El Paso Radio History

It's probably not the most important piece of radio history in El Paso, but it's significant to me. Newstalk 690 KTSM AM used to be under the old AM signal of 1380 for something close to 70 years until the signal changed in 2000. I remember that night was so strange. My station at that time was a fully staffed 24 hour station, and I had the morning shift. Well, this day was different. Management wanted me to be at the old building as the last board operator so I could shut off the transmitter and allow the signal to switch over to the new frequency.

The moment came. I sat at the microphone, and instead of the standard pre-recorded legal ID we always play, I opened the mic, and had announced:

We now end our broadcast on this signal, please tune to our new signal AM 690 for all of your favorite programming. You have been listening to Newstalk 1380 KTSM-AM El Paso.

With that, I turned off the microphone, turned around in my studio & shut off the main power to the transmitter on the mountain. Tower lights still blinking, I was the last person to broadcast from the old KTSM studios on N. Oregon street. It was the most eerie feeling in the world. This studio had always had another operator come in and relieve the one on duty, and here I was, now the only person in the entire TV & radio complex and I was going to turn out the lights & shut the door forever.

I looked around the room, most of the equipment was already plundered and moved to our new studios (with the exception of our old 4 track cart machines & old reel-to-reels) and the talk set where I used to be the morning show co-host was already dismantled & destroyed. It was a surreal dream, it was my first paid radio job and my first real radio studio. I turned out all the lights, shut the studio door and walked out of the building, into the parking lot and became a part of El Paso radio history.