Denver Area Broadcasters put KDAB 1550 on the air from Arvada on January 9, 1962. The 10,000-watt daytime station initially competed in Top 40; former staff later remembered KDAB giving dominant KIMN meaningful competition during 1963.
A June 1965 flood along the South Platte destroyed KDAB’s transmitter building, transmitter and tower and forced the station off the air. After returning, the station adopted the KQXI calls on September 27, 1965. Through the late 1960s and 1970s KQXI moved through several formats, including country and gospel/religious programming.
In 1997 the FCC authorized KQXI to migrate into the new AM expanded band at 1690. ABC bought the 1550 facility and the 1690 construction permit for $3.5 million in 1998 for Radio Disney. The two frequencies simulcast before 1550 was ultimately shut down and its license deleted in 2003; the 1690 successor survives.
Lineage: KBRB construction permit → KDAB → KQXI → KDDZ/KADZ; expanded-band successor KAYK → KADZ/KDDZ → KDMT.
Sources: FCC history cards — 1550 Facility 54743; FCC Reports — KQXI proceeding, 1968; Broadcasting, June 21, 1965 — Denver flood; 1550 chronology and source list.
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