KKSY-FM

KKSY-FM
City Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Branding 96.5 Kiss Country
Slogan Iowa's New Country
Frequency 96.5 MHz
First air date February 27, 1963 (1963-02-27)
Format Country
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 158 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 73594
Transmitter coordinates 42°1′40.00″N 91°38′25.00″W / 42.0277778°N 91.6402778°W / 42.0277778; -91.6402778 (WMT-FM)
Callsign meaning KisS CountrY.
Former callsigns WMT-FM (1963-2012)
Owner iHeartMedia, Inc.
(Citicasters Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations KKRQ, KMJM, KOSY-FM, KXIC, WMT
Webcast Listen Live
Website 965kisscountry.com

KKSY-FM (96.5 FM, "96.5 Kiss Country") is a 100,000 watt radio station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is a country music formatted station owned by iHeartMedia, Inc..

History

KKSY-FM signed on February 27, 1963, as WMT-FM at 96.5 FM with an easy listening, jazz and classical music format. There were 90-minute classical music segments in the morning and evening with regular programs of jazz and music from Broadway musicals. Some of those early announcers were Keith Webster, Bill Dutcher, Don John Ross, Bill Grubbe, and Jim Wicks as well as other WMT announcers who took the helm of hosting on FM. In the early days, programming was totally separate from WMT radio but in the late 1960s, WMT-FM started simulcasting the 15-minute newscasts of WMT AM 600 several times a day. In the 1970s, it became a full-time "beautiful music" station before adopting an adult contemporary format in the early 1980s in an era when many beautiful music stations went to a soft rock or more contemporary format. WMT-FM's studios have been located at Broadcast Park on Collins Road in Cedar Rapids, along with its AM sister station WMT and TV station KGAN (the former WMT-TV), since it signed on. Until the 1970s, the studios of WMT radio was located on the fifth floor of the historic Paramount Theater building in downtown Cedar Rapids.[1] It was one of the few stations with a callsign beginning with W located west of the Mississippi River.

The station was known for their "time warp weekends" and long-standing tradition of being heavily involved in the Cedar Rapids community. The station hosts "Uptown Friday Nights" every Friday night in downtown Cedar Rapids. The station often joins up with WMT for special promotional events, and simulcasts during severe weather conditions.

WMT-FM ended its longtime hot adult contemporary format on December 27, 2011, when Clear Channel transferred the country format from KKSY (95.7 FM); after a temporary simulcast period,[2][3] 95.7 FM began to simulcast WMT on January 2, 2012 and eventually took the KWMG call letters on January 17, 2012.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Danek, Ernie (1980). Cedar Rapids: Tall Corn and High Technology. Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications. pp. 140–141. ISBN 0-89781-021-X.
  2. ↑ DeWitte, Dave (December 27, 2011). "Mix 96.5 Becomes History as Clear Channel Opts for Country Format". KCRG-TV9. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  3. ↑ "WMT Shares KKSY's Country Format". All Access. December 27, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  4. ↑ Venta, Lance (January 2, 2012). "WMT-FM Becomes Kiss Country, 95.7 Becomes WMT-FM". RadioInsight. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
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