Radio KAAY

KAAY was founded as KTHS in 1924 in Hot Springs; it moved to Little Rock in 1953. After the TV station KTHV was created from it in 1955, KTHS was sold to LIN Broadcasting, who turned it into a Top 40 station in 1962 under its present call sign. It has been a stalwart of Christian radio since 1985, and has been owned by Citadel Broadcasting since 1998. In 2011, Citadel merged with Cumulus Media, which continues the religious format.

KAAY's cult status was forged from 1966 to 1977, when, after 11:00 each evening, the station abandoned the standard Top 40 format for four hours of underground music with the program Beaker Street hosted by Clyde Clifford.

During the station's heyday, KAAY featured a full-service Top-40 format, and was the dominant station for most of the state of Arkansas. During the 1960s and 1970s, on-air personalities included Mike McCormick, Doc Holiday, Jonnie King, Buddy Karr, Ken Knight, Sonny Martin, newsman George J. Jennings, Wayne Moss, Phil North, and Ray Lincoln of the "Ray and Ram Program." Its nighttime signal extended well beyond Little Rock and Arkansas, covering much of the Great Plains, North Central, and mid-south regions of the United States, leading to its sobriquet "The Mighty Ten Ninety." KAAY could be heard clearly at night in Key West, Florida, and as far to the northwest as Jamestown, North Dakota. This radio station was a big inspiration to Cuban rock musicians and rock fans who listened Beaker Street every night to keep informed about American music and underground music in the 70's. They listened undercover with Soviet made transistor radios. In the late 1960s the jingle started out with roaring thunder followed by a deep voice...FIFTY THOUSAND WATTS OF MUSIC POWER K>>DOUBLE-A Y Little Rock.