Site” nostalgia talk show, which airs 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday nights.

‘Every part of it’s exciting’

Dozens of pieces of memorabilia and old radio equipment from the station’s decades of service to East Texas were on display Saturday at the historical museum. Rice has been collecting antique radios since he was 12, and he has more than 200 in his home.

“Radio is my life,” Rice said. “People have asked me over the years, ‘What’s your backup plan?’ I said, ‘There is no backup plan. Radio is life. There’s nothing else to do.’”

Rice said he aims to keep KFRO growing. The station streams on Live365, Audacy and its own website, kfroradio.com. He’s also working to get the station on iHeart Radio.

He also said he hopes that, after getting a sales person onboard, he can begin to add live, local programming and personalities.

Just as its call sign implies, Rice intends for KFRO to “Keep Forever Rolling On.”

“Every part of it’s exciting,” Rice said. “The people that work in radio are colorful, weird people, and it draws colorful, weird people, right? And there’s never a dull day in radio. I guess I’m just weird as all get out.”

KRFO plays in Tyler and Jacksonville on 99.7 FM and in Longview on 94.1. AM 1370 in Longview is known as “The Voice of Longview.”