City Los Ybanez, Texas | ERP 50,000 watts | |
Broadcast area Los Ybanez-Lamesa & Terry, Lynn, Garza, Dawson, and Borden Counties Branding 98.5FM The West Texas Jukebox Frequency 98.5 (previously on 107.9)MHz Format Country and More (Rock Album cuts) | ||
KJJT Los Ybanez, Texas is an FM station in one of the smallest cities of license regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. The city was created for the purpose of authorizing sales of liquor, which was not allowed in the county and surrounding area.
Contents
History
KJJT was originally known as KYMI. While this was randomly assigned by the FCC (other new stations in this group were named KYMF, KYMG, KYMH, KYMJ, KYMK, etc.) and most of these changed names before actually going into operation, KYMI stayed with the name using the retronym of "K Ybanez Mary and Israel". The founders (of the town as well as the station) were Israel and Mary Ybanez.
The station was initially on 107.9 mHz. It was moved to 98.5 as a result of changes at KADM (now KQLM) Odessa who moved from a class C2 permit on 107.7 to a class C1 (more power, more antenna height) on 107.9. This obligated that station to move the station in Los Ybanez to a new, comparable channel, compensate them for changes in equipment, and pay to promote the changes .
The station had been programmed pursuant to a brokered time agreement where a group in Brownfield, TX was running a religious outreach. That group continues to this day. The group stopped feeding the station in March 2007, and the station went silent.
In November 2007, KYMI was sold to KYMI FM LLC, and its license sub KYMI License Sub LLC. The previous owner had not filed for license renewal in 2005. The next owner had to work with the previous owner to reinstate the authorization. The transmitter site (located west of Lamesa, Texas on the Seminole Highway) was rebuilt with new air conditioning, new electrical wiring, and a rebuilt transmitter. the call letters were changed to KBXJ. The station returned to the air with a format of all Christmas music. The station called itself "Christmas 98.5" and began 24-hour-a-day operation. After Christmas the station aired a grab bag format of all kinds of music. In February 2008, the station began airing a format called "The West Texas Jukebox". The format is Country Music with Album cuts by Rock artists. The station also airs a few overflow sports broadcasts from KPET with which it shares facilities at 1 Radio Road.
Local Programs
"Football Picks" in the fall when local politicians, students, and business owners are interviewed as to their best guess for local, area, and national contests. "Ask The Vets" Q & A with renowned vets from Brock Veterinary Clinic. A Christian music program airs en Espanol each Sunday afternoon 2-4pm.
In April 2011, KBXJ trimmed some sports broadcasts and expanded its library of music.
In a pair of concurrent transactions, KYMI FM LLC sold the station to Israel Ybanez, who in turn sold it to Jesus Pena Acosta. The sale to Acosta was consummated on March 17, 2014.
Off air
On May 26, 2014, the station changed its call sign to the current KJJT. The format of general interest music en espanol was redubbed "La Original" (The Original) tied to the fact that the music is a throw backl to the old KJJT station, a small daytime AM in Odessa called KJJT. That station operated between 1979 and about 1990 when call letters had changed to KNDA and the station handed in its license. The current KJJT on 98.5 has had numerous instances of downtime; i.e. it spent most of April 2016 off the air (no carrier) or in dead air (no audio on a silent carrier). These have often run for days and weeks at a time. It is unknown what is happening, since the station rarely files with the FCC.
KJJT has been off the air since April. On June 30 an application was made to the FCC for silent authority. They claimed they'd had a serious breakdown. This was extended in late 2016. KJJT now faces "drop dead" May 2, 2017.