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KVIL (103.7 FM broadcasting, Alt 103.7) is a commercial radio station dual-licensed to Highland Park and Dallas, Texas. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and it serves the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in North Texas. The station's studios are located along North Central Expressway in Uptown Dallas. The station airs an alternative rock radio format.
The station's transmitter site is in Cedar Hill off West Belt Line Road. KVIL-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 99,000 watts (100,000 with beam tilt). FCC.gov/KVIL-FM It broadcasts from a tower at 507 meters (1663 feet) in height above average terrain (HAAT).
KVIL broadcasts in HD Radio. Its HD-2 subchannel carries "Channel Q," Audacy's national LGBTQ talk radio and EDM service.
The original location of the studios was in the Highland Park Village Shopping Center (hence the VIL call letters). The address was 4152 Mockingbird Lane at Preston Road, overlooking the Dallas Country Club golf course. In 1962 the owner/manager was John Coyle with the program director being Dillard Carerra. The station had an unusually high power of 119,000 watts in full stereo. (The power has since been reduced to 99,000 watts, because the antenna height was increased.)
The engineering of the audio was routed through a huge audio mixer with slider controls using German silver . Audio phasing was a problem at that time. Capitol Records, for instance, used a reverse-phasing that prevented anything recorded by The Beatles to be played, unless it was monaural. The reverse phasing simply blanked out the audio tracks to a distorted muffle.
"The singing time clock" was one of the first digital breakthroughs – actually a marriage of digital and analog technology. The clock audio was recorded on 1/4" tape in stereo played on AMPEX recorders in individual segments, by the jingle singers at PAMS in Dallas. The project was huge, involving musicians, singers, and recording engineers who taped every minute on the 24-hour clock in at least two versions, to be played by the station at the appropriate minute. The sequential clock was synchronized to the individual tape segments. When the DJ pushed the button, the audience heard "It's nine forty-three on the Kayville Clock, K-V-I-L" or any imaginable variation of such limerick – and in stereo. The pronunciation of "KVIL" as "Kayville" is probably the best-known example of a station's call letters actually being sung or spoken as a word.
The 1967 to 1969 attempt to take on the Top 40 leader KLIF (then at 1190 AM) failed because FM was still a relatively new format and only a small percentage of people owned FM radios. FM was not a "standard" feature in original equipment car radios until the late 1970s, even though it had been an option since the early 1960s. Additionally, KVIL's AM station was only on the air during daylight hours. This was an era where evenings were critical to a Top 40 station's success in the ratings, for teen listening after dinner. The failing station suffered in several ways, including employees running off with the records (possibly in place of the pay they were likely not receiving).
KVIL instituted a music format that was unique for its time, a cross between Top 40 and MOR which would later be termed "Adult Contemporary." The station was meant to appeal to adult listeners who had grown up with KLIF by projecting the same type of "showmanship" typical of Top 40 stations, but with music that was not as teen-oriented as contemporary stations played. KVIL-AM-FM first finished in Dallas–Fort Worth's top 10 Arbitron ratings in 1974, the year after Arbitron combined Dallas and Fort Worth into a single market. It topped the ratings for the first time in the fall of 1976, with Chapman (and his cast of supporting players) in the morning, Larry Dixon and Bruce Buchanan (Jim Edwards) in mid-days, and Mike Selden in afternoon drivetime.
For many years during the 1970s and 1980s, KVIL-AM-FM was the top station in the market. It aired 90 minutes of its morning show on KXTX-TV for a week in May every year, to show extravagant stunts such as a camel race in the African desert. During the 1990s, it spent several years as the flagship station for the Dallas Cowboys, an unusual arrangement for an FM station in that era.
AM 1150 adopted the call sign KVIX and programmed a separate AC format from KVIL-FM for a short time after the sale to Infinity. It now operates at AM 1160 as talk radio station KBDT, co-owned with the USA Radio Network.
Specialty programming during the "Lite FM" era included the "Sunday Jazz Brunch", a smooth jazz show hosted by Tempe Lindsey, formerly of KMVK "107.5 The Oasis" which was changed to Rhythmic AC "Movin' 107.5". It was cancelled as of September 27, 2009, and replaced with regular programming.
Gene and Julie Gates initially had success in the ratings, but they were later replaced by Tony Zazza and Julie Fisk. Zazza & Fisk were released from the station in October 2014.
In mid-November 2001, KVIL flipped to an all-Christmas music format that ran through Christmas Day. It followed this practice every holiday season until 2013. For 2011, the AC format returned on December 27 instead of December 26. With the format repositioning in May 2013, the all-Christmas format was moved to classic hits sister station KLUV, which started on November 15, 2013.
For many years, KVIL had been the Dallas affiliate of the syndicated Delilah Rene nighttime love songs program. In early January 2014, the show was dropped with no public announcement of the change. On January 21, Blake Powers took over as the evening DJ for the station. Byron Harrell, programming director of CBS Radio in Dallas said in an email to DFW.com regarding the change, "We respect the level of talent and service Delilah provided the KVIL audience over the years, but it was time for a change at 103.7 as we continue to contemporize the sound of KVIL and focus our attention on the Dallas-Fort Worth metro." Months later, KVIL began leaning towards Adult Top 40. The station dropped the "90s, 2K and Today" slogan, along with the "Throwback Thursday" program that allowed listeners to vote for their favorite past hits, including a few songs from the late 1980s. #TBT - Throwback Thursday - 103.7 KVIL (accessed April 24, 2014)
Despite this format retooling, KVIL-FM was still listed with an adult contemporary format by Mediabase until May 2, 2014, when KVIL was moved to the "Hot AC" panel full-time, leaving the immediate Dallas/Fort Worth market without an Adult Contemporary station. Mediabase Announces Panel Changes (Published April 22, 2014. Retrieved May 16, 2014) iHeartMedia officially launched a Mainstream AC format on KDGE as "Star 102.1" on December 26, 2016. The lone competitor in the Hot AC era was iHeartMedia-owned KDMX.
On October 5, 2016, Mediabase moved KVIL to the Top 40/CHR panel effective with the October 14, 2016, edition. "Mediabase Panel Changes" from All Access (October 5, 2016) That marked the station's return to the Top 40 format for the first time in 47 years.
Unlike other CBS-owned CHRs, KVIL leaned more toward adults, and was essentially a hybrid of the Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40 formats, much like sister WWMX in Baltimore. It competed head-on with iHeartMedia-owned KHKS, Cumulus Media-owned KLIF-FM, and to an extent, iHeartMedia-owned KDMX. Like KVIL's Top 40 format in its first incarnation, Amp did not last long.
The flip put KVIL in competition with iHeartMedia's active rock-formatted KEGL, along with North Texas Public Broadcasting's Adult album alternative-formatted KKXT, as well as college radio station KNTU and iHeartMedia-owned KEGL-HD2; the flip also returned the format to the market after KEGL's sister station KDGE (which moved the format to KEGL-HD2) dropped alternative exactly one year earlier to the day when it flipped to Christmas music on November 17, 2016, and then Adult Contemporary after Christmas. A similar move also occurred in New York City with sister station WBMP (now WINS-FM) dropping the Top 40/CHR format and flipping to alternative that same day. This followed a trend of Entercom stations switching to the "Alt" branding that would later include KITS in San Francisco (which flipped to adult hits, later returned back to alternative as "Live 105" once again) and WQMP in Orlando (which would rebrand, and has since changed formats), KRBZ in Kansas City (which later flipped to sports), KXTE in Las Vegas (which was sold to Beasley Broadcast Group in 2022, and flipped to a hybrid hot talk/alternative format), KBZT in San Diego, and KKDO in Sacramento, along with many others.
In September 2020, Entercom laid off many DJs at its alternative stations, including KVIL morning host Mark Schechtman and afternoon host Ian Camfield, and replaced them with syndicated shows from other cities. At KVIL, the Stryker & Klein show from KROQ in Los Angeles began airing in mornings, the Church of Lazlo from KRBZ in Kansas City aired in afternoons, and Kevan Kenney and Bryce Segall from WNYL in New York aired in evenings and overnights, respectively. These changes resulted in the station's ratings dropping to record lows. In November 2021, the station dropped the syndicated morning and afternoon shows in favor of music.
After KVIL retooled its AC format to Hot AC-leaning fare in May 2013, the Christmas music was ultimately passed to sister classic hits station KLUV, while "Rise" continued to broadcast throughout the holiday season. KVIL-HD2 did, however, introduce a one-time seasonal format for the 2014 summer as "NTX Honda Fever" with 'Freddie Fever' as the DJ and the regional North Texas Honda Dealer as its sponsor. Listen to NTX Honda Fever Radio - radio.com (accessed July 9, 2014) It aired a Variety hits playlist that combined Adult Top 40 and Classic Hits music. Your Chance To Win All Summer – NTX Honda Fever - KTVT (accessed July 9, 2014) The format lasted through the end of September before KVIL-HD2 resumed its "Rise" broadcasts.
On October 7, 2015, KVIL-HD2 jettisoned its Christian rock format and flipped to smooth jazz as "The Oasis 103.7 HD2", which was relocated from sister station KMVK's HD2 channel. Previously, co-owned KMVK's HD2 sub-channel carried smooth jazz from the days when KHKS and KMVK's main channel called itself "The Oasis".http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=10 HD Radio Guide for Dallas-Ft. Worth Sometime in July 2017, "The Oasis" was retooled to have an expanded jazz playlist and live personalities. While the focus was still on smooth jazz, The Oasis rebranded itself as a "Modern Jazz" station. Dallas' iconic jazz station The Oasis rebrands itself with 'broad swath of music' - GuideLive (published July 28, 2017) KVIL-HD2's programming was also heard on Audacy's platform.
On January 11, 2024, Audacy ceased operations of "The Oasis" and moved its in-house LGBTQ+ talk radio and EDM-formatted network "Channel Q" programming from KVIL-HD3 to KVIL-HD2. With the addition of Dallas in years past, Channel Q is heard in the nation's five largest Media market and currently competes with Pride Radio on KHKS. "The Oasis" on the Audacy platform has been replaced largely in function with the company's similarly-formatted "Soundscapes".
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