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| Broadcast area | Greater Austin |
| Frequency | 1300kHz |
| Branding | AM 1300 The Zone |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | October 13, 1946 (1946-10-13) |
Call sign meaning | Station was established byWorld War IIveterans[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35850 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts day 1,000 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 30°22′30.7″N97°42′59″W / 30.375194°N 97.71639°W /30.375194; -97.71639 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | am1300thezone |
KVET (1300kHz) is anAM radio station inAustin, Texas. It is owned byiHeartMedia, and carries asportsradio format with both local sports shows and programming fromFox Sports Radio.
KVET uses adirectional antenna, broadcasting at 5,000 watts to the northwest over theTexas Hill Country during the daytime and 1,000 watts to the south over central Austin at night. Thetransmitter site is just a few miles north of downtown, on Metric Boulevard.[3] KVET shares studios and offices with four othersister stations in the Penn Field complex in theSouth Congress district (or "SoCo") of south central Austin, within walking distance ofSt. Edward's University.
With the end ofWorld War II, a group of ten Texasveterans[4] organized as the Austin Broadcasting Company and pooled their resources to start a radio station in Austin. After obtaining a construction permit on December 13, 1945,[5] they chose acall sign that included the word "vet". KVETsigned on the air on October 1, 1946;[6] the ownership group included futureTexas GovernorJohn Connally and futureCongressmanJake Pickle. As Austin's third radio station upon launch, KVET was anetwork affiliate of theMutual Broadcasting System, and Connally served as KVET's president and general manager.[7]
Unusual for its day, KVET also included programming for Austin's minority communities. Spanish-language news and music was heard onNoche de Fiesta. Music and news for African American listeners was heard onThe Elmer Akins Gospel Train. In the 1950s, even more diversity was added to the lineup whenLavada Durst introduced Austin to R&B and "Jive Talk" on KVET's nighttimeDr. Hepcat Show. Noche de Fiesta and Dr. Hepcat were phased out in the 1960s, but the Gospel Train was on the air on KVET for many years after.
Connally sold his stake in the station to manager Willard Deason, among the founders of KVET, in 1955.[8]
During most of the 1960s, KVET featured afull servicemiddle of the road music format, with a strong emphasis on news and sports programming. The music ofFrank Sinatra,Perry Como,Nat King Cole andBarbra Streisand, plusPaul Harvey commentary, theJoe Pyne show, andHouston Astros baseball were all part of the mix. In the middle of this time period, the FCC approved two major changes within 10 days of each other: a power increase to 5,000 watts[5] and the sale of the station to the KVET Broadcasting Company, headed by Austin businessman Roy Butler, for $5,000.[9] The sale came as the company was planning two large expansions. It had filed to build an FM radio station, and by the time of the Butler sale, the company held the construction permit for a television station on channel 24,[9] which it had held since 1963 but had not put on the air.[10] The former came on the air March 30, 1969, asKASE-FM.[11] The television station permit would be sold to McAlister Television Enterprises and then to a group in which former governorAllan Shivers was a member, and put on the air in 1971 asKVUE.[12]
KVET switched formats on April 14, 1969, tocountry music, and the "Country Giant" was born. "Noche de Fiesta" moved from KVET to sister station KASE-FM, airing in the morning from 5:30am-8am.[13] Popular celebrity DJs Arleigh Duff, Penny Reeves, Jerry Gee andSammy Allred took KVET to the top of the local ratings during the 1970s.[14] In the 1980s, KVET aired country music, news and sports, includingHouston Oilers andDallas Cowboys football, but its ratings continued to slide as listeners moved to FM.[14]
In September 1990, KVET began asimulcast on 98.1 FM, which had previously been the home ofTop 40KHFI-FM, which moved to 96.7; the arrangement was part of a then-rarelocal marketing agreement between the new owner of the 98.1 frequency, Spur Capital, and KVET.[15] The music mix was differentiated from KASE, which had become a country music station itself, by being more traditional than its stablemate.[16] The Sammy Allred and Bob Cole Morning Call-In Show began at the same time.[17]
In 1995, after the FCC legalized broadcast duopolies, Butler purchasedKVET-FM outright.[18] By that time, the AM was already being split off from the now-successful FM, slowly shifting to talk radio programming over the course of 1993 and 1994.[19] KVET was anABC Information Network affiliate and also airedsyndicated talk shows. By late 1994, the shift was complete with KVET and KVET-FM only simulcasting the morning show hosted by Sammy Allred and Bob Cole, but the talk station garnered poor ratings.[20]
At the end of 1997, Capstar Broadcasting—which would later merge into Clear Channel Communications, a forerunner of current owneriHeartMedia—purchased KVET, KVET-FM and KASE for $90 million.[21] Not included in the sale was the transmitter site for KVET, which to this day remains under Butler ownership; 2020 records assessed the land as being valued at $1,600,335.[22] Owing to the dominance ofKLBJ in the news/talk format in Austin, plus the station's existing coverage ofTexas Longhorns sports, Capstar opted to take the AM station in a new direction in October 1998. It fired a dozen staffers in its new acquisition and several hosts and switched KVET to a sports format.[23]
Industry trade websiteRadioInsight had initially reported on May 5, 2021, that iHeartMedia surrendered KVET's license; a brief public notice at the FCC stated “License cancelled at licensee’s request by email from counsel on May 4, 2021” and the posting hinted at a possibility Butler was selling the transmitter site.[22] This news came several weeks afterKASE-HD2—with anFM translator at 97.5 FM—was awarded flagship rights toAustin FC[24] and several months after the station's lone locally-based talk show was cancelled following a mass downsizing effort by iHeartMedia.[25] However, this cancellation notice was revealed the following day to be "an inadvertent typo by the FCC" confusing KVET withKEVT inSahuarita, Arizona, which had surrendered its license; KVET's license was subsequently restored.[22][26]
KVET AM previously simulcast on KVET-HD2, theHDdigital subchannel of KVET-FM, and on FM translator K276EL (103.1 FM) until August 27, 2021, when KVET-HD2 and K276EL flipped to an '80s hits format.[27]
KVET's programming as a sports talk station largely consists of national fare fromFox Sports Radio. Morning and afternoon shows are carried in conjunction withKTKR, the iHeartMedia sports talk station inSan Antonio; the station is also the local affiliate for theJohn Clay Wolfe Show.[22]
Play-by-play rights include the radio networks of theHouston Texans andSan Antonio Spurs. In 2023, University of Texas athletics returned to the iHeartMedia stations, with KVET AM as the flagship station andKVET-FM simulcasting football and men's basketball, after previously airing onKTXX-FM 104.9.[28]