KXOA

KXOA was a Sacramento, California, United States, radio station that existed on both AM and FM (in various incarnations) between 1945 and 2004. It was mainly a Top 40 station for most of its AM existence and programmed a very successful "light rock" format that lasted nearly two decades, but also experimented with other formats on both AM and FM.

AM station

Beginnings

KXOA began broadcasting in 1945. Originally, the station was located on the 1490 kilocycles frequency on the AM dial, but moved to 1470  a few years after its debut. The original programming can be described as traditional MOR/block programming.

In the early 1950s there was also KXOB (1280 kHz, Stockton) and KXOC (1060 kHz, Chico) which, along with KXOA, were affiliates of the Mutual Don Lee (MBS) radio network. It is likely these stations had common ownership. Later, KXOB became KJOY, and KXOC became KPAY. (Cf. various editions, White's Radio Log)

In the late 1950s, KXOA-AM changed to a Top 40 format. The station battled KGMS (1380) and Stockton-based KGDM (1140) for success in reaching the teen audience. KXOA would beat both of these stations for ratings success. The aforementioned stations would change to MOR and Country (as KRAK), respectively, in the early 1960s. However, KXOA’s major battle took place when KROY (1240) changed to Top 40 in February 1960.

In the early 1960s, KROY easily beat KXOA in the ratings. By 1965, KXOA began to beat KROY in the ratings, by hiring some of its key talent. The station also featured a one-hour Progressive rock show nightly known as the Gear Hour, where the latest British music was featured. The show also included album cuts from established American artists. Notable members of KXOA's Top 40 air staff included

• Charlie Holliday,
• Sean O'Callaghan,
• Les Thompson – the station's program director during most of the period,
• Dick "Buffalo" Burch,
• Johnny Hyde - who programmed the "Gear Hour,"
• Buck Herring,
• Bob Early (real name Bob Elliott),
• Jerry Gordon,
• B. Winchell Clay, (Bud Zumwalt)
• Jeff Kingston,
• Tony King - real name Pete Gross, who later became the first "voice" of the Seattle Seahawks,
• Bill Whitman - who later became a "voice" at CBS,
• Brian Beirne, the station's news director in the late 1960s who later became "Mr. Rock n' Roll" at K-EARTH in Los Angeles,
• newscaster Mike Pulsipher, who later joined CBS Radio,
• Don Imus – whose first claim to fame came there.

In 1968, KROY altered its Top-40 format to be more fast-paced and slick, as it installed a “Bill Drake”-styled approach with the nickname “Music Power”. KROY also hired some of KXOA’s key air talent. KROY’s format adjustment had a drastic ratings effect on KXOA. By late May 1970, KXOA shifted its format from Top 40 to Adult Contemporary mixed with oldies.

It was about that time that KXOA was forced to move both its studios and transmitters from 1470 Leisure Lane to make way for an expanded Interstate 80 freeway and interchange that were eventually never built. Both the AM and FM station moved a mile to the west to Commerce Circle while the transmitters were moved a mile to the south into the American River floodplain. The AM station continued to broadcast 5,000 daytime watts with 1,000 nighttime directional watts. The FM transmitter was broadcasting at 100,000 watts. Listeners found the relocated AM signal weaker, especially at night.^[1]

Sweet as KaNDiE

In December 1970, KXOA was sold to a group of investors associated with Progressive Rock-formatted KSJO-FM in San Jose. On January 8, 1971 at 12:01 AM, the new owners changed the format to Progressive Rock. The call letters were changed to KNDE. As a progressive station, air personalities included Patrick Moore, Don Wright, and "The Kandie Man", a takeoff on Wolfman Jack, handled by Jon Peters. When the progressive format on AM failed to catch on, the station switched to Top 40, hiring former KROY personalities Dave Williams, Steve Moore, Kevin Manna, and Rick Rossi. During the mid-1970s, KNDE moved ahead of KROY but eventually lost the ratings war until September 28, 1978, when new owner Brown Broadcasting changed KNDE to Album Oriented Rock.

Back to KXOA

The call letters were changed back to KXOA, and the station named “AM 14, The Rockin’ Home”. The new station featured laid-back announcers and mainstream AOR. The owners began a television commercial blitz to promote the new station. The commercials were generally run during prime time news updates on network television stations.

The new station featured a former KZAP staffer (“Marla in the Morning”) during the AM drive time. Additionally, the station featured commercial-free Friday evenings as part of its programming. It also featured a syndicated AOR top-track countdown each Sunday evening called the Great American Radio Show. Mike Harrison hosted the show, and he eventually went on to publish Talkers magazine, which was aimed at the talk radio industry.

KXOA’s mainstream AOR format was not successful, especially with the emergence of KZAP-FM's Kent Burkhart/Lee Abrams consulted AOR format and only lasted until mid-summer 1979. At that time, the station began to move to a softer Adult Contemporary format similar to KXOA-FM.

Top 40 1470 KXOA goes oldies as 14K

By February 1980, the station was back to Top 40 with new Program Director Terry Nelson returning to Sacramento from KFRC in San Francisco. Nelson had great success at KROY as both an air talent and Program Director and brought in many deejays from that station including, Kris Mitchell, Bryan Davis, former KROY-FM Program Director Steve Michaels and Russ “The Moose” Martin. The lineup was Terry Nelson in morning drive, Bryan Davis in midday's, C.J. Stone of KREM in Spokane for afternoon's and former KNDE morning man Jeff Hunter at night. In September 1980, under pressure from those in control of sister station KGB AM known as "13K" in San Diego, KXOA began promoting itself as “The New 14K, Sacramento's Greatest Hits.” It was a Gold-based format playing a small rotation of current music. With the increasing popularity of FM as a vehicle for Contemporary Hits, the audience share for that station dropped (as it did for KROY). In February 1982, the station dropped the “14K” tagline and the management changed the format once again. Music Director Kris Mitchell moved on to New Mexico and became a station owner. Bryan Davis became Bryan Simmons, the long-running afternoon deejay at one of the nation's top Adult Contemporary stations, KOST-FM in Los Angeles.

On March 15, 1982, KXOA-AM became a MOR/Big Band station that carried the syndicated “Music of Your Life” format. The format was a success. The format appealed to people in the 35-64 demographic, and featured MOR artists and Big Band music. KGMS (1380) attempted a similar format a few months later, but was unsuccessful.

KXOA-AM's demise

KXOA-AM continued with the format until summer 1988 when the station adopted a syndicated “Business News” format. It was not successful. In 1990, KXOA again adopted a 1950s and 1960s oldies format, with the nickname of “Cruisin’1470”. The format continued until early 1999.

At that time, the KXOA call letters were transferred to 93.7 FM. 1470 AM switched its call letters to KRAK and took on a Classic Country/Western format along with the nationally syndicated Don Imus show during the morning drive.

In the spring of 2001, KXOA-AM was sold to ABC/Disney. The new owners switched the format to the satellite youth-driven “Radio Disney” format, and changed the call letters to KIID.

As an FM station

The simulcast years

KXOA-FM (107.9) began as a simulcast of KXOA-AM in the late 1940s. During this period, KXOA broadcast a traditional MOR/block programming format. In the mid-1950s, KXOA changed to a Top 40 format. KXOA-FM continued to simulcast the AM station through the 1960s. However, the station briefly ran a Country and Western format as KCNW-FM. The format and call letters ran from the Summer of 1961 through the Summer of 1962, when KRAK (1140) debuted with a Country and Western format. The station returned to simulcasting KXOA-AM and re-adopted the KXOA-FM call letters.

In the 1960s, the FCC dictated that all FM stations in areas having a population greater than 250,000 people must dedicate at least 50% of their broadcast schedule to separate programming from AM sister stations. In the late 1960s, KXOA-FM separated from its AM counterpart and programmed “Adult Contemporary” music from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. After that, it began simulcasting KXOA-AM’s Top 40 programming until it signed off at midnight.

The formats that didn't work

In 1970, KXOA-FM changed its format from its Adult Contemporary/AM simulcast to automated Country. During this time, KXOA AM and FM were sold to separate parties. The AM station was sold to investors involved in the ownership of KSJO in San Jose. The FM station was sold to Drake-Chenault, a national radio syndicator, who moved the station to Loma Vista Drive off Fulton Avenue. The tower on the American River Floodplain was still used by the new owners.

Drake-Chenault provided a syndicated Oldies format to stations on a nationwide basis. The format was known as “Solid Gold”. In early 1971, they flipped KXOA-FM to their “Solid Gold” format. The automated format featured Top 40 hits from 1955 through the current period (basically “recurrents”). The format ran from early 1971 through early August 1972.

At that time, the owners of KXOA-FM changed the format to Progressive Rock. The station was now known as “Earth Rock 108, KXOA.” The owners hired Steve Rosetta as General Manager and Rick Carroll from KNDE as a consultant to program the station. The station featured live announcers. To differentiate itself from the eclectic, Free Form KZAP, the station featured a formatted Progressive Rock sound. However, the format was loose enough that the air talent could play listener requests as well as a few personal choices. Air talent included Tom Buck, Greg Mundae, Tom Cale, and Kent Randles. The station’s owners did not promote the station very heavily. Accordingly, the format was rather short lived, lasting only until February 1973. At that time, the owners changed the format to the automated “Classic Gold Rock and Roll.”, also known on air as Nostalgia Radio.

The mellow K-108 era

In June 1974, Drake-Chenault sold the station to San Diego-based Brown Broadcasting, owners of KGB AM and FM. The new owners changed the format to a Top 40 format and called the station “Super Stereo K-108 FM.” At night, the station featured some album rock programming. The format was rather short lived. In the spring of 1975, the format was adjusted to become an album-oriented “Mellow” Rock station. The owners tagged the station as “The Mellow Home, K-108 FM.” The format was successful throughout the remaining half of the 1970s. By the early 1980s, the format was tweaked to become a “Soft Adult Contemporary” station. The ratings for the station were high, and success continued throughout the remainder of the decade. Despite changes in ownership and format, staff turnover was rare. On-air personalities included Dusty Morgan, Dave Allen, and Tom Nakashima. KXOA-AM and FM simulcast broadcasts of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem during this period. K-108 FM also had a strong commitment to news and public affairs programming during the 1980s through the early 1990s. News director and morning news anchor Ken Hunt and his news teams won multiple journalism awards from the Associated Press TV Radio News Association and the Radio TV News Directors Association for news programming distinguished by its local coverage, creative use of natural sound and conversational style. News team members included Dick Mason, Tina Macuha, Nanci McGraw, Ken August, Mark Schumacher, Pete Dufour, Teri Cox, Doug Gavel, Vicky Moore, Patti Reising, Christina Mendonsa, Michael Clarke, Joe Streng, Jerome Parra, Raedee McAleese and Ellen Hyatt, among others.

XTRA and Arrow flops

In the early 1990s, KXOA-FM’s popularity began to wane. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of two additional FM Adult Contemporary stations (KYMX and KGBY/Y-92.5) in the Sacramento area. So, the station attempted a short-lived up-tempo Adult Contemporary format with the nickname “XTRA 107.9.” The station advertised itself as having no rap, no heavy metal, and no Madonna.

The format did not increase the station’s ratings, so the station changed over to a “Classic Hits” format in the spring of 1994. The station became “Arrow 108.” “Arrow “ stood for “all rock and roll oldies.” The format had been developed on KCBS-FM (93.1) in Los Angeles in the early 1990s and had brought some ratings success to the station. The music was rock singles that received airplay on Top 40 radio during the 1960s through the 1980s. The format was successful, nationally and locally.

The end of KXOA

In 1996, Brown Broadcasting sold KXOA-FM to Entercom (which already owned KSEG and KRXQ). The station continued to program the “Arrow” format until the summer of 1998. The owners changed the station to a CHR-Pop format, and changed the call letters to KDND ("The End"). Meanwhile, KXOA-FM moved to the 93.7 frequency. In March 2004, with another format change, KXOA-FM changed its call letters to KHWD (named after Howard Stern's radio show that aired on that station), and thus after nearly 60 years the KXOA call letters were forever retired. This station has since changed to an "Adult Hits" format under the call-letters KQJK (JACK-FM).

References

• Sacramento radio history