City El Cajon, California Branding Channel 93.3 | Broadcast area Greater San Diego First air date 1961 (as KECR-FM) | |
Slogan San Diego's #1 Hit Music Station Frequency 93.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
KHTS-FM (93.3 FM) is a Top 40 (CHR) station licensed to El Cajon, California and serving the San Diego market. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and brands as "Channel 93.3", sounded out as "Channel 9-3-3". The station's studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood on the northeast side, and the transmitter is located in East San Diego east of Balboa Park.
Currently, KHTS is the most listened to radio station in all of the San Diego region, averaging nearly 1,000,000 listeners.
History
From 1961 to 1995, the station was KECR-FM, owned by the religious Family Radio organization and airing their programming. The station was sold off in 1995 to Jacor Communications, with Family Radio continuing to broadcast in San Diego on KECR, an AM station on 910. Shortly after, the station received their current KHTS-FM calls.
In March 1996, KHTS began stunting with a simulcast of Tampa, Florida-based WFLZ (coincidentally, also on 93.3 FM in their market) in an early form of voicetracking to allow Jacor to plan for and hire for a new station without having to depend on a commercial-free 'in a row' gimmick during the building-out. This brought personalities such as Bubba The Love Sponge to the market, along with WFLZ referencing San Diego weather and events in their programming. The simulcast was broken on August 30, 1996, with the stunting shifting to a 43-hour loop of remixes of the then-popular "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. On September 1, 1996, at 10 a.m., the stunting shifted to a broadcast of that day's San Diego Chargers game in place of XTRA, which is required by law to carry Mexican presidential addresses under its Mexican radio license. At 4 PM that day, KHTS-FM officially flipped to Top 40, branded as "Channel 933." Originally, KHTS-FM focused on Rhythmic Top 40/Dance hits and remixes of mainstream pop and rock. The station would also air attack liners against rivals XHITZ-FM, KFMB-FM, and KKLQ.
By August 1998, KHTS would move away from its dance-heavy approach to a more mainstream direction due to the Clear Channel/Jacor merger bringing KKLQ into the same Clear Channel ownership as KHTS and ending that rivalry. The station maintains a rhythmic-leaning sound (with occasional alternative music tracks) and continues to air dance mixes on weekends.