KTKT
| City | Tucson, Arizona |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Southern Arizona |
| Branding | 990am ESPN Deportes Radio |
| Frequency | 990 kHz |
| Translator(s) | 94.3 K232FD (Tortolita) |
| First air date | 1948 (at 1490) |
| Format | Spanish Sports |
| Power | 10,000 watts day 490 watts night |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 2744 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°15′19.00″N 111°0′32.00″W / 32.2552778°N 111.0088889°W |
| Former frequencies | 1490 kHz (1948-1956) |
| Affiliations | ESPN Deportes Radio |
| Owner |
Lotus Communications Corporation (Arizona Lotus Corp.) |
| Sister stations | KFMA-FM, KLPX-FM, KCMT-FM |
| Website | ESPN Deportes Radio website |
KTKT (990 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish sports radio format. Licensed to Tucson, Arizona, United States, the station serves the Tucson area. The station is currently owned by Lotus Communications Corporation and features programing from ESPN Deportes Radio. Its studios and transmitter are located separately in Northwest Tucson.
KTKT was once an English-language station that broadcast games of the Tucson Sidewinders and Tucson Toros minor league baseball teams.
At the end of the 1940s KTKT began its broadcasting history at 1490 AM. Originally owned by Thomas J. Wallace, Sr; Tom Breneman, Sr.';and Art Linkletter in 1948. (The two "T's" in KTKT were for the two Toms)
After Mr. Brenemen’s untimely death Mr. Wallace came to Tucson from Los Angeles to run the station. Tom Wallace, Sr. started his radio career in Chicago where he was Uncle Walter in the 1940s radio classic 'Uncle Walter's Dog House". He went on to produce other classic radio shows including ‘Blind Date’ with Arlene Francis, ‘Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” with Fran Allison, and The Red Skelton Show.
Because all the existing national radio networks were taken, KTKT became an independent, and its programming was mostly music. For a short time they were an affiliate of the short-lived Liberty Broadcasting System formed around the play-by-play sportscasts of "The Old Scotsman", Gordon McLendon.
With the advent of TV a few years later KTKT was positioned to provide the growing music and news service which still characterizes radio. Wallace built his station on Elm, just west of Miracle Mile, in two war surplus military buildings which were moved onto the site. In the early '50s Chuck Blore (spelled Blower then) became one of Tucson's most popular personalities on KTKT, with his six-hour afternoon program called, "Let's Play Records." Blore was a very creative radio personality, and went on to become one of radio's top programmers, starting Los Angeles' first "Top 40" station, the legendary KFWB in 1958. He later owned one of the top commercial production companies in Hollywood.
KTKT was doing well, but by the mid-1950s Tom Wallace thought they could do better and, like KCNA, reach more Southern Arizona listeners. They filed to move to 990 kHz, with 10,000 watts of power and a directional antenna system, operating only from sunrise to sunset. Engineer Nat Talpis supervised construction of two towers, located off West Grant Road near Silverbell where the KTKT/KLPX studios were located for many years. Within minutes after KTKT signed off 1490, KAIR signed on and continued playing the music which the audience was used to hearing. Hal Peary, known to network radio audiences as the "Great Gildersleeve" was one of the KAIR owners, and he taped voice tracks for a daily program in Hollywood which was mailed to Tucson for broadcast (voice tracking isn't a new idea!).
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