KOIT

KOIT
City San Francisco, California
Broadcast area San Francisco Bay Area
Branding 96.5 KOIT
Slogan Better Music For a Better Workday
Frequency 96.5 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date July 1947 (as KRON-FM)
Format Adult Contemporary
ERP 24,000 watts
HAAT 480 meters
Class B
Facility ID 6380
Transmitter coordinates 37°45′19″N 122°27′10″W / 37.7552°N 122.4527°W / 37.7552; -122.4527Coordinates: 37°45′19″N 122°27′10″W / 37.7552°N 122.4527°W / 37.7552; -122.4527
Callsign meaning Refers to San Francisco landmark Coit Tower
Former callsigns KRON-FM (1947–1975)
KOIT (1975–1983)
KOIT-FM (1983–2010)
Operator Bonneville International
(full acquisition pending)
Owner TDC Communications, LLC
(The Entercom Divestiture Trust)
Sister stations KBLX-FM, KMVQ-FM, KUFX
Webcast Listen Live
Website koit.com

KOIT (96.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. The station has studios in the city's SoMa district, and transmits from Sutro Tower in San Francisco, with a power output of 24,000 watts effective radiated power. The signal can be received throughout the Bay Area with relative ease. There is also a booster station in Martinez, California called KOIT-3 that improves the coverage in the Diablo Valley area.

KOIT was previously operated by Entercom. As part of its merger with CBS Radio, the company was required to divest four of its radio stations in San Francisco in order stay within ownership caps. KOIT was placed in a trust and is currently being operated by Bonneville International under a local marketing agreement, pending its sale to another party.

KOIT broadcasts in HD.[1]

History

The station signed on the air July 1, 1947, under the callsign KRON-FM.[2] It was owned by the deYoung family, and was co-owned with KRON-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The station had a limited broadcast schedule (airing only during the evening hours). The station shut down on December 31, 1954; when it returned to the air as non-commercial station in 1957, KRON-FM began carrying an evening-only program schedule devoted to classical music. During the 1960s, KRON-FM devoted a full hour (7 to 8 p.m.) to a complete Broadway show album. Since the station had no commercials, no underwriters, and no on-air fund drives, the Chronicle operated the station as a public service.[3] Staff announcers delivered short newscasts on the station's evening broadcasts. In December 1970, KRON-FM began simulcasting a Spanish-language newscast from KRON-TV by Terry Lowry.[4]

In 1975, the deYoung's Chronicle Publishing Company, which was the then-parent of KRON-TV and the Chronicle, sold KRON-FM to Bonneville International, who changed the station's callsign to KOIT. On December 13, 1983, Bonneville purchased KYA (1260 AM) from KING Broadcasting, changing the call letters to KOIT with 96.5 going to KOIT-FM per FCC convention. The KYA call letters remained in service at KYA-FM (93.3, now KRZZ) and went into retirement in 1993. In 1983, KOIT was playing a lot of instrumental music, sort of like the "elevator music" that was being played at KBAY (then at 100.3 FM) in San Jose. The majority of the station's playlist consisted of instrumentals, but also contained some vocals. In late 1987, KOIT changed their music format to adult contemporary by dropping all instrumentals, and started playing music from the 1970s and 1980s. For the first 8 years of the adult contemporary format, the station was heavy on oldies. In 1995, KOIT updated their playlist by dropping the 1950s and 1960s songs, and added more recent and current music. As recently as 2009, KOIT was playing approximately one song from every decade in order in 3 song-sets. In 2009, KOIT started playing more recent hits from the late 2000s and early 2010s.

On January 18, 2007, Bonneville announced a station swap with Entercom Communications, with KOIT and Bonneville's other San Francisco area FM radio holdings going to Entercom in return for three of Entercom's stations in Seattle, Washington and Entercom's entire radio cluster in Cincinnati, Ohio.[5] This trade marked Entercom's re-entry into the country's fourth largest radio market. Entercom officially took over KOIT-FM via a local marketing agreement on February 26, 2007, and Entercom and Bonneville officially closed on the deal on March 14, 2008, with KOIT and the other San Francisco FM stations formerly owned by Bonneville becoming owned by Entercom outright. KOIT's AM sister station was concurrently sold to Immaculate Heart Radio, and became KSFB in December 2007; however, KOIT-FM did not drop the "-FM" suffix until September 2010.

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio (which locally owns KCBS, KFRC-FM, KITS, KLLC, KMVQ, and KZDG) announced it would merge with Entercom.[6] On October 10, CBS Radio announced that as part of the process of obtaining regulatory approval of the merger, KOIT would be one of sixteen stations that would be divested by Entercom, along with sister stations KUFX and KBLX, and CBS' KMVQ.[7] On November 1, Entercom announced that Bonneville (which owned KOIT from 1975 to 2007) will begin operating KOIT, KUFX, KBLX and KMVQ via a local marketing agreement when the merger of CBS and Entercom closed on November 17, while their licenses will be place into a divestiture trust pending a sale to a different owner within 180 days.[8][9][10] On August 3, 2018, Bonneville International announced that it will acquire KOIT along with KBLX, KMVQ and KUFX in a $141 Million deal.[11][12]

"Fresh FM" branding

According to Radio & Records, KOIT acquired the "Fresh FM" branding for the San Francisco Bay Area on February 6, 2007. KOIT integrated the branding alongside their "Lite Rock, Less Talk" slogan.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-09-16. Retrieved 2016-09-04. HD Radio Guide for San Francisco
  2. ↑ "San Francisco Chronicle Launches Its FM Outlet" (PDF). Broadcasting. July 7, 1947. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. ↑ Bay Area Radio Museum | History | Audio | Archives
  4. ↑ Broadcast Legends - Terry Lowry
  5. ↑ http://www.seattlepi.com/business/300350_radioswap19.html
  6. ↑ CBS Radio to Merge with Entercom
  7. ↑ Venta, Lance (October 10, 2017). "Entercom Narrows Down 16 Stations To Be Divested To Complete CBS Radio Merger". RadioInsight. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  8. ↑ Entercom LMAs Sacramento & San Francisco Stations to Bonneville
  9. ↑ "Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio". Entercom. November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  10. ↑ Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017). "Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger". Radio Insight. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Bonneville Turns San Francisco and Sacramento LMAs Into Purchase - RadioInsight". RadioInsight. 3 August 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  12. ↑ "LMA Becomes Sale As Entercom Officially Sells Eight SF, Sacramento Stations To Bonneville For $141 Million". All Access. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
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