City Port Arthur, Texas Frequency 1250 kHz | Branding "Radio Maria" First air date August 1934 | |
Broadcast area Port Arthur, Beaumont and vicinity. Slogan A Christian Voice In Your Home | ||
KDEI "Radio Maria" is an AM broadcasting station airing Catholic programming at 1250 kHz in Port Arthur, Texas. It is a repeater station of KJMJ 580 kHz in Alexandria, Louisiana.
History
KDEI was originally KPAC founded in 1934 as middle of the road radio switching to Top 40 music in the late 1950s. It is believed locally that blues/rock artist (and Port Arthur native) Janis Joplin frequently visited KPAC's studio during her recording career. [1] During this period, KPAC founded a sister FM at 98.5 MHz at first as a simulcast of KPAC in 1963 which is now Spanish language KTJM. KPAC switched back to the previous MOR format in 1966 and later switched the callsign to KALO (aka: "K-Low") with an R&B format which competed with Beaumont's former 1380 KJET (aka: "K-Jet") with a similar soul music format. KALO's studios were originally located at the transmitter site at 7700 Gulfway Drive in Port Arthur until its sale to Radio Maria Inc. in 2000. KDEI (in November 2000) along with originator KJMJ (in May 2000) and sisters KOJO and KNIR(in September 2000) were the first stations forming Radio Maria's USA network and the first to broadcast in English. KDEI can also be heard during daytime hours (at 5,000 watts) in portions of the Houston and Pasadena areas and just outside the Lake Charles, Louisiana area where KOJO at 91.1 FM can be heard outside of KDEI's signal. In September 2005, Hurricane Rita totally destroyed the KDEI 500-foot tower and was briefly off the air. It returned to the air under a S.T.A. for over a year at 250 watts on its shorter /daytime tower while an emergency fundraiser and on-air pleas were made by program director Father Duane Stenzel O.F.M. The fundraiser succeeded meeting and beating its goal, a new tower was erected and KDEI was officially back on the air at full power by the end of 2007 (though the S.T.A. to the FCC stated that the station expected to be back to normal within 90 days but asked for a 180-day S.T.A. to be sure. The 6-month request turned into a 2-year S.T.A. with extensions) Online streaming is available for listeners ourside of KDEI's daytime signal and when it must power down at sunset to 1,000 watts. In addition to broadcasting full-time in English, Radio Maria USA also airs a Spanish-language program "Peublo De Dios" (People of God), which is aired on Saturday mornings from 10:30 am until noon local time and again at 10 pm.
Radio Maria also offers full-time Spanish-language programming on the FM subcarrier of KPFT in Houston and online. (see links below)
Listeners outside KDEI's signal can listen online in addition to iPhone, BlackBerry and Android mobile phone devices by downloading the appropriate app from the Radio Maria website.
The KPAC callsign is now used at an FM station in San Antonio, Texas.
The KALO callsign is now used at an independent religious television station in Honolulu, Hawaii.