City Houston, Texas Branding KXYZ 1320 First air date August 24, 1926 | Broadcast area Greater Houston Frequency 1320 kHz Format Brokered | |
KXYZ is an AM radio station in Greater Houston, which broadcasts on 1320 kHz under ownership of Multicultural Broadcasting. KXYZ features brokered programming, in which station management sells airtime by the hour to interested third parties wishing to broadcast over the air. The transmitter is in Pasadena, Texas.
History
On June 17, 1948, the Federal Communications Commission approved purchase of Harris County Broadcasting Company, owners of KXYZ, by Shamrock Broadcasting Company, owned by Glenn H. McCarthy.
During the 1960s, KXYZ was owned by ABC and played beautiful music. The station was well known in the 1960s for its vividly descriptive station identification promos, such as:
"In Houston's downtown area, lifeless mannequins draped in the latest attire stand stiff and silent in the shops, which a few hours ago buzzed with the excitement of bargain-hunting shoppers... now relaxing at home to Beautiful KXYZ Music." "The almost-deserted parking garage is lonely and unfamiliar to a late-staying office worker, whose footsteps echo as he walks to his car and turns on the radio. And the lonely feeling is dispelled by Beautiful KXYZ Music."In the mid-1970s, the format changed to pop music. Around 1980 it changed over to a Christian station.
In 1983, Infinity absorbed KXYZ. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it was a Spanish language contemporary music station known as "Radio 13" that was owned by Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio). During this period, KXYZ carried Houston Astros games in Spanish. KXYZ then carried the Spanish Talk format of satellite network Radio Unica. Multicultural Broadcasting bought KXYZ from Infinity/CBS and Biz Radio made its debut in the early years of the 2000s (decade).
Biz Radio left KXYZ for KTEK in Alvin, Texas. It purchased KTEK and began signal testing in November 2007 simulcasting with KXYZ until December 11, 2007. The only drawback of the move to KTEK is that its signal is only licensed to broadcast during the daytime, while KXYZ has nighttime authorization.