KQBT (93.7
FM) is an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
radio station in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. It is owned by
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
. The station's studios are located along the
West Loop Freeway in the city's
Uptown district, and the transmitter site is near
Missouri City, Texas
Missouri City is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, with a small portion in Harris County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 74,259, up from 67,3 ...
.
KQBT carries
Pride Radio
Pride Radio (stylized as PRIDE Radio) is an LGBTQ+ lifestyle and top 40 radio network launched by Clear Channel Communications Format Lab under the direction of Michael Albl, who conceived the format, on terrestrial HD2 & HD3 stations and onlin ...
on the
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
sub-channel.
History
Early years
KQBT was initially signed on by Joel S., Donald J., and James A. Kaufman on December 13, 1963, at 18,460 watts ERP, from an elevation at 457 feet height above average terrain. The facility received a call set of KBNO. The station featured "popular music of the time and
show tunes
A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context.
T ...
". The KBNO studios and
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
BTF 5B transmitter were located on the 34th floor of the Gulf Building, and the corner of Main and Rusk Streets in downtown Houston. KBNO received its initial License to Cover on April 7, 1964.
In 1970, the station was noted in the movie
Brewster McCloud
''Brewster McCloud'' is a 1970 American black comedy film directed by Robert Altman. The film follows a young recluse (Bud Cort, as the title character) who lives in a fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome, where he is building a pair of wing ...
, which featured a station advertisement on the side of a passing bus.
In the Fall of 1971, the station changed formats to
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 ...
as KRLY, but took on various format shifts and identities throughout the decade, such as
album oriented rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-orient ...
"Y-94", "Disco 94", then "KRLY 94", a top 40/urban hybrid. By mid-1981, the station had rebranded as "Love 94." During its time as “Disco 94,” radio/television personality turned 2018 congressional political candidate Dayna Steele was among its air staffers.
In March 1984, the station switched to
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
as "Lite Rock 93.7" and changed calls to KLTR (adopted on March 20, 1984). The station rebranded to "K-Lite 93.7" in the late 1980s.
The Arrow
On November 25, 1993, at 2 p.m., the station flipped to
Classic Hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...
, branded as "Arrow 93.7", and launched with
Bob Seger
Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...
's "
Old Time Rock and Roll
"Old Time Rock and Roll" is a song written by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, with uncredited lyrics by Bob Seger. It was recorded by Seger for his tenth studio album '' Stranger in Town.'' It was also released as a single in 1979. It i ...
". The KKRW call letters were adopted on December 20, 1993.
Over the next decade, the station evolved to straightforward
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 ...
. In the early 2000s, KKRW was home of the "Dean & Rog" morning show until they left in early 2009 (currently at
KGLK
KGLK (107.5 FM broadcasting, FM, "The Eagle @ 106.9 & 107.5") is a classic rock-formatted radio station licensed to Lake Jackson, Texas, and simulcast on KHPT in Conroe, Texas, Conroe. The facility is owned by Cox Media Group, and is part of a fo ...
/
KHPT
KHPT (106.9 FM, "Houston's Eagle @ 106.9 & 107.5") is a classic rock-formatted radio station licensed to Conroe, Texas, which simulcasts on KGLK (107.5 FM). It is owned by Cox Media Group, and is part of the Houston cluster that also includes KK ...
).
In early 2009, the station began airing (in
syndication
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
) former
KLOL
KLOL (101.1 FM "Mega 101") is a commercial radio station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs a Spanish-language Latin pop radio format. KLOL serves as the Spanish-language flagship station for the Houston Texans football t ...
morning hosts "Walton & Johnson", who host a politically-oriented morning show that leans right. The show was dropped from KKRW in December 2012 (they're now at sister station
KPRC). Afternoon personality Steve Fixx filled in with a music-heavy show for several months called the "Morning Classic Rock Fixx" until the arrival of veteran St. Louis personality JC Corcoran with "JC and the Morning Showgram" in March 2013.
KKRW enjoyed ratings success for a number of years, both in Arbitron's diary and
Portable People Meter
The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, was a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable tel ...
ratings measurement systems. KKRW took an initial ratings hit when Dean and Rog left for KGLK, but rebounded to beat the new challenger for roughly a year and a half because of the addition of longtime Houston-based radio shock jocks Walton & Johnson, who helped make KKRW their flagship station.
The Beat
Ratings remained strong until KGLK, which played a slightly lighter classic rock format (identifying as classic hits), began simulcasting on 106.9 and 107.5 in June 2011. In its last full book with classic rock, KKRW was ranked #17 with a 2.4 share of the market according to
Arbitron
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
's Houston market ratings.
On December 31, 2013, at 10 a.m., after playing
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...
's "
The Boys are Back in Town
"The Boys Are Back in Town" is a song by Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy. The song was originally released in 1976 as the first single from their album '' Jailbreak''. It is considered by ''Rolling Stone'' to be the band's best song, placing it ...
", the station began
stunting with music from many genres. At Noon, after playing
Journey's "
Don't Stop Believin'
"Don't Stop Believin' is a song by American rock band Journey. It was released in October 1981 as the second single from the group's seventh studio album, ''Escape'' (1981), released through Columbia Records. "Don't Stop Believin'" shares writ ...
," KKRW flipped to
Urban Contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
, branded as "93.7 The Beat." The first song on "The Beat" was "
Drunk in Love
"Drunk in Love" is a song by American singer Beyoncé featuring American rapper Jay-Z. The duo composed the song along with credited production and writing by Future, Detail, Andre Eric Proctor, Rasool Diaz, Brian Soko, Timbaland, J-Roc and ...
" by Houston native
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...
. The move gives Houston a straight-ahead, core-based R&B/Hip-Hop outlet and new competition for
KBXX
KBXX (97.9 FM) is a commercial radio station in Houston, Texas. It airs a rhythmic contemporary radio format, mostly made up of hip-hop music and R&B. It is owned by Urban One as part of a three-station cluster with KMJQ and KROI. The stud ...
, whose direction focuses on hit-driven R&B/Hip-Hop material, as well as KBXX's sister
Urban AC
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
KMJQ
KMJQ (102.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Houston, Texas. Owned by Urban One, "Majic 102" has an urban adult contemporary radio format. KMJQ is co-owned with 97.9 KBXX and 92.1 KROI, with studios and offices located in the Greenway Plaza ...
, both of which are owned by
Radio One, and are usually the two dominant stations in the market. It was the first time in 14 years
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
(then known as Clear Channel Communications) attempted an urban outlet in Houston, as it once owned KBXX and KMJQ from 1994 to 2000, when both were spun off to Radio One.
On January 15, 2014, KKRW changed call letters to KQBT to match the "Beat" moniker.
HD Radio
On September 7, 2017, KQBT HD2 launched a new
urban adult contemporary
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music ...
format as ''104.5 Kiss FM'', simulcasting on the leased translator 104.5
K283CH (which was previously fed by sister station
KTBZ-FM
KTBZ-FM (94.5 MHz) is a commercial active/alternative rock radio station licensed to Houston, Texas. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves Greater Houston. The KTBZ-FM studios are located in Uptown Houston, while the station transmitter is ...
HD2's
regional Mexican
Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...
format). The station primarily competes with
KMJQ
KMJQ (102.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Houston, Texas. Owned by Urban One, "Majic 102" has an urban adult contemporary radio format. KMJQ is co-owned with 97.9 KBXX and 92.1 KROI, with studios and offices located in the Greenway Plaza ...
.
On February 18, 2019, the analog simulcast of ''Kiss FM'' ended after iHeartMedia's lease of the translator expired. The station continued to operate on KQBT as ''Kiss 93.7 HD2''. On June 26, 2019, KQBT-HD2 flipped to iHeart's "
Pride Radio
Pride Radio (stylized as PRIDE Radio) is an LGBTQ+ lifestyle and top 40 radio network launched by Clear Channel Communications Format Lab under the direction of Michael Albl, who conceived the format, on terrestrial HD2 & HD3 stations and onlin ...
" format of Top 40/Dance music targeting the
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is ...
community. This marks the second such format to air in Houston, the other being
Entercom
Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
's "
Channel Q" network airing on
KKHH-HD2.
iHeartMedia Expands Pride Radio to 12 Additional Markets
/ref>
References
External links
*
*
{{IHeartMedia
QBT
Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1963
1963 establishments in Texas
IHeartMedia radio stations