Dallas Mavericks

103.3 ESPN Ends Sports Talk, Becomes ‘Your Christian Voice for Dallas'

KESN had been ESPN’s radio presence in Dallas-Fort Worth since 2001

NBC 5 News

For some North Texas radio listeners, sports really did turn into religion on Wednesday.

That’s when KVDT – “Your Christian Voice for Dallas” - went on the air in the space that had belonged to ESPN’s radio spot at 103.3 FM. KESN went on the air in April 2001 as an all-sports format that intended to challenge Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket [KTCK-AM] for sports talk dominance.

But the emergence of a third sports talk station, 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] in 2008 made the field more competitive. KESN and its parent company, Disney, turned over management to Cumulus Radio, The Ticket’s parent company, in 2013. Cumulus operated the station through 2020. At the time, the agreement between Cumulus and Disney ended, so did all local programming, with the exception of Dallas Mavericks broadcasts. The Mavericks exercised an out in their contract with the station to leave for the 2021-22 season.

Click here to read more about the format change from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.

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