KIXI

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KIXI
City of license	Mercer Island / Seattle, Washington
Broadcast area	Seattle metropolitan area
Branding	AM 880
First air date	1947
Frequency	880 kHz
Format	Nostalgia
Power	50,000 W daytime 10,000 W nighttime
Owner	Sandusky Radio
Website	kixi.com

KIXI is an AM station licensed to Mercer Island-Seattle, Washington on the frequency of 880 kHz. It operates 24 hours a day with a daytime power of 50,000 watts and a nighttime power of 10,000 watts.

Contents 1 Format 2 History 3 Radio Ratings 4 External link

[edit] Format

KIXI features nostalgic music, such as big band and musical standards.

KIXI remains one of the few AM radio stations that continues to successfully program music on the AM band. It also enjoys some of the highest ratings of any "Nostalgia" formatted station in the US. On June 1st, 2006 KIXI started to carry the nationally syndicated format "Music Of Your Life" from Jones Radio Networks.

The station was the first AM station in Seattle to transmit its signal in "IBOC" digital radio during a joint demonstration with Harris Corporation and iBiquity, the licensee of the new digital AM transmission method. KIXI can also be heard in high definition radio on KRWM 106.9 FM HD2.

[edit] History

KIXI took the air in 1947 as KXRN, a 250-watt Renton station broadcasting with at 1220 kHz during daytime hours only. KXRN was owned by the Interlake Broadcasting Company. In 1951, the station moved to 1230 kHz and changed its call letters to KLAN a year later.

KLAN became a full-time station broadcasting with 1,000 watts at 910 kHz in 1957. Purchased the following year by former KRSC and KJR personality Wally Nelskog, the station became top-40 KQDE, or "Cutie Radio." A sister station on 1230 kHz in Everett, KQTY, also used the same branding. One of Seattle's first black deejays, Bob Summerise, brought an R&B influence to his airshift on KQDE. (Summerise would later own soul-formatted KYAC, which took the air in 1964.) In 1960, KQDE would change its call letters to the more phonetic KUDY and changed its city of license to Seattle.

Failing to make an impact in the top-40 battle dominated by KJR and KOL, the station became beautiful music KIXI in late 1961. (The call letters were a Roman numeral representation of the station's "9-1" dial position.) Bob Liddle, formerly of Portland, Oregon stations KXL and KEX, joined the airstaff and would stay with KIXI for 45 years. During the 1970s, Liddle teamed with Dean Smith on News 90, one of Seattle's first all-news morning drive programs.

A partnership led by J. Elroy McCaw, owner of Tacoma television station KTVW and father of future cellular telephone tycoon Craig McCaw, purchased a 50-percent interest in KIXI in 1963. The group also acquired FM beautiful music station KGMJ from Rogan Jones, founder of the pioneering radio automation firm IGM. KGMJ became KIXI-FM and simulcasted the AM station's programming. McCaw died suddenly of a stroke in 1969, exposing a considerable amount of debt accumulated from his speculation on radio and television stations, including WINS in New York and KYA in San Francisco. With the exception of a small cable television system in Centralia, McCaw's entire broadcasting portfolio was sold off to pay down the debt service. Wally Nelskog and two Richland physicians purchased KIXI and KIXI-FM in 1971.

The beautiful music simulcast ended in 1980, with the AM side adopting an Oldies format and the FM station programming adult contemporary as "KIXI Lite." In 1982, KIXI (AM) began running a satellite-fed adult standards format. A move to the 880 kHz frequency a year later allowed for a daytime power boost to 50,000 watts, and in 1986, a nighttime increase to 10,000 watts. That same year, Nelskog sold the station to Thunder Bay Communications, who in turn sold the AM station to Sunbelt Communications. The FM station, which had became KLYC, was sold to Ackerley Communications.

KIXI was purchased by Sandusky Radio, owners of KLSY, in 1992. Hiring personalities such as Jim Dai and Dan Murphy in 1993, the station dropped the AM Only satellite service for a locally voicetracked lineup. Bob Dearborn, best known for his work at WCFL in Chicago, was the KIXI program director from 1994 to 1999. He was replaced by Bob Brooks, formerly of KLSY.

While the aging demographics of the adult standards audience forced many stations in larger markets to drop the format in the late 1990s, KIXI continued to enjoy modest success, often selling advertising time as an "add-on" to spots on KLSY or the other stations in the Sandusky Seattle group. Finally, in a move that led to an outcry from a loyal listener base, KIXI abruptly began airing Music of Your Life satellite programming on June 1, 2006. With the exception of Dan Murphy, who continues to voice station promotions and weekday weather forecasts, the entire KIXI airstaff was terminated.

[edit] Radio Ratings

The following table shows the AQH Share information from Arbitron Ratings data.

AQH is an abbrieviation for Average Quarter-Hour Persons (AQH Persons). The average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period.

Share is the percentage of those listening to radio in the Metro who are listening to a particular radio station. KIXI-AM 880 is currently ranked #22 of 36 Seattle radio stations in Arbitron Ratings Data for Winter of '06.

[edit] External link

• AM880's website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KIXI