KMKI

Infobox Radio station
name = KMKI


city = Plano, Texas
area = Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
branding = "Radio Disney AM 620"
slogan =
airdate = July 15, 1939 as KWFT
frequency = 620 kHz HD Radio
format = Children's
power = 5,000 Watts (Daytime)
4,500 watts (Nighttime)
erp =
class = B
callsign_meaning = Disney Character Mickey Mouse
former_callsigns = KWFT (1939-1994)
KAAM (1995-1998)
owner = Disney/ABC Radio
licensee = Radio Disney Dallas, LLC
webcast = [http://radio.disney.go.com/music/player/listen_live.html Radio Disney Live Feed]
website = [http://radio.disney.go.com/mystation/dallas/ Radio Disney Dallas]
affiliations = Radio Disney
sister_stations = KESN, KNIT

KMKI AM 620 is a Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas AM radio station licensed in Plano, Texas. This is a flagship station of the Radio Disney network, which is also based in Dallas, Texas. ABC Radio owns Radio Disney Dallas, LLC. Although most of the ABC Radio stations were merged with Citadel Broadcasting, Disney retains this station.

History

KMKI originally had its start in Wichita Falls, Texas, as KWFT. KWFT radio existed from 1939 to 1994 on an AM frequency of 620 kilohertz. It was the first radio station to continuously operate in the city and was a regional channel that could be heard across a large geographical area of Texas and Oklahoma, as well as some bordering states during the daytime. The station was a CBS affiliate.

In 1953, KWFT joined other radio stations in the United States by plunging into the new medium of television. KWFT-TV signed on the air onto channel 6 on March 1 and was the first television station in the city. It was an affiliate of the CBS television network. KWFT later sold the TV station in 1956 at which time channel 6 became KSYD-TV and later KAUZ-TV in 1963, continuing as the CBS affiliate for the Wichita Falls-Lawton market.

KWFT Radio continued for many years after the divesture of the TV station as a radio station emphasizing local and national news, weather, farm reports and middle-of-the-road music format. However, the emergence of a preponderance of FM stations in Wichita Falls offering country and rock music formats during the 1970s and 1980s greatly cut into KWFT's audience and advertising dollars, leading to the sale of the station in the mid-1990s to a new owner who signed off KWFT's last broadcast at 11:59 p.m. on December 24, 1994. About two years later, the 620 frequency formerly assigned to Wichita Falls returned to the airwaves in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as KAAM. Eventually the station was sold to Disney and renamed KMKI with the Radio Disney format.

The KWFT calls were later reassigned to a MyNetworkTV affiliate (KWFT) in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; that station has since switched its calls to KBBL-TV, though they still use KWFT-LP for a repeater.

Former Logo(s)

External links

* [http://radio.disney.go.com/mystation/dallas/ Radio Disney Dallas official website]
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*Geolinks-US-buildingscale|33.24278|-96.54139