KULP History 1948-2024

With $4,000 in the bank, Louis Thurmond “Culp” Krueger filed an Application for a New Standard Broadcast Station Construction Permit with the Federal Communications Commission on January 8, 1947.

Joining Culp in realizing his dream of giving the Rice Belt its first local radio station were Lafayette Lionel Duckett, Charles Coppage Ingram, J. Edward Johnson and Ross Bohannon. Together they formed Wharton County Broadcasting Company.

Since Culp owned 60% of the company, all that needed to be done was to change the letter “C” to a “K” (required by the FCC), and KULP was born.

On Tuesday, April 13, 1948, at 7am, KULP signed on the air at 1390kHZ with five minutes of music followed by a five-minute newscast read by Bill Lamb. Max Westerholm’s farm program ran until 7:30 a.m. when the “Lucky 1390” program featuring popular music and requests took to the air waves.

The “Polka Parade” followed the “Lucky 1390” program at 8am and ran until 9am Monday through Friday. The Polka Parade featured local and area Czech Polka Bands. In the very early days, it was not uncommon to have a band just “show up” and play live in the studio.

Long before “America’s Most Wanted,” KULP Radio gave Sheriff “Buckshot” Lane an early morning 15-minute “program” six days a week, where he would tell individuals with warrants to turn themselves in. Many did. You would hear Buckshot say “It’s 7am, 56 degrees and John Johnson, if you’re listening, don’t make me come get you!”

KULP remained under the ownership of Wharton County Broadcasting until 1967 when the FCC granted an application to assign the radio station license to Bar-B Broadcasting, headed by Fred Barbee owner of the El Campo Leader-News newspaper.

In 2000, KULP was purchased by Wharton County Radio Inc.

Under the leadership of Zetsche (managing partner) and Wenglar (president) KULP continues to grow in the 21st century.