KVIL: The “VIL” Stands for Village
by Paula Bosse
Northeast corner of Preston & Mockingbird…
by Paula Bosse
Sewell Village Used Cars and a Mobil station were at the northeast corner of Preston and Mockingbird (Sewell was at 5460 Preston Road), catty-corner from Highland Park Village. The KVIL studios were right around the corner, at 4152 Mockingbird Lane, across the street from the Dallas Country Club — you can see the jauntily-lettered sign in the background of this undated.photo. I am really bad at determining car-model years, but let’s say this is about 1960. What does this corner look like these days? It looks like this.
I just learned (from the KVIL Wikipedia page) that the “VIL” in the station’s call letters stood for “Village,” as in Highland Park Village. Who knew? The AM station began broadcasting on March 1, 1960, and the FM station hit the airwaves on Aug. 25, 1961. I believe both stations had a strict “no-rock-and-roll” policy. In the early days, a block of programming was aimed directly at housewives:
The program policy followed by the station is designed to fit the various hours of the day. For the driving hours when listeners drive to work (5:45 to 9 a.m.) and return (4:30 to 6:55 p.m.) the music is livelier. “Sing Along” is the order of the day from 9 a.m. to noon for the housewife’s work hours. (“KVIL Mark’s First Birthday Wednesday,” Dallas Morning News, March 1, 1961)
Here are a couple of hep, caffeinated KVIL ads from those early days:
1961 ad
1962 ad
1962 logo
Most of my sort of generally vague awareness of KVIL was in the 1980s, when it was an absolute powerhouse in the ratings. But even its most stalwart fans would probably not describe its playlist as “bright,” “exciting,” or “swinging.” But look how much fun the promotions department imagined the effect on “young adults” was!
*
And what about Sewell Village Cadillac and its selection of “Village Fine” used cars? If circa-1960 Highland Park is going to have a used car lot, you better believe it’s going to be populated with Cadillacs. (UPDATE: Thanks to Peter K’s link in the comments, check out what appears to be the original photo by Squire Haskins, with a wider view, at the UTA Libraries website, here.)
March 1958
***
Sources & Notes
Photo from eBay.
KVIL ads from the 1961 and 1962 Highland Park High School yearbooks.
KVIL logo is a detail from an ad that appeared in the Dec. 24, 1962 issue of Broadcasting magazine.
This post appeared in an abbreviated form on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page.
*
Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
The photo of Sewell Village used cars is part of the Squire Haskins collection held by UTArlington
https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/img/20007706
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh wow, thanks, Peter!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I worked there 10 years, 2 months after the station was old to Carla Broadcasting, owned by Dallas’s Jim Francis. No one had respect for that previous owner who called K-VIL.
LikeLiked by 2 people
by Mickey Grant, not anonymous
LikeLiked by 2 people
When KVIL first went on the air, it was owned by John J. Coyle — a fact I meant to include in this post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would have been nice if radio & television would have never been used by the narcissistic FCC to program & indoctrinate people.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t listen to KVIL until Ron Chapman made the jump from KLIF. Ron also mc’d many of the shows my rock band played during the mid sixties, he seemed to be everywhere, all the time. The one time we were to be on Sumpin Else to promo our new 45, our keyboard player was in a minor car wreck and two other members had the damn Hong Kong flu, so we didn’t do the show. I enjoyed Ron’s talent along with Suzy Humphries and the others. A great Dallas legacy.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I notice a couple of ‘61 GM cars on the lot as well as a ‘62 Ford wagon, so…shall we date the photo at, say, ‘63 at the earliest?
Great post, as usual, Paula!
Steve Schaffer
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Steve!
LikeLiked by 1 person