A number of familiar radio veterans including Bill Clark of Bridge City and Jack Pieper will lend their talents to a new Southeast Texas radio station, KSET-AM, scheduled to begin broadcasts soon. 

Clark says the old school format in many ways goes back to the days of the celebrated Gordon “Bax” Baxter (1923-2005), while keeping up with present times as well.

General Manager Lee Melton, who has applied for Federal Communications Commission clearance to broadcast on the 1300 band, calls it a “grassroots” station.

“We’re basically doing old-fashioned radio; what radio was meant to be,” he says. “It will be local and live. We’ll have a medical show, a computer show and of course news, weather and traffic. We even want to bring back lost pet reports, but we’re still going to be ‘2009-10’ and up-to-date for the Golden Triangle.

“Everybody broadcasts football games but you never hear about the ‘Star of the Week’ or the ‘‘Player of the Week’ anymore. We want to get back to that.”

Referring to the many established stations in Southeast Texas, he adds, “We might be David going up against Goliath, but I think we have a couple of stones in our pocket.”

Clark will bring back his popular “Sunday in the Country” program, which features Christian country music; with the first hour called “The Quiet Hour.”

The show was an Arbitron ratings grabber when it was on KCAW-AM and later KYKR-AM, and often imitated in other markets.

“Some of [the stations] didn’t even bother to change the name,” Clark says. “Finally one guy started calling his show ‘Sunday Kind of Country.’”

Clark began his broadcast days in 1959 in Peterson, Va., on WSSB-AM, having previously done a weekend radio show while in the Army.

He went on to work for KHGM-AM (“The Home of Good Music”) in Vidor and then brothers Jimmy and Felix Joynt in Port Arthur.

While at KYKR he was nominated several times as the “No. 1 Voice in the U.S. and Canada.”

Pieper will come out of retirement and off the golf green for three hours a day to bring back his call-in show, which will cover a variety of talk from “what would you do?”-type questions to news-of-the-day topics.

Pieper worked for KLVI for some 40 years, then for KBTV-TV in Beaumont.

Other KSET programming includes:

• “Law and Disorder” with Paul Clayton. The area attorney takes calls regarding legal issues.

• “Sebastian and Friends” with Sebastian Roberts. The station says this program will “bring you the latest information concerning our area every single day for three hours. Interesting guests, news – you name it.”

• “The Dr. Carol Show” will feature health issues.

• “Geek Free Radio with Tim Beard”; technology and computer questions.

• “Golden Triangle Entertainment Today,” with Tom Clay and John The Rocket Man” – humor and Southeast Texas news and entertainment events.

The offices of KSET will be located at 5550 Eastex Frwy, Suite J, in Beaumont.

For now, the station is running steaming audio and information about upcoming programming on its’ Web site, http://www.ksetlive.com.

To advertise or contact the station for any reason, call 898-4411.