“The Sunflower Girl” of North Texas Radio
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Along the route to my high school in Arlington, TX lay an old cotton field. In the middle of the field stood an abandoned adobe shack, the large letters KGKO barely visible on the front. This station was obviously before my time! During my second year in high school the cotton field was plowed over, the building demolished, and a shiny new shopping center erected. I never stopped wondering about the history of KGKO.
Over the years I found a few tidbits about the station, most referring to a Wichita Falls, Texas location. Now thanks to the wonders of the Internet (specifically the wonderful site dedicated to the history of DFW radio – hey, they even list me!) I found that KGKO did indeed start in Wichita Falls in 1928, but moved to Ft. Worth ten years later after it was purchased by Amon Carter, who owned WBAP radio and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. The station eventually got gobbled up as part of a bizarre frequency sharing arrangement between WBAP and Dallas’ WFAA.
Then I ran across the above post card recently while out perusing an emphemra dealer at a local antique mall. The postmark on the back is dated 1939. Now I had another mystery on my hands: Who was The Sunflower Girl? A couple of minutes of Googling later, I discovered that her name was Bessie Coldiron and she started at WBAP around 1925. I even found a recording she’d made (please scroll down). I think this is the same person. I certainly plan on dropping the owner of this site a line and will enclose a copy of this picture.
This is most certainly one of my best recent finds. Now, if I could just find one of those microphones for cheap…
