The Story of KMFA
by Katherine Tanney
Before KMFA
It is impossible to talk about the birth of KMFA without mentioning the death of classical music programming on its forerunner, KHFI-FM. According to John Kingsberry, corporate president at the time, the decision was purely financial. “There’s no question a lot of national awards were won,” he told the American-Statesman. “We’ve got a wall full of them, but you can’t eat them.”
Bob ThurmondBob Thurmond has been a KMFA member from the very beginning and still remembers KHFI. “I listened to them everyday, all the time, until one day I turned on the station and it was pop. Well, I was not happy.” An acoustics consultant, Thurmond was acquainted with Dale Jones, the cofounder of KHFI in 1956, who was still its engineer. Jones told him, “It’s all over but don’t worry. We’re trying to organize a new station which will be listener supported and not subject to market variations.”
“We” referred to Jones and his friend, N.W. “Nockey” Willet, who was the assistant director in charge of engineering for Radio-TV at the University of Texas, and also KUT-FM’s chief engineer. The two men began talking to other broadcasting professionals in town—the radio community in 1965 was a small tribe—and before long, plans were underway to return classical music to the air waves with Jones as KMFA’s general manager and Willet its chief engineer.
