New-Tex Broadcasting, a partnership of Wallace Simpson and H. S. Boles, filed with the Federal Communications Commission on February 8, 1950, for a new 100-watt radio station to serve Clovis on 1240 kHz. After going into comparative hearing, the application was approved on August 29, 1951, and subsequently modified to specify 250 watts.[3] KCLV began broadcasting on February 27, 1952.[4] Just months after the station got on air, Simpson and Boles dissolved their partnership, with Simpson buying out his partner.[5] The next year, Odis L. Echols and Odis L. Echols Jr., former residents of Clovis, purchased the station from Simpson and returned to the city.[3][6] The elder Echols purchased full ownership three years later.[3] During this time, a new Methodist church in Clovis held its children's Sunday school classes in the KCLV transmitter building while permanent facilities were built.[7]
In September 1961, the station increased power from 250 to 1,000 watts during daylight hours, relocating its transmitter site in 1965.[3] The Echols sold the station in 1971 to Zia Broadcasting Company—owned by Lonnie Allsup, the owner of Allsup's convenience stores—for $230,000.[8] In 1981, Zia acquired KKQQ, an FM radio station in Clovis, and relaunched it as country music KCLV-FM.[9]
KCLV switched from classic country to sports using ESPN Radio in 2001.[10] The sports format remained until 2011, when it began broadcasting a talk format.[11]
Lonnie Allsup died in 2018.[12] Effective April 1, 2022, the Allsup family sold the Zia Radio Group to Rick Keefer, who had been the general manager, and David Lansford, marking the first change in ownership of KCLV in more than 50 years.[13] The five stations—KCLV, KCLV-FM, KWKA, KTQM-FM, and KQTY-FM in Borger, Texas—sold for $200,000.[14]
