KKOS Morphs into KUPR (September 15, 1995)

I want to thank Clark Novak, former staffer of KKOS in the 1990s, who e-mailed me recently about one of my entries in my website regarding the history of KUSS 95.7, which stimulated me into thinking that I should do a blast from the past feature on something that happened on this date in radio history.

Today is the 10th anniversary that KKOS 95.9 in Carlsbad morphed into what was then the call letters of KUPR 95.7 with the format of Adult Album Alternative, or AAA for short.

Check out this excerpt from SD Radio Watcher by Chris Carmichael from 9.11.95 here (this URL too long to list)

KKOS is testing the 95.7 transmitter. The station, currently at 95.9, will shift frequency at noon on Friday. It is reported that the call letters will be KUPR. [I'm sure there is a method to the call-letter madness.]

Various e.mails to my new address indicated great reception south of the Sorrento Valley area on 95.7; and as suspected by me, loss of the LA KLOS at 95.5. The new KUPR will have/has an ERP of 7.2kw, vice 7.8kw as previously reported.

Chris Carmichael | Just when you thought it was safe to read the news:

How did this come to be?

Some details are very sketchy but let me see if I can piece all of the collected facts together. Let's go back in time as far as I can. Some of the facts may be a bit fuzzy, but here's what I have.

From 1968-79, 95.9 Carlsbad was a MOR as KARL. That way, if the listeners didn't like the format, they could say that ... KARL's bad.

From 1980-90, 95.9 KKOS was AC and CHR (not sure what year CHR came on, I guess about 1987). I never listened to the station until 1987 when I started working a couple of stores in MiraMar/Mira Mesa area and 95.9's reception was adjacent-channel interferred by Mexico's XHKY 95.7. I started listening to it around then when it was playing Top 40 music.

I think Cox San Diego picked up this station for FM cable for a while until 1989. I remember tuning in and hearing some Spanish announcers with a cuckoo (KuKOoS) bird once or twice every hour around 1981. I'm thinking that's where the calls came from.

In 1990 (not 1994 as previously stated elsewhere), KKOS officially went to a new kind of format called AAA, and it was sometime around then that I discovered Blues in the Night and Locals running Sunday nights on KKOS with hosts Clark Novak and Ron Lane from 8-10pm.

But it was sometime around the turn of the 1980s-90s decade line that a plan was devised to help make it possible for more listeners to be able to listen to KKOS, but it would take two nations, as XHKY is Mexican-licensed, and some frequency allocation shuffling to make the dream of making it possible.

XHKY once originated at 95.7 sometime in the 70s I believe and occupied this frequency until about 1992.

To make a long story short, when KKOS 95.9 got tired of having adjacent-channel interference from the nearby TJ station for over two decades, the owners of the Mexican 95.7 and U.S. 95.9 channels got both the U.S. and Mexican governments involved in a complex frequency swap (which also involved the frequencies of 95.3 and 99.3 as well.)

As a result, XHKY originally made the move to 95.5, but it interfered with the KLOS station from Los Angeles, so it moved back to 95.7 for a while, then in 1992, it finally made the move to the 99.3 frequency, allowing the Carlsbad station at 95.9 to move to 95.7 in 1995.

But before that could happen, there was once Tecate station, XHATE (which were the calls at the time) at 99.3 started up around 1989 or so, and that station had to shift over to 95.3 before it was possible for XHKY to move to 99.3 (its handle went from X96 to X99).

On a side note: for a year in 1987-88, El Cajon once had a low power translator for 99.3 used by 94.9's adult contemporary format.

When KKOS moved over to 95.7 as KUPR, the 95.9 frequency was given to Mexico for its Ensenada radio market. KUPR went from a 3kw in Carlsbad the day before to a 7kw on Mount Soledad in La Jolla at noon on September 15, 1995.

A day later, I launched my own website on a free website provider whose name shall never be printed by me ever again. It's the 10th anniversary of what is known as Dave's Fun Stuff, with one of the sections devoted to San Diego radio, with listings of rudimentary codings of lists of radio stations from paper notes.

Music First! Music First! was the cry for KUPR, but at the same time, when the frequency shift happened, the feeling of a smalltime radio station seemed a bit too polished. AAA music was also featured in part on the then-decent Flash 92.5 as well as Star 100.7 playing AAA and other Hot Adult Pop music.

In November of 1995, KCBQ-FM dropped the rock oldies from the 70s and 80s format and a new format called Sets 105, playing sets of 2, 3, or 4 songs by the same artist in a row, was launched, essentially playing AAA music along with classic rock.

On April 1, 1996, Sets 105.3 the logical station changed physical station locations with KIOZ 102.1 in Oceanside. No foolin'. It became KXST Sets 102, which is now known as the call letters of KPRI, essentially this staiton was once the old KCBQ-FM 105.3 before that date.

As 1996 went on, the AAA music on 102.1 evolved more and more while the AAA music on 95.7 eventually was ruled a dud after the spring 1996 book. KPRI 102.1 was established as a better alternative to corporate-run radio in San Diego.

In the summer of 1996, the Music First handle was dumped and Mike Halloran, who was fired by the suits of Jacor at 91X a few months before, was called upon to program the station. Mike had a name the station contest, which I believe ended up never being named.

Then, in November, Nationwide pulled the plug and KUPR became a country music station playing 10,000 hits in a row without commercials. KSON countered it with 10,000 Dollars in a Row. KUPR also increased its power from 7kw to 25kw ERP.

In Feb 1997, it became KMCG Magic 95.7 playing soul oldies and new R&B hits.

In Sep 1998, when Nationwide sold its stations to Jacor, and Jacor purchased the LMA rights to XHRM 92.5, Magic was shifted to 92.5 while 95.7 became Mix 95.7 at KMSX.

95.7 went from Mix to 80s in late 2000 to KOOL oldies in late 2001 to country as US 95.7 in January of 2004. In that time frame, Jacor was absorbed by Clear Channel in 1999. Clear Channel San Diego took over the LMA of Mexico's 99.3, which was at the time Bob playing country. In January of 2004, the oldies format of KOOL was shifted to 99.3 while the country format moved to 95.7 as KUSS. So Clear Channel completed a circle, with XHKY originating on 95.7 with a Mexican fiesta format as X96, then shifts to 99.3 as X99, then in 1999, adopts a country music format, then in 2004, the country format shifts to US 95.7.

The old KKOS 95.9 morphed into KUPR 95.7 in 1995, then country stunt in 1996, then Magic 95.7 playing R&B oldies in 1997, then to Mexico's XHRM as Magic 92.5, essentially, the old KKOS lives there.

So that's the story about KUPR's 10th anniversary of its morphing from a small station in Carlsbad to a part of a 1,200 radio station conglomerate.