KDFC

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KDFC is a commercial radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area that broadcasts classical music on 102.1 MHz FM. It transmits its signal from Mount Beacon atop the Marin Headlands (and immediately adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge) above Sausalito, California.

Founded in 1946 by Ed Davis, it has had the same format longer than any other Bay Area radio station - 61 years as of 2007. For many years the programming, which was largely prerecorded after 1976, was simulcast on KIBE, a daytime-only 5 KW AM station in Palo Alto at 1220 KHz.

KDFC is owned by Entercom Communications, which also operates Bay Area stations KOIT and KZBR. KDFC has 24-hour classical music, and during morning drive hours also features brief news and traffic updates. In addition to FM and SHOUTcast MP3 streaming, KDFC also broadcasts in digital HD Radio, and offers a secondary HD Radio channel, KDFC-2, featuring longer classical pieces and operatic works.

As of 2005, KDFC had the largest listenership of any classical radio station in the United States. [1]

[edit] Controversy

In January 2005, a national controversy erupted when KDFC refused to sell advertising to gay dating service "8 Guys Out" while taking ads for heterosexual dating service "Table for Six". Speculation was that KDFC's former owner - Bonneville International Corporation - was a Mormon-controlled company and that the church connection led to the advertising ban[2]. In this light, Bonneville's values policy does not allow advertising for liquor, lotteries, nor casinos.

[edit] Change of Ownership in 2007

On 18 January 2007, Bonneville signed an agreement with Entercom Communications Corp. to trade three San Francisco stations - KOIT, KMAX, and KDFC - for three Entercom stations in Seattle and four in Cincinnati. After regulatory clearances, a time brokerage arrangement is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2007. Entercom owns one classical station -- KXTR, Kansas City, MO -- but implications for KDFC's classical music programming are unclear.

In the interest of profitability, Entercom moved classical KXTR from FM to AM at 1660 KHz in 2000. The former KXTR FM channel became KRBZ "96.5 The Buzz" with an alternative rock format. Arguably due to its AM location, KXTR-AM has never had good audience numbers and showed at #25 in the Fall 2006 12+ Arbitron ratings. In the same period KDFC was #9 in San Francisco - reflecting an ongoing listening audience size decline. In Fall 2005 KDFC was among the top 5 San Francisco radio stations.

Entercom Communications officially took over KDFC via LMA on February 26, 2007.

These factors are all possible clues as to the direction of a radio station format.

[edit] External links

• Classical 102.1 KDFC
• Live Stream (MP3 streaming audio)