KABT (101.7 FM), "The Patriot" is an

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

Texas country Texas country music (more popularly known just as Texas country or Texas music) is a subgenre of country music from Texas. Texas country is a style of Western music and is often associated with other distinct neighboring styles, including Red D ...

southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...

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 ...

serving the

Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor County, Texas, Taylor and Jones County, Texas, Jones counties, Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan ar ...

, area and licensed to nearby

Hawley, Texas Hawley is a city in Jones County, Texas, United States. Its population was 545 at the 2020 census. History The community is named for Congressman Robert B. Hawley. On evening of May 2, 2024, a strong EF3 tornado struck southwest of Hawley. ...

. The station is owned by WesTex Communications. The 101.7 facility went on the air at the end of 2018 as KTJK, with a variety hits format. WesTex acquired the station in 2021 and relaunched it as "The Raider" with the same music format. In 2023, The Raider moved to 106.3 MHz, and 101.7 was relaunched with its present format.

History

Then operating under the call sign KTJK, the station began airing content under a new commercial license in late winter 2018, adopting a variety hits format after a seasonal broadcast of all Christmas music. The license and equipment was purchased in early 2021 by WesTex Telco, which operated KTJK as variety hits 101.7 The Raider. The station was named after the

Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American strategic bomber in development for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Northrop Grumman. Part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program, it is to be a stealth aircraft, stealth interconti ...

, a heavy bomber under development and to be housed at nearby

Dyess Air Force Base Dyess Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located about southwest of downtown Abilene, Texas, and west of Fort Worth, Texas. The host unit at Dyess is the 7th Bomb Wing assigned to the Global Strike Command Ei ...

. In 2022, WesTex acquired KKHR (106.3 FM) and the other Abilene stations owned by Canfin Enterprises; it began moving The Raider and the call sign to the higher-power 106.3 facility with a simulcast on August 1, 2023. On August 8, the KKHR call letters briefly moved to 101.7 MHz; on August 21, the station debuted a new format mixing

Americana music Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of Music of the United States, American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States of America, with particul ...

with Southern rock and red dirt country music, known as The Patriot, plus Texas Rangers baseball; team organist Dustin Tatro is the operations manager for the WesTex stations. New KABT call letters were adopted on September 1, 2023.

References

External links

{{coord, 32.511, N, 99.742, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title ABT Radio stations established in 2018 2018 establishments in Texas Americana radio stations