KONE (FM)


KONE, known as "101 The Beard", is a Mainstream Rock formatted radio station serving the Lubbock, Texas, and South Plains Area. Owned by Alpha Media Group, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee LLC, its studios are located in south Lubbock on Avenue Q west of I-27, and its transmitter is located south of the city.

History

This station previously held the call letters KTEZ when it aired an easy listening format. It was founded in December 1974 by Troy Raymond "Ray" Moran It began with studios and transmitter in the former transmitter shack of KKBC-TV/KMXN-TV Moran had worked in Lubbock in the 1950 and 1960s. He was part owner of radio stations in Roswell, NM and Albuquerque, NM. Moran had engineer Guy D. Smith generate the technical filings for a new station on 101.1. Studios moved to Suite 276 of the Plains National Bank building at 50th and University in 1977.
KTEZ was sold in 1983 to Lotus Communications for $1,050,000. The proceeds helped Moran continue development of KJAA, now KJTV-TV FOX34 in Lubbock. Lotus sold the station to Nextmedia, Nextmedia sold it to Wilkes Group.
Previous formats included "The Music of Your Life", soft AC, and country. The call letters were changed to KONE in 1996 when KTEZ changed formats to country. The format changed to classic rock on November 21, 1999 under the Name "Rock 101.1". The "Rock 101.1" moniker changed to the current one on the morning of March 12, 2020; the last song played under the old format was "Hey You" by Pink Floyd while the first song played under the "101 The Beard" name was "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam.

Programming

is 101 The Beard's syndicated morning show.
Local air talent includes Sean Dillon, The Man Made Radio Show, and Dave Fernandez.
The syndicated evening show is Nights with Alice Cooper.

Community involvement

Rock 101.1 teams up with KBTE-FM every year to put together the Freedom Blood Drive which has happened since 2004. Rock 101.1 also partners up with charities around the South Plains to give donations. They have also worked with Parents of Soldiers around the world to give care packages.

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