KBME (790
kHz) is a
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
-talk
AM radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...
in the
Houston, Texas
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
metropolitan area. It is currently owned by
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., or 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 founded by ...
. The station airs local sports-talk and carries nationally syndicated
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...
programming. KBME is also the flagship radio station for the
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
,
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
and
Texas Longhorns. The station's studios are located along the
West Loop Freeway in the city's
Uptown district. The transmitter site is located at what is now the southwest corner of Fallbrook Drive and T.C. Jester Boulevard, near
Greenspoint in unincorporated
Harris County.
History
Early years
The station first went on the air as KTHT in 1944. It moved from 1230 kHz to the current 790 kHz in 1948. The frequency switch allowed KNUZ (now
KCOH
KCOH (1230 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in Houston, Houston, Texas that airs an talk radio, urban talk and urban contemporary format. It is a return to the heritage format that aired in Houston from 1953 to 2013 on KSHJ, ...
) to sign on at 1230 kHz. During the 1960s, KTHT was known as "Demand Radio 79", playing pop music.
In August 1970, it became
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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
KULF, hosting radio personalities such as Stevens and Pruett. Stevens and Pruett had formerly been on KILT as the last Hudson and Harrigan team before KILT's switch to country. S&P brought to KULF their "Not ready for Drive time Players", and their daily short production of "Star Trots" (modeled after ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture'') with Captain James T. Shmirk, his trusted Lt. Bones, and their weird little robot, ACDC.
In June 1982,
Gannett Publishing, through its broadcast subsidiary, bought the station, announced to the employees that were left (S&P had left for
KEGL
KEGL (97.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is an iHeartMedia commercial radio station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The station's studios are located along Dallas North Tollway, Dallas Parkway in Farmers Bra ...
in the Dallas-Fort Worth market before the sale), on what was called "Black Friday" (July 2), that everyone was fired as of the following Monday, and relaunched it as
top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently 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. "To ...
station KKBQ ("79Q") on the 2nd.
Program director John Lander hosted the morning show, called the "Q-Zoo", and took the station to the top of the Houston ratings after one rating period - a feat unheard of for an AM music station in the 1980s. KKBQ would add an FM simulcast on
92.9 MHz on December 29, 1982. KKBQ was among the first AM stations in the city to broadcast in
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...
, originally using the Kahn ISB system, and then later switching to the Motorola
C-QUAM system.
Programming on KKBQ and
KKBQ-FM ("93Q") simulcasted until January 16, 1998, when the AM station became the
adult standards-formatted "Star 790 KBME" (for "Best Music Ever", although a joke among employees was "Keep Bringing Me
Ex-Lax").
The Sports Animal
On January 1, 2005, the station flipped to an all sports station, as "790
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...
, the Sports Animal." Houston sports talk legend Charlie Pallilo helped launch the new sports station and remained with the station for almost 12 years. The ESPN affiliation lasted until January 2007, when the network moved its programming to
Cumulus Media-owned
KFNC/97.5. At that point, KBME's sports talk programming shifted to a mix of local shows and programs from
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...
, including the launch in late 2009 of "Matt & Adam in the Morning," a morning show hosted by Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler, who both moved over from
KILT. "Matt & Adam" became "The Big Show" in fall 2011, when Lance Zierlein joined Jackson and Wexler. Previous hosts on KBME include Brad Davies, Carl Dukes, Ted Deluca, John Lopez, David Dalati, Tom Franklin.
During Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, The Sports Animal was an affiliate of
United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans, originating from WWL-AM, and parent company Clear Channel's New Orleans radio stations. The Sports Animal simulcasted their aftermath coverage as a public service to those who may have evacuated to the Houston area, and continued to do so until November 2005.
Live sports programming
KBME is the flagship station for
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
basketball,
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
baseball.
Beginning with the
2012-2013 season, KBME became flagship station to the
NBA's Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
, with iHeartMedia (then known as Clear Channel Communications) acquiring the team's radio rights from
CBS Radio-owned
KILT. In April
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
, KBME became the flagship station to
Major League Baseball's Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
, with broadcasts moving from sister station
KTRH.
"Astros switch radio flagship to KBME,"
from ''Houston Chronicle'', 2/5/2013 For an interim period, games were simulcast on both stations. Prior to the move, KBME aired select Astros spring training
Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...
games.
Astros coverage is also livestreamed on iHeartRadio; however due to MLB rules, it is blacked out beyond the station's coverage area.
References
External links
FCC History Cards for KBME
{{IHeartMedia
Sports radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1944
BME
1944 establishments in Texas
IHeartMedia radio stations