| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex |
| Frequency | 103.3MHz |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Christian radio |
| Affiliations | SRN News |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | December 1, 1981 (43 years ago) (1981-12-01) |
Former call signs |
|
Former frequencies | 92.1 MHz (1981–2000) |
Call sign meaning | VCY Dallas, Texas |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 58265 |
| Class | C |
| ERP | 98,000 watts |
| HAAT | 606 meters (1,988 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 33°32′08″N96°49′54″W / 33.53556°N 96.83167°W /33.53556; -96.83167 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
KVDT (103.3FM) is a non-commercial radio stationlicensed toAllen, Texas, and serving the greaterDallas–Fort Worth market. It is owned byVCY America and it airs aChristian radio format. Most programming comes from radio studios at VCY America's headquarters inMilwaukee, Wisconsin. KVDT schedulesChristian talk and teaching shows in the daytime, while Christian music is heard at night.SRN News provides hourly news updates.
KVDT has aneffective radiated power (ERP) of 98,000 watts. Thetransmitter site is on FM 902 southeast ofCollinsville, Texas, inGrayson County.[2] The signal covers the northern parts of theDallas–Fort Worth metroplex andNorth Texas as well as SouthernOklahoma.
The station firstsigned on the air on December 1, 1981; 43 years ago (1981-12-01).[3] Thecall sign was KEMM. From 1981-2000, the station was licensed toCommerce, Texas, broadcasting at 92.1 MHz with acountry music format.
In 2000, KEMM was acquired byABC/Disney. It wentsilent on September 28, 2000. This was in preparation of a move to the more lucrative Dallas market, to become the home forESPN Radio programming.
Thecity of license was switched to Allen and the transmitter was relocated to Collinsville in 2001. The station was re-launched on April 27, 2001, as 103.3 KESN with a newsports radio format. Fourteen outlying stations were rearranged and relocated to make way for KESN to move into DFW, all at ABC/Disney's expense. Among KESN's most notable local programs wasGalloway and Company, hosted byRandy Galloway until his retirement in October 2013.[4]
Despite different owners and a merger ofABC Radio intoCitadel Broadcasting, KESN,WBAP, andWFAA-TV maintained a strong partnership (as WFAA is the local ABC television affiliate). In early 2006, 103.3 ESPN welcomed WFAA-TV personalityDale Hansen, a formerDallas Cowboys radio analyst and host on rival stationKTCK, to the station. KTCK had become the Cowboys'flagship station, and many speculated that Hansen leaving KTCK for KESN was due to his criticism of the team. The official explanation, however, was that Hansen's ratings did not justify his salary request.
Beginning in the2011 Major League Baseball season, KESN andKZMP acquired the rights to broadcast allTexas Rangers baseball games for the next four years. English-language broadcasts aired on KESN while the Spanish-language broadcasts were heard on KZMP.[5] These broadcasts were in addition to theDallas Mavericks broadcasts that were already heard on KESN. Rangers games remained on KESN until the 2015 season, when they returned toKRLD-FM.
Until mid-2011, KESN broadcast inHD Radio, with its HD2 signal simulcasting KZMP (ESPN Deportes Radio) and its HD3 substation broadcasting an audio simulcast ofESPNews. The HD broadcasts were later discontinued. Because the license to broadcast digital HD Radio is perpetual, the station could resume digital broadcasts at any time.
On August 7, 2013, it was announced that Cumulus Media, owner of KESN's rival KTCK, would take over operations of ESPN 103.3 through a long-termlocal marketing agreement (LMA) with Disney, beginning on October 8. Programming on both stations would remain the same. The change took effect once Cumulus closed on the sale of FM stationKTDK 104.1 of Sanger to Whitley Media.[6][7][8] However, on September 20, 2013, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected the sale citing that the license transfer was not a true sale in that all economic risk would remain with Cumulus as Whitley would get the same brokerage fee regardless of the price the station would have sold for. Cumulus would remain the de facto owner of the station.[9] Eventually, the license of KTDK 104.1 was cancelled, and its call sign was deleted by the FCC on October 18, 2013, at the request of Cumulus.[10]
In 2015, KESN became the only Disney/ABC-owned station on FM.[11] Formersister station KZMP (1540 AM) airedSpanish language sports programming until September 2016, when it was flipped to aregional Mexican format. The change left the DFW market without an ESPN Deportes Radio affiliate until its re-affiliation in July 2018. ESPN Deportes Radio discontinued its radio broadcasts in September 2019.
All local programming on KESN, with the exception of the Dallas Mavericks games, ended on October 7, 2020, following the expiration of the LMA with Cumulus.[12] The station then began broadcasting only ESPN Radio network programming, with no local shows, except for Dallas Mavericks games. Prior to the end of local programming on KESN, share ratings for KESN's primary shows lagged behind that of rival sports outletsKTCK-FM andKRLD-FM.
On August 23, 2021,iHeartMedia announced that, after 20 years on KESN, Dallas Mavericks game broadcasts would move to iHeart-ownedmainstream rock stationKEGL 97.1 The Eagle. (That station relaunched to a hybrid sports/hot talk format as "97.1 The Freak" on October 3, 2022). While the Mavericks previous contract with ESPN 103.3 ran through 2023, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban exercised anout clause in the contract triggered by the end of the LMA of KESN by Cumulus Media a year prior; the Mavericks would later move their radio broadcasts to KEGL.[13][14]
On December 21, 2021, Disney announced the company would sell KESN toChristian radio groupVCY America for $9.25 million. The network filed to convert KESN to non-commercial operation upon the sale's closure. VCY America also ownsKVCE inLubbock, which makes KESN its second Texas station and continues VCY's nationwide expansion.[15] Later in 2022, VCY added a third Texas station,KVLM in theMidland-Odessa region.
The sale was consummated on March 9, 2022, at which point the station joined the VCY America network at 10:30 pm. This changeover left the Dallas-Fort Worth area without an ESPN Radio affiliate.[16][17] The station changed its call sign to KVDT on March 22, 2022. The call letters represent the VCY network and the words Dallas and Texas.
Unlike most of the area's FM stations, which transmit their signals fromCedar Hill, KVDT transmits its signal from an area east ofCollinsville. Therefore, KVDT's signal is much stronger in the northern parts of theDallas–Fort Worth metroplex, includingDallas,Decatur,Denton, andMcKinney.
The signal is also strong in cities further north and outside of the Metroplex such asGainesville,Sherman, andBonham, to as far north asArdmore andDurant in Oklahoma. InFort Worth and areas south of Dallas, the station's signal is considerably weaker, which has caused problems for some of its listeners in these areas, especially during the sports radio era where listeners were following live sporting events.