City Rupert, Idaho Frequency 970 kHz Format Regional Mexican | Broadcast area Twin Falls, Idaho First air date 1955-10-24 (as KAYT) | |
Branding La Patrona - La Que Manda | ||
KXTA (970 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Rupert, Idaho, United States, the station serves the Twin Falls area. The station is currently owned by Lee Family Broadcasting and features programming from GLR Networks.
History
The station was assigned the call letters KAYT on 1955-10-24. They changed to KBBK on 1985-01-01, and on 2000-02-24, the station changed its call sign to KFTA.
The station began its regional Mexican format on November 1, 1999, as "La Fantástica 970", under the direction of Benjamin Reed, a.k.a. "El Chupacabras." Reed is Anglo by birth, but is fluent in Spanish. Reed has also been featured in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hector Tobar's book, Translation Nation.
On March 1, 2013, the station began broadcasting the Spanish adult hits format "Juan" from Westwood One.
On August 4, 2014, KFTA changed their format to sports, branded as "The Zone", under new call letters, KZNO. The KZNO calls and "Zone" sports format were previously on 103.1 FM KEDJ, which switched to active rock as "The Edge".
On April 13, 2015, the station changed its call sign to the current KXTA. Its Regional Mexican oldies format returned to the air on June 6, 2015 at 7 PM. The station is again programmed by Benjamin Reed, "El Chupacabras."