First air date 1965 HAAT 115 meters Facility ID 59272 City of license Redlands Owner Anaheim Broadcasting Branding 96.7 K-CAL Rocks | ERP 1,750 watts Class A Frequency 96.7 MHz Format Mainstream rock Area Riverside, San Bernardino Slogan K-CAL Rocks! | |
Broadcast area Riverside-San Bernardino, California | ||
KCAL-FM (96.7 FM, 96.7 KCAL Rocks!) is a commercial mainstream rock radio station licensed in Redlands, California, broadcasting to the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino) radio market. Its studios are in Redlands and the transmitter site is north of San Bernardino.
History
KCAL-FM turned from a middle of the road (MOR) (middle of the road) format to a daytime soft rock format and nighttime album rock format in 1969, a format quite unique in Southern California.
The station's slogan was "The Rock Spectrum" with its mascot as the KCAL-FM Wizard playing a variety of music, including oldies, contemporary and current soft rock.
Unique to KCAL-FM was the weekly airing of "Album Premiere" Monday thru Thursday nights at 10PM, where side one of a new release would be played in its entirety with no breaks or commercials on Monday night with side two scheduled for Tuesday night. Record companies were not pleased that KCAL-FM listeners could record a new album off the air instead of buying it.
The station switched to album-oriented rock in 1978 under the direction of programming director Jim James, playing an open format of album rock playing more than just the single, usually four or five songs deep.
Radio announcers at KCAL-FM included Ted Ziegenbusch, John Leslie, Mike Stewart, and, Shana and Lisa Clayton of KLOS.
James left KCAL-FM to build and operate two radio stations on the Big Island of Hawaii from 1990 to 1997. KLUA-FM, licensed to Kailua-Kona, became the most popular radio station in the history of the market with its first Arbitron rating of 56.7% 12+. James still resides in Redlands, California.
During the 2000s, KCAL-FM evolved into its current mix of classic rock and newer songs, and became known as "KCAL Rocks!"