KKTX-FM (96.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) is a

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commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to Kilgore, Texas, serving the Longview/ Marshall/ Tyler area with a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

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s are located in south

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

, and the transmitter site is located in Kilgore, Texas. The station is not affiliated with

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owned KKTX 1360 AM, located 361 miles away in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...

. KRYS was loaned the use of the KKTX call set by then owner Clear Channel Communications, who also owned this facility at the time.

History

KKTX came to air in on under the ownership of the Noalmark Broadcasting Corporation, a year after Noalmark had bought the permit for unbuilt KCNW from Radio Kilgore, Inc. The studios were co-located in the same Kilgore insurance company building as its sister station,

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. It used a state-of-the-art Schafer broadcast automation system - only the second station in the East Texas market to do so - from

sign-on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

to 6:00p.m. CST MondaySaturday. Between 6:00p.m. and midnight, a live DJ played album-oriented rock - Phil Key and "Wolf" were the first two DJs at the console. The original transmitter site was located at the corner of Highway 31 and US 259, at the top of an unusual 500-foot two-leg tower with a platform at the top. Dubbed ''The Love Rock'', its daytime format was

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

. The General Manager for both stations was Richard Martin, Program Director Jim Hodo, News / Sports Director Paul Bendel, with Chief Engineer Karem Soule. In , FM broadcast radio was still in its infancy in East Texas, because few cars had factory AM/FM receivers. At the time, the lone FM station in East Texas had been selling electronic converters so listeners could receive their programming - albeit in mono rather than stereo - on their AM car receivers. KKTX-FM was only the second station to be operational in the Longview - Tyler - Kilgore market, although at least one other station had a pending application with the FCC. By , the transmitter had been relocated to another Kilgore-area tower, while the studios had relocated to Longview, at a location on Gilmer Road, and operated with live DJs along with an upgraded PC-based automation system. Today, the studios are located in Tyler, at their Brookwood Drive location. Through most of the and until , KKTX-FM carried a classic rock format known as ''96X''. In September , KKTX-FM started mixing active rock tracks with the classic rock that the station featured. At this time, KKTX-FM also changed its slogan from ''The Classic Rock Station'' to ''The Rock of East Texas'' while still carrying the ''96X'' handle. Soon after, KKTX-FM evolved to an active rock format. KKTX-FM flipped back to classic rock in October 2013. Today, the radio station features '' John Boy and Billy'', Jen Austin mid-days, Program Director Brian Rickman afternoons, and the Ultimate Classic Rock Show with Zach Martin nights.

Format change

At 2:00p.m. CST on October 10, 2013 KKTX-FM dropped its

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

format as ''96X'', and began stunting with snippets of different songs from various genres. Three hours later at 5:00p.m., KKTX-FM switched to a

format as ''Classic Rock 96.1''. The last song as ''96X'' was ''

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'' by Shinedown and the first song as ''Classic Rock 96.1'' was '' La Grange'' by ZZ Top.

References

External links

* {{Townsquare Media KTX-FM Radio stations established in 1983 Townsquare Media radio stations