KVTR (1590 AM, "Qué Buena 106.1 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 ...

that is

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 ...

Victorville, California Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. Victorville is the principal city of a Victor Valley–based urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau: ...

and serves the

Victor Valley The Victor Valley is a valley in the Mojave Desert and subregion of the Inland Empire, in San Bernardino County in Southern California. It is located east of the Mojave's Antelope Valley, north of the Cajon Pass and the San Bernardino Valley, n ...

area. The station is owned by RuDex Broadcasting and broadcasts 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 branded as "Qué Buena 106.1 FM", referring to its three-

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 ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

K291CM on 106.1 MHz in Victorville.

History

The station first went on-air September 1, 1961, as KCIN, a 500-

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 ...

originally owned by Victor Valley Broadcasters. In 1966, Top-Dial Broadcasters bought the station for $66,000; that company sold it to Dynamic Radio Broadcasting, led by Roger P. Brandt, for twice that amount in 1976. In 1978, Sidney King purchased KCIN for $160,000. In August 1989, King's Crown Broadcasting attempted to sell KCIN 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 ...

KATJ-FM KATJ-FM (100.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station located in Victorville, California, that serves the Victor Valley area. The station is owned by El Dorado Broadcasters and broadcasts a country music format. The official city of license is George ...

(100.7 FM) to Victor Valley Broadcasting (a different entity from the aforementioned company) for $1.36 million. The potential buyer was a company led by Kenneth Devine, Peter Trosclair, and John Binsfield, all partners in a

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

–based engineering company. However, that transaction was unsuccessful. Crown then struck a deal with Island Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Scott Brady and Richard Sadowsky, in October 1990 to purchase the combo for $1.575 million. The

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) approved the transfer of both stations' licenses to the new owner December 21. In January 1995, Island Broadcasting sold KCIN and KATJ-FM to Park Lane Group for $1.8 million. The new owner flipped the station from

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 ...

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 ...

and changed its

call letters 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 Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

to KROY in honor of country musician

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer. Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...

, who lived in nearby Apple Valley. KROY also aired live coverage of the

High Desert Mavericks The High Desert Mavericks were an American Minor League Baseball team in Adelanto, California, that played their home games at Heritage Field at Stater Bros. Stadium. They played in the Class A-Advanced California League. The franchise had eight d ...

, a now-defunct

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

team playing in the

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leagu ...

. In June 1997,

Regent Communications Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

purchased Park Lane Group's 16 stations in California and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, including KROY, for a total of $23.5 million. In April 2000,

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 ...

proposed a complex station swap with Regent Communications which would have involved 20 stations nationwide, including KROY, and a payment of over $67 million by Regent to Clear Channel. This deal was one of many divestitures required of Clear Channel and AMFM, Inc. by the FCC as a condition of their merger, in order to satisfy ownership caps in each affected media market. While this exchange was not implemented fully, Clear Channel did acquire KROY and KATJ-FM. The call sign changed to KATJ in 2001, then to KRSX in 2003, and finally to KVTR in 2013.

References

External links

* * * {{coord, 34, 32, 15, N, 117, 18, 42, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title VTR Victorville, California VTR Radio stations established in 1961 1961 establishments in California