City | Pasadena, Texas |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Greater Houston |
Branding | CBS Sports Radio 650 |
Frequency | 650 kHz 95.7 HD-3 |
First air date | October 2, 1957 |
Format | Sports |
Language(s) | English |
Power | 250 watts |
Class | D (Daytime only) |
Facility ID | 25450 |
Transmitter coordinates | 29°41′18″N 95°10′29″W / 29.68833°N 95.17472°W |
Callsign meaning | KIcK (former country format branding) |
Former callsigns | KRCT (1957-1961) KIKK (1961-present) |
Affiliations | CBS Sports Radio |
Owner |
CBS Radio (sale to Entercom pending) (CBS Radio Texas Inc.) |
Sister stations | KHMX, KILT, KILT-FM, KKHH, KLOL |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | houston.cbslocal.com |
KIKK (650 AM) is a daytime-only station in the Houston, Texas area and broadcasts a sports radio format under ownership of CBS Radio. Despite different owners, KIKK and KHOU-TV maintain a strong partnership (as KHOU is the local CBS television affiliate). Its studios are located in the Greenway Plaza district, and its transmitter is located in Pasadena, Texas.
KIKK started as KRCT in 1947, licensed to Baytown. The Bay Broadcasting Company built the station and sold it to the Industrial Broadcasting Company in 1958, not long after moving it from Baytown. On May 1, 1961, KRCT changed call letters to the current KIKK. In the late 1960s, Industrial attempted to operate the station earlier than sunrise in Nashville, Tennessee, home to co-channel and clear channel station WSM, and begin operations at 6:00 am each day; this was denied at district court and appeals court, and the station's prior operation at such times was sanctioned with a $10,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s, 650 was a country music station. It often simulcasted with its FM sister station, the former KIKK-FM (now KKHH). In the late 1990s, 650 AM flipped to business news as "Business Radio 650".
KIKK changed formats in July 2004 to Hot Talk under the moniker KickAss 650, which became the Houston home for The Howard Stern Show. After Stern's move to Sirius Satellite Radio in December 2005, KIKK switched to a news format and was affiliated with CNN Headline News. Their early evening schedule was composed of Adult Standards music until 2008, when Headline News completely took over the rest of the schedule, but that network's continuous move away from rolling news to focus more on personality talk caused the station to seek other programming such as the Clark Howard Show, which then took up most of the station's schedule. In 2010, the station flipped to a local personality-emphasizing talk format (branded simply as "Talk 650"); however, it switched to an all-syndicated lineup in July 2011.