KKDZ

KKDZ
City Seattle, Washington
Broadcast area Seattle metropolitan area
Branding Desi 1250 AM
Frequency 1250 kHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date May 14, 1922 (as KTW at 833 kHz)
Format Full Service
Language(s) South Asian
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 12112
Transmitter coordinates 47°33′49″N 122°21′35″W / 47.56361°N 122.35972°W / 47.56361; -122.35972 (day)
47°40′23″N 122°10′8″W / 47.67306°N 122.16889°W / 47.67306; -122.16889 (night)
Callsign meaning Kid's
DZ=Disney or
Former KIDSTAR children's radio network (previous format)
Former callsigns KTW (1922-1975)
KYAC (1975-1981)
KKFX (1981-1993)
Former frequencies 833 kHz (1922-1925)
660 kHz (1925-1927)
760 kHz (1927-1928)
1270 kHz (1928-1931)
1220 kHz (1931-1941)
Owner Sukhdev Singh Dhillon
(Akal Broadcasting Corporation)

KKDZ (1250 AM) is a radio station in Seattle, Washington, licensed to operate with 5,000 watts full-time. It was first licensed in April 1922 as KTW, and is one of the oldest in the United States.

History

KTW

The station received its first license, with the randomly issued call letters of KTW, on April 22, 1922. The original licensee was the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, located at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Spring Street.[1] Construction was credited to "J. D. Ross, superintendent of the City Light Department, and James G. Priestly of the city chemist's department".[2] Originally a 250-watt station, its debut broadcasts were made on May 14, 1922 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. One of the station's purposes was to provide religious services to twenty-two outlying mission houses and chapels that didn't have their own ministers.[3]

KTW was originally licensed to use the single shared "entertainment" wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz), and was one of the last stations to remain on that wavelength. In 1925 it switched to 660 kHz, followed in 1927 by a move to 760 kHz. On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of a major reallocation resulting from the Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, KTW was reassigned to 1270 kHz, shared with KFOA (now KKOL).[4] In 1931 it moved to 1220 kHz,[5] sharing this frequency with KWSC (now KWSU) in Pullman, Washington. On March 29, 1941, along with all the other stations on 1220 kHz, KTW moved to 1250 kHz, the frequency KTW and its successors have occupied ever since, as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.[6]

Commercial programming started in 1946. After KTW was sold to David Segal in 1964, it debuted a "middle of the road" (MOR) format, which lasted only nine months before switching to the "Nashville Sound" country format. It next flipped to News/Talk as "2-Way Radio" in 1971.

KYAK

Financial problems resulted in the station being sold to Don Dudley and a format flip to Urban adult contemporary, along with a call letter change to KYAC in 1975. KYAC moved its format over from 1460.

KKFX

In 1981, the station was sold to Northstar Broadcasters and renamed KKFX ("K-Fox"). Vice President and General Manager John L. Hawkins implemented "Greatest Hits" music during the day to serve a general audience, a format he had success with at San Francisco station KNEW and others. The station was known for a howl sound effect dropped between songs.

Because the nighttime radio audience has a different listener profile, K-Fox aired "Night Beat -- The Beat of the Fox" (emphasizing R&B and dance music, also known as Rhythmic contemporary), during the evening hours. Night Beat proved so popular that the station evolved to playing it full-time in 1982, using the slogan "K-Fox -- Seattle's Hottest Music". Bingham Broadcasting bought the station four years later.[7] In 1987, the station dropped its rhythmic format in favor of satellite-fed R&B oldies, though it would return to rhythmic a year later.[8] This format continued with minor variations until KKFX signed-off in March 1993.

KKDZ

KidStar

In April 1993 the call letters were changed to KKDZ, and on May 14th the station returned to the air as the flagship outlet for the fledgling "KidStar" radio network, run by the Seattle-based Children's Media Network.[9] Financial problems would force the station off the air again on March 22, 1997.

Radio Disney

KKDZ logo under Radio Disney affiliation

In August of that same year, KKDZ returned as an affiliate of Radio Disney, who would later buy the station outright in January 1998.

The cessation of operations of KARR in February 2014 due to the expiration of the lease on their transmitter site also affected KKDZ, as it used the KARR site for night time operations. KKDZ filed with the Federal Communications Commission for a Special Temporary Authority (STA) grant to run with a lower power of 1.25 kilowatts at night from their daytime transmitter site.[10]

Desi 1250

On August 13, 2014, Disney put KKDZ and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.[11] In May 2015, a deal to sell the station to Universal Media Access (owners of KLOK in San Francisco) for $500,000 was announced.[12]

On September 17, 2015, the sale of KKDZ was consummated, at which point it officially dropped its Radio Disney affiliation and switched to a South Asian format (featuring Hindi, Punjabi and English language programming), branded as "Desi 1250." It ended 22 years of pre-teen and young teen oriented programming on the station, dating back to the KidStar days.

On October 16, 2017, Sukhdev Singh Dhillon's New Media Broadcasting, through licensee Akal Broadcasting Corporation, purchased KKDZ from Universal Media Access for $500,000.

References

  1. ↑ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, May 1, 1922, page 4. Limited Commercial license, serial #665, issued for operation on 360 meters for a period of three months to the First Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington.
  2. ↑ "Radio News: Hear Sermon by Radio", Seattle Daily Times, May 15, 1922, page 5.
  3. ↑ "KTW: A Church Which Enfolds Its Widely Scattered Flock by Radio" by Sam Loomis, The Wireless Age, January 1923, pages 30, 40.
  4. ↑ "Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, November 30, 1928, page 9.
  5. ↑ "Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, June 30, 1931, page 22.
  6. ↑ Radio Broadcast Stations, Federal Communications Commission (March 29, 1941 edition), page 33.
  7. ↑ "KKFX-AM 1250" by Rollye Bornstein (James), Mediatrix Market Profile: Seattle (volume 1, number 9), 1988, page 78.
  8. ↑ "Seattle FM Dial - 1981", 2007 (radiodiscussions.com)
  9. ↑ "KidStar to Shine Across the U.S." by Jo McIntyre, September 19, 1994 (AdAge.com)
  10. ↑ "Special Temporary Authority: KKDZ(AM)", Jerome J. Manarchuck (FCC Media Bureau: Audio Division), May 16, 2014.
  11. ↑ Lafayette, Jon (August 13, 2014). "Exclusive: Radio Disney Moving Off Air to Digital". broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Station Sales Week Of 5/22: Evolution Expanding To Florida Keys & Disney Sells Seattle". RadioInsight. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
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