KBDT

The station's first FCC license was granted 6-29-1960.[3] The station was formerly on 1150 kHz as KVIL, owned by University Broadcasting. The original location of the studios was in the Highland Park Village Shopping Center (hence the VIL call letters). The address was 4152 Mockingbird Lane at Preston Road, overlooking the Dallas Country Club golf course. At first KVIL was a daytimer, powered at only 500 watts and required to sign-off at night. It got a power boost to 1,000 watts a short time later, but still restricted to daytime-only status.

In 1961, it got an FM sister station, 103.7 KVIL-FM. In a large city like Dallas, the FCC would discourage AM and FM stations from simulcasting. But KVIL was a daytimer and the city of license was Highland Park, not Dallas. So KVIL and KVIL-FM were able run the same programming for all the hours the AM station was on the air. In the 1960s, KVIL-AM-FM played Top 40 hits. But by the 1970s, the music became more adult-oriented, while the disc jockeys and station formatics remained youthful and contemporary.

KVIL-AM-FM was a highly rated hot adult contemporary station in the Dallas-Fort Worth radio market for much of the late 1970s and 1980s, often finishing at #1 in the Arbitron ratings. While the FM station had most of the listeners, 1150 KVIL was available to people who did not have FM radios in their cars or offices and wanted to hear the station on AM.

In 1987, Infinity Broadcasting bought KVIL-AM-FM from Sconnix Broadcasting. The sale price was $82 million, the largest amount of money in radio history for an AM-FM combo up to that date.[4] Sconnix had acquired KVIL-AM-FM only the month before in an eight-station deal. Infinity president Mel Karmazin said his company wanted a station in Dallas and "the best there is KVIL." Infinity later was folded into CBS Radio.

AM 1150 adopted the call sign KVIX and programmed a separate AC format from KVIL-FM for a short time after the sale to Infinity. Since nearly all the listeners had FM radios by the 1990s, Infinity decided to sell the AM station.

In October 1996, the station was sold to Marcos A. Rodriguez, who was its owner until August 2003. Rodriguez used it to carry foreign language programs as KDMM. Due to the popular Pakistani and Indian music and talk programs, 1150 became all-South Asian formatted. Initially, the station was 1,000 watts daytime only with a 6 tower directional array north of Irving for a number of years.

By the 1990s, it was able to get a grant of 5 watts of power for night-time operation, although it covered only a small part of the sprawling Metroplex after dark.

In 2001, it changed call letters to KBIS, and ran an all-Motown format still on 1150 kHz. When the station moved to 1160 (now with 35,000 watts day and 1,000 watts at night from two different 6 tower sites), it was revamped as Magic 1160, adding other soul songs to the playlist. The call letters switched to KMGS in June 2005, to represent the word "Magic."

On August 23, 2006, the call sign changed to KVCE, to make way for a Talk radio format, which began less than a month later. The call letters represented the word "Voice." At that time Texas Senator Dan Patrick owned the station and hosted a talk show on KVCE. Over time, the station began adding more financial and business shows to the schedule.

On September 25, 2015, the business talk format moved to 620 KMKI, later KEXB, and now KTNO. After the move, KVCE ran a 30-second "barker" continuous recording, announcing "KVCE Highland Park. Looking for business talk in North Texas? We moved to 620 AM."

KVCE was acquired by Salem Media, the largest owner of Christian radio stations in the U.S. It began airing religious shows from noted national preachers, as a simulcast of Salem's KWRD-FM 100.7. Salem sold the station in 2017.

On September 29, 2017, the station changed its call sign to KBDT. On November 1, 2017, 1160 Investments LLC entered into an agreement with Dallas Broadcasting LLC and created a conservative talk format. 1160 Investments is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company which also owns the USA Radio Network and some USA programming is produced from the studios in Dallas.