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KDGE () is a commercial radio radio station dually licensed to both Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas. Star 102.1 airs an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December, and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. InsideRadio.com "Holiday PPMs: Santa Rules in Seven of Eight Day 1 Markets" Jan. 29, 2025. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2025
The station's studios are located along Dallas Parkway in Farmers Branch, Texas (although it has a Dallas address), and its transmitter site is off West Belt Line Road in Cedar Hill. KDGE broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 digital subchannel carries a bilingual AC format, known as "Magic".
In early 1997, CBS sold the station to New York City-based SFX Broadcasting. By August of that year, however, Austin-based Capstar merged with SFX. Six months later, locally based Chancellor Media acquired KTXQ through a series of trades with Capstar.
Coinciding with the KDGE start-up, Steve Allison and Tom Duran formed a separate event promotion company called "Cutting Edge Events", which was the promotion force behind the station. They along with the station's Promotion Director, Tara Allison (Steve Allison's wife) created unusual events and promotions from 1989 through 1992. A collaborative effort by the Allisons, Duran, Neilson, Wendy Naylor and George Gimarc was the driving force in making The Edge a player in the Dallas market. From "Take the Edge on Vacation", to "Dinner on the Mayflower", the group kept the Edge on the cutting force of promotions in Dallas.
Important contributions were made by Gimarc, Naylor, and almost all staff members. Gimarc also assembled a series of 11 compilation CDs of local bands under the name Tales from the Edge. Released between 1990 and 1996, each CD featured between 15 and 20 bands, mostly from Dallas, Austin and Denton. The CDs were value-priced: the first four include the prominent slogan "Still Only $2.94!" (sponsorships and advertising paid for the bulk of production). Several later issues were double-CD compilations, with one CD featuring current local bands, and the other being more specialized, including one focused on the area's earliest punk bands, including tracks by The Nervebreakers, The Telefones, Stickmen With Rayguns, and The Hugh Beaumont Experience, while another, put together by DJ Jeff K, featuring the (then-)newer styles of dance-club music including techno, Trance music and electropop (a direction the station was increasingly taking in 1994–95, after the departure of Gimarc, and with the increasing prominence of Jeff K). Notable artists featured on the CDs early in their careers included Course of Empire, Horton Heat, Deep Blue Something, Tripping Daisy, Sister 7 (as "Little Sister"), and Poi Dog Pondering. All told, over 100,000 CDs were sold in the series.
The station featured an annual music festival called Edgefest once a year, plus an annual EDGE B-Day party concert and party. Past Edgefest acts included Pearl Jam, The Charlatans, Sugarcubes, Tripping Daisy, Seether, The Origin, Nickelback, Staind, My Chemical Romance, Muse, The Killers, Placebo, Kaiser Chiefs, Weezer, The Toadies, Blue October, INXS, Beck, Social Distortion, Everclear, Sponge, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Default, KoRn, Deftones, Hole, Phoenix, The Black Keys, Cage the Elephant, Cake, Flogging Molly and Drowning Pool. The first Edgefest was documented in the Jerry Lentz film "Angry Blue Planet".
There were also seven editions of The Edge Home Movie, a free rental - full hour of music videos hosted by Edge DJs. One was filmed at Edgefest in 1994, and another at Lollapalooza that same year. Other notable jocks during this time include Alex Luke, Brian the Butler, Jerry Lentz, Roger King, Ernie Mills, Jeff K, Josh Venable, DJ Merritt, and Valerie Knight.
In 1994, Steve Allison sold KDGE for $16 million to the broadcast-arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which also owned classic rock station KZPS. After that ownership change, Gimarc, Naylor, and the entire Phoenix contingent were shown the door and the station changed direction dramatically, now being "corporate" programmed. A year later, Clear Channel Communications bought all of the Mormon broadcasting company's stations nationally. Clear Channel later changed their name to IHeart Radio.
In May 18, 2004, when sister station KEGL dropped its rock format and flipped to a gold-based adult contemporary format as “Sunny 97.1” KDGE began adding rock artists into its playlist.
In December 18, 2007 when sister station KEGL flipped back to its rock format as “97.1 The Eagle” KDGE began removing rock artists from its playlist.
In January 9, 2008, The Lex and Terry Show has been moved from KDGE to sister station KEGL.
In May 21, 2008, KDGE became the flagship station of The Billy Madison Show after The Lex & Terry Show moved to sister station KEGL on January 9, 2008.
The station's 'unofficial' 20th Anniversary party was on July 3, 2009, at the Lakewood Theatre with performances from Zac Malloy of the Nixons, John Easdale of Dramarama, Deep Blue Something, Pop Poppins, and the Bat Mastersons.
In April 29, 2010, The Billy Madison Show left KDGE and moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma’s radio station KHTT.
Specialty programming included the Saturday night electronic/dance music show called "Edgeclub" with DJ Merritt (nation's longest-running and highest-rated mixshow), and Sunday shows "The Old School Edge" with Jeff K, "The Adventure Club" with Josh, and "The Local Show" with Mark, which features music made in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. Edgeclub was taken off the air in 2010. Josh Venable became the program director in 2011.
In January 2013, KDGE was briefly re-branded as "102-1 KDGE"; it later returned to the "Edge" moniker.
On January 4, 2022, it was announced that KDGE will be adding Delilah's nightly show to their schedule starting January 10. This makes Delilah's return to the Dallas/Fort Worth market since being dropped by longtime affiliate KVIL in January 2014 during its gradual evolution to CHR/Top 40. Star 102.1 Dallas Adds Delilah - RadioInsight (January 4, 2022)
In October 2013, it flipped to airing recent episodes of "Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx" in addition to a mainstream rock format via iHeartRadio until the show's end. On February 1, 2018, it simulcast iHeartRadio's "Rock Workout" station, with an upbeat Mainstream Rock format.http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=5 HD Radio Guide for Dallas-Ft. Worth As of April 2018, the former alternative rock format was revived on KDGE-HD2 as "102.1-HD2 The Edge".
In late December 2023, "The Edge" branding and format were once again jettisoned, this time in favor of a Bilingual English/Spanish AC format known as "Magic", however, on April 29, 2024, when KEGL flipped back to active rock as "97.1 The Eagle", "The Edge" returned as a HD2 station for KEGL.
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