KTKT (990 AM) – branded La Buena 94.3 – is a commercial Spanish language adult hits radio station licensed to serve Tucson, Arizona.
For a time, KTKT was an affiliate of the short-lived Liberty Broadcasting System, formed around the play-by-play sportscasts of "The Old Scotsman", Gordon McLendon.
Wallace built his station on Elm Street, just west of Miracle Mile, in two war surplus military buildings which were moved onto the site.
In 1958, KTKT moved to 990 kHz, with 10,000 watts of power and a directional antenna system, but because 990 AM is a clear channel frequency, it had to be a daytimer, only operating from sunrise to sunset.
Harold Peary, known to network radio audiences as The Great Gildersleeve, was one of the KAIR owners; while in Hollywood, he taped voice tracks for his new station which were mailed to Tucson for broadcast.
When the AM station's ratings declined, Wallace hired a young Frank Kalil to do the programming, moving KTKT to a Top 40 sound.
Kalil programmed the new rock and roll "Color Radio" style music and news format which quickly moved daytimer KTKT into Tucson's number one spot, where it remained into the early 1980s.
In the spring of 1989, KTKT dropped music altogether to become an all-news radio station, airing the audio feed of CNN Headline News.
[7] In November 2004, KTKT dropped almost all sports and news programming to air a Spanish-language Norteño oldies format (that style being popular among many Latinos in Tucson).