KBAT (99.9
FM), branded as K-BAT 99.9. is a
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
Monahans, Texas
Monahans is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, Texas, United States. A very small portion of the city extends into Winkler County. The population was 6,953 at the 2010 census. In 2018, the population was estimated at 7,669.
History
...
that serves the
Midland–Odessa metropolitan area
Midland–Odessa is a metropolitan area located in West Texas approximately half-way between El Paso, Texas, El Paso and Fort Worth, Texas. This combined statistical area (CSA) is made up of two metropolitan statistical areas (the Midland, Texas m ...
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, prim ...
format. The station is under ownership of
Townsquare Media
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
. Its studios are located on
Highway 191 just west of
Midland (its
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American b ...
) in rural
Midland County. The station's transmitter is located just southwest of
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
.
KBAT call letters were originally located on 93.3 FM and were moved over to 99.9 FM on September 13, 2005 to re-launch the rock station format the call letters had and made famous from 1985 to 1998. Re-launched on September 15, 2005 as "The Basin's Real Rock 99.9 K-BAT." You can listen to them online at http://kbat.com/listen-live.
Prior to changing to rock in September, 2005 the station was known as KGEE "Joy 99.9" and broadcast a contemporary Christian format for about a year. Prior to that, it had been country as KGEE "KG-100" since signing on in the early 1980s.
KBAT-FM was put on the air by Bob Hicks, owner of KWEL-AM. Hicks put KBAT on the air in 1973 as the first completely automated 100,000-watt station in Texas. The format was country using the Drake-Chennault programming. Hicks bought KWEL-AM in 1969 from Winston J (Buddy) Deane who owned KOTN-AM in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Both KWEL-AM and KBAT-FM were located in the Downtowner Motor Inn in Downtown Midland, Texas. The studios were later moved to a location on Andrew’s Highway in Midland.
KGEE began as a sister station to KVKM (AM) Monahans, TX in 1982. The original CP was issued to KVKM and called for a 100 kW signal at a few hundred feet from the KVKM tower between Monahans and Kermit. That was never built. The CP was modified to specify a 500 tower near Penwell and Duro, Texas. Studios were in Monhans at KVKM, then an additional set of studios were built in Odessa, and the Monahans studios were dismantled once FCC rules changed in 1986.
On January 8, 2018 KBAT shifted their format from album-oriented rock to classic rock.
KBAT Flips to Classic Rock
Radioinsight - January 10, 2018
During the 1960s KBAT-AM was a top 40 station broadcasting out of San Antonio Texas.
References
External links
KBAT official website
Classic rock radio stations in the United States
BAT
Townsquare Media radio stations
{{Texas-radio-station-stub