| City of license | Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Washington, D.C. |
| Branding | "93.9 Kiss FM" |
| Slogan | DC's #1 for Interactive Hip Hop and R&B |
| Frequency | 93.9 (MHz) |
| First air date | June, 1947 (as WRC-FM) |
| Format | Urban Contemporary |
| ERP | 24,500 watts |
| HAAT | 215 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 73200 |
| Callsign meaning | KYS - a play on KISS |
| Owner | Radio One |
| Sister stations | WMMJ, WOL, WPRS, WYCB |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.kysdc.com |
WKYS, the "Station for Interactive Hip Hop and R&B", is an American radio station broadcasting an Urban Contemporary radio format, that serves the greater Washington metropolitan area. Its transmitter is located on the same tower as WRC-TV. The station broadcasts from a class B signal with an effective radiated power of 24,500 watts (24.5 kilowatts(kW) on 93.9 MHz frequency. WKYS has a city of license of Washington, D.C., and is owned by Radio One.
Originally, the station was owned by NBC. During its early days it was known as WRC-FM, with a jazz format. The transition from the beautiful music format into what is now WKYS occurred when NBC moved the Top 40 format that was on sister station WRC/980 to WKYS to make way for an all news format on the AM station. For a short time in 1975, the two stations simulcast the Top 40 format.
Shortly after the simulcast was discontinued, the original AM Top 40 format continued for a short while on the FM station, but later, seeing the coming boom in disco music, WKYS adopted a highly successful disco format in the late 1970s and branded itself as WKYS, "Disco 93.9"[1]. DJs during the disco era included Donnie Simpson, Stoney Richards, Joe Cipriano, Eddie Edwards, Bill Bailey, Jeff Leonard, Chuck Davis, Candy Shannon and Max Kinkel.
The disco format eventually evolved into the present urban contemporary format, WKYS, "93.9 Kiss FM" under the guidance of Donnie Simpson [2].
When NBC divested all of its radio properties in 1988, WKYS was sold to Albimar Communications. Some years later, amid financial difficulties, the station was sold to Radio One. In the mid 1990s, WKYS was forced to drop the "Kiss FM" name and changed it to "93.9 WKYS" because Clear Channel held ownership of the name. However, WKYS has recently reintroduced the "Kiss FM" name with its over-the-air branding.
From the 1970s to 1993, WKYS was home to the legendary radio personality Donnie Simpson. The station is now the flagship of the nationally syndicated Russ Parr Morning Show.
WKYS competes with rival rhythmic crossover station WPGC-FM, Urban AC station WMMJ (sister station thereof) and Howard University's WHUR.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||