 | |
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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Tucson metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 990kHz |
| Branding | La Buena 94.3 |
| Programming | |
| Language | Spanish |
| Format | Adult hits |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KCMT,KFFN,KFMA,KLPX,KMXZ-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | December 1949; 75 years ago (1949-12) |
Former frequencies | 1490 kHz (1948–56) |
Call sign meaning | original owners Thomas J. Wallace,Art Linkletter and Tom Breneman |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 2744 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 32°15′19″N111°0′32″W / 32.25528°N 111.00889°W /32.25528; -111.00889 |
| Translator(s) | 94.3 K232FD (Tortolita) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | labuena943 |
KTKT (990AM) – brandedLa Buena 94.3 – is acommercial Spanish languageadult hits radio station licensed to serveTucson, Arizona. Owned byLotus Communications, the covers theTucson metropolitan area andSouthern Arizona.[2] The KTKT studios and transmitter are both located in northwest Tucson; in addition to a standardanalog transmission, KTKT is simulcast over low-powerTortolitatranslator K232FD (94.3FM), and is available online.
In December 1949, KTKT first signed on at 1490 AM.[3] The station'sconstruction permit was originally granted by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to Thomas J. Wallace Sr., Tom Breneman Sr., andArt Linkletter in 1948; the two "T's" in KTKT were for the two Toms, and the K was part of Linkletter's last name. Linkletter himself would go on to become a popular network television personality in the 1950s and 60s. The station has kept the samecall sign for its seven decades on the air.
After Breneman’s untimely death, Wallace came to Tucson from Los Angeles to run the station. Wallace had started his radio career in Chicago where he was the host of a popularchildren's radio show,Uncle Walter's Dog House. He went on to produce other classic radio shows, includingBlind Date withArlene Francis,Kukla, Fran, and Ollie withFran Allison, andTheRed Skelton Show.
Because all the existing national radio networks already hadaffiliates in Tucson, KTKT became an independent station, and its programming was mostly music. For a time, KTKT was an affiliate of the short-livedLiberty Broadcasting System, formed around the play-by-play sportscasts of "The Old Scotsman",Gordon McLendon.
Wallace built his station on Elm Street, just west of Miracle Mile, in two war surplus military buildings which were moved onto the site. In the early 1950s, Chuck Blore became one of Tucson's most popular personalities on KTKT with his six-hour afternoon program,Let's Play Records. Blore was a creative radio personality, and went on to become one of radio's top programmers, starting Los Angeles' firstTop 40 station,KFWB, in 1958, and later owned one of the top commercial production companies in Hollywood.
In March 1954, the Wallaces put Tucson's first FM station on the air,KTKT-FM (99.5).[4]
Disappointed that classical music was not being heard in Tucson, Tom Wallace hired Jack Frakes, a drama teacher atRincon High School, as KTKT-FM's first announcer and classical music programmer. KTKT-FM later changed its call sign to KFMM, standing for "FM on the Mountain" in anticipation of a move toMount Bigelow that was never made. On Sundays, the two stations wouldsimulcast to demonstrate something new: stereophonic sound on FM. The first stereo program in Tucson was on KTKT and KTKT-FM from 2 to 3 PM Sundays, played from the FM studio; the AM and FM stations broadcast separate audio channels.
Wallace made plans to move KTKT to a lower frequency which would give it a wider coverage area. He wanted to reach more Southern Arizona listeners who were moving to the suburbs. In 1958, KTKT moved to 990 kHz, with 10,000 watts of power and a directional antenna system, but because 990 AM is aclear channel frequency, it had to be a daytimer, only operating from sunrise to sunset. Engineer Nat Talpis supervised construction of two towers, located off West Grant Road near Silverbell, where the KTKT studios were located for many years.
Within minutes after KTKT signed off 1490 AM, a new station,KAIR signed on and continued playing the music which the audience was used to hearing on 1490.[5] (In fact, KAIR had alleged that KTKT took too long to change frequencies.)Harold Peary, known to network radio audiences asThe Great Gildersleeve, was one of the KAIR owners; while in Hollywood, he tapedvoice tracks for his new station which were mailed to Tucson for broadcast. On its new home at 990, KTKT was nicknamed "Color Channel 99." Wallace formally transferred KTKT ownership to the new Copper State Broadcasting Corporation, though it remained in the hands of the Wallace family. Tom Sr. was the boss, Tom Jr. handled engineering, and George Wallace also was an executive.
When the AM station's ratings declined, Wallace hired a young Frank Kalil to do the programming, moving KTKT to aTop 40 sound. Kalil programmed the newrock and roll "Color Radio" style music and news format which quickly moved daytimer KTKT into Tucson's number one spot, where it remained into the early 1980s. From 1956 to 1966, Frankie Kalil was considered the "voice" of Tucson radio.
KTKT once broadcast games of theTucson Sidewinders andTucson Torosminor league baseball teams. In 1960, the Wallaces applied to begin operation at night with 1,000 watts.
Late in 1960, the family sold KTKT to the Leland Bisbee group. A new manager, Phil Richardson, took over, and financially the station began to prosper. The FM station was split off and purchased by Lee Little, owner ofKTUC, and later became top-ratedcountry music stationKIIM-FM. The Leland Bisbee group sold KTKT toLotus Communications in 1972.
In late 1985, as contemporary music listening moved to FM, Lotus dropped KTKT's live Top 40 format, to carry theTranstar Radio Networks'adult contemporary satellite feed from Los Angeles.
In the spring of 1989, KTKT dropped music altogether to become anall-news radio station, airing the audio feed ofCNN Headline News.
In the early 1990s, KTKT was an affiliate of Sports Entertainment Network, a sports-orientedtalk radio network (which underwent several ownership and name changes over the years and is now known asSportsMap Radio Network), but due to low ratings switched back to CNN Headline News by early 1994.[6] The station was also, for a time, the Tucson radio affiliate of theLos Angeles Dodgers. In 2001, the station became the Tucson radio affiliate of thePhoenix Suns.[7]
In November 2004, KTKT dropped almost all sports and news programming to air a Spanish-languageNorteño oldies format (that style being popular among many Latinos in Tucson).[8] In 2005, KTKT dropped music and adopted theESPN Deportes Spanish-language sports format not long after it launched nationally.[9] but would later drop it to air Spanish-languageadult hits.
