KTCK (AM)

KTCK
City Dallas, Texas
Broadcast area Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
Branding SportsRadio 1310 & 96.7 The Ticket
Slogan All Sports, All the Time
Frequency 1310 kHz
Repeater(s) KTCK-FM 96.7
First air date 1921 (as WRR)
Format Sports Talk
Power 25,000 watts (day)
5,000 watts (night)
Class B
Facility ID 8773
Transmitter coordinates 32°56′41″N 96°56′24″W / 32.94472°N 96.94°W / 32.94472; -96.94
Callsign meaning K The Ticket
Former callsigns WRR (1920-1978)
KAAM (1978-1994)
Affiliations Dallas Stars (NHL)
Yahoo! Sports Radio
Owner Cumulus Media Inc.
(Radio License Holding SRC LLC)
Sister stations KLIF, KLIF-FM, KPLX, KSCS, KTCK-FM, WBAP
Webcast Listen Live (via iHeartRadio)
Website theticket.com

KTCK (1310 AM; "SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket"), is a sports talk radio station based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The station, currently owned by Cumulus Media, has been made popular by the incorporation of humor alongside the sports talk. It rebroadcasts on 96.7 FM. The station's studios are located in the Victory Park district in Dallas just north of downtown, and the transmitter site is in Coppell.

The sometime controversial station has posted strong ratings in the Dallas radio market, especially its Arbitron top-rated shows[1] The Hardline (who entertain the denizens of the metroplex) and Dunham and Miller, which have been the anchors of the station's success throughout its existence.

History

The 1310 kHz frequency has its origins as WRR, which was licensed in August 1921 and became the first broadcast radio station in the state of Texas, and the second in the United States. In 1948, WRR launched an FM station; the AM station played popular music while the FM station carried classical music until 1975 when WRR 1310 became the first station in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to have an all-news format until its 1978 sale to Bonneville International. 1310 was split from WRR-FM in 1978 and became the first of several incarnations of KAAM when it was owned by the same company that owned KAFM (92.5 MHz) until gaining its current call sign in 1994.

The Ticket's original lineup consisted of Skip Bayless, Curt Menefee, Mike Rhyner and Greg Williams, Chuck Cooperstein, and George Dunham and Craig Miller. Skip Bayless was the first host to inaugurate the station's sports format.

The Ticket's station logo used 2001-2013 when it simulcast on KTDK 104.1 FM.

On March 6, 2006, the station announced that it would be the flagship affiliate of the Dallas Cowboys radio network.[2] This success was followed up by Arbitron ratings which showed a 60% increase in listeners.[3] However, on January 23, 2009, KTCK and the Dallas Cowboys ended their three-year partnership.[4]

Formerly owned by Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff, The Ticket was purchased by Cumulus Media on May 5, 2006.[5]

On January 16, 2009, The Ticket along with the Dallas Stars issued a press release naming KTCK as the new flagship station for Dallas Stars hockey for five years starting with the 2009-10 season.[6]

On August 7, 2013, it was announced that Cumulus Media will take over operations of rival station ESPN 103.3 through a long term local marketing agreement with Disney. Programming on both stations will currently remain the same. The deal will take effect once Cumulus closes on the spin-off of repeater KTDK 104.1 in Sanger to Whitley Media.[7][8]

On October 7, 2013, it was announced that The Ticket will simulcast on 96.7 FM, which displaced the simulcast of WBAP News/Talk 820 AM (it is now on The Ticket's former simulcast spot KPLX 99.5 HD2). Dan Bennett, the vice president/market manager of Cumulus Broadcasting in Dallas confirmed this move. The format flips took effect on October 21.[9] Cumulus has surrendered the license for KTDK 104.1 to the FCC, as it was necessary to divest one of its FMs due to the LMA with KESN-FM. It is noted, however, that the station logo on The Ticket's official website had not yet been updated as it still had the 104.1 FM frequency until hours later.

Programming

Weekday programming on the station includes "The Musers" hosted by George "Jub Jub" Dunham, Craig "Junior" Miller and Dr. Gordon "The Great Doctor Gordo" Keith, "The Norm Hitzges Show" hosted by Radio Hall of Fame member Norm Hitzges and Donovan "The Great Donovan" Lewis, "BaD Radio" hosted by Bob "Sports" Sturm, Dan "Big Mac" McDowell, "The Hardline" hosted by Mike "Old Grey Wolf" Rhyner and Corby "Snake" Davidson, plus "The Ticket Top 10" with Jon Fahy, and the CBS Sports Radio syndicated Ferrall On The Bench with Scott Ferrall. Notable weekend shows include The Train Station Fitness Show with George DeJohn, The TeeBox with Rick Arnett and Craig Rosengarden, The Orphanage with Danny Balis and Dave Lane, The Shake Joint with Sean Bass and Jake Kemp, "Cirque Du Sirois" with Mike and Cash Sirois, Ticket Sports Saturday with David Newbury and Stewart Cedar, plus Race Week with Carlos Leal. When normal Ticket shows are not on the air , the airwaves are filled with Yahoo Sports Radio. The Dallas Stars broadcast team is Dave Strader replacing Ralph Strangis on play-by-play with color analyst Daryl "Razor" Reaugh and studio host Matt McClearin.

The Orphanage recently Snaked the Belt and got cancelled. Twitter was a frenzy with P1's declaring that their lives were over at the announcement of the shows end.

Notable former hosts

Awards

SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket has won many awards over the years, including the 2007 Marconi Award for "Best Sports Station in America" at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual conference on September 27, 2007. The station and various shows have been Marconi nominees in the past, but this was The Ticket's first win.[11] The Ticket was again recognized as "Sports Station of the Year," winning a second Marconi Award in 2013 despite regularly airing Ferrall On the Bench and other spares at night.[12]

In popular culture

The FX drama Justified made frequent use of the names of "Ticket" personalities for supporting characters as writer/producer VJ Boyd is a former Dallas resident and an active fan of KTCK.[13] Boyd continued this in his scripts for NBC's The Player.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.