| City of license | Los Lunas, New Mexico |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Branding | Power 106 |
| Slogan | Today & Back in the Day |
| Frequency | 106.3 (MHz) |
| First air date | 1995 |
| Format | Rhythmic contemporary |
| ERP | 98,100 watts |
| HAAT | 261 meters |
| Class | C1 |
| Facility ID | 51762 |
| Callsign meaning | American General Media (station owner) |
| Owner | American General Media |
| Sister stations | KABG, KDLW, KHFM, KLVO, KKIM, KARS |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.power106abq.com |
KAGM is a commercial radio station located in Los Lunas, New Mexico, broadcasting to the Albuquerque, New Mexico area on 106.3 FM. KAGM airs a Rhythmic contemporary music format branded as "Power 106" and features a Hip-Hop leaning direction.
This is the second time that 106.3 has aired this format. From 1997-2005 this station was KYLZ known as "Wild 106".
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106.3 FM launched as KYLZ-FM in the summer of 1997. The new station was branded as "Wild 106" and went head-to-head with KKSS "Kiss" 97.3 which had been very popular with local youth for much of the 1990s. The two stations would often be in a fierce battle for hip-hop listeners over the next seven years. KKSS had shifted to mainstream top 40 in early 2001 making KYLZ the lone rhythmic contemporary station for nearly two years. However KKSS returned to rhythmic in late 2002 after changing ownership putting the two stations in direct competition once again with KKSS eventually reclaiming the top spot in the format. In late 2004, American General Media had opted to challenge the markets' top rated station 770 KKOB (AM) after its morning host had signed with the company. 106.3 was selected as the station to house the new news and talk format and therefore ending Wild 106 in February 2005. "Wild" was revived in December 2007 as KDLW on 97.7 FM but had not been an effective competitor with KKSS as KYLZ was. After 106.3 launched a new hip-hop format in July 2009, Wild 97.7 became known as OMG! Radio on August 24, 2009 with a mainstream top 40 format.
In March 2005, 106.3 became KAGM with a news and talk format that started with the departure of Larry Ahrens from top rated 770 KKOB (AM) in December 2004. Ahrens had been that stations morning show host for nearly 25 years. He had soon signed with American General Media with the intent of challenging his former station. Other local hosts who would be featured on KAGM were Dianne Anderson who had just left her TV news anchor job at KOAT. She would host an afternoon talk show on 106.3 later joined by her husband Mark Mathis. The late afternoon "drive time" featured Chris Jackson who was 770 KKOB's afternoon host during the late 1990s. Also Phil "The Bean" Sisneros co-hosted that show. Sisneros was formerly the long time morning show host on KKOB-FM until late 2002 at the time of that stations switch to mainstream top 40. National talk radio hosts Glenn Beck and Rusty Humphries originally filled the midday and nighttime slots but the station had numerous line-up changes during its run. However the station achieved low arbitron ratings and appeared to have little or no impact on KKOB-AM. In 2006 Jackson and Sisneros were let go and replaced with a couple of previously unknown hosts while Dianne Anderson joined Larry Ahrens in the morning shift but later returned to television taking a new anchor job at KRQE. The format ended on September 29, 2006 replaced with a temporary simulcast of sister station KZNM 106.7's Spanish-language oldies format.
KAGM signed on with a classic country format on October 4, 2006, after a failed 18 month attempt at a News/Talk format designed to challenge the markets top rated station 770 KKOB (AM). It used "The Range" branding that two other stations had previously used in recent years. The earlier versions of "The Range" had decent 12+ arbitron ratings but did not last for very long.
"The Range" branding was originally used in Albuquerque on KKRG-FM when Simmons media launched a classic country station on the 101.3 FM frequency in December 2001. After a little less than a year, Simmons had sold the station, along with four other FM stations, to Hispanic Broadcasting (now Univision Radio) and changed the format to Regional Mexican. The Range got another shot in April 2004 on the 105.1 frequency but in March 2006 Univision dropped The Range in favor of its "Recuerdo" Mexican Oldies format.
On July 20, 2009 KAGM flipped directions to Rhythmic and adopted the "Power 106" moniker. With this move, AGM had two Rhythmic outlets in the same radio market, the other being KDLW up until August 2009 when it switched directions to Top 40/CHR. Power 106.3 plays a Rhythmic format of today's Hits but also with some "old School R&B & Hip Hop" mixed in similar to what KSYU "Hot 95" was. They also have attacked rival KKSS over their claim of who actually plays "Hip-Hop & R&B," calling them a "Hip-Pop" station.
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