First air date 1951 (as KITE-FM) ERP 98,000 watts Frequency 97.3 MHz Format Country music Area San Antonio, Texas | Language(s) English HAAT 300 meters (980 ft) City of license San Antonio Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding KJ97 | |
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Broadcast area San Antonio metropolitan area Audience share 5.6 (January 2017, Nielsen Audio[1]) Slogan San Antonio is KJ Country! | ||
KAJA (97.3 MHz) "KJ97" is an FM Country Music station licensed to San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications until September 2014). Its studios are located on Interstate 10 in Northwest San Antonio near Balcones Heights, TX, and the transmitter site is in unincorporated Bexar County near Government Canyon.
History
The station was founded in 1951 as KITE-FM and later KEEZ, and owned by Charles Balthrope. It was sold to San Antonio Broadcasting Company in 1975. SABC was owned by Lowry Mays, BJ Red McCombs, and a Paul Schaffer (not the one from The Late Show). A year later the same owners bought 1200 WOAI in San Antonio, and owing to WOAI operating as a 50,000 watt clear-channel station, named their company Clear Channel Communications. In the late seventies SBC and Clear Channel were merged into a new Clear Channel, which went on to own more than 1,000 radio stations.
After operating as an easy listening station (hence the "EZ" in the call letters) KEEZ became WOAI-FM from 1978-1981, Then, the station adopted the KAJA call letters and current country format in 1981. It is one of two country music FMs in the San Antonio media market, the other being rival 100.3 KCYY, owned by Cox Radio. KAJA and KCYY have competed for San Antonio country listeners since 1987.
On October 18, 2010, KAJA won the 2010 Country Music Association (CMA) Large Market Radio Station of the Year award. This was the station's first CMA award win. They accepted the award at the show in November. In October 2012, Randy Carroll and Jamie Martin won the 2012 CMA Large Market Personality of the Year award. It was their first CMA win. They accepted their awards at the show on November 1.