DECEMBER 1958 - JANUARY 1959
The "glory days" of Dallas radio are most often defined by one radio station, and its dominance from the mid 1950s into the 1970s. KLIF (1190 AM) captured radio listenership like few other radio stations at any time, in any market. The station is storied to have often garnered over half of the market's radio listening. KLIF's stature, even in its later years, can be easily seen in the Dallas Arbitron ratings covered on this site starting in 1966, when the 1190 frequency was still pulling 20+ shares. However, ratings data from before 1966 was simply impossible to find. KLIF's unimaginable 50 shares could not be verified - that was, until now.
Don Keyes was the National Program Director for Gordon McLendon's radio properties (including KLIF) from 1957 to 1966. And while most of KLIF's storied ratings information has been lost to history - only to exist as part of the station's mythology - finally here is the proof of just how big the Mighty 1190 was. Very special thanks to Mr. Keyes, who has graciously provided a copy of the only Hooper Ratings report for Dallas known to exist. DFWRadioArchives is proud to present this special piece of history, thus displaying for the first time a snapshot of KLIF's ratings in its heyday:
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How the rankings stack up:
| Hooper Ratings for Dec.1958 - Jan. 1959 | |||
| MON - SAT 7am - Noon | |||
| Call Letters | Frequency | Format | Share |
| KLIF | 1190 | Top 40 | 49.5 |
| KRLD-A/F | 1080/92.5 | Variety (CBS Network) | 11.2 |
| KNOK | 970 | Soul | 8.2 |
| WBAP/WFAA | 820 | Variety (NBC Network) | 7.7 |
| KBOX | 1480 | Top 40* | 6.6 |
| KIXL-A/F | 1040/104.5 | Variety | 6.2 |
| WRR | 1310 | Variety (MBS Network) | 5.0 |
| KSKY | 660 | Variety | 2.2 |
| WFAA/WBAP | 570 | Variety (ABC Network) | 1.0 |
| "Other AM & FM" | 2.4 | ||
| Radio sets in use: 15.8 | |||
| Sample size: 7,435 | |||
| MON - SAT Noon - 6pm | |||
| Call Letters | Frequency | Format | Share |
| KLIF | 1190 | Top 40 | 51.3 |
| KIXL-A/F | 1040/104.5 | Variety | 12.9 |
| KRLD-A/F | 1080/92.5 | Variety (CBS Network) | 8.6 |
| WBAP/WFAA | 820 | Variety (NBC Network) | 6.5 |
| KBOX | 1480 | Top 40* | 5.2 |
| KNOK | 970 | Soul | 5.0 |
| WRR | 1310 | Variety (MBS Network) | 4.6 |
| KSKY | 660 | Variety | 1.5 |
| WFAA/WBAP | 570 | Variety (ABC Network) | 1.4 |
| "Other AM & FM" | 4.3 | ||
| Radio sets in use: 9.3 | |||
| Sample size: 7,931 | |||
The text at the bottom of the ratings report:
" The above measurements are adjusted to compensate for the fact that Radio Stations KIXL, KNOK and KSKY sign off at 5:15 P.M. in December and 5:45 P.M. in January"
"'Radio Sets-in-use' is the percentage of Total Homes which are listening to the radio. Where listening to a second program over a second radio set is reported in a home, that fact is reflected in both the 'Radio Sets-in-use' and in the individual station 'Shares.' 'Share of Radio Audience' represents the proportion of the total radio audience listening to a particular station."
"Where an FM station duplicates its corresponding AM station's program schedule in its entirety, the FM station mentions are combined with the AM station's mentions."
Note: Although the Hooper Ratings report did note denote the fact, it should be noted that KBOX had adopted its Top 40 format in July of 1958, just five months before this survey was conducted. KBOX rose to more prominent heights in the ensuing years, but it never managed to top KLIF though.