KCDX-FM

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KCDX-FM (103.1 MHz, licensed in Florence, Arizona) is a radio station broadcasting from Globe, Arizona to the east of Phoenix since March 2002 with an unusual commercial-free rock music format. The KCDX listening area is primarily the eastern half of the Phoenix metropolitan region. The KCDX signal can even be picked up in the northern suburbs of Tucson.

1 Format
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Format

The station format is late–1960s to late–1980s album rock; often including cuts that nobody played even then. It is fully automated and has no DJs and does not play any commercial announcements other than its own station identification.

[edit] History

KCDX was a complete mystery in the broadcast spectrum of Arizona for several years. Travelers were known to go to Florence (the only location mentioned on-air, indeed at the time the only fact mentioned on-air besides the call letters and frequency) to find the station and inquire as to its origin and meaning, or simply to give thanks to its creator, only to be sent away wanting, as the only connection between the station and Florence is the address on the FCC registration.

The mystery was eventually revealed. KCDX was powered-on by Ted Tucker, a reclusive former hospital pharmacist and broadcast-radio engineer, who owns several radio stations in Arizona. When he felt he didn't need the additional profit, he decided to use the signal as a 2.7-kW personal Ipod or MP3 player, letting the rest of central and eastern Arizona listen along. The fact that he has loaded complete albums and lets the software choose the tracks randomly leads to the station's playing songs that no human DJ would ever choose for a show.

The station now has a website (www.kcdx.com), with a live Internet feed and a rolling playlist so that listeners can identify those songs they have never heard before.

On 08/10/2000, Tucker filed a Minor Change to a Licensed Facility Application with the FCC to move the main transmitter to a mountain NW of Oracle, AZ. while increasing power to 95 kW. Three engineering amendments were filed in 2003 and 2004. If approved, the signal upgrade would include new areas of Mesa, Apache Junction and N Tucson in the coverage area. Source: FCC Engineering ('FMQ') Database.

Tucker has remained quiet about the ultimate fate of the station. He seems to have a history of flipping properties, so it has been suggested that he may simply be creating value to promote its sale. The growth of KCDX's popularity induced him to duplicate the signal on the 36-kilowatt transmitter of 95.1 KFMR northwest of Phoenix in order to maintain its broadcast license while a sale of that station was pending. The KFMR simulcast lasted from October 2004 until March 2005, when KFMR's license was passed from Tucker to its new owners.