KKDZ

KKDZ
City Seattle, Washington
Broadcast area Seattle metropolitan area
Branding Desi 1250 AM
Frequency 1250 kHz AM
First air date May 14, 1922 (as KTW at 833)
Format Full Service
Language(s) South Asian
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 12112
Transmitter coordinates 47°33′49″N 122°21′35″W / 47.56361°N 122.35972°W / 47.56361; -122.35972 (day)
47°40′23″N 122°10′8″W / 47.67306°N 122.16889°W / 47.67306; -122.16889 (night)
Callsign meaning Kid's
DZ=Disney or
Former KIDSTAR children's radio network (previous format)
Former callsigns KTW (1922-1975)
KYAC (1975-1981)
KKFX (1981-1993)
Former frequencies 833 kHz (1922-1924)
740 kHz (1924-1925)
660 kHz (1925-1927)
760 kHz (1927-1928)
1270 kHz (1928-1931)
1220 khz (1931-1941)
Owner Universal Media Access
(Universal Media Access KKDZ-AM LLC)
Webcast Listen Live
Website desi1250am.com

KKDZ (1250 AM) is a radio station in Seattle, Washington. The station operates at 1250 kHz with 5,000 watts full-time.

History

KKDZ is one several AM stations in Seattle that signed on in the 1920s, having debuted on the air on May 14, 1922 as KTW. Originally at 833 kHz, KTW would switch signals to 740 kHz by 1924, 660 kHz by 1925, 760 kHz by 1927, 1270 kHz by 1928, and 1220 kHz by 1931, before moving to its current signal in 1941. Commercial programming would start in 1946.

After KTW was sold in 1964, they would debut a Top 40 format, which lasted only nine months before switching to the "Nashville Sound", a country format. It flipped to News/Talk as "2-Way Radio" in 1971. But financial problems would result in the station being sold and a format flip to Urban adult contemporary, along with a call letter change to KYAC in 1975. KYAC moved its format over from 1460.

K-Fox

In 1981, the station was sold to Northstar Broadcasters, and renamed KKFX ("K-Fox"). Vice President and General Manager John L. Hawkins implemented "Greatest Hits" music during the day to serve a general audience, a format he had success with at San Francisco station KNEW and others. Because the nighttime radio audience has a different listener profile, K-Fox aired "Night Beat -- The Beat of the Fox" (emphasizing R&B and dance music, also known as Rhythmic contemporary), during the evening hours. Night Beat proved so popular that the station evolved to playing it full-time, using the slogan "K-Fox -- Seattle's Hottest Music". (In 1987, the station would drop its rhythmic format in favor of satellite-fed R&B oldies, though it would return to rhythmic a year later.[1]) The station was known for a howl sound effect dropped between songs (it didn't matter that wolves howl while foxes bark). This format continued with minor variations until KKFX signed-off in March 1993.

Kidstar and Radio Disney

On May 14, 1993, the station returned to the air as KKDZ, where they would serve as the flaghip station for the fledgling "KIDSTAR" children's radio network, which was based in Seattle. However, financial problems would force the station off the air on March 22, 1997. In August of that same year, KKDZ returned as an affiliate of Radio Disney, who would later buy the station outright in 1998.

The cessation of operations of KARR (AM) in February 2014 due to the expiration of the lease on their transmitter site also affected KKDZ, as it used the KARR site for night time operations. KKDZ has filed an STA to run on lower power from their separate daytime transmitter site. [2]

Desi 1250

KKDZ logo under Radio Disney affiliation

On August 13, 2014, Disney put KKDZ and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.[3] In May 2015, a deal to sell the station to Universal Media Access (owners of KLOK in San Francisco) for $500,000 was announced.[4]

On September 17, 2015, the sale of KKDZ was consummated, at which point it officially dropped its Radio Disney affiliation and switched to a South Asian format (featuring Hindi, Punjabi and English language programming), branded as "Desi 1250."

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.