Branding 103.7 The Buzz First air date 1962 (as KKYK) | Frequency 103.7 MHz | |
KABZ (103.7 FM) "The Buzz" is an American radio station broadcasting a talk/personality format with a focus on sports. Licensed to Little Rock, Arkansas, US, it serves the Little Rock area. The station is currently owned by Signal Media and the broadcast license is held by Signal Media of Arkansas, Inc. The station's studios are located just west of downtown along the south shore of the Arkansas River (David D. Terry Lake), and the transmitter tower is located on Shinall Mountain, near the Chenal Valley neighborhood of Little Rock.
History
The station that is now KABZ was historically tied to KARK/KARN 920 and was previously KARK-FM and KARN-FM. It's one of Little Rock's oldest FM stations, and it once boasted a signal that could be heard on a good car radio from Ft. Smith to Memphis, TN, along the entire I-40 run through Arkansas. It took on the KKYK calls in the mid-1970s and ran TM Century's "Stereo Rock" format for several years as "K-Kick 104." Like many Stereo Rock affiliates, it switched to top-40 over the late-1970s to early-1980s.
As a top-40 station, KKYK 103.7 typically finished well behind KLAZ 98.5 and its successor KZOU "Zoo 98." Ted Snider, owner of KARN 920, sold it to Shepard Communications in late 1988 after members of his family bought an interest in urban startup KIPR "Power 92." After Shepard bought it, KKYK adopted a more major-market sound and overtook Zoo 98. It usually finished in the top three behind country KSSN 95.7 and either just behind or just in front of the former beautiful music KEZQ 100.3.
When CHR/Top-40 began to suffer in the early-1990s, KKYK had struggles similar to most CHR's at the time. It forced KZOU out of the format in June 1991, when it became hot AC KURB "B-98.5." While that would normally have been a moment of celebration, KKYK was unable to capitalize on the demise of its previously more successful competitor. B-98.5 managed to hire KKYK's popular morning man Craig O'Neill away, and KKYK began a steep decline despite its biggest competitor leaving the air.
KKYK attempted several reboots of its top-40 format, including an attempt at bringing back the old K-Kick 104 branding and a move to the so-called "Rock 40" format as Kick 103.7. None of the reboots were successful, and the top-40 format was jettisoned for rock as "K-Rock 103.7" in the summer of 1993.
K-Rock 103.7 was more successful ratings-wise than the last few years of KKYK's top-40 format, but it struggled to compete against KMJX, then known as "Magic 105." It was also had to deal with a glut of rock stations launching around the same time in the market, including KLPQ/KOUN, which ran a classic rock format.
Shepard sold KKYK to Signal Media, which owned KBIS 1010 and KHLT 94.1. Shortly after buying KKYK, Signal Media flipped KHLT from "K-Lite 94.1" to KKPT "94.1 The Point," which ran a classic rock format. Signal attempted to tag team a classic rock station with a newer skewing rock station to run some of the rock stations out of the format. Although the rock combo had some success in the ratings, it failed to run any major competitor out of the format.
KKYK's fate was sealed after Group W bought KBIS 1010, by then known as KSYG, with the intention of shutting it down to decrease nighttime interference to its WINS in New York. KSYG's talk format was moved to 103.7, which assumed those calls and became known as "The Signal." After several years as "The Signal," it took on calls KABZ and became "103.7 The Buzz." During its time as "The Buzz," it aired mostly hot talk and guy talk programming with modern rock in the late nights and on the weekends. After a few years, all music programming was discontinued while the talk format remained. A few years after that, 103.7 took on a sports talk format, and it remains sports talk and guy talk to this day.