KSOL
Spanish Sports) | |
Affiliations | Las Vegas Raiders (NFL) |
---|---|
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
KBRG, KSQL, KVVF, KVVZ | |
History | |
First air date | February 1, 1948 (as KJBS-FM) |
Former call signs | See below |
Call sign meaning | SOuL (old format) SOL = Spanish for "sun" |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 70032 |
Class | B |
ERP | 6,100 watts |
HAAT | 409 meters (1,342 ft) |
Repeater(s) | 99.1 KSQL (Santa Cruz) See also § Boosters |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | Que Buena |
KSOL (98.9
The 98.9 frequency is the third station in the San Francisco market to use the callsign KSOL. The first was the AM
History
The station at 98.9 was established in February 1948 as the FM simulcast component of KJBS 1100 (now KFAX) by Julius Brunton & Sons, transmitting from the (still existing) tower atop Clay Jones Apartments at 1250 Jones Street. As KJBS it had been a full-service station with news, weather, and sports programming, and served as a relay, interrupting programming overnight, to alert police and fire personnel to incidents, prior to the departments' own radio dispatch systems. The FM station was financially unsuccessful, and in 1953 it was sold to CBS. KCBS-FM had been operating with substantially lower power on 103.7 when it made the move to acquire this station.
Under CBS it rebroadcast KCBS until 1968 when it began to use the syndicated CBS automated programming, "The Young Sound". Later, it produced its own locally originated rock programming.
In September 1978, owner
- See also KMPX (FM)
The Quake
In 1982, KMPX was sold to a New Jersey investor group, administered by general manager Les Elias and station manager Bob Heymann, and flipped to a mainstream rock format as KQAK, "The Quake FM99", on August 23 of that year. Hosting the morning show was the popular Alex Bennett, who had left KMEL in a disagreement over station direction a few months earlier.
KQAK was a personality-oriented album-oriented rock station for its first eight months of operation, and was partially influenced by the programming of WLUP in Chicago, a station that Elias and Heymann had previously managed.
A talented air staff was assembled for the station. In addition to Bennett was Joe Regelski as co-host, continuing their collaboration from KMEL, and Richard "Big Rick" Stuart, future KROQ jock Jed "Jed the Fish" Gould The 3rd, Mike Koste, Richard Gossett, Belle Nolan, Rob Francis, Oscar "Oz" Medina, Paul "Lobster" Wells, comedian Tim Bedore and others worked at The Quake at one time or another.
A month after KQAK's debut, another Bay Area station, KFOG changed its format from beautiful music to rock. This change left the Bay Area with six very similar-sounding stations (KMEL, KRQR, KQAK and KFOG, plus San Jose stations KOME and KSJO). Until 2019, KFOG was the only one of those stations still carrying a rock format, when it switched to a simulcast of sports station KNBR.[3]
In April 1983, Elias and Heymann decided to reposition the station (under the programming guidance of
Popular programs on The Quake, in addition to shows like, "The Alex Bennett's Morning Program", "The Quake's Early Tremors", "Midnight Dread" and a syndicated program called "The Rock Over London".
The KQAK broadcast studios were located at 1311 Sutter Street in San Francisco.
The final song broadcast before The Quake went off the air on June 18, 1985 was "Around The Dial" from The Kinks; this featured a re-edited version of the 'radio tuning' intro for the song which made reference to the demise of the station.
Later, another station, progressive talk radio KQKE, went on to use the same "Quake" nickname. Paul "Lobster" Wells has worked for KQKE, which was otherwise not related to KQAK. Today, the station, AM 960, is KNEW.
The KQAK call letters currently reside on a station in Bend, Oregon.
More format and ownership changes
On June 22, 1985, following four days of stunting with all-
The 98.9 frequency then underwent years of turmoil. In late 1986, the station dropped the eclectic
The format lasted for 3 months and 5 days, as on May 6, 1988, after playing "
The next owner of KOFY-FM,
The two stations then shifted to a
KSOL call letters arrive at 98.9 FM
In December 1993, Allen Shaw's Crescent Communications purchased 107.7 KSOL from United Broadcasting, and purchased KSRY and KSRI from
KSOL, KYLD and KYLZ were sold by Crescent Communications to Tichner Media and Evergreen Media in August 1996. On August 15 of that year, KSOL then switched to a
In April 2002, KSOL swapped call letters with
The two stations have simulcasted since 1990, with 98.9 covering the North Bay, and 99.1 covering the far South Bay.
Boosters
KSOL is rebroadcast on the following FM Boosters:
Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT |
Class | FCC info |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
KSOL-FM2 | 98.9 FM | Sausalito, California | 70028 | 150 (Vert.) | 294 m (965 ft) | D | LMS |
KSOL-FM3 | 98.9 FM | Pleasanton, California | 14485 | 185 (Horiz.) | 927 m (3,041 ft) | D | LMS |
Callsign history for 98.9
- KJBS-FM Sign-on February 1, 1948 until 1953, co-owned with KJBS 1100
- KCBS-FM "CBS FM" 1953 until September 1978, co-owned with KCBS 740
- KMPX "Multiplex" September 1978
- KQAK "The Quake" August 1982
- KKCY "The City" June 1985
- KHIT "98.9 K-HIT" May 6, 1988, ends with Shakedown, & Judy Davis's announcement says "and this is the end of K-Hit, for all you who were out there" before launching a then-new format & K-O-F-Y coming in the '50s
- KOFY-FM "Hits 98.9 FM" May 14, 1988, co-owned with KOFY 1050 and KOFY-TV channel 20
- KDBK "Double 99 FM" August 2, 1990, co-owned with KDBQ 99.1 Santa Cruz
- KSRY "Star 99 FM" April 16, 1993, co-owned with KSRI 99.1 Santa Cruz
- KSOL "KSOuL" April 18, 1994, co-owned with KYLZ 99.1 Santa Cruz
- KSOL "Estereo Sol" August 15, 1996
- KEMR "Amor" April 10, 2002
- KSOL:"Estereo Sol" January 2, 2003, co-owned with KSQL 99.1 Santa Cruz
- KSOL:"Que Buena" June 12, 2015, co-owned with KSQL 99.1 Santa Cruz
It is believed that 98.9 has had more callsign changes than any other radio or TV station in California history.
References
- ^ Univision moves Bay Area studio to San Jose Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved on August 19, 2017.
- ^ Univision 14 will move SF headquarters to San Jose Media Moves. Retrieved on August 19, 2017
- ^ Moffitt, Mike. "Fogheads react as KFOG goes off air for good". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ KKCY Becomes KHIT
- ^ KHIT Ends
- ^ KOFY-FM Debuts
- ^ http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1990/RR-1990-08-03.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1993/RR-1993-03-19.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1994/RR-1994-04-22.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ KSOL Goes Spanish
External links
- Radio Estereo Sol
- KSOL in the FCC FM station database
- KSOL in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
- "The First Day of "The Quake" (Bay Area Radio Museum)
- "The end of K-Hit 98.9"
- FCC History Cards for KSOL