| City of license | San Diego, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Diego, California |
| Branding | Sophie @ 103.7 |
| Slogan | "Now. New. Next." |
| Frequency |
103.7 (MHz) (also on HD Radio) KSCF HD2, KROQ-FM Pasadena (Los Angeles) simulcast (Alternative Rock) |
| First air date | February 1965 (as KSDO-FM) October 2005 (as KSCF) |
| Format | Modern AC |
| ERP | 26,500 watts |
| HAAT | 177 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 59816 |
| Callsign meaning | San Diego California Free FM; likely kept to be adapted to sound like SCoF(ph)ie |
| Former callsigns | KSDO-FM (1965-1970's) KOZN-FM (1970's-1979) KJQY (1979-1995) KMKX (1995-1996) KPLN (1996-2005) |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Sister stations | KYXY |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | radiosophie.com |
KSCF, also known as Sophie @ 103.7, is a San Diego Hot AC radio station, owned and operated by CBS Radio. "Now. New. Next" is the tagline of this San Diego radio station. The station broadcasts in HD Radio. The HD2 broadcast a simulcast of sister station KROQ-FM/Los Angeles. House of Sophie is on the HD3 signal.
The station originally signed on in February 1965 as KSDO-FM, and aired Country music. It was co-owned with KSDO-AM. By the late 1970s, the station was KOZN-FM playing a beautiful music format. On May 20, 1979, the call letters were changed to KJQY and the station was known as "K-Joy". The station evolved into an adult contemporary format, then in 1995 it became "Rock Mix 103.7" KMKX, playing classic rock music. On July 5, 1996, the call letters changed to KPLN and the station was known as "The Planet", still with a classic rock format. At that time, it was the radio home of Cindy Pace, Jim McInnes, who now does the weekday 5pm to midnight news on AM 760 KFMB and is a traffic reporter on 100.7 Jack FM, Tony Martin, nighttime DJ on Sophie, and Mike Dawson, is now a producer/announcer for The Adam Carolla Show, featured on former sister station KLSX in Los Angeles in the mornings.
On October 25, 2005, the station changed formats from classic rock to an FM talk format with the brand "Free FM", and their call letters changed on October 28 from KPLN to KSCF. In December 2005, Howard Stern left the terrestrial airwaves and moved to Sirius Satellite Radio. At the beginning, Adam Carolla was their morning show host. He started January 3, 2006, replacing Stern.
On March 1, 2006, The Phil Hendrie Show was replaced by the Dick and Skibba Show, a local show formerly from 97.1 Free FM. The show aired in the 7pm-10pm time slot, then the only live and local talk show in San Diego in the evening. As a result, this pushed Phil Hendrie to a later 10pm-1am time slot. Dick and Skibba were fired on February 14, 2007, according to program director Jim Daniels, the show was too cerebral for San Diego.
On March 5, 2007, the Generation Y University show replaced the Dick and Skibba show. The show was hosted by three 23-year-old men who were all Mt. Carmel High School alumni who grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos. The show had previously aired on Sunday afternoons from 5pm-7pm. The show was cancelled on April 25, 2007 and replaced by Generic Radio. The show, hosted by Howie and Pags, was an irreverent look at the stories of the day, including observational humor, intervviews and live in-studio musical performamces by many local acts.
On June 22, 2007 at 3PM (PDT) KSCF flipped to Oldies as "K-Surf 103.7." The first song played was "Surfin' USA" by The Beach Boys. They were supposed to be the market's first FM Oldies outlet since 2005, when XHOCL had the format prior to its flip to Regional Mexican. The last song played in the short-lived oldies format was "Bobby's Girl" by Marcie Blane. Following "Bobby's Girl" at 5PM (PDT), the Oldies format turned out to be a stunt as the station revealed its true format, a Modern AC as Sophie @ 103.7, adapted slightly from sister station KLLC in San Francisco, which is known as Alice @ 97.3. Its first song under this format was Jack Johnson's "Upside Down" as the first tune, followed by Fall Out Boy's "Thnks fr th Mmrs."
At first, CBS Radio had high hopes for KSCF with extensive marketing aimed at attracting the adult male demos, but ever since they switched formats from KPLN to Free FM, the station's ratings started to drop. In fall 2005, (when 103.7 became Free FM), ratings were 2.2, mainly due to Howard Stern being the morning show host. In the beginning of 2006, 103.7's ratings dropped in half to a rating of 1.1, due to a much less popular Adam Carolla morning show. The ratings would later slip in Summer 2006 to a rating of 1.0, and remained at 1.0 in the Fall 2006. [1]
In the end, the attempt to make Free FM a success in San Diego had proven to be too difficult and like other Free FM sister stations in New York City (WFNY) and San Francisco (KIFR), which returned to active rock and classic hits respectively, KSCF decided to switch formats in June 2007. To add to the demise of the Free FM family of stations, Its sister station in Phoenix (KZON) flipped to Rhythmic Contemporary at the same exact time as KSCF's format switch.
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