The 1930's

The Thirties were the years of live broadcasts when 200 or more musicians, singers, comics, and assorted folk flowed through the KOY studios every week, beaming there voices and sounds to an eager audience. KOY joined the Columbia chain as its Phoenix area affiliate in February 1932.

At this time the studio and transmitter site were located at 621-623 N. Central Avenue. Daytime power was increased from 500 to 1,000 watts in January 1933; night time power remained at 500 watts. The station director and founder Earl A. Neilsen sold the radio station to Burridge D. Butler of Chicago. Butler reorganized it as the Salt River Broadcasting Company in 1936, while Neilsen continued on as general manager.

That December KOY was granted FCC permission to move its transmitter and install a new vertical radiating antenna tower to replace its old flat-top antenna on Central Avenue, which fell from its supports onto a hotel earlier that year. Butler moved the KOY studios in March 1937 from 621 N. Central Avenue to 838 N. Central Avenue and had a Spanish-style adobe transmitter house built on a 20 acre site at 12th St. and Camelback Rd. The KOY transmitter would be moved up to its present site in South Phoenix 30 years later, and the 12th St. site would become the home of Coulter Cadillac. Fred A. Palmer succeeded Earl Neilsen as station manager of KOY in 1937.

In late 1937, KOY affiliated with the CBS network and organized the Arizona Network as the new statewide chain’s key affiliate. The studios were moved again slightly in late 1938 to 836 N. Central Avenue. Butler was granted an FCC construction permit to change KOY’s frequency from 1390 to “first on the dial,” 550 kilocycles in 1940.