One of my favorite activities is to get a large cup of truck stop joe at 7pm and drive aimlessly til dark on the local back roads. There’s always plenty of interesting things to see and no traffic to make a drive unpleasant. Last week while driving from Livingston to Wilsall I flew by this building before slamming on the brakes and turning around to investigate.

The building is a historical site or probably would have met its bulldozer fate a long time ago. It stands vacant and somewhat out-of-place on the outskirts of town but draws the attention of anyone driving by. The plaque next to the building tells the story. It was the original home of KPRK and the station signed on air at 8pm on January 9th, 1947. Twenty people celebrated the sign-on at the station (half of Livingston at the time?) on a snowy winter night. The architect of the building wanted a futuristic design to contrast the older brick facades of the downtown buildings so in addition to its Art Moderne style he added the circular “tower” atop the building and lightning bolts on both sides of the call station letters. Sweet touch.

Through a dusty window I spotted the old faded wooden two-tiered broadcast desk occupying three walls of a back room. The equipment was long gone but memories haunted the room. How many on air dedications were made here? How many people heard about the assassination of JFK from this room? How many families passed long harsh winters gathered around the home’s lone radio to listen KPRK in the low flickering light of their wood furnace? A small town radio station means so much more than their big city counterpart.

The station is still on air but is based out of offices in nearby Bozeman.