KHTY (970 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

and serving inland

Central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the U.S. state of California, north of Southern California (which includes Los Angeles and San Diego) and south of Northern California (which includes San Francisco and San Jose, ...

. The station is 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 ...

. KHTY and

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KBFP

800 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 800 kHz: 800 AM is a Mexican clear-channel frequency; XEROK Ciudad Juárez, is the dominant station on 800 AM. See also List of broadcast station classes. In Argentina * LT43 in Cha ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

format as

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

s of

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 ...

. KHTY and KBFP air live play-by-play sports, including the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

, the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

, the

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

and the

Bakersfield Condors The Bakersfield Condors are a professional ice hockey team based in Bakersfield, California. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Condors play their home games at Dignity Healt ...

. Car racing is covered by the

Motor Racing Network Motor Racing Network (MRN) is an American radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary ...

and the

Performance Racing Network The Performance Racing Network or PRN for short is a radio syndication network controlled by Speedway Motorsports (SMI) founded in 1981. PRN airs NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series events held at Speedway Motorsports owned tracks. PRN fi ...

. By day, KHTY is powered at 1,000

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. KHTY is a rare AM station that increases its power at night, running 5,000 watts. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a three-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

.Radio-Locator.com/KHTY
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History

The station on 970 first

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air in . Its original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was KBIS. It was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

, operating at a power of 1,000

s and required to go off the air at sunset. In June 1976, Westco Media sold KBIS to Thunderbird Broadcasting, owned by popular

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' country music chart. He pioneered what came ...

, for $382,500. Owens lived in Bakersfield. As Thunderbird already owned

KUZZ KUZZ (550 kHz) and KUZZ-FM (107.9 MHz) are commercial radio stations licensed to Bakersfield, California. They are owned by Buck Owens Production Company (which is controlled by the estate of country star Buck Owens) and the licenses are held ...

(then at 800 AM) in Bakersfield, and

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

(FCC) regulations at the time prohibited ownership of multiple AM stations within the same market, that company sold KUZZ to the

International Church of the Foursquare Gospel The Foursquare Church is an international Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. It lies within the evangelical tradition. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States. H ...

for $100,000. The FCC approved both license transfers on November 16, and KBIS adopted the KUZZ call letters the following January. In August 1984, Buck Owens Broadcasting orchestrated a frequency swap with Sunset Broadcasting Corp., owner of KAFY. Owens traded KUZZ, a daytimer on 970 AM, to Sunset for KAFY — located on the stronger, full-time 550 AM frequency — plus $650,000 in cash. The 970 AM frequency took on the KAFY call letters in January 1986. In April 1987, Sunset Broadcasting, headed by Daren McGavren, sold KAFY to McGavren-Barro Broadcasting Corp. — owned by his son Steve McGavren and Mary Helen Barro — for $700,000. At the time of the sale, KAFY was broadcasting in the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

. In April 2000, Hispanic Media Group, headed by Amancio Suarez Sr., sold KAFY and a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

for a second AM station in Bakersfield to Golden Pegasus Financial Services for $825,000. At the time, KAFY broadcast a

regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

music format. The station would change hands once again by the end of the year as

Clear Channel Communications 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 ...

purchased the newly rechristened KZPM for $1.4 million. Throughout the 2000s under Clear Channel ownership, the 970 AM frequency took on various call signs and formats. In May 2001, Clear Channel began using the KZTK call sign on the then-

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

outlet. In September 2002, the call letters changed to KGET to match those of television station

KGET-TV KGET-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Bakersfield, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW Plus. Owned by CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group, KG ...

, at the time also owned by Clear Channel. The radio station KGET was branded "News Talk 970 KGET". In January 2006, the KGET call letters were changed to KHTY. The station at the time was a classic hits radio station branded as "Mighty 970". In 2007, KHTY switched back to news/talk with the branding "Business 970 KHTY". Later that year, KHTY began airing a news/talk format in Spanish. On March 2, 2009, KHTY flipped to

with the branding "Fox Sports 970". On June 13, 2022, KHTY began simulcasting on KBFP 800 AM Bakersfield, replacing that station's comedy format.Fox Sports Doubles In Bakersfield
Radioinsight - June 13, 2022

Programming

The station lineup includes ''

The Dan Patrick Show ''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and inde ...

'', ''

The Herd with Colin Cowherd ''The Herd with Colin Cowherd'' (or simply ''The Herd'') is an American sports talk show hosted by Colin Cowherd. A simulcast, it airs as both a sports talk radio show and television broadcast on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1, respectively. ...

'', ''

The Doug Gottlieb Show ''The Doug Gottlieb Show'' is an afternoon drivetime sports talk and debate radio show on Fox Sports Radio that airs weekdays 3–6pm ET. The show was formerly on ESPN Radio from 2006-2012. Since debuting on November 13, 2006, the host of the prog ...

'', '' The Jason Smith Show'' and ''

The Ben Maller Show Benjamin "Big Ben" Maller (born April 29, 1975) is an American sports radio host who hosts a The Ben Maller Show, weekday radio show on Fox Sports Radio, which airs 11pm-3am PT/2am-6am ET. Maller is considered one of the first influential sports ...

''. Also on KHTY and KBFP are broadcasts of the

, the

and the

. Car racing is covered by the

and the

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KHTY
* * * - Heard exclusively on Fox Sports 970 {{IHeartMedia HTY Radio stations established in 1958 Sports radio stations in the United States Fox Sports Radio stations IHeartMedia radio stations 1958 establishments in California