KLEC (defunct)

KLEC was an FM radio station in Little Rock, Arkansas which broadcast from the summer of 1998 until the fall of 2004. The station, which was the first in the area to broadcast a completely modern rock format, used the brand name "Lick 106 point 3". Fact|date=April 2007

"Air personalities," a.k.a. DJs, were chosen from the local public through a series of studio interviews, then on-air interviews in a type of sink-or-swim competition of sorts. Some of these original personalities who anchored the station's position in the music market included raven-haired beauty Ashley, smoky-voiced hippie-chick Lyric, fair-skinned Shannon, and self-proclaimed "psychotic, perverted, alcoholic maniac," Gavin Valentino (who would go on to become the station's music director shortly after being hired, and would, to his credit, discover and give first radio airplay to a then-unknown twosome from Little Rock: a boyfriend and girlfriend "trying to be a band," as she would tell Gavin at the time; an effort known as Evanescence). The station logo was chosen through an internet poll on their website. The name itself, a vague interpretation of the call letters KLEC, was more appropriately a combination of the first and last letters of the capital city from which it was being broadcast: LIttle RoCK. Lick moved around on the radio dial several times, starting out at 101.1 in a "format" of a variety of about 35 compact discs, some home-recorded from the head engineer's (Steve Gimbert's) vinyl collection, then to 96.5, when Gavin Valentino took over and pushed the sound towards the harder side of edginess with music from groups such as Type O Negative, Marilyn Manson (whose name was literally unmentionable under the previous music director's shaky hand), Rob Zombie, Korn, Pantera, and so on, and finally on 106.3, where it remained until it went off the air after a series of bad business decisions by management which drained station profits to nil. Besides the unique-at-the-time choice of music, Lick also had two morning DJs, Corey and Jay, who were relatively popular with a bit of wit and intelligent humor versus the redneck-type humor found on other rock station in the area.Fact|date=February 2007 They were fired when Archway Broadcasting purchased the station from Equity Broadcasting in late 2002/early 2003. After this Clear Channel Communications started KDJE 100.3 The Edge in an effort to take listeners from LickFact|date=February 2007 and hired Corey and Jay for the morning show.

106.3 is now home to KOLL "K 1063", an oldies station. Corey and Jay moved to Magic 105, a classic rock station, replacing Tommy Smith and his long-running "Rock and Roll Breakfast" morning show. They then moved back to 100.3 The Edge. The before mentioned head engineer Steve Gimbert tends to be the "power behind the throne." Steve is originally from VA Beach and has done everything from being a DJ himself at the now defunct 104.5 WQRK during the seventies to performong on stage in free concerts with a folk group called "Sing Out Virginia Beach." He has been greatly missed in the Tidewater VA area. His record collection is enormous.

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