| Simulcast ofKDAY,Redondo Beach | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Broadcast area | Inland Empire |
| Frequency | 93.5MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | 93.5 KDAY |
| Programming | |
| Format | Classic hip hop |
| Affiliations | Compass Media Networks |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Radio:TV: | |
| History | |
First air date | 1947 |
Former call signs | KREA (1993–2000) KNJR (2000–2001) KFSB (2001–2003) KZBA (2003–2004) KDAI (2004–2007) KWIE (2007–2009) |
Call sign meaning | Similar toKDAY |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 10099 |
| Class | A |
| ERP | 5,000watts |
| HAAT | −40 meters (−130 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 34°10′32″N117°34′26″W / 34.17556°N 117.57389°W /34.17556; -117.57389 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 935kday.com |
KDEY-FM (93.5MHz, "93.5 KDAY") is a commercialradio station that islicensed toOntario, California, and serves theInland Empire area. The station is owned by Meruelo Radio Holdings Ltd.[2] and broadcasts aclassic hip hop format. The KDEY-FMtransmitter is located on Heaven Mountain to the north of Ontario. KDEY-FM simulcasts with co-channel stationKDAY inRedondo Beach, California, to fill coverage gaps in KDAY's eastern coverage area.[3]
TheDaily Report newspaper filed to build a communityFM broadcast station in Ontario on September 19, 1944.[4] The station would have broadcast at 49.9 MHz — at the top of the 42–50 MHz FM band of the time — and was granted its construction permit in November 1945. After being relocated to 104.3 MHz, the station went on the air as KOCS-FM on 93.5 FM in 1947, accompanyingKOCS (1510AM). On July 27, 1949, KOCS-FM became KEDO. On October 1, 1958, KOCS became KASK and 93.5 FM became KASK-FM, around the same time of a power increase to 1,000 watts.
The Daily Report sold KASK-AM-FM in 1963 to WCBC-TV, Inc. The new ownership changed the FM call letters to KOYA in July 1965. The Pacific Coast Broadcasting Corporation bought both stations in 1967; KOYA became KSOM-FM to match the call letters of its AM sister. In 1974, AR Communications Corporation acquired KSOM-AM-FM, only to go bankrupt the next year. Media Management Company, Inc., bought the station from receivership in 1976; Jato Communications acquired it in 1978, changing the call letters to KNTF.
The KNTF call letters remained in place until 1990, when 93.5 FM became "Thunder Country" for a very short time. In the early 1990s the station becamehot adult contemporary (hot AC)-formatted KRZE, "The Breeze". Former staff members of KRZE include Steve Craig (later atWRXP in New York), Kevin Barrett (who became program director atKTRB "XTRA Sports" in San Francisco), and Lisa Osborne (news anchor atKFI). Both the Torrance and Ontario stations at 93.5 FM, begun in the 1950s on the AM dial, had call signs similar to each other: KFXM in Ontario (servingSan Bernardino) and KFXT in Torrance (serving Los Angeles).
Soon after dropping hot AC, the station airedbrokered programming purchased primarily byKorean-language broadcasters. In the mid-1990s, it begansimulcasting the Redondo Beach station in its various formats, first as KRZE, then KREA, KFSB, KZBA, and KNJR. Its full-length programming in Korean was known as "Radio Korea" until 1999, when KNJR of Ontario and KZBA of Torrance switched to aSpanish-language music format known as "Radio Grupera".
On September 20, 2004, the station became asimulcast of KDAY and itship hop/R&B format, adopting the KDAI call letters to match its sister station's on-air handle. The signal covered the eastern portions of Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire.[5] Despite the effort to cover the area, it was signal challenged. In 2006, the KDAI calls were changed to KWIE. After three years of simulcasting, Magic announced that KDAY would get a signal upgrade and cover more of the Los Angeles area as anurban contemporary/urban talk outlet. KWIE's simulcast of KDAY ended on August 14, 2008, with the Ontario station re-launching as "FLO 93.5".[6][7]
The "FLO 93.5" approach was started by Don McCoy, CEO of Magic Broadcasting, which is headquartered inPanama City, Florida. The first 90 days of broadcasting were proposed to be commercial-free. In an interview withThe Press-Enterprise, station sales manager Colleen Bambrick described the new format in a telephone interview: "FLO 93.5 will berhythmic adult contemporary ... We'll play artists likeAlicia Keys,Carlos Santana,Usher, maybe aMary J. Blige."[8]
KWIE's rhythmic AC format did not perform well in the ratings. In September 2009, KWIE dropped the format and returned to simulcasting KDAY'sclassic hip-hop format under new call letters KDEY-FM. KDAY had dropped its urban contemporary approach, heavy onsyndicated programming, in August 2009 after it too had poor ratings.[9]
In May 2014, KDEY-FM and KDAY were sold toMeruelo Group, which also owned Los Angeles television stationKWHY-TV (channel 22). On June 7, 2015, the radio stations began carryingArt Laboe's syndicated six-hour Sunday nighturban oldies program,The Art Laboe Connection. Previously, the show aired onKHHT until February 2015, when that station dropped itsrhythmic oldies format in favor of urban contemporary as KRRL.[10]
On February 28, 2017, KDEY-FM startedstunting with a loop of "Welcome to the Jungle" byGuns N' Roses, indicating a tease towards a flip toactive rock orclassic rock. However, on March 1, KDEY-FM flipped to R&B/hip-hop as "Wild 93.5", giving the Inland Empire its first urban outlet since 1994, whenKAEV dropped the format formodern rock as KCXX. It also revived the "Wild" branding that was last used at KRQB from 2004 to 2007 when it was KWIE.[11][12]
On May 9, 2017,Emmis Broadcasting sold Los Angelesrhythmic top 40 stationKPWR to Meruelo for $82.75 million; the new owner began operating KPWR in July. As a result of the acquisition and retaining KPWR's rhythmic format, air staff, and management, Meruelo announced that it would move KDAY and KDEY-FM to KPWR's studios inBurbank effective with the deal. KDEY-FM retained its urban format and continued focusing on the Riverside-San Bernardino market until its return to simulcasting KDAY on October 30, 2017, to avoid direct competition with its newly-acquired sister station as Meruelo management saw KDEY's urban format as redundant, despite having researched targeting the area and to address signal coverage and overlapping issues.[13][14][15]