KQJK

KQJK is a commercial adult hits music radio station in Roseville, California, broadcasting to the Sacramento, California, area on 93.7 FM. It is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications, which acquired it along with four stations in Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon, from CBS Radio as part of a seven-station swap between the two companies.

History

In 1971, the owners of KPOP (1110 AM) started a 3,000 watt FM station on the 93.5 FM frequency in Roseville, California. The station debuted as KPIP, and simulcasted KPOP’s middle of the road music during the day and aired soul music at night.

In the mid-1970s, KPIP dropped the daytime MOR programming and replaced it with Spanish language programming from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM. At 5:00 PM, the station would flip over to R&B and disco music, the latter of which was also heard on KPOP. As time progressed, KPIP acquired the nickname of “The Disco Express.”

In May 1980, the owners put the Spanish programming exclusively on 1110 AM, and changed the AM’s call letters to KPIP. The station went to an urban contemporary format. The KPOP call letters went to 93.5 FM. In 1982, the station attempted to promote itself as broadcasting in Dolby Stereo, which was about as successful as FM quadraphonic sound was in the 1970s.

In August 1983, KPOP’s owners suddenly changed to a “Modern Rock” format, with the slogan “Rock of the Eighties.” Radio consultant Rick Carroll, who developed the format at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, released it for national syndication in the early spring of 1983 and KPOP was one of his clients. The format was highly repetitious, but included a lot of new wave music, synthesizer-based "Euro Pop" and some guitar-based light punk rock (i.e., The Clash and The Ramones). Some of the disc jockeys from the urban contemporary era stayed on for the change to modern rock.

In December 1983, the station was sold to Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting. Since there were already two other Rock stations in the market (KROY and KZAP), the new owners flipped the station to a CHR format the first Monday of January 1984. The owners kept the KPOP call letters and called themselves “Pop Hits”, aiming the station primarily towards teenage females. Unfortunately, there were two other players in the local CHR market, and they both had 50,000 watt signals: KSFM, who took advantage of KPOP's flip from Urban and would go on to become a successful present-day Rhythmic Top 40, and KWOD, who itself would later evolve from Top 40 to Modern Rock by 1990. The 3,000 watt KPOP shifted to a Rock-based CHR format in the fall of 1985. It retained the KPOP call letters but now called itself “Rock Hits.” The station’s overall ratings remained around 2.1 among audiences 12 years of age or older.

In early 1986, the morning drive announcers staged a management-approved stunt to initiate a format change. They would lock themselves in the studio and refuse to leave until management allowed them to drop the call letters and switch the format to album oriented rock. By this time, Sacramento only had one other AOR station (KZAP), and its programming was beginning to skew toward 25-49 year old males.

The station changed its call letters to KDJQ, and became “93 Rock.” The new format was aimed at 18-34 year old males and featured music by mainstream hard rock artists. The KDJQ call letters were short-lived, because there was a similarly-formatted station in Modesto known as KDJK 95.1 FM. KDJK’s owners served a “cease and desist” order against Fuller-Jeffrey, and 93.5’s call letters were changed to KRXQ in very short order. KRXQ’s ratings began to increase, but the largest jumps began when the station’s owners made a shift in the station’s frequency.

In July 1988, the station shifted from 93.5 to 93.7 FM. In the process, the station went from 3,000 watts to 25,000 watts, ensuring coverage for most of the Sacramento area. The station maintained the “93 Rock” nickname, and billboards announced the frequency change by stating “Now at 93.7 FM”.

The Roseville-based frequency continued as “93 Rock” and became quite successful with its hard-edged mainstream Album Rock format. By 1989, the station began overtaking KZAP in the ratings, often receiving ratings between 6 and 7. While KZAP (98.5) began leaning towards older adults with mid-tempo and Classic Rock, KRXQ clearly skewed towards younger adults with up-tempo and Hard Rock artists of the day. By the fall of 1991, “93 Rock” was the undisputed leader in Sacramento rock radio. KZAP dropped AOR for country on January 20, 1992.

In August 1998, KRXQ (93.7) and classic country-formatted KRAK-FM (98.5) swapped frequencies. The Country-formatted KRAK-FM had poor ratings, so the format and call letters were shifted to 1470 AM in early 1999. The KXOA call sign went to 93.7 FM.

In April 1999, the station’s owners shifted the format to a classic hits format known as “Arrow 93.7.” The format had been in use at 107.9 FM between 1994 and 1998. Basically, the format was a mix of rock released as singles between the 1960s through the 1980s that received airplay on Top 40 stations. There were few, if any, album cuts. Initially, the station was fairly successful.

In June 2001, the owners (Infinity Broadcasting) decided to flip the format to “Hot Talk.” The KXOA call letters remained in place, but the station’s slogan became “The Talk that Rocks.” The station featured Howard Stern during morning drive and a mix of local and nationally-syndicated talk show hosts the rest of the day. On weekends and breaks, the station programmed classic hard rock, primarily released during the 1970s and 1980s. The music was very repetitive and highly familiar. The station went nowhere in the ratings, earning less than a percent rating in the 12+ demographic. The only national show with a substantial audience was Stern's. However, the KiddChris Show, airing locally in the evenings, was the station's highest-rated program consistently.

The station continued with the “Hot Talk” format until August 2002. One of their nationally-syndicated programs, the New York-based “Opie and Anthony Show” was cancelled from syndication (as well as their home station of WNEW in New York), when an on-air stunt involving sex in a Catholic church offended some listeners and station management. At that point, the station continued to air Howard Stern in morning drive, and dropped all remaining talk shows from their schedule. They continued to air their classic hard rock the rest of the day. KXOA now had the slogan “Sacramento’s Hard Rock.”

Intending to compete with both KSEG (96.9) and KRXQ (98.5), the station added more current material to its musical mix in the summer of 2003, but the ratings did not improve.

In March 2004, the station dropped the “Sacramento’s Hard Rock” slogan and format and the KXOA call letters. The station retained Howard Stern in morning drive, but changed the format to “Classic Alternative” and adopted the call letters of KHWD (Howard 93.7). Again, ratings did not improve. In the spring of 2005, the station began adding new harder alternative rock into its “Classic Alternative” mix. The move is seen by some as an attempt to pick up the audience KWOD (106.5) abandoned, when it shifted to an alternative/Triple-A hybrid format on March 18, 2005. Radio insiders believed that KHWD would either switch to a Spanish or “Jack FM” format (Classic Hits/Hot Adult Contemporary hybrid after Howard Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio).

On October 25, 2005, Infinity Broadcasting announced sweeping changes for many of its owned and operated stations carrying Howard Stern. Several major-market Rock heritage stations (such as WXRK in New York and WYSP in Philadelphia) would have their formats overhauled completely. In Sacramento, KHWD would switch to the “Jack” format. That same day, 93.7 adopted the format at 10:30 a.m. local time and changed their call letters to KQJK. The station continued to carry Howard Stern until December 16, 2005, which was his last day on terrestrial radio.

On December 10, 2008, CBS Radio swapped 5 of its stations (including KQJK) to its current owner Clear Channel in trade of 2 stations in Houston, Texas. ^[1] The deal was finalized on April 1, 2009.

References

External links

• Official Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KQJK
• Radio-Locator information on KQJK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KQJK