KBED (1510 AM; branded as Sports Radio Beaumont) 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 radi ...

serving the Beaumont- Port Arthur area with a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

format. It is under ownership of

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

, and is simulcast with sister station KIKR AM 1450 Beaumont, Texas. Its studios are located on South Eleventh Street in Beaumont and its transmitter is located south of

Vidor, Texas Vidor ( ) is a city in western Orange County, Texas, United States. A city of Southeast Texas, it lies at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Farm to Market Road 105, east of Beaumont. The town is mainly a bedroom community for the nearby re ...

History

KBED was initially proposed by Felix & James Joynt in 1959. The Joynts requested to obtain a construction permit to build a 1 kilowatt daytime broadcasting radio station at 1510 kHz, under the name KWEN Broadcasting on October 26, 1959, which was filed by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

the following day. The proposed facility was constructed 3 miles northwest of 16th Street, on

U.S. Highway 69 U.S. Route 69 (US 69) is a major north–south United States highway. When it was first created, it was only long, but it has since been expanded into a Minnesota to Texas cross-country route. The highway's southern terminus (as well a ...

in Port Arthur, receiving a License to Cover on February 20, 1969. The facility was issued its first callsign KCAW, standing for Country And Western, on November 7, 1968. The Joynts would file to modify the location of the transmission site to a location on

Texas State Highway 347 State Highway 347 (SH 347) is a Texas state highway that runs northwest from Port Arthur to the southern edge of Beaumont. The highway is signed south–north. It was designated on November 25, 1942 along the old route of US 69. Route descripti ...

, .7 miles northwest of 39th Street, which is where the facility signed on from in Port Arthur. That tower now is used as a cell site tower. The transmitter was moved to its current South Vidor location (where its former FM sister KYKR-FM was located) when the FCC approved a power increase from 1,000 watts to the current 5,000 watts on August 1, 1980. Accompanied by the upgrade in ERP, the Community of License was changed to Nederland, as well. The callsign changed to KYKR, along with its FM sister 93.3, in 1974. Eventually, owner Jimmie Joynt sold both the AM and FM to different owners. 1510 saw a couple of different owners (including Clear Channel at one time) including various religious owners. On January 4, 1988, the KYKR tower in South Vidor suffered a massive fire believed to be arson. Both 93.3 FM and 1510 AM transmitters were lost. KYKR struggled with borrowed equipment to make it back on the air at low power and eventually recovered. Because it shares the same frequency as " clear channel" radio station

WLAC WLAC (1510 AM) – branded ''Talkradio 98.3 & 1510'' – is a commercial talk radio radio station licensed to serve Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station covers the Nashville metropolitan area. The WLAC studios are locate ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

, KBED only broadcasts during the

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's he ...

hours.

External links

Sports radio stations in the United States

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Cumulus Media radio stations

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