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KQBT, known as "B 101.7", is a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary radio station serving the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area. They are owned by Univision and its COL is Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Their frequency is 101.7 MHz on the FM dial with an effective radiated power of 3 kW.
Univision Radio has sold its other stations in the Albuquerque market to Centennial Media, but on May 15, 2008, KQBT was sold to Team Communications, which plans to replace the Rhythmic AC format with Sports Talk after the deal is completed.
[edit] History
101.7 signed on the air in 1988 as Regional Mexican outlet KZIA. In 1989 it became KZKL-FM with a 50's and 60's oldies format branded as "Kool 102". The station became very popular for much of the 1990's and would last for more than a decade. In 2000 it had rebranded as KQEO-FM a callsign that had once been used by a local AM top 40 station during the 60's until about the early 90's. However by that time it was battling KABG-FM 98.5 and by May 2002, it would drop the oldies format after 13 years. The new format by that time would be KOSZ-FM a soft adult contemporary format known as "Cozy 101.7". However at that time it's then-owner Simmons Media Group had opted to sell it's FM stations to Hispanic Broadcasting. The deal closed by November of that year and after just 5 months on the air KOSZ was changed to a Spanish Adult Contemporary format called "Viva 101.7" under new call letters KVVF-FM. After underperforming, "Viva" was dropped in April 2004, and the smooth jazz outlet KAJZ-FM, "The Horizon", that was broadcasting on 105.1 was moved to 101.7 to make way for a new classic country format on that frequency. But in October 2005 The Horizon was dropped in favor of the current format.
Initially KQBT had a rhythmic oldies format as "101.7 The Beat" but shifted to Rhythmic AC in the Summer of 2006 and re-branding as "B 101.7" adding current rhythmic hits and phasing out most of the pre-1980 songs it had previously played after the format generated low ratings. However it has since returned to playing mostly 70's and 80's rhythmic hits and continuing to generate low ratings.
The KQBT call letters originated on an Austin, Texas radio station now called KXBT, also nicknamed "The Beat."
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