Dorchester Times: Looking Back: The Rise and Fall of Crete's FM Radio Station

Monday, February 2, 2026

Looking Back: The Rise and Fall of Crete's FM Radio Station

For those too young to remember, Crete once had its own FM radio station broadcasting from near the intersection of 12th and Main. It played a central role in Saline County life, offering everything from community programming and local updates to polka shows and weekly football score prediction contests.

Best of all, the station had deep Dorchester connections.

A History Lesson

Fifty years ago this month, in February 1976, Crete's hometown radio station, KTAP, got its start. Operating at 103.9 on the FM band, the station first started broadcasting August 20, 1976. The call letters "KTAP" were selected because the station's owners believed listeners would associate it with "tapping your toes" to the music.

The station's first owners were a group from Columbus known as Airwaves Broadcasting Services Inc. The first general manager was Walt Chockley, famously known as "Scotty Holiday" on his irreverent morning show, “Scotty on The Potty... Brushin' and Flushin'.”

The format originally leaned toward adult contemporary before shifting to 1970s-style album-oriented rock after 6 p.m. with “Garry Lee (Rice) in your nighttime, rockin' your socks 'til midnight.”

The Dorchester Connection

Sundays on KTAP featured Dorchester’s own Hank and Helen Zahourek, who hosted their "Polka Show" from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dating back to 1955, Zahourek was the leader of his own band, Hank’s Melody Masters, and an owner of the Blue River Lodge, which hosted Sunday polka dances through the mid-1970s.

Another staple was Dorchester historian and educator Jan Stehlik, who hosted the regular segment “What’s Doing in Dorchester,” alongside various other Dorchester personalities who DJ’d at the station over the years.

Ownership Shifts and the Glory Days

By 1977, with the support of Tom Aron and Dick Sinkule of Crete State Bank, Jim Jaworski (from sister station KTTT) purchased the station for $230,000. A community contest later determined that KTAP stood for "Key To Area Progress."

The years between 1977 and 1984 were the station's glory days. With polka DJs like Joe Zumpf and Elmer Niemec, a profitable country format, and a focus on local markets, KTAP became a true community pillar.

The Final Broadcast

In 1984, Mel Gleason purchased the station. In July 1986, KTAP was renamed to KBVB (Blue Valley Broadcasting) and the format soon changed to adult contemporary. Following Mel’s passing, his wife Louise took over operations. However, by March 1988, the station was sold again.

According to former employees, the end was abrupt: the moment the deal was finalized, one of the new owners entered the studio, cut a song off mid-stream, and announced the station was going off the air immediately. The entire staff was fired on the spot, marking the end of commercial radio in Crete.

The loss of local radio was a significant blow to community journalism and the unique social fabric of Saline County.

Over the years, the tower that once broadcast KTAP programming has changed ownership several times, from KKNB, which aired Top 40 music as B-104 FM and later "The Point," to Clear Channel-owned Kiss 104 FM and Three Eagles Communications-owned "The Blaze." The frequency formerly associated with KTAP is now licensed to KIBZ in Crete, serving the Lincoln metropolitan area.

2 comments:

Dan H.February 3, 2026 at 11:20 AM
I was thinking Terry Hrdlicka was an announcer at KTAP starting his junior and senior year at DHS. Can't say for sure but just remember he had a pretty unique and entertaining style befitting someone of his age at the time.
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AnonymousFebruary 4, 2026 at 11:57 AM
There are two other ties to Dorchester. On Sunday mornings, my dad Roger Wolfe, did the Coffee Chat For Christ which was smack dap in the morning of the Sunday polka show.

Also, my brother Chris Wolfe was a DJ there for some time. Especially when Mr. Gleason owned it. Chris was there during the country days too; he was still in high school.

I knew the Gleason's because they lived in York and owned that radio station for some time as well. It was hard for the Gleason's to let go of the station, but it got to be difficult operating two stations. It was not long and they sold the York station too.

JR Wolfe
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."