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KBUH


KBUH had its first broadcast on February 22, 1948. It was located at 948 West Forest Street in Brigham City and its first phone number was 948. It was at 800 on the dial and was a “daylight” radio station that ran from local sun up to local sun down. It was also considered one of the first “Drive-In” radio stations as listeners were invited to drive their car up to the “invitation window” and “listen while commanding a full view of (their) modern, audience-participation studio and master control room.” BENJ 2/4/1948.

Samuel L. Stephens and his son, Sam Jr. founded KBUH to fulfill Sam Sr.’s teenage dream to build a radio station in Brigham City. Mr. Stephens later noted that his first important public service broadcast came in June, 1948 as he remotely broadcast the Borgstrom funeral from the Bear River Stake Tabernacle.

Wade Ebeling was heading to Alaska in 1948 when car trouble necessitated a stop in Brigham City. He was able to get a job at KBUH and eventually bought and operated the radio station for 21 years. Wade later founded Blazer Plastics and was known as the “Searchlight King” for the use of his searchlights for local events.

Former employees of KBUH became famous locally, statewide, and nationally- from Patricia Fairchild and her “Princess Pat” program in high school to Neil Linton whose voice was used in nationally-aired radio and television commercials. Jeff Reeves became the “Voice of the Trojans” for Morgan Athletics. Phil Jensen was a popular disc jockey prior to taking work at the Ogden Standard-Examiner and working his way to becoming a State Editor, City Editor, and eventually the lead investigative reporter. Paul James, the “Voice of the Cougars” and inductee to the Utah Broadcast Hall of Fame, got his first broadcasting job in 1951 at KBUH and then left in 1952 to go into TV broadcasting in Salt Lake City. Jim Yorgason was a teen and had to ride the bus to Brigham City to work as a disc jockey until eventually becoming the station manager at KSL Channel 5. Steve Brown worked weekends at KBUH after graduating high school and later became the sports director at KTVX. Lynn Packer “was a radio disk jockey for KBUH in Brigham City and KVNU in Logan while attending college… In Vietnam he was a television news anchor and producer for the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN), Quang Tri detachment. He was awarded the Bronze Star. For 15 years Packer reported for KSL Television News in Salt Lake City where he covered city-county and state government, and did investigative reporting for the documentary unit. Among the major stories he covered were the Challenger space shuttle disaster, the Mark Hofmann bombing murders, the trial of serial killer Ted Bundy, and the Judge Willis Ritter corruption scandal.” https://archivesspace.lib.utah.edu/.../archival.../458379

Wes Vernon also started as a disc jockey for a summer job but stayed on, meeting his future wife after her school class toured the station. She called that night to request a song and that led to their first date. Wes went on to DJ at several stations, become the news director and political specialist for KSL Radio-TV, the chief for Bonneville Internationals Washington DC News Bureau, and then a Washington Correspondent for CBS and host of “Crosstalk.” He was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and National Press Club.

Do you know others?

According to Wikipedia: “During the 1980s, it was owned by Brent Larson, who had the transmitter and tower moved from 948 W. Forest Street in Brigham City, where the station had operated its sign-on, to Plain City in 1985… The call letters were changed to KFRZ in 1984, KZAN in 1988, and KSOS in 1991.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSOS_(Utah)

What memories do you have of KBUH?

Photos are for educational, nonprofit, and noncommercial use only.

1950s
1950s
KBUH in later years
KBUH in later years


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