KOIT

KOIT (96.5 MHz FM) is an Adult Contemporary radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. Its slogan is "Better Music for a Better Workday". The station's programming was also simulcast for many years on 1260 AM. KSFB, a station carrying Roman Catholic programming, now operates on the latter frequency.

KOIT is owned by Entercom Communications which also operates San Francisco radio stations KUFX, KRBQ, KBLX, and KGMZ. The station has studios in the city's SoMa district, and transmits from Sutro Tower in San Francisco, with a power output of 24,000 watts effective radiated power. The signal can be received throughout the Bay Area with relative ease. There is also a booster station in Martinez, California called KOIT-3 that improves the coverage in the Diablo Valley area.

Since 2003, KOIT has been playing all holiday music beginning the week before Thanksgiving through Christmas Day, December 25. KOIT is known as "The Bay Area's Official Christmas Music Station." This highly-popular programming significantly increases the station's audience during the holiday season.

KOIT broadcasts in HD.^[1]

History

The station signed on the air July 1, 1947, under the callsign KRON-FM.^[2] It was owned by the deYoung family, and was co-owned with KRON-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The station had a limited broadcast schedule (airing only during the evening hours). The station shut down on December 31, 1954; when it returned to the air as non-commercial station in 1957, KRON-FM began carrying an evening-only program schedule devoted to classical music. During the 1960s, KRON-FM devoted a full hour (7 to 8 p.m.) to a complete Broadway show album. Since the station had no commercials, no underwriters, and no on-air fund drives, the Chronicle operated the station as a public service.^[3] Staff announcers delivered short newscasts on the station's evening broadcasts. In December 1970, KRON-FM began simulcasting a Spanish-language newscast from KRON-TV by Terry Lowry.^[4]

In 1975, the deYoung's Chronicle Publishing Company, which was the then-parent of KRON-TV and the Chronicle, sold KRON-FM to Bonneville International, who changed the station's callsign to KOIT. On December 13, 1983, Bonneville purchased KYA (1260 AM) from KING Broadcasting, changing the call letters to KOIT with 96.5 going to KOIT-FM per FCC convention. The KYA call letters remained in service at KYA-FM (93.3, now KRZZ) and went into retirement in 1993. In 1983, KOIT was playing a lot of instrumental music, sort of like the "elevator music" that was being played at KBAY (then at 100.3 FM) in San Jose. The majority of the station's playlist consisted of instrumentals, but also contained some vocals. In late 1987, KOIT changed their music format to adult contemporary, by dropping all instrumentals, and started playing music from the 1970s, and 1980s. For the first 8 years of the adult contemporary format, the station was heavy on oldies. In 1995, KOIT updated their playlist by dropping the 1950s and 1960s songs, and added more recent and current music. In 2001, KOIT began playing more hits from the 1990s and 2000s. As recently as 2009, KOIT was playing approximately one song from every decade in order in 3 song-sets. In 2009, KOIT started playing a lot more recent hits from the late 2000s and early 2010s, and dropped the 3-song decade sets.

On January 18, 2007, Bonneville announced a station swap with Entercom Communications, with KOIT and Bonneville's other San Francisco area FM radio holdings going to Entercom in return for three of Entercom's stations in Seattle, Washington and Entercom's entire radio cluster in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[5] This trade marked Entercom's re-entry into the country's fourth largest radio market. Entercom officially took over KOIT-FM via a local marketing agreement on February 26, 2007, and Entercom and Bonneville officially closed on the deal on March 14, 2008, with KOIT and the other San Francisco FM stations formerly owned by Bonneville becoming owned by Entercom outright. KOIT's AM sister station was concurrently sold to Immaculate Heart Radio, and became KSFB in December 2007; however, KOIT-FM did not drop the "-FM" suffix until September 2010.

"Fresh FM" branding

According to Radio & Records, KOIT acquired the "Fresh FM" branding for the San Francisco Bay Area on February 6, 2007. KOIT integrated the branding alongside their "Lite Rock, Less Talk" slogan.

References

1. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=3
2. ↑ "San Francisco Chronicle Launches Its FM Outlet" (PDF). Broadcasting. July 7, 1947. Retrieved 2 October 2014. 
3. ↑ Bay Area Radio Museum | History | Audio | Archives
4. ↑ Broadcast Legends - Terry Lowry
5. ↑ http://www.seattlepi.com/business/300350_radioswap19.html

External links

• Official Website
• KOIT-FM On-Air Playlist
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KOIT
• Radio-Locator information on KOIT
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for KOIT

Coordinates: 37°45′19″N 122°27′10″W / 37.7552°N 122.4527°W / 37.7552; -122.4527