Many of the videos in our TV Ads section here at ImaSportsphile are national commercial for national brands of products….however, this particular video features two of the Austin, Texas business that have been major players in and around Austin for over 50 years….KVET Country Music Radio and Capital National Bank of Austin.
Shortly after the end of World War II….a group of young men pooled their resources to start a radio station in Austin, Texas…..as all of them were veterans of World War II….hence K-VET AM 1300 signed on October 1, 1946. These men included future Texas Governor John Connally and future United States Representative Jake Pickle….which was common in the 1940’s and 1950’s when KVET offered “full service” radio….with block programming of music, news, talk, cooking shows, even soap operas….plus, as was not common…..KVET also included programming for Austin’s minority community with Spanish language news and music on “Noche De Fiesta”….along with music and news for the African-American community on “The Elmer Akins Gospel Train”. In the 1950’s, even more diversity was added to the lineup when Lavada Durst introduced Austin to R&B and “Jive Talk” on KVET’s nighttime “Dr. Hepcat Show”….where Noche de Fiesta and Dr. Hepcat were phased out in the 1960’s….but Gospel Train was on then and is still on the air on KVET to this day.
During most of the 1960’s, KVET featured the popular music of the day…..plus a strong emphasis on news and sports block programming. The music of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dinah Shore, Paul Harvey commentary, the Joe Pyne show, and Houston Astros baseball were all part of the mix…..but KVET switched formats on April 14, 1969 to country music….and The Country Giant was born….as popular celebrity DJ’s including Arleigh Duff, Penny Reeves, Jerry Gee and Sammy Allred quickly took KVET to the top of the local ratings during the 1970’s.
Capital National Bank was one of the largest local banks in Austin….long before the time after the Savings and Loan crisis ever happened in Texas….which led to the “big fish devouring the little fish”….when all of the local banks got assimilated into the big national and international banks of today. These old local banks like Capital National had been serving the local communities in and around Austin for decades….as this was a time when small business owners in Central Texas actually knew their “personal banker” well… and the local bankers actually knew their “personal clients” names….along with the names of their children.
