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KTKT (990 AM) – branded ''La Buena 94.3FM & 990AM'' – 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 ...
Spanish language adult hits radio station licensed to serve
Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
. Owned by
Lotus Communications Lotus Communications Corporation is a media company that owns numerous radio stations and a few TV stations, and is one of the largest privately owned radio station groups in the United States. Headquarters are located in Los Angeles, and the co ...
, the covers the Tucson metropolitan area and
Southern Arizona Southern Arizona is a region of the United States comprising the southernmost portion of the State of Arizona. It sometimes goes by the name Gadsden or Baja Arizona, which means "Lower Arizona" in Spanish. Geography Although Southern Arizona ...
. The KTKT studios and transmitter are both located in northwest Tucson; in addition to a standard
analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an an ...
, KTKT is simulcast over low-power Tortolita
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 ...
K232FD (94.3 FM), and is available online.


History


Early years

In December 1949, KTKT first signed on at 1490 AM. The station's
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 ...
was originally granted by 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) to Thomas J. Wallace Sr., Tom Breneman Sr., and
Art Linkletter Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of '' House Party'', which ran on CBS radio ...
in 1948; the two "T's" in KTKT were for the two Toms, and the K was part of Linkletter's last name. Linkletter himself would go on to become a popular network television personality in the 1950s and 60s. The station has kept the same
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 ...
for its seven decades on the air. After Breneman’s untimely death, Wallace came to Tucson from Los Angeles to run the station. Wallace had started his radio career in Chicago where he was the host of a popular
children's radio Children's radio is a term used to refer to both Radio program, radio series and Radio format, formats designed specifically for Child, children. It has existed as far back as the beginning of Radio broadcasting, broadcasting in the 1920s, and surv ...
show, ''Uncle Walter's Dog House''. He went on to produce other classic radio shows, including ''
Blind Date A blind date is a romantic meeting between two people who have never met before. Both parties arrange a date with little to no information about each other, hoping for the possibility of making a lasting impression. Typically, a family member or ...
'' with
Arlene Francis Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American game show panelist, actress, radio and television talk show host. She is best known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game ...
, '' Kukla, Fran, and Ollie'' with
Fran Allison Frances Helen Allison (November 20, 1907June 13, 1989) was an American television and radio comedienne, personality, and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC-TV puppet show '' Kukla, Fran and Ollie'', which ran fr ...
, and ''The
Red Skelton Richard Bernard Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national old-time radio, radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelto ...
Show''. Because all the existing national radio networks already had
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 in Tucson, KTKT became an independent station, and its programming was mostly music. For a time, KTKT was an affiliate of the short-lived
Liberty Broadcasting System The Liberty Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Liberty; sometimes referred to as LBS, Liberty Radio or the Liberty Radio Network) was a U.S. radio network of the late 1940s and early 1950s founded by Gordon McLendon, which main ...
, formed around the play-by-play sportscasts of "The Old Scotsman",
Gordon McLendon Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986Texas State Historical AssociationMcClendon, Gordon Barton/ref>) was an American radio broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio", McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during ...
. Wallace built his station on Elm Street, just west of Miracle Mile, in two war surplus military buildings which were moved onto the site. In the early 1950s, Chuck Blore became one of Tucson's most popular personalities on KTKT with his six-hour afternoon program, ''Let's Play Records''. Blore was a creative radio personality, and went on to become one of radio's top programmers, starting Los Angeles' first
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 ...
station,
KFWB KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications, and airs a classic regional Mexican music radio format. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. ...
, in 1958, and later owned one of the top commercial production companies in Hollywood.


Adding an FM station

In March 1954, the Wallaces put Tucson's first FM station on the air, KTKT-FM (99.5). Disappointed that classical music was not being heard in Tucson, Tom Wallace hired Jack Frakes, a drama teacher at Rincon High School, as KTKT-FM's first announcer and classical music programmer. KTKT-FM later changed its call sign to KFMM, standing for "FM on the Mountain" in anticipation of a move to Mount Bigelow that was never made. On Sundays, the two stations would
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) ...
to demonstrate something new: stereophonic sound on FM. The first stereo program in Tucson was on KTKT and KTKT-FM from 2 to 3 PM Sundays, played from the FM studio; the AM and FM stations broadcast separate audio channels.


Frequency move

Wallace made plans to move KTKT to a lower frequency which would give it a wider coverage area. He wanted to reach more Southern Arizona listeners who were moving to the suburbs. In 1958, KTKT moved to 990 kHz, with 10,000 watts of power and a directional antenna system, but because 990 AM is a clear channel frequency, it had to be a daytimer, only operating from sunrise to sunset. Engineer Nat Talpis supervised construction of two towers, located off West Grant Road near Silverbell, where the KTKT studios were located for many years. Within minutes after KTKT signed off 1490 AM, a new station, KAIR signed on and continued playing the music which the audience was used to hearing on 1490. (In fact, KAIR had alleged that KTKT took too long to change frequencies.) Harold Peary, known to network radio audiences as ''
The Great Gildersleeve ''The Great Gildersleeve'' was a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States from August 31, 1941 to 1958. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. The series was buil ...
'', was one of the KAIR owners; while in Hollywood, he taped voice tracks for his new station which were mailed to Tucson for broadcast. On its new home at 990, KTKT was nicknamed "Color Channel 99." Wallace formally transferred KTKT ownership to the new Copper State Broadcasting Corporation, though it remained in the hands of the Wallace family. Tom Sr. was the boss, Tom Jr. handled engineering, and George Wallace also was an executive.


Top 40 music

When the AM station's ratings declined, Wallace hired a young Frank Kalil to do the programming, moving KTKT to a
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 ...
sound. Kalil programmed the new
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
"Color Radio" style music and news format which quickly moved daytimer KTKT into Tucson's number one spot, where it remained into the early 1980s. From 1956 to 1966, Frankie Kalil was considered the "voice" of Tucson radio. KTKT once broadcast games of the
Tucson Sidewinders Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson metropolitan s ...
and
Tucson Toros The Tucson Toros were a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The original Toros were a Triple-A minor league baseball team in the Pacific Coast League from 1969 to 1997, where they won the PCL Championship in ...
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 ...
teams. In 1960, the Wallaces applied to begin operation at night with 1,000 watts.


Changes in ownership

Late in 1960, the family sold KTKT to the Leland Bisbee group. A new manager, Phil Richardson, took over, and financially the station began to prosper. The FM station was split off and purchased by Lee Little, owner of KTUC, and later became top-rated
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 ...
station KIIM-FM. The Leland Bisbee group sold KTKT to
Lotus Communications Lotus Communications Corporation is a media company that owns numerous radio stations and a few TV stations, and is one of the largest privately owned radio station groups in the United States. Headquarters are located in Los Angeles, and the co ...
in 1972. In late 1985, as contemporary music listening moved to FM, Lotus dropped KTKT's live Top 40 format, to carry the
Transtar Radio Networks Transtar was the first radio network to provide 24-hour music programming to local affiliates. The slate of 24-hour networks is now owned by Westwood One and operated by Dial Global. The studios were located in Valencia, California. History T ...
'
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
satellite feed from Los Angeles.


All-news, sports talk and Spanish

In the spring of 1989, KTKT dropped music altogether to become an
all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...
station, airing the audio feed of
CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by Tur ...
. In the early 1990s, KTKT was an affiliate of Sports Entertainment Network, a sports-oriented
talk radio 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, Interview (jo ...
network (which underwent several ownership and name changes over the years and is now known as SportsMap Radio Network), but due to low ratings switched back to CNN Headline News by early 1994. The station was also, for a time, the Tucson radio affiliate of 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 ...
. In 2001, the station became the Tucson radio affiliate of the
Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...
. In November 2004, KTKT dropped almost all sports and news programming to air a Spanish-language Norteño oldies format (that style being popular among many Latinos in Tucson). In 2005, KTKT dropped music and adopted the
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
Spanish-language sports format not long after it launched nationally. but would later drop it to air Spanish-language adult hits.


References


External links


KTKT Tribute website
* * {{Lotus Communications TKT TKT Radio stations established in 1948 1948 establishments in Arizona Lotus Communications stations