KVET-FM (98.1 MHz, "98.1 K-VET") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Austin, Texas. It is owned by iHeartMedia and airs a gold-based country music radio format. KVET-FM shares studios and offices with other iHeart sister stations in the Penn Field complex in Austin's South Congress district (or "SoCo") near St. Edward's University. The transmitter is off Buckman Mountain Road in Austin, amid the towers of other local FM and TV stations.

KVET-FM is one of two country stations iHeart owns in the market, with KASE-FM playing mostly current and recent country hits, while KVET-FM mixes some 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s titles among current and recent country songs.

James E. Moore, Jr., applied for a construction permit to build an FM radio station on 98.3 MHz in Austin on November 4, 1955. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted it 26 days later. KHFI, the first FM station in Austin, went on the air on March 25, 1956, airing a classical music format. The station originally broadcast with an effective radiated power (ERP) of just 700 watts.

A year after building KHFI, Moore sold it to Roderick E. Kennedy, who had been serving as the manager. After changing the corporate name to Kennedy-Heard Features Inc. in 1960, Kennedy sold KHFI to the Southwest Republic Corporation in 1964. Southwest Republic, which Kennedy joined as vice president, then bought separately owned KASE (970 AM) and renamed that station as KHFI (AM) that November. Furthermore, the company was in the middle of constructing Austin's second television station, KHFI-TV.

With the AM relaunched and the television station on the air, Southwest Republic relaunched KHFI-FM in November 1965. The station shed its classical format, shifted to more of an adult contemporary sound, and began FM stereo broadcasts. A year later, KHFI-FM donated its classical music library to help start Austin's new noncommercial KMFA-FM. Southwest Republic, owned by John Kingsbery, merged alongside concrete producer Featherlite Corporation into Kingstip, Inc., in 1971.

In the mid-1970s, KHFI-FM switched to an album oriented rock format, the latest in a string of musical formats attempted at the station. It didn't work and fell far behind rock rival KLBJ-FM in the ratings. In early 1979, the format was jettisoned, and KHFI-FM became "Disco 98", capitalizing on the success of Saturday Night Fever and WKTU in New York City. It was KHFI-FM's third format flip in a year.

At the same time, KHFI-FM and its co-owned television station, then known as KTVV and now as KXAN on channel 36, were sold to LIN Broadcasting. LIN, however, had been required to divest one of the two properties within twelve months; it chose to retain the TV station. Central Texas Broadcasting, a group headed by Dick Oppenheimer, acquired KHFI-FM in 1980. Oppenheimer's acquisition reunited KHFI-FM, now having shifted to Top 40 as "K-98", with the former KHFI (AM), now religious KIXL, generating concerns that a format change was in the air. The format never changed, and KHFI-FM established itself as a ratings leader in Austin during the first half of the 1980s, dueling with KASE-FM for the number one position.

In 1986, Oppenheimer reached a deal to sell KHFI and KIXL, along with the remaining properties he owned, to Florida broadcaster George Duncan's Encore Communications in a $38 million transaction; $20 million of that was derived from the Austin duo, which set a market sale price record. The timing could not have been worse for Duncan. That same year, a far more powerful station, KBTS, moved into the Austin market from Killeen. With 100,000 watts of signal power to KHFI-FM's 1,300 watts, the station could not adequately compete.