Jun 23 | This week in 1966

#1 at KHAT/Phoenix: “Take Good Care Of Her” by Sonny James, “The Southern Gentleman.”

Long before Buck Owens turned KNIX into a legend (and two decades before KMLECamel Country” signed on), the most important radio source for country music in metro Phoenix was Ray Odom’s KHAT, a daytime-only station at 1480 AM that broadcast from the late 1950s to the early ’70s.

Featuring personalities such as Bob “Knothead” Newman and Odom himself, K-Hat brought lots of national acts in concert to the Valley and was a big promoter of local artists.

Among the interesting hits on The Live 45 survey:

Lots of artists with Arizona connections are on this week’s chart, with several having connections to each other:

  • Waylon Jennings moves up to #3 with “Time To Bum Again.” A year earlier, Waylon and the Waylors were still the house band at JD’s nightclub (“Scottsdale Road at the river bottom!” the commercials used to shout.)
  • Future Phoenician Glen Campbell drops to #13 with “A Satisfied Mind,” a much covered song that was originally a #1 hit for Porter Wagoner in 1955.
  • Former Valley resident Merle Haggard falls to #15 with his former KHAT #1 song, “Swinging Doors,” about a guy whose wife kicked him out so he lives in a bar (“I’m always here at home till closing time”).
  • Red Simpson jumps to #18 with one of his biggest hits, “Highway Patrol” (also a hit for Junior Brown in 1993). Red was born in Higley, Arizona, and raised in Bakersfield, California, where he became part of the music scene that included Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
  • Glendale’s native son Marty Robbins has “The Shoe Goes On The Other Foot Tonight” (#35). In the 1940s, Marty hosted his own shows on KTYL radio in Mesa and KPHO-TV channel 5 in Phoenix.
  • Moving up to #7 is “Think Of Me” and flip side “Heart Of Glass,” a future #1 by Buck Owens & His Buckaroos. Buck’s parents were Depression-era sharecroppers who moved to Mesa when he was 8. During his teens as he developed his musical talent, Buck played local venues and performed regularly on KTYL radio.
  • One spot above at #6 is Buck’s ex-wife Bonnie Owens with “Living On Your Love.” She married Buck here in the Valley in 1948 before they moved to Bakersfield in 1951. They later divorced, and in 1965 Bonnie married . . . Merle Haggard.

Buck stayed connected to his Phoenix-area roots by purchasing KNIX-FM and KTUF-AM (later renamed KNIX-AM) in the late 1960s. His sons, Buddy Alan and Michael Owens, played key roles in growing the operation into a nationally renowned country powerhouse until Buck sold the stations in 1999.

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