The station first signed on, as KFDM, on October 1, 1924. It was the first radio station in Southeast Texas. In the 1930s, it was owned by the Sabine Broadcasting Company with studios in the million-dollar Hotel Beaumont.[4] It transmitted with 1,000 watts by day and 500 watts at night.
In the 1940s, KFDM was given permission to boost nighttime power to 1,000 watts, same as the daytime. KLVI became an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network, carrying its dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio."[5] The Blue Network later became ABC Radio. As network programming moved from radio to television in the 1950s and 1960s, KLVI switched to a full service, middle of the road format of popular adult music, news, talk and sports.
The station was assigned the call sign KLVI by the Federal Communications Commission[6] on December 31, 1963;[7] the call change took place after the radio station came under separate ownership from KFDM-TV.[8] On-air personality Al Caldwell is credited with booking the first public performance ever played by ZZ Top, at a Knights of Columbus hall in Beaumont on February 10, 1970.[9]
though he was working at crosstown 1450 KAYC at the time.
KLVI was a pop/top40 music station through the middle 70s but flipped to a country format in 1977. Later, it added AM stereo using the Motorola C-QUAM method. In the 1980s, KLVI added more talk programs and reduced the music, as music listening increasingly became the domain of FM radio. By the 1990s, the station made the full transition to talk radio. Clear Channel Communications, based in San Antonio, acquired KLVI in 2000.[10] Clear Channel later switched its name to iHeartMedia, Inc.
