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KEZE, also known as "WIRED 96.9", is a Rhythmic Top 40 radio station licensed to Spokane, Washington. The Morgan Murphy Media station broadcasts at 96.9 MHz on the FM dial with an ERP of 8.2 kW. Its transmitter is located in Millwood, Washington.
[edit] History
KEZE is remembered by many born in the 1960s as an album-oriented hard rock FM radio station on 105.7 FM ("Rock 106"), sporting the slogan "Spokane's Best Rock". From the late 1970s through the 1980s, the station enjoyed large audience appeal on the strength of playing the "classics" (eg. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) as well as championing newer hard rock bands such as Night Ranger, Krokus, Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, and Def Leppard. With the emergence of grunge and "the Seattle sound" in the late 80s and early 90s, KEZE adopted the harder-edged sounds of heavy guitar-based alternative rock (eg. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains). As the public appeal of guitar-based alternative waned in the mid-90s, KEZE attempted a "back to our roots" as a Classic Rock station in 1996, only to flip to an all-80s Adult Top 40 format in 1999, known as Star 96.9.
Billboard promoting
The Play House morning show for Wired 96.9
On October 12, 2005 it flipped to Rhythmic Top 40, a move that might have been spurred by rumors that another move-in might fill the void after KYWL dropped the format in 2004. Those rumors became reality in December 2005 when KQQB-FM signed with the same format as KEZE's, even though KEZE does have a better advantage over KQQB in terms of signal coverage in Spokane County proper. KQQB, however, has evolved into a Mainstream Top 40 direction, thus leaving KEZE as the only Rhythmic in the market.
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