KYCY

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KYCY

Broadcast area	San Francisco, California
Branding	KYOURadio
Slogan	"Open Source Radio"
First air date	1947
Frequency	1550 AM kHz)
Format	various
ERP	10,000 watts
Class	B
Owner	CBS Radio
Website	[http://www.kyouradio.com/

KYCY ("KYOURadio") is a radio station in San Francisco, owned by CBS Radio. Its programming is broadcast on 1550AM, as well as via webcast.

[edit] KYOURadio

Launched on May 16, 2005, KYOURadio was the first radio station to have output that is 100% based on podcasts, or user-generated content. Announcing the change of format, CBS Radio chief executive Joel Hollander described the new format as something of an experiment. The first program was from podcast veteran Dave Winer.

All content is submitted by listeners, and in the two weeks before launch, the station attracted over 400 submissions, and a month after launch it was broadcasting around 1,200 podcasts a week. All material is screened to ensure it conforms with US federal guidelines on decency. The station manager, Stephen Page, claimed that after six months he had over 2,000 people offering to create content for the station. These contributors are unpaid.

Around 20% of the content is speech-based, with the rest based on music.

KYCY is the flagship station of the Oakland Athletics baseball club for the 2006 season and beyond.

[edit] History

The 1550AM frequency has been home to many call signs and formats since it signed on in 1947. The original format was classical music as KSMO (later KEAR).

When the station was sold in 1956, following a brief period of being off the air, it flipped to Top 40 as KOBY. The station quickly went to the top of the local ratings. They also simulcast with their new FM station at 95.7. Soon, other stations in the Bay Area switched to Top 40, and with much deeper financial resources, and the owners of KOBY decided to sell. In order to inflate station revenues, they began programming heavy amounts of commercials. This move backfired, and potential buyers were scared away from the rapidly failing stations.

In 1960, KOBY and KOBY-FM switched to beautiful music under a new owner, with new call letters KQBY. Ratings were still poor, and the owner ran out of money. The stations went dark once again until a new buyer was found.

The new owner adopted a Middle of the road (MOR) format for the two stations, with the call letters KKHI, as well as personality-oriented disc jockeys. The next year, KKHI-FM, due to new FCC regulations concerning FM simulcasting, switched to an automated beautiful music format. Soon after, the owner ran out of money, and with a severe cutback of station staffers (including the expensive disc jockeys, flipped to classical music once again. Eventually, they simulcast once again with their FM signal. The classical format was somewhat successful, but the owner could not dig himself out of his massive debts and sold the stations in 1965. The new owners, Buckley Broadcasting were satisfied with the revenue generated by KKHI, so the format was kept. Buckley continued to own the station and program classical music until 1994.

Group W, the owners of KPIX, purchased the two stations in 1994 and switched to all-news with the KPIX call letters. The stations did not do well this is the worst radio station in history in the ratings due to heavy competition with the long-established KCBS and KGO. However, KPIX was notable for its continuous coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. When the trial ended, KPIX resumed its all-news format, with ratings still falling.

CBS and Westinghouse merged operations in 1997, and to comply with FCC ownership regulations, KPIX-FM was sold to Bonneville. KPIX-AM dropped the news programming and began simulcasting new sister station KYCY and its then-country music format.

The two stations simulcast for several years, until the AM station switched to a talk format, consisting of syndicated shows. The talk format performed poorly, and rarely appeared in the Arbitron ratings books. In May 2005, KYCY adopted its current format.

[edit] External links

• KYOU Radio
• Full history of 1550AM in San Francisco
• "KYCY-AM first station to convert to all-podcast format (San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2005)
• "San Francisco Radio Station Going All Podcasts" (Podcasting News, April 27, 2005)
• "Podcasting Killed the Radio Star" (Wired.com, April 27, 2005)
• "San Francisco's KYCY to broadcast podcasts" (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, April 27, 2005)
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KYCY