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KRBE (104.1 FM broadcasting) is a radio station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format. The studios are located in Suite 700 at 9801 Westheimer Road in western Houston." KRBE Contact Information ." KRBE. Retrieved on January 13, 2009." SECT6-key.gif ." Westchase District. Retrieved on January 13, 2009.
KRBE has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum for non-grandfathered FM stations in the U.S. The transmitter facilities are located on the Farm-to-Market Road 2234 near the Fort Bend Parkway in Southwest Houston. Radio-Locator.com/KRBE KRBE broadcasts in the HD Radio hybrid format. The HD2 subchannel carries the Nash Icon music service from co-owned Westwood One.
Initially, its studios were located at 1400 Hermann Drive in Houston. During 1961's Hurricane Carla, its tower on top of 1400 Hermann was blown down to the street below. It was rebuilt immediately.
Monthly Program Guides were provided to subscribers which detailed musical programming for each day and time of the month. A classical music competitor, KLEF 94.5, debuted in 1964.
In the late 1960s, it flipped for the first time to Top 40 hits. For a short time in the early 1970s, the station adopted an album-oriented rock format and used the moniker "Big K-Rock 104". Afterwards, the station was then simply branded as "104 KRBE".
In 1966, the station's studios were moved to 3775 Kirby Drive (now 3701 Kirby). Because of this, the station has sometimes been referred to by locals as "Kirby"; the call letters are actually derived from the station's original owners, Roland and Edith Baker ("Roland, Baker, Edith").
KRBE disc jockeys included Kenny Miles hosting "Miles in the Morning", Matt "The Man the Mighty Quinn" Guinn, Roger W.W.W. Garrett, Dwight "Shotgun" Cook, "The Original Rock 'n' Roll Wizard" Ron Haney, and Tom "Rivers" Yarbrough. During this period, KRBE became the first Top 40 FM station in a large media market to beat the dominant AM Top 40 station, topping KILT in the Arbitron ratings. In 1975, KRBE moved from Kirby Lane to the Caldwell Banker Building overlooking Interstate 610 at Westheimer Road across from The Galleria. Around this time, KRBE was purchased by Lake Huron Broadcasting.
KRBE was ranked "Station of the Year" by Bobby Poe magazine, and in 1979, was named "Major Market Rock Station of the Year", and Clay Gish was named "Major Market Rock Program Director of the Year" by Billboard Magazine.
In the late 1970s, KRBE billed itself under one of two nicknames, "Super Rock 104 KRBE" and "Houston's Super Rock", playing a mixture of Top 40 and rock hits. The station was considered among the leading Top 40 stations in the U.S. The DJ lineup included Kenny Miles (Miles in the Morning), Barry Kaye (formerly of KHJ Los Angeles), and veteran CC McCartney, Roger W.W.W. Garrett, Matt "The Mighty Quinn" Guinn, The Catfish, Jon Kelly, Dayna Steele and Bunny Taylor, KRBE's first female DJ. In October 1981, KRBE flipped to an adult contemporary format as "FM 104 KRBE".
In 1987, KRBE began incorporating more dance hits into its format with evening weekend studio mix shows, from 10 pm to 2 am, known as "The Friday/Saturday Night Power Mix". KKBQ matched it with its own mix shows, as "Club 93Q". By the end of 1987, Scott Sparks had been hired from Y95 in Dallas to prop up the night show with a dance-heavy sound.
Beginning on January 9, 1988, KRBE launched "The Saturday Night Power Mix Live from The Ocean Club", which was billed as Houston's first live four-hour (and later, six-hour) mix show from a nightclub. On May 29, 1988, KKBQ launched its first live nightclub broadcast, "93Q Live on the Cutting Edge" from Club 6400, a club once located at 6400 Richmond Avenue which played a mix of industrial music, new wave and gothic rock music. While KRBE's show was a little more radio friendly, it was first to play some of the music 6400 was spinning, and turned out to be a success. KRBE responded to KKBQ's 6400 Sunday nights with an in-studio mix show called "Sunday Night Power Tracks" that specialized in "rare and obscure" imported dance music, mixed by the Ocean Club's Tim Flanigan.
KRBE was rebranded as "104 KRBE, Hits Without the Hype", and used the "No Rap, No Screaming DJs" slogan. Rival Top 40 station KKBQ eventually flipped to an "easy country music" format on September 19, 1991, after a brief period in which it programmed a rock-oriented Top 40 mix as a stunt. Notable KRBE personalities during this time included Ryan Chase, 'Psycho' Robbie, Dancin' Dave, Joel Davis, Cubby Bryant, John Leach, Larry Davis and Michele Fisher.
In late January 2006, KRBE launched its HD radio transmitter. The HD2 signal, from late 2007 until June 2012, was a simulcast of KHJK. After KHJK's sale to EMF Broadcasting in June 2012, KRBE's HD2 signal changed to 1960s and 1970s Oldies music from the True Oldies Channel. In 2014, the HD2 signal began carrying Westwood One's Good Time Oldies format. After Good Time Oldies was discontinued by Westwood One in April 2025, KRBE-HD2 flipped to the Nash Icon format. Nash Icon Arrives in Houston
KRBE was the flagship station for the syndicated Nights Live With Adam Bomb, from May 2012 until January 2015.
KRBE was the winner of the 2017 Marconi CHR Station of the Year Award.
During this period, KRBE competed against KKHH (Hot 95.7) from 2008 to 2016, and KROI (Radio Now 92.1) from 2017 to 2021.
On July 13, 2006, it was announced that "The Roula and Ryan Show", which had aired on KHMX, would return to Houston airwaves on KRBE. The team, which relaunched their morning show on July 24, 2006, consists of Roula Christie and Ryan Chase. He returned to KRBE after a ten-year absence, along with their producer Eric Rowe. Ironically, Christie also returned to KRBE after a six-year absence. She was paired with the aforementioned Atom Smasher from 1998 to 2000, on the 6–10 pm shift. In 2025, it was announced that "The Roula and Ryan Show" was changed to "The Roula and Ryan Show with Eric", having a five year run.
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