KDEY-FM
| City | Ontario, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Inland Empire |
| Branding | 93.5 KDAY |
| Slogan | Hip Hop Back in the Day |
| Frequency | 93.5 MHz |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Format | Classic Hip-Hop (KDAY simulcast) |
| ERP | 5,000 watts |
| HAAT | -40 metres |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 10099 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°10′32″N 117°34′26″W / 34.17556°N 117.57389°W |
| Former callsigns |
KREA (1993-2000) KNJR (2000-2001) KFSB (2001-2003) KZBA (2003-2004) KDAI (2004-2007) KWIE (FM)(2007-2009) |
| Owner |
Meruelo Group (Meruelo Radio Holdings LLC) |
| Sister stations | KDAY, KPWR, KWHY-TV (in the Los Angeles market) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 935kday.com |
KDEY-FM (93.5 FM, 93.5 KDAY) is serving the Inland Empire area with a Classic Hip-Hop radio format. The station is owned by Meruelo Radio Holdings LLC and broadcasts at 93.5 MHz on the FM dial.[1] The station's city of licence is Ontario, California. KDEY-FM has a transmitter located on Haven Mountain to the north of Ontario.
KDEY-FM simulcasts with co-channel station KDAY in Redondo Beach to fill coverage gaps in KDAY's eastern coverage area.[2]
Station history
The 93.5 in Ontario was KNTF from the early 80's until 1990 when it became "Thunder Country" for a very short time. In the early 1990s, this became Hot AC KRZE, "The Breeze". Former staff members of KRZE include Steve Craig mid-days at WRXP New York, Kevin Barrett-programme director at XTRA Sports San Francisco, and Lisa Osborne-ancheur at KFI News. Formerly both Torrance and Ontario stations begun in the 1950s had call signs similar to each other: KFXM (AM) in Ontario (for San Bernardino) and KFXT (AM) in Torrance (for Los Angeles).
Soon after it aired a block programming primarily purchased by Korean broadcasters. In the mid-1990s, it began simulcasting the Redondo Beach station in its various formats, first as KRZE, then KREA, KFSB, KZBA and KNJR, its full-length programming in the Korean Language, was known as "Radio Korea" until 1999, when KNJR of Ontario/KZBA of Torrance switched to Spanish language musica, known as "Radio Gruperah".
On September 20, 2004, the station became the simulcast for KDAY, offering a Hip-Hop/R&B format and took the KDAI calls to match its sister station's on-air handle. The signal was used to cover the eastern portions of Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire.[3] Despite the effort to cover the area, it was signal challenged. In 2006, the KDAI calls were replaced with the KWIE calls. After three years of simulcasting, Magic announced that KDAY would get a signal upgrade and cover more of the Los Angeles area as an Urban Contemporary/Urban Talk outlet. The move also ended the simulcast of KDAY and KWIE on August 14, 2008, with KWIE being re-launched as "FLO 93.5."[4][5]
The "FLO 93.5" approach was started by Don McCoy, CEO of Magic Broadcasting, which is headquartered in Panama City, Florida. The first 90 days of broadcasting was proposed to be commercial free. In an interview with The Press-Enterprise, station sales manager Colleen Bambrick described the new format in a telephone interview: "FLO 93.5 will be rhythmic adult contemporary....We'll play artists like Alicia Keys, Carlos Santana, Usher, maybe a Mary J. Blige."[6]
Unfortunately, KWIE's Rhythmic AC format did not perform well in the ratings. In September 2009, KWIE dropped the format and returned to simulcasting KDAY's Classic Hip-Hop format under new call letters KDEY-FM. The latter had dropped their syndicated-heavy Urban Contemporary approach in August 2009 after it too had poor ratings.[7]
In May 2014, KDEY and KDAY were sold to Meruelo Media, which also owns Los Angeles television station KWHY. On June 7, 2015, the stations began carrying Art Laboe's syndicated six-hour Sunday-night oldies programme, "The Art Laboe Connection," which had previously been heard on KHHT until February 2015, when the station dropped its rhythmic oldies format and switched to urban as KRRL.[8]
On February 28, 2017, KDEY starting stunting with a loop of "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses, indicating a tease towards a flip to Active Rock or Classic Rock. However, on March 1, KDEY flipped to R&B/Hip-Hop as "Wild 93.5," giving the Inland Empire its first Urban Contemporary outlet since 1994, when KHTI's predecessor KABE dropped the format for Alternative as KCXX. It also revived the "Wild" branding that was last used at KRQB from 2004 to 2007 when it was KWIE.[9][10]
On May 9, 2017, Emmis Broadcasting sold Rhythmic Top 40 KPWR/Los Angeles to Meruelo for $82.75 million and began operating KPWR under the new ownership in July 2017. As a result of the acquisition and retaining KPWR's Rhythmic format, air staff and management, Meruelo announced that it will move KDAY and KDEY to KPWR's Burbank studios effective with the deal. KDEY retained its urban format and continued focusing on the Riverside-San Bernardino market until its return to simulcasting KDAY in October 2017.[11][12]
On October 30, 2017, at 2:00 p.m., KDEY reinstated its simulcast with KDAY due to the acquisition of KPWR, which was done to avoid direct competition with its sister station as Meruelo management saw KDEY's Urban format as redundant, despite having done research on targeting the area and to address signal coverage and overlapping issues.[13]
See also
References
- ↑ "Application Search Details (BALH-20101223ACG)". FCC Media Bureau. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
- ↑ Don McCoy's Magic House - Life Story Archived 2016-08-17 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/2000s/2004/RR-2004-09-24.pdf
- ↑ https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/44430/kday-has-first-new-fm-radio-tower-in-l-a-in-50-yea?ref=search
- ↑ Archived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Quote Source Retrieved 14/08/2008 from The Press-Enterprise
- ↑ https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/64734/kday-simulcasts-with-kwie?ref=search
- ↑ Art Laboe's Killer Oldies Return To L.A.'s Airwaves Again Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "KDEY Breaks KDAY Simulcast For Urban “Wild 93.5” " RadioInsight (March 1, 2017)
- ↑ In L.A. area, Meruelo makes ‘WILD’ signal split.
- ↑ "Emmis Sells Power 106 Los Angeles To Mereulo Group", RadioInsight.com, May 9, 2017.
- ↑ "Meruelo Takes Over KPWR; Sets New Management" from Radio Insight (July 6, 2017)
- ↑ "KDAY Restores Inland Empire Simulcast", RadioInsight.com (October 30, 2017)