KLTY is owned by the Salem Media Group with studios located in Irving, Texas, near Dallas and a transmitter in Cedar Hill. The format is similar to the "Fish" branded stations Salem owns elsewhere and its slogan is: "Your Life...Inspired". The station is considered the number one Adult Contemporary Christian Music station in the country with the largest number of listeners.
History
KLTY began playing a mix of Adult Contemporary Christian music. KLTY lasted only from early August 1985 to late September 1986 when station owner Scott K. Ginsburg changed the call letters to KHYI and changed the format to Top 40 as "Y-95". The transmitter site was not at Cedar Hill the primary antenna farm for Dallas radio, but instead transmitted from Lillian, Texas with over 30,000 watts of effective radiated power. Marcos A. Rodriguez was a fan of the original KLTY and saw potential in the format - especially if a radio station could play it 24 hours a day. He purchased the music library from Ginsburg and began planning the conversion of 94.1 to all CCM. However, he was unable to make a deal for the KLTY call letters. In the spring of 1989, with a free Michael W. Smith concert, Rodriguez created the first Celebrate Freedom-style event and relaunched the KLTY call letters. Marcos A. Rodriguez went on to produce Celebrate Freedom festivals at Southfork Ranch and build the event into one of the biggest Christian Music festivals in America. Rodriguez sold KLTY to Sunburst Media L.P. in 1999 for $63.3 million and retired. After the sale of KVIL it was the highest price ever paid for a Dallas FM. KLTY was on 100.7 MHz from January 2000 to December 2000, and was owned by Sunburst until it was sold to Salem. Salem swapped the Christian talk format that had been on 94.9 for nearly two and a half years known as "The Word", and placed the popular KLTY on a 94.9 signal while "The Word" went to 100.7. This placed the KLTY callsign back on its original frequency. KLTY now transmits with 100,000 watts ERP from Cedar Hill, Texas. While KLTY plays a Contemporary Christian music playlist, it has been classified as Adult Contemporary according to Mediabase. KLTY served as the de facto "AC" station for DFW from mid-2013 to late December 2016 due to CBS Radio-owned 103.7 KVIL contemporizing its playlist to focus on 1990s to current product before Mediabase moved the station to "Hot AC" a year later. As of December 26, 2016, KDGE in Fort Worth serves as the official "AC" station for DFW. KLAK in Tom Bean, Texas was another "AC" station that served areas north and east of the metroplex until it migrated to a "Hot AC" fare themselves in November 2017.
History of 94.9 FM
The 94.9 frequency has a rich history, long predating the current format and ownership. KCLE was established in 1949 in Cleburne, Texas, by owners Jim Gordon and George Marti at 94.3 FM and 1120 AM. Marti was later the inventor of microwave transmitters Employees included notables such as Russ Bloxom Don Harris and Mike Ambrose The station moved to 94.9 in 1957. In 1969, Gordon and Marti ended their partnership; Marti took the AM station and Gordon, the FM. Gordon flipped the FM to KFAD, with an underground/progressive rock format. Notables included Jon Dillon, writer Phillip Cook, Dave Thomas and Joe Nick Patoski while continuing the underground music format. By 1974, the format flipped to "Progressive Country" when former KFAD talent Biff Big Johnson convinced Dick Osburn and Program Director Ken Bateman to mix country and rock with a show called "The Country Sunday". It worked so well that the station dropped the underground rock and became the first 24-hour Progressive Country station in America. Biff had been the first jock when KSCS went Country the year before. KAMC was the only station in Dallas - Ft. Worth to play Outlaw Country artists like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. A notable employee of KAMC was Bill Merrill, who did play-by-play for the Texas Rangers. On June 19, 1976, with the station now licensed to Arlington, it was sold to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and became KWJS and to new KJIM calls in 1984. After the first incarnation of KLTY and then KHYI , 94.9 was home to KODZ "Oldies 94.9", starting on October 28, 1991. After one year, it flipped to classic country as KSNN "Sunny 95" at 12:11 p.m. on October 12, 1992. It then flipped to KEWS - "The First All-News FM Station in America, Made in Texas" on February 27, 1996. Religious talker KWRD was established at 94.9 on January 11, 1997 after a trade with KEWS-FM. As a result of the trade, KDFX-1190 AM became KWRD-FM, while KEWS-FM became KOOO-1190 AM.
On-air staff
Notable weekday hosts include , mid-days with , afternoon drive with and . Traffic is covered in morning and afternoon drive by Gail Lightfoot. Weekends include Frank, Starlene & Hudson, Tony Lopez, Bonnie Curry, MaryRose, Alan Craig, Kim Stewart, Big Mike, Laurie Lynn, Marc Anderson and Dave Harrison.
Awards and recognition
For years KLTY has been one of the leading radio stations in America. The National Association of Broadcasters has awarded KLTY a Marconi Award for being a "Top Major Market Station Of the Year" in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2012. In 2014 and 2016 KLTY was awarded the Marconi Award for "Religious Station of the Year". In 2004 KLTY earned the GMA Awards for Major Market Station of the Year and the Music Station of the Year award from National Religious Broadcasters. KLTY has the highest number of listeners for a radio station in the Adult CCM format. According to figures produced from the Arbitron survey released in 2013, KLTY now boasts more than a million listeners.
KLTY HD channels
As of April 2018, KLTY now broadcasts on HD Radio.
HD2
KLTY's secondary channel was initially launched as a simulcast of KLTY with a 60-second delay for signal testing. Days later, it was a simulcast of KWRD-FM "The Word". As of June 5, it now broadcasts Spanish Contemporary Christian music as "El Pez"
