KYRV

Early years

In June 1970, the owners of AM 1110 KPOP, founded by Don Reeves, started a 3,000-watt FM station on 93.5 MHz in Roseville, California. The station debuted as KPIP, and simulcast KPOP’s middle of the road (MOR) music during the day while airing soul music at night.

In the mid-1970s, KPIP dropped the daytime MOR music and replaced it with Spanish language programming from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM. At 5:00 PM, the station would flip over to R&B and disco music. As time progressed, KPIP acquired the nickname of “The Disco Express.”

In May 1980, the owners put the Spanish programming exclusively on 1110 AM, and changed the AM’s call letters to KPIP. The FM station went to an urban contemporary format. The KPOP call letters were shifted to 93.5 FM. In 1982, the station attempted to promote itself as broadcasting in Dolby Stereo, which was about as successful as FM quadraphonic sound was in the 1970s.

Rock of The Eighties

In August 1983, KPOP changed to a Modern Rock format, with the slogan “Rock of the Eighties.” Radio consultant Rick Carroll, who developed the format at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, released it for national syndication in the early spring of 1983 and KPOP was one of his clients.

The format included new wave music, synthesizer-based "Europop" and some guitar-based punk rock (such as The Clash and The Ramones). Some of the disc jockeys from the urban contemporary era stayed on for the change to modern rock.

Pop Hits

Photos of stunt by Mr. Kim Berry. Attempting to identify the DJ in blue shirt.

In December 1983, the station was sold by Don Reeves to the Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting Company. Since the Rock of the 80s format was not producing high enough ratings, the new owners flipped the station to a Top 40/CHR format in January 1984. The owners kept the KPOP call letters and called the station “Pop Hits”, aiming primarily at young women.

But there were two other players in the local CHR market, and they both had 50,000 watt signals: KSFM, which took advantage of KPOP's flip from Urban and would go on to become a successful Rhythmic Top 40 format, and KWOD, which would later evolve from Top 40 to Modern Rock by 1990. The 3,000 watt KPOP shifted to a Rock-based CHR format in the fall of 1985. It retained the KPOP call letters but now called itself “Rock Hits.” The station’s overall ratings were not as strong as its competitors.

On January 10, 1986, the morning drive time announcers Dave Skyler and Rusty Humphries^[1] staged a management-approved stunt to initiate a format change. They locked themselves in the studio and refused to leave until management allowed them to drop the call letters and switch the format to album rock (which occurred six hours later). By this time, Sacramento only had one other AOR station, 98.5 KZAP, and its programming was beginning to skew toward 25-to 49-year-old males.

93 Rock

The station changed its call letters to KDJQ, and became “93 Rock.” The new format was aimed at 18-to 34-year-old males and featured music by mainstream hard rock artists. The KDJQ call letters were short-lived, because there was a similarly-formatted station in Modesto known as KDJK 95.1 FM (now KHKK). KDJK’s owners served a “cease and desist” order against Fuller-Jeffrey, prompting 93.5 to change its call letters to KRXQ in short order. KRXQ’s ratings began to increase, but the largest jumps began when the station’s owners boosted the power, coupled with a shift in the station’s frequency.

Move to 93.7

In July 1988, the station moved from 93.5 to 93.7 FM. In the process, the station went from 3,000 watts to 25,000 watts, ensuring coverage for most of the Sacramento area. The station maintained the “93 Rock” nickname, and billboards announced the frequency change by stating “Now at 93.7 FM”.

KRXQ continued as “93 Rock” and became quite successful with its hard-edged mainstream Album Rock format. By 1989, the station began overtaking rival KZAP in the ratings, often receiving ratings between 6 and 7. While KZAP began leaning towards older adults with mid-tempo and Classic Rock, KRXQ clearly skewed towards younger adults with up-tempo and Hard Rock artists of the day. By the fall of 1991, “93 Rock” was the undisputed leader in Sacramento rock radio. KZAP dropped AOR for country music on January 20, 1992.^[2]

On March 4, 1998, at 3 p.m., KRXQ (93.7) and classic country-formatted KRAK-FM (98.5) swapped frequencies.^[3][4] The Country-formatted KRAK-FM had poor ratings, so the format and call letters were shifted to 1470 AM in January 1999. The KXOA call sign then went to 93.7 FM.

Arrow 93.7

On January 11, 1999, the station’s owners shifted the format on 93.7 to classic hits, calling it “Arrow 93.7.” The same format had been in use at 107.9 FM between 1994 and 1998.^[5][6] Basically, the format was a mix of rock songs released as singles between the 1960s through the 1980s that received airplay on Top 40 stations. Few selections were exclusively album cuts. Initially, the station was fairly successful.

Howard Stern, Rock and Hot Talk

On June 18, 2001, the owners (Infinity Broadcasting) decided to flip the format to “Hot Talk.” The KXOA call letters remained in place, but the station’s slogan became “The Talk that Rocks.” The station featured Howard Stern during morning drive and a mix of local and nationally syndicated talk show hosts the rest of the day. On weekends and breaks, the station programmed classic hard rock, primarily released during the 1970s and 1980s.^[7] The music was highly familiar. The station struggled in the ratings, earning less than a 1.0 in the 12+ demographic. The only national show with a substantial audience was Stern's. However, the KiddChris Show, airing locally in the evenings, was the station's highest-rated program consistently.

The station continued with the “Hot Talk” format until August 30, 2002. One of the nationally syndicated programs, the New York-based “Opie and Anthony Show” was cancelled from syndication (as well as on their home station of WNEW in New York City), when an on-air stunt involving sex in a Catholic church offended some listeners and station management. At that point, the station continued to air Howard Stern in morning drive, and dropped all remaining talk shows from the schedule. KXOA continued to air classic hard rock the rest of the day. KXOA now had the slogan “Sacramento’s Hard Rock".^[8]

Intending to compete with both KSEG (96.9) and KRXQ (98.5), the station added more current material to its music mix in the summer of 2003, but the ratings did not improve.

On February 5, 2004, the station dropped the “Sacramento’s Hard Rock” slogan and format and the KXOA call letters. The station retained Howard Stern in morning drive, but changed the format to “Classic Alternative” and adopted the call letters of KHWD ("Howard 93.7").^[9] Again, ratings did not improve. In the spring of 2005, the station began adding new harder alternative rock into its “Classic Alternative” mix. The move was seen by some as an attempt to pick up the audience KWOD (106.5) abandoned, when it shifted to an alternative/Triple-A hybrid format on March 18, 2005. Radio insiders believed that KHWD would either switch to a Spanish or “Jack FM” format (Classic Hits/Hot Adult Contemporary hybrid) after Howard Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio).

Jack-FM

On October 25, 2005, Infinity Broadcasting announced sweeping changes for many of its owned and operated stations carrying Howard Stern. Several major-market heritage rock stations (such as WXRK in New York and WYSP in Philadelphia) would have their formats overhauled completely. In Sacramento, KHWD switched to the “Jack” format. That same day, 93.7 adopted the format at 10:30 a.m. local time and changed its call letters to KQJK. The station continued to carry Howard Stern until December 16, 2005, which was his last day on terrestrial radio.^[10]

On December 10, 2008, CBS Radio swapped 5 of its stations (including KQJK) to Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia, Inc.) in exchange for two stations in Houston, Texas.^[11]

93.7 The River

On March 24, 2017, iHeartMedia announced that KQJK would flip to classic rock as "93.7 The River." The station officially made the change at 12:01 a.m. on April 3. The final song on "Jack FM" was "Purple Rain" by Prince, while the first song on "The River" was "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. The station launched with a full-time DJ lineup including KRXQ veterans Joe & Dog in mornings, KZZO veteran Monica Lowe in middays, KSEG veteran Derek Moore in afternoons, and the syndicated "Sixx Sense" with Nikki Sixx in evenings.^[12] On April 3, 2017, KQJK changed its call letters to KYRV to match the "River" moniker.