City Sanger, Texas Frequency 89.7 MHz | Branding 89.7 WAY-FM First air date 1999 | |
Broadcast area Denton/McKinney/Fort Worth/Gainesville/
Sherman/Denison/Southern Oklahoma Slogan "Uplifting, Upbeat, Real." | ||
KAWA is a Contemporary Christian music (CCM) formatted radio station located in Dallas, Texas. It is a WAY-FM Network owned and operated station through Way Media, Inc. (a non-profit entity) and broadcasts on 89.7 FM. As a non-profit under previous ownership of Research Educational Foundation, Inc., it annually hosted two fund-raising drives to remain on the air. It broadcasts at 14,000 Watts from a tower in Sanger, Texas.
History
After a two-year stay in Florida, Eldred and Raye Nell Thomas, returned to the Dallas area and decided to start a Christian radio station. Through other business interests, Mr. Thomas learned of KVTT now [KKXT], an existing station that operated as an extension of Elkins Institute, a broadcasting training facility. With retirement looming, Bill Elkins, the founder and president of the Elkins Institute, wanted to find someone to continue with the station he had operated since 1950. In March 1976, Mr. Thomas became the president of Research Educational Foundation, Inc. and General Manager of KVTT. (Eldred and Raye Nell Thomas are now both deceased and KVTT's FM 91.7 frequency was sold to local public broadcaster KERA in 2009.)
In 1994, KVTT applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin broadcasting a full-time Christian rock station for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Around the same time, 1995, the station began to target the area youth with their music programming in the evenings with "Power Mix" on weeknights, "Youth Wake" (later "Lighthouse 21") on Saturday nights and Spin 180 on Sunday nights.
It took over 4 years for the application to be processed and granted by the FCC. A license was granted to broadcast at 14,000 watts as KTPW and transmit from a tower north of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Sanger, Texas on January 18, 1999. The new station began broadcasting July 27, 1999.
In 2004 REF Inc. released its responsibility to KVTT and is responsible only for Power FM.
The KVRK call letters were established June 14, 2004.
Power FM also has a TV show on JCTV called FM.
In May 2015, WAY-FM announced plans to acquire the station. The said acquisition was completed effective September 16, 2016 at a purchase price of $2 million, the call sign was changed to KAWA on September 24, 2015, and a slight format change from Christian Rock to CCM was made.
The previous "Power FM" format is still available to stream live through its internet presence and their app.
As of late September 2016, KAWA holds a construction permit to increase power from 14,000 to 45,000 watts, and an application to further increase to 90,000 watts.