KFMB-FM

Early years/B100

What eventually became KFMB-FM began testing in 1950 from the North Park Theater on Adams Avenue. It finally signed on as a commercial operation on 100.7 MHz on September 21, 1959, with a beautiful music format. In the late 1960s, the format was called "Music only for a woman". Station Manager Eddie "Ed" Peters bought the rights to syndicate the format. Soon after, Ed left and started his own jingle company known as "Peters Productions" which syndicated the format on reel-to-reel tape to over 100 stations during the 1960s and 1970s, changing the name of the format to "Music just for the two of us."

San Diego in the early 1970s had three "beautiful music" stations and was about to gain a fourth, so KFMB (AM) program director Bobby Rich and station manager Paul Palmer put together a super high energy top 40 format to challenge market leader KCBQ (1170 AM). Rich wanted to change the call letters to something with a "Q" in them to become "the FM Q", but the owners refused to break up the KFMB AM/FM/TV matched set of call signs. Although 100.7 is closer to 101 than 100, KGB-FM (101.5 FM) had already established itself as "101 KGB FM", so KFMB-FM became "B-100" in March 1975 with the slogan "Better Boogie", eventually knocking off longtime AM top 40 powerhouse KCBQ in the Fall 1977 Arbitron ratings.

B-100 was the first major-market FM top 40 station to achieve overall number one Arbitron ratings for all listeners. The station's on air staff during its first two years included Phil Flowers, Scott "The Rocketman" Wright, Jimi Fox, Willie B. Goode!, Rob Landree, Dave Conley, Billy Martin, Glen McCartney, "Shotgun" Tom Kelly, Gene Knight, Danny Wilde, Gary Kelley, Billy Pearl, Kenny "Beaver Cleaver" Levine, Kevin "Just" Anderson, Cherie, Jimmy Rogers, Christopher Lance, Terri Lynn, with Uncle Fred, and Bobby Rich under his on air name "Dr. Boogie". Suddenly, after one year, Fox, Goode, and Conley left to launch top 40 outlet "Ten-Q" at KTNQ (1020 AM) in Los Angeles.

B100 had major success in the 1980s, reinventing itself as one of the nation's first ever hot AC stations. It melded top 40 hits (omitting some teen-oriented songs) with an adult delivery by its high profile air staff. The day started with The B100 Morning Zoo starring Bobby Rich, Scott Kenyon, Pat Gaffey, and Frank Anthony — collectively known as "The Rich Brothers". Others included Gary Kelley, Gene Knight (who moved on to KXSN), Danny Romero, Ellen K. Thomas, and John Fox.

Jeff and Jer became the new morning show hosts at B100 in 1991, but would leave in April 1993 for KKLQ. Replacing them were John Landers and Jools Brandt, followed by Larry Himmel, who had also succeeded Shotgun Tom in mornings on B100 in 1979. After Jeff and Jer departed, the station's ratings began to decline.

Star 100.7

On May 16, 1994, Midwest Television announced that KFMB-FM would change formats. After the announcement, the station began a 3-week stunt dubbed "The Great Radio Experiment", where the station tested formats such as all-1970s hits, country, all-Elvis, modern rock, "party songs", an "MTV"-style top 40 format, classic rock, all-Motown, and children's music, each lasting for a day, and allowed listeners to vote for the new format.^[1] On June 6 at midnight, KFMB-FM relaunched as "Star 100.7", and retained the hot AC format, though with a more current and upbeat focus than "B-100".^[2]

"Star" was a personality-oriented station, with an initial air staff made up of Shawn Ireland and Donna Davis in mornings, Kim Morrison in middays, Dave Smiley in afternoons, Dominica in evenings, and China More in overnights. Later on, the station's air staff consisted of Jeff and Jer (who returned in May 1997) in mornings, Anita Rush in middays, current XHRM morning hosts Jagger and Kristi in afternoons (after they left for KMYI in 2002, they would be replaced with Gregg Simms, Jen Sewell and Sara Kiani), and Ricky Lopez at nights (who would later be replaced with a repeat of Jeff and Jer dubbed "Jeff and Jer Primetime"). The station also aired the Bob and Sheri syndicated morning drive show in the early morning hours for a brief period in late 2004 and early 2005 (the show broadcasts from Charlotte, North Carolina in the Eastern Time Zone).

100.7 Jack FM

Logo as "100.7 Jack FM"

"Star 100.7" continued until April 6, 2005 at 9:55 a.m., when the station began stunting with a five-minute ticking clock and a mysterious voice saying "closer...closer", which ended with an alarm going off and a female announcer saying "Bye Star". At that point, "Jack FM" and its adult hits format was introduced with R.E.M.'s "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."^[3] Jeff and Jer left KFMB-FM in August 2005 and moved across town to KMYI 94.1 FM, now known as "Star 94.1". On August 2, 2010, KFMB-FM became home to the former longtime KGB-FM morning show, "Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw", often abbreviated "The DSC". In September 2013, KFMB-FM instituted a paywall for its online webstream, which only allows listeners in the San Diego area to hear the online stream.

In January 2014, the station's sound evolved from the adult hits format by adding more current and recent hits, dropping most songs recorded before 2000 other than those by established modern rock artists such as Green Day, INXS, and U2. In April 2014, Mediabase added KFMB-FM to its hot AC panel, reflecting its shift from adult hits to a modern rock-leaning hot AC format.^[4]

On October 6, 2015, Midwest Television announced that it had entered into a joint operating agreement with Local Media San Diego LLC, which operates three stations licensed to Tijuana but broadcasting in English for the San Diego media market: 92.5 XHRM-FM, 91.1 XETRA-FM, and 90.3 XHITZ-FM. The five stations formed an entity known as SDLocal. Management said the intent of the agreement was to "preserve the local ownership and operation of San Diego's top-rated radio stations".^[5] Shortly after, the paywall for the stream was lifted, and the station could be heard outside the San Diego market once again.

100.7 KFM-BFM

On November 17, 2015, KFMB-FM began airing all-Christmas music for the holiday season as "Jack Frost". On December 8, Garrett Michaels, formerly Program Director at XETRA-FM, was named KFMB-FM's new Program Director.^[6] With the announcement, there were possible hints of an upcoming format change. While morning hosts "Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw" were usually ranked in first place, particularly among listeners 25–54 years old, KFMB-FM overall was ranked #17 in the December 2015 Nielsen ratings report for the San Diego market.^[7][8] On December 26, 2015, at 10 AM, after playing "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" by the Ramones, KFMB-FM began stunting with a "Wheel of Formats" (which consisted of all-AC/DC, all-Bob Marley, 80s hits, all-Van Halen, outlaw country, soft adult contemporary, all-glam metal bands, all-blues, and adult standards), branded simply as "100.7", with each new format starting every day at 10 a.m. The stunt lasted until January 4, when the station settled on a mainstream rock format consisting of a mix of classic rock and 1970s/1980s new wave hits. This was branded as "100.7 KFM-BFM", a nod to how the station referred to its call letters in the 1980s. The first song on "KFM-BFM" was "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush.^[9][10][11]

Midwest Television and Local Media San Diego ended the "SDLocal" joint operating agreement at the end of 2016.^[12]

In October 2017, San Diego television station KUSI-TV reported that KFMB-AM-FM-TV were being offered for sale by Midwest Television.^[13] On December 18, 2017, Tegna, Inc. announced it would purchase the KFMB stations for $325 million;^[14] the deal marks Tegna's re-entry into radio, as predecessor Gannett Company had sold its previous radio group to Evergreen Media in 1997.^[15] The sale was completed on February 15, 2018.^[16]

The last edition of Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw aired July 19, 2018. The hosts' contracts were set to expire at the end of the month, but KFMB-FM failed to reach new deals with hosts Dave Rickards and Cookie "Chainsaw" Randolph. Shelly Dunn had announced her retirement from radio the previous week.^[17]