WKSF

WKSF ("Kiss Country") is a country music station licensed to Old Fort, North Carolina. The Clear Channel station broadcasts from a tower on Mount Pisgah, southwest of Asheville at 99.9 FM with an ERP of 48 kW, and a 6 bay (element) antenna. The tower is shared with former sister station WLOS-TV (ABC) and WUNF-TV (PBS).

History

This station originally launched by Skyway Broadcasting Corporation in 1947 as WLOS-FM, and simulcasted its AM sister station (today's WKJV) before adopting an individual format of beautiful music by the mid-1960s. Skyway sold WLOS-AM-FM and its sister TV outlet to Wometco Enterprises in 1958. The station dropped the -FM suffix from its call sign after the sale of the AM station in 1969, remained a Wometco property until 1984. During the mid-1980s, the station was briefly known as WRLX. It was 99.9 KISS-FM playing Top 40-Rock in the mid eighties to early 90s and country since. KISS-FM was most known for its big top-40 days, with many tempo DJs, including John Stevens, Dawn Creasman, Chuck Finley, Brother Bill, GT, Radar and Pat Garrett. It was quite common for "Kiss" to pull huge ratings at that time. A 30 share was very common.

Although the station's numbers don't rate quite as high as they did back then, the KISS-Country format has proven to be very successful in the market. The station is consistently number one in both average and cume numbers.

In 2004, when WQNQ began airing separate programming from WQNS, the station moved its city of license from Old Fort, which required another station moving its city of license to Old Fort. WKSF, always licensed to Asheville before that, made this move.

Coverage

While not a particularly powerful station, Kiss Country's transmitter atop Mt. Pisgah (at an elevation of over 5,000 ft.) gives the station a wide coverage area across Western North Carolina and beyond. With the height of the tower and the mountain combined, the transmitter actually sits at over 6,000 ft. in elevation, making it the radio station with the second highest transmitter east of the Mississippi River (Kiss Country shares a tower with WLOS-TV, which is dubbed as having the highest TV transmitter east of the Mississippi). In addition to Western North Carolina, the station's signal makes it into parts of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and even portions of southeast Kentucky.

The station can be heard well west of Knoxville, fading out near Crossville, Tennessee and prior to 2005 with the inception of WCMC-FM in Raleigh, could be heard at higher elevations in central North Carolina as far east as Chatham County and Orange County.

Programming

Kiss Country plays a mix of modern and older country music, with more emphasis on current artists. 99.9 Kiss Country is the 2009 CMA Small Market Station of the Year. Staff include Eddie Foxx and Sharon Green of the "Eddie Foxx Show", Brian Hatfield and Andy Woods.

Hurricane Ivan

During the passage of the remnants of Hurricane Ivan through western North Carolina in 2004, the station preempted its music broadcasting, so that residents throughout western North Carolina could call in storm and damage reports. The station also relayed flood information, updated road closings and power outage reports throughout the storm.

External links

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