KKRZ

KKRZ
City Portland, Oregon
Broadcast area Northwestern Oregon, Southwestern Washington
Branding Z100
Slogan Portland's #1 Hit Music Station
Frequency 100.3 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Translator(s) 102.3 K272EL (Portland, relays HD2)
First air date May 7, 1946 (as KGW-FM on 95.3)
September 22, 1947 (as KGW-FM on 100.3)
November 2, 1983 (as KKRZ)
Format Top 40 (CHR)
HD2: Alternative Rock "Radio 102.3"
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 470 meters
Class C
Facility ID 11280
Callsign meaning K K RoZe ("Rose" as in "Rose City")
Former callsigns KGW-FM (1946-1950)
KGW-FM (1952-1954)
KQFM (1954-1983)
Former frequencies 95.3 MHz (1946-1947)
Owner iHeartMedia
(Citicasters Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations KKCW, KFBW, KLTH, KXJM, KPOJ, KEX
Webcast Listen Live
Listen Live (HD2)
Website z100portland.com
radio1023.com (HD2)

KKRZ is a commercial broadcast radio station in Portland, Oregon, also known as Z100, broadcasts Top 40 (CHR) music. Owned by iHeartMedia, the transmitter is located in Portland's West Hills; their studios are in Tigard, Oregon.

History

What is now KKRZ first signed on May 7, 1946 as KGW-FM on 95.3 MHz and moved to 100.3 MHz on September 22, 1947. The call letters changed to KQFM on December 1, 1954 and broadcast a beautiful music format known as "Q-Music", and then in 1978, switched to a pop/AOR format under the name "Q-100". The format was changed to oldies on March 16, 1981 as "Solid Gold FM-100". The station changed to the KKRZ call letters and changed to what is considered a Hot AC format as "The Rose" (hence the KKRZ call letters) on November 2, 1983. KKRZ began its current heritage Top 40 format on March 16, 1984, widely mirroring sister station WHTZ/New York City (down to the name "Z100").

In 1986, the station adopted a more rhythmic-leaning format due to the lack of an existing urban-oriented station in Portland. That move would pay off and made KKRZ a dominant success in the ratings in its first 15 years. That was until 1999, when it picked up competition from Adult Contemporary rival KXL-FM, who took advantage of the market's rhythmic void and filled it by becoming KXJM, "Jammin 95.5". This competition between the two would last for nine years, as KXJM (whose playlist favored Hip-Hop/R&B and some Dance product) would overtake KKRZ (who shifted back to a more mainstream direction) in the Portland Arbitrons. After KXJM, who saw their ratings decline by 2007, announced their format flip to Sports Talk as KXTG in May 2008, KKRZ started to lean towards Rhythmic crossovers again, but would end up facing new competition from CBS Radio outlet KVMX, who ironically, dropped their Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format and picked up KXJM's Rhythmic format and intellectual property, including the KXJM calls and "Jammin'" slogan, from Rose City Radio Corporation, the owners of KXTG. KKRZ would later move towards the center again and became a more balanced Top 40/CHR, which helped regain their foothold in the ratings again as well.

former logo

On April 1, 2009, iHeartMedia (as Clear Channel Communications) took over ownership of KXJM from CBS, thus making KKRZ and KXJM sister stations. Both stations retained their respective formats. However, in March 2010, KXJM relaunched as "WiLD 107.5" but kept its Rhythmic Top 40 format intact. Despite the fact that both KKRZ and KXJM are under the same ownership, being programmed by the same program director and sharing some of the same music, KKRZ continues to focus on Mainstream Pop/Rock hits. In addition, both stations continue to place among the top 10 in the Portland Arbitrons.

Morning shows

Z100 has had several morning shows throughout its history. The Z Morning Zoo started in 1984 (the year Z100 signed on), and had multiple hosts & cohosts over the years. These included Gary Bryan, Dan Clark, John Murphy, Tony Martinez, Nelson the Intern, Scott Thrower, Billy Hayes, Valerie Ring, Brooke Belson and several others. The Zoo format lasted until 2000, when it was replaced with Chet & Nicole. They lasted until 2002, when mornings were assigned to the BuckHead Show, which lasted about 5 years. In the same week that BuckHead received the Edison's Media Top 30 under 30 Personality award, KKRZ management Brian Bridgman, Tony Coles and Robert Dove began running short, cryptic spots about "T-Man" coming to Portland. On August 31, 2007, BuckHead's morning fill-in host Brooke Fox announced that indeed, "The T-Man Show" was coming to Z100 mornings on Tuesday, September 4, 2007. The T-Man Show was based out of Seattle (at KUBE) and was syndicated in San Francisco (at KYLD). Buck Head can now be heard on WDZH in Detroit, MI.

Less than six months after the T-Man show debuted in Portland, it was pulled from KKRZ, for yet undisclosed reasons (presumably due to low ratings). The T-Man could still be heard in Seattle and San Francisco until the show ended in 2009. The replacement morning show is the Arizona-based Johnjay and Rich show.

Programming

In addition to the morning show, KKRZ's weekday lineup include On Air with Ryan Seacrest in middays, Maui in early afternoons, Carson in afternoon drive, and Brady in nights. Other personalities Kaydo and Brett Andrews. Weekends: American Top 40, and iHeartRadio Countdown. Weather reports are provided by KATU and traffic reports by sister station KEX.

KKRZ-HD2

KKRZ-HD2 airs an alternative rock format branded as "Radio 102.3" (simulcast on FM translator K272EL 102.3 FM).[1]

References

  1. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=24 HD Radio Guide for Portland

Coordinates: 45°31′19″N 122°44′49″W / 45.522°N 122.747°W / 45.522; -122.747

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