City Port Arthur, Texas Frequency 93.3 MHz Format Regional Mexican | Branding "93.3" First air date 1980 | |
Broadcast area Golden Triangle/Greater Houston | ||
KQBU-FM (93.3 FM, "93.3") is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. The studios are located at the Univision building at 5100 Southwest Freeway in Houston, Texas and transmitter is located in Devers, Texas. Licensed to Port Arthur, Texas, United States, it primarily serves the Beaumont-Port Arthur area (it formerly served the Greater Houston area). It first began broadcasting in the 1950's under the call sign KCAW-FM. The station is currently owned by Univision Radio (DBA Tichenor License Corporation). The call letters changed to KQBU-FM on March 10, 2009.
Contents
Station history
KQBU-FM was first assigned the call sign KCAW-FM at sign on, as it was originally the FM counterpart of 1510 KCAW (now KBED) Port Arthur. The call sign was changed to KYKR-FM on April 1, 1980, rebranding as "Kicker 93". Both the AM & FM remained in simulcast, with 1510 also acquiring the KYKR calls. On July 2, 1992, the call sign was changed to KLTN, after the move from Port Arthur to Devers, as "Estereo Latino 93.3". On June 25, 1998, the station was then changed to "K-Love 93.3 y 104.9", a simulcast with 104.9 FM (now KAMA-FM), with the new call sign KOVE-FM. On July 30, 2001, the call sign was changed to KQBU-FM with the moniker "La Que Buena 93.3" for its first run on this frequency.
"Party 93-3"
On December 4, 2007, KQBU, Que Buena 93.3, a Regional Mexican outlet, became the new home of the "Party", who relocated to make room for KAMA "Amor 104.9". After that switch was made, it added the syndicated Big Boy's Neighborhood, with Big Boy, Luscious Liz, and Tattoo. The KPTY call sign was officially moved to 93.3 FM on December 11, 2007.
On July 5, 2008, the station immediately stopped targeting the Greater Houston area. Everything that the station had that referenced Houston were immediately dropped, including its slogan, and even moved its broadcasting studios from Southwest Houston to Beaumont. The move was noticed in the ratings, as KPTY, which had good numbers in the Houston Arbitrons, began to dip after the frequency switch and in the process, lost a fraction of listeners due to the 93.3 signal not covering all of the Houston metro.
Return to "Que Buena 93.3"
On February 27, 2009, Univision's Houston cluster announced that it was letting go most of its employees. KPTY would unfortunately be the biggest casualty of this move as the entire airstaff was pink-slipped and the station went jockless. At 10 P.M. on February 28, the station went live for a nightclub broadcast as scheduled. Many of the personalities that saw the format through its run from its early days at 100.7 and then later on 104.9, were on hand to send off "Houston's Party Station." At the end of the live broadcast at 2 A.M., the station returned to Regional Mexican and its former Que Buena 93.3 moniker on March 1. The call sign was officially changed back to KQBU-FM on March 10, 2009.