KBXX (97.9 FM) is a commercial

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 ...

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 ...

. It airs an urban-leaning rhythmic contemporary

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, mostly made up of

hip-hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

and R&B. It is owned by Urban One as part of a five station cluster with KMJQ, KKBQ, KHPT, and KGLK. The studios and offices are located in the Greenway Plaza district. KBXX has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Farm to Market Road 2234, near Fort Bend Parkway in Southwest Houston. It broadcasts in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

hybrid format. Previously, the HD2 subchannel aired

Vietnamese language Vietnamese () is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language Speech, spoken primarily in Vietnam where it is the official language. It belongs to the Vietic languages, Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is s ...

programming, both talk and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

. KBXX-HD2 provided the primary feed for

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

101.7 K269GT in Humble.

History

As KFMK

The station originally signed on in 1958 with a popular music format as KFMK, but later migrated to a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

format. By 1967, KFMK moved to a Top 40 format, competing against KRBE and had a slight advantage over KRBE because it was in stereo, although the latter had a stronger signal at the time. By May 1968, KFMK transitioned to become Houston's first

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

station, known as "Mother Radio" (a name later referenced by KLOL, which was known as "Mother's Family"). In early 1969, KFMK abruptly changed to a Christian format. The station reverted to

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 ...

in the late 1970s, which would then transition to an

Oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

-oriented AC format in the 1980s. This hybrid format lasted until the station flipped to its current format.

As KBXX

On April 2, 1991, after a period of stunting, the station flipped to "The Box" with a new rhythmic contemporary format (alternatively referred to as "contemporary crossover" in the early years). The new KBXX callsign was implemented on April 22, 1991. It fiercely competed with longtime heritage urban station KMJQ until Clear Channel Communications bought KBXX in late 1994, then paired it with KMJQ the year after, also in that year, KMJQ flipped to urban adult contemporary. Despite being rhythmic, KBXX's music selection moved more toward a mainstream urban direction, focusing on hip hop and R&B music. Clear Channel spun off KBXX and KMJQ to Radio One in 2000. The morning show had been hosted by Madd Hatta since March 2001. He had been on KBXX since 1995, starting off in afternoons, before switching to morning drive time. In December 2019, Madd Hatta left the station; the following month, he was replaced with "Good Morning H-Town", hosted initially by Jerrel 'Hardbody Kiotti' Brown and Keisha Nicole; Kiotti would be replaced by former Madd Hatta Show co-host James 'J Mac' Garrett.

Programming

KBXX was moved to R&R's

Urban Contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, 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 contemporary r ...

Airplay panel in 2006, however it still remains on Mediabase's Rhythmic Airplay Panel. In spite of having an urban-driven playlist, the station retains its rhythmic format in order to target a multicultural audience in the Houston market."Part of a Rhythm Nation"
from Radio-Info (November 12, 2012)

References

External links

* {{Radio One Urban One stations BXX Rhythmic contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1991 1991 establishments in Texas