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| Broadcast area | Rio Grande Valley |
| Frequency | 1530kHz |
| Branding | Puro Tejano 1530 AM |
| Programming | |
| Language | Spanish |
| Format | Tejano music |
| Affiliations | TUDN Radio |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date |
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Former call signs |
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Former frequencies | 1240 kHz (1941–1953) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 67067 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
KYWW (1530kHz, "Puro Tejano 1530 AM") is a Spanish languageAM radio station,licensed toHarlingen, Texas, United States, and serving theRio Grande Valley border area. It is owned by Latino Media Network, and airs a Spanish languageTejano musicformat.
By day, KYWW is powered at 50,000 wattsnon-directional, the maximum for American commercial AM radio stations. Because1530 AM is aclear channel frequency reserved forKFBK inSacramento andWCKY inCincinnati, KYWW reduces power at night to 10,000 watts to avoid interference. After sunset and duringcritical hours, it uses adirectional antenna with a six-tower array. Thetransmitter is on Route 491 in Stockholm, Texas.[2]
In 1941, McHenry Tichenor, former publisher of theValley Morning Star newspaper, broke ground on a new radio station at a site known as Harbenito, between Harlingen andSan Benito.[3] The "Harbenito station", KGBS on 1240 kHz,signed on the air at dawn on August 20, 1941.[4] It was the third radio station in the Valley.[5] The station obtained aCBS radio affiliation in 1943, just two years after signing on.[6]
Meanwhile, after several years of protests from the1530 AM station inCincinnati, the FCC approved the application ofRoy Hofheinz to build a new station in Harlingen. The city would become the smallest in the country to host a 50,000-watt radio station,[7] which finally went on air on December 1, 1951.[8] KSOX was aMutual Broadcasting System affiliate. Three thousand residents attended the station's open house to see a modern studio facility, a scaled-down version of hisKTHT inHouston.[9]
Two years later, effective September 1, 1953, KGBS bought the KSOX facilities and moved its programming andcall sign there, including its CBS affiliation.[10] (The 1240 license was surrendered;[11] the frequency was revived in 1957 using theKSOX call sign.) The Harbenito facilities were converted to television stationKGBS-TV, which launched on October 4.[10] On New Year's Day 1954, KGBS became KGBT, matching the TV station, which changed its call letters on December 9, 1953. The Tichenor group in the Valley was completed withKELT FM 96.9.
Into the 1960s, KGBT became a highly successful station in the market, particularly once it flipped to Spanish-language programming. In 1967, it commanded more than a 60 percent share of local radio listening just on the United States side of the border.[12] In 1991, it still rated third in the market despite being on AM.[13]
The Tichenor family's media holdings, later renamed theHispanic Broadcasting Corporation, were acquired byUnivision Communications in 2003 in a $3 billion merger, ending 62 years of Tichenor ownership of KGBS/KGBT.[14]
KGBT was affiliated with theUnivision America network from 2012 until its demise in mid-2015, when KGBT and several other former Univision America stations changed to a Spanish Christian format known as "Amor Celestial".[15]
On December 20, 2016, Univision announced that KGBT would be one of the charter affiliates of their new Spanish-language sports network, Univision Deportes Radio; the launch occurred in March 2017.[15] The network became known asTUDN Radio in 2019.
On June 3, 2022, Univision announced it would sell a package of 18 radio stations across 10 of its markets, primarily AM outlets in large cities (including KGBT) and entire clusters in smaller markets such asMcAllen, Texas,Fresno, California, andLas Vegas, Nevada. The price tag was $60 million, and the owner would be a new company known as Latino Media Network (LMN). Univision proposed to handle operations for a year under agreement before turning over operational control to LMN in the fourth quarter of 2023.[16] The sale was consummated on December 30, 2022. In the spring of 2023,TelevisaUnivision turned over operational control to Latino Media Network for the three stations (including KGBT), making the McAllen market the first market in which LMN took full operational control.
On March 11, 2025, Latino Media Network changed KGBT's call sign to KYWW.[17]
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26°22′34.3″N97°53′44″W / 26.376194°N 97.89556°W /26.376194; -97.89556
