Product Code Database
KISS-FM (99.5 Hertz) is a commercial radio radio station in San Antonio. It airs a mainstream rock radio format and is owned by Cox Media Group. The radio studio and offices are located on Datapoint Drive in Northwest San Antonio near the South Texas Medical Center complex. The transmitter site is in Elmendorf, amid the towers for several San Antonio TV and FM stations.
The simulcast ended in the late 1960s, as the Federal Communications Commission encouraged AM-FM combos to offer separate programming. KISS-FM began carrying a beautiful music format, including instrumental of popular songs as well as Broadway theatre and Hollywood show tunes.
With KISS-FM's hard-edged rock format, San Antonio became known as the "Heavy Metal Capital Of The World." Scores of bands can attribute their first and subsequent successes to airplay at KISS-FM.
Co-owned KSLR broadcast show tunes, opera, as well as religious programs such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir until noon, when the AM station would simulcast the rock format heard on KISS-FM. At 6 p.m., KMAC would switch away from the simulcast and broadcast rock and progressive country till signing off at midnight. In those earlier years, KISS-FM sign-off at midnight each night. "Spread The Word" was the popular window sticker slogan & on-air moniker during the 1970s and 1980s.
On August 1, 1979, longtime station owner Howard W. Davis died, and eight months later, KMAC and KISS-FM were sold by his estate to Raleigh, North Carolina–based Capitol Broadcasting Company for $4.65 million. Capitol president James F. Goodmon, upon announcing the sale, said that they were "excited about entering the dynamic San Antonio market and becoming a part of the community".
In 1987, Adams Radio bought KISS-FM for $13 million Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1992 page B-331 after a previous sale to Noble Broadcast Group the year before failed to close.
Local outrage was fierce, with the station's phone lines jammed the day of the switch. Steve Coffman, operations manager of KONO-FM, said that the format change was "one of the more stupid moves I've seen in corporate radio". While the new owners hoped the new format would increase the station's ratings, the opposite happened. In its last full book as a rock station, KISS held a 5.0 share, and by the summer 1990 book, the station's rating fell to a 3.0 share in the coveted 25-54 demographic. By contrast, competing oldies station KSMG was the city's number one radio station and actually increased its audience despite KISS' flip to the format, jumping from a 7.7 share in the spring book to a 9.7 in the summer book. By Memorial Day 1991, the station had changed general managers twice. Two program directors had also come and gone, one staying less than two months, and the entire inaugural full-time airstaff was out.
The Rusk Corporation, which owned KSMG, began to lease KISS KLUP and FM from Adams in November 1991. Rusk began simulcasting KSMG on both 99.5 FM and 930 AM at 3 p.m. on November 8 as a stopgap measure while new formats were prepared for the two frequencies. KSMG general manager Caroline Devine remarked that "the new sounds will be anything but oldies".
In 1997, KISS-FM was acquired by Cox Radio. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010 page D-543 As of 2012, the station's format was described as Mainstream Rock, although it has gone back to Active Rock in recent years.http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1992/RR-1992-01-03.pdf Despite being considered a mainstream rock reporter by Mediabase, KISS-FM has typically been an active rock station, according to Nielsen BDS.
Despite San Antonio being the headquarters city of iHeartMedia, the company seems to have a gentlemen's agreement not to have a KISS-FM-branded station in the city, while Cox has not attempted to claim rights on the branding despite holding the official KISS-FM call letters from the FCC.Nichols, Lee (Nov. 30, 2001). Naked City. The Austin Chronicle. Of note, Cox owns WALR-FM, an urban adult contemporary station in its home city of Atlanta, which utilizes the "KISS-FM" branding. iHeart has KISS-FM stations in Los Angeles, Chicago (WKSC-FM), Dallas (KHKS), Boston (WXKS-FM), and other cities.
|
|
