KTHT

On January 17, 1993, the station signed on as KRTK, and was owned by Texas Classical Radio, Inc..[5] KRTK originally simulcast the classical music programming on KRTS in Seabrook, to increase that station's coverage in northern sections of the Houston radio market. It was sold four years later after KRTS' request to increase power was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In September 1995, 97.1 began simulcasting Regional Mexican-formatted KEYH as KEYH-FM. The simulcast ended a short time later, as KEYH-FM began to air its own Regional Mexican format as "Estereo 97", which later became "Que Onda 97" in March 1996.

In January 1997, the station was bought by AMFM, Inc. for $10 million.[6]

The call sign switched to KKTL and flipped to news/talk as "Houston's Talk FM, 97 Talk", in September 1997. The following year, Jacor bought KKTL for $14.7 million.[7]

In March 1999, after the talk format floundered, the station switched to a simulcast of alternative rock-formatted KTBZ-FM "107-5 The Buzz". KKTL continued simulcasting 107.5 after KTBZ and KLDE ("Oldies 94.5") swapped frequencies in July 2000, making 97.1 an oldies outlet. The swap was the result of an ownership trade-off in the AMFM/Jacor/Clear Channel merger.

In August 2000, Cox acquired KKTL.[8] On November 4, 2000, the station split from the KLDE simulcast and began stunting with a robotic text-to-speech countdown to Noon, using the same Microsoft Mary voice that KKHT used a month prior. At that time, KKTL flipped to rhythmic contemporary as KTHT, "Hot 97.1". The first song on "Hot" was "Party Up" by DMX.[9]

On January 2, 2003, at Noon, after playing "Back That Thang Up" by Juvenile, KTHT flipped to a classic country format as "Country Legends 97.1". The first song on "Country Legends" was "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" by David Allan Coe.[10]

Core artists include Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Ronnie Milsap.

In April 2023, it was announced that Urban One would acquire the Houston radio cluster of Cox Media Group. This, at the time of the sale, would have resulted in Urban One being over FCC ownership limits, forcing the divestitures of 2 stations in the combined cluster; the stations to be sold were later determined by the two companies to be KROI and Cox's KTHT, which would be placed into the temporary Sugarland Station Trust divestiture trust, overseen by Scott Knoblauch. [11]