KILT (AM)

KILT
City of license Houston, Texas
Broadcast area Greater Houston
Branding Sports Radio 610
Frequency 610 kHz
First air date 1948
May 8, 1957 as KILT
Format Sports/Talk
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 25440
Transmitter coordinates 29°55′4″N 95°25′33″W / 29.91778°N 95.42583°W
Former callsigns KLEE, KLBS
Affiliations Houston Texans
Owner CBS Radio
(CBS Radio Texas Inc.)
Sister stations KHMX, KIKK, KILT-FM, KKHH, KLOL
Webcast Listen Live
Website sportsradio610.com

KILT (610 AM, "Sports Radio 610") is a Sports/Talk formatted radio station in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by CBS Radio. KILT shares its call letters with its sister station 100.3 FM, which airs a country music format. KILT was the legendary Top 40 outlet in Houston as the "Big 610" until 1981 when it dropped the longtime format and moniker to simulcast KILT-FM "FM 100", which had recently flipped formats from Album Rock to Country itself. After 13 years of running country music on 610, it moved to sports talk in 1994. KILT is the flagship station of the NFL's Houston Texans and the Texans Radio Network. It has aired every Texans game since the team's inception into the league in 2002. Its studios are located in the Greenway Plaza district, and its transmitter is located near the Greenspoint district of northwest Houston.

History

The station was, for 24 years, the leading Top 40 station in Houston, simply named the "Big 610 KILT". It was owned by Gordon McLendon, and used PAMS jingles that featured the call letters being sung out over the air. In 1981, when sister station KILT-FM dropped album rock for country during the "Urban Cowboy" craze that swept through Houston, 610 dropped its famed Top 40 format for a simulcast of their FM sister station. The current sports-talk format has been in place since 1994. The station has been the top-rated sports-talk format since its inception, with only a few brief exceptions.

Programming

Shaun Bijani (left) and Paul Gallant airing live from a sports collectors show in Houston.

Flagship station for the Houston Texans

Additional programming/hosts:

Controversy

In 2007, a lawsuit was filed by then morning show co-host John Granato against CBS.[1][2] This ultimately led to Granato leaving 610 and starting a new station: 1560 The Game. Shortly thereafter, his co-host Lance Zierlein joined him.

Notes

  1. ↑ http://blogs.chron.com/nfl/2007/04/on_texans_draft_granatos_lawsu.html
  2. ↑ http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=128140

External links