D/FW Radio: KAAM Dropping Nostalgia Format

It’s been a long time — decades, really — since music was a dominant force on AM radio, but there have been some places you could still find it. One of those places is KAAM 770 AM “Legends 77,” which describes its format as “nostalgia” — one of the few places on DFW radio where you can still hear rock pioneers like Fats Domino, but also Frank Sinatra-style crooners and soft-rockers from the ’70s and later.

That is about to change, according to Robert Pilpot at the Star-Telegram.  On Friday, station owner Crawford Broadcasting announced on the Legends KAAM Radio Facebook page that, as of June 5, the station will change its format to Christian talk.

You can still get KAAM’s nostalgia format — just not on terrestrial radio.

“The good news is that we will continue to air Legends online, on the internet, at KAAMRadio.com so that you may listen to all of the Legends music from home and in your car via your cellphone,” says the post, which is signed by Crawford Broadcasting’s president, Don Crawford Jr. “Most of your favorite talk programs will remain on AM770, some moving to different times, some staying right where they have been for years. Just not the music.”

KAAM 770 AM (10 Kw-D, 1 Kw=N, DA2)

As Crawford’s post notes, KAAM had been on 770 AM since 1999. But its history goes deeper. According to Dfwretroplex, Mike Shannon’s local-radio/TV history site, KAAM launched at 1310 AM in January 1978 and underwent various format changes before settling on a big band/standards format in 1986. That lasted until 1993, when the station was sold and sports-talk KTCK/1310 AM "The Ticket" took over the frequency.

KAAM went off the air for a while, but a team of investors who resurrected the station in 1995 at 620 AM, according to Star-Telegram archives. The station was briefly off the air again in 1998, when Radio Disney took over the 620 AM frequency, and was revived again the next year at its current home, 770 AM. The KAAM call letters were assigned to the station on Oct. 18, 1999. Over the years, the station began adding rock and pop oldies to the “standards” format.