KNIT (AM)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KNIT
City of license	Dallas, Texas
Broadcast area	Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
Branding	"KNIT, Southern Gospel 1480"
First air date	1953 as KGKO
Frequency	1480 kHz
Format	Southern Gospel
Power	5,000 watts daytime, 1,900 watts nighttime
Class	B
Former callsigns	KGKO (1953-1958), KBOX (1958-1982), KMEZ (1982-1989), KDBN (1989-1991), KCMZ (1991-1993), KMRT (1993-1998), KDXX (1998-2002), KHCK (2002-2005)
Owner	JCE Licenses, LLC

KNIT is an AM Southern Gospel radio station that serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The station now known as KNIT signed on as KGKO in 1953, playing pop music and jazz. In 1958, KGKO changed calls to KBOX and adopted a Top 40 format to compete with Gordon McLendon's top-rated 1190 KLIF. Future WABC staple Dan Ingram was an early voice on KBOX. Within a year, the station, known variously as "Wonderful K-Box in Dallas," "Big Top Radio," and "Tiger Radio," had rocketed from the bottom of the ratings to a near-tie with KLIF, and remained highly rated through the coming decade. K-Box was also notable for being the only radio station covering President John F. Kennedy's motorcade live when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963 (although KLIF was widely acclaimed for its later coverage of the President's death and the ensuing events, it was not broadcasting live from the motorcade route).

However, the station was never able to defeat the Mighty 1190, and so on January 24, 1967, KBOX changed direction and went to a country format. The first song played on the new country KBOX was "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" by Buck Owens (a nod to the station's former "Tiger Radio" moniker). As a country station, KBOX remained a market leader into the 1970s, but by 1980, the station had fallen behind country competitors WBAP and KSCS in the ratings. In 1982, the station dropped the longtime KBOX calls to become KMEZ-AM and simulcast the Beautiful Music format of 100.3 KMEZ-FM (the former KBOX-FM, also formerly KTLC).

In 1989, KMEZ-AM broke away from the FM station to adopt a Business News/Talk format as KDBN. This was followed in 1991 by satellite-fed Adult Standards from the Unistar radio network (later Westwood One) as KCMZ.

Marcos Rodriguez purchased the station and changed the format to Banda, a variety of Spanish formats, with call sign KMRT (1993-1998). Marcos Rodriguez picked the calls to connote the retailer K Mart and imply good value for advertisers. KMRT was first in America to air Banda with an automated Audio Server delivery.

Eventually the calls changed to KDXX (1998-2002), and KHCK-AM (1998-2005, a simulcast of Tejano KHCK-FM "Kick FM" until the FM changed format to cumbia music and the AM continued as a standalone Tejano station for a few months). The current KNIT calls and Southern Gospel format were adopted in March 2005. The station was briefly owned by Salem Communications.