Broadcast area Denver, Colorado ERP 97,000 watts Class C City of license Strasburg Area Denver | First air date 1968 (as KBRU) HAAT 625 meters Frequency 101.5 MHz Owner Max Media Branding Jammin' 101.5 | |
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Repeater(s) 101.5 KJHM-FM1 Commerce City Format Rhythmic adult contemporary Slogan True Old School & Smooth R&B | ||
KJHM (101.5 FM, Jammin' 101.5) is a commercial radio station licensed to Watkins, Colorado, that broadcasts to the Denver, Colorado area airing a Rhythmic Oldies format branded as Jammin' 101.5. KJHM transmits at an ERP of 93,000 watts at 600 meters from a tower about 60 miles northeast of Denver near Leader, sharing a tower with sister station KFCO. KJHM's signal isn't as strong in the Downtown Denver area as well as the western suburbs (Arvada, Lakewood, and Wheat Ridge) even though there is a booster in Commerce City, which helps with the signal reach closer to Denver. Its studios are located on Parker Road in Aurora.
Contents
History
KJHM was originally KBRU 101.7, licensed to Fort Morgan with an adult contemporary format, and later to Strasburg, Colorado. KJHM-FM still has clear coverage over its old city of license.
Martini on the Rockies and Indie 101.5
The station was branded as "101.5 Martini On The Rockies" as KTNI, an adult standards format, for two years until switching to an "Indie" modern rock format in February 2008. When the station changed, they used an on-air clicking sound effect of an iPod being randomly selected to play a song supposedly on the station's music playlist, to suggest the next song could be anything that was available on the device. This approach was used for a couple of months until it lost popularity with listeners.
According to FCC filings, the station's owner (KBRU-FM, LLC - a subsidiary of Denver Radio Company) sought bankruptcy protection in February 2008 and has since emerged from bankruptcy.
On January 16, 2009, the debtor in possession for Denver Radio Company received permission to operate the station temporarily without a main studio within 25 miles of the community of license, which is a requirement for all commercial radio stations. It plans to operate and run the station from a consolidated facility with station KONN in Aurora, Colorado.
Acquisition by Max Media and flip to Truth 101-5
The station was sold to Max Media in 2009. Upon the completion of the sale, on July 31, 2009, at 9 AM, KTNI dropped the alternative rock format, and moved online as Indie303.com. The station ran a week-long stunt running with a "stripper format", and christening themselves as "The Pole". The stunt was sponsored by local strip club Shotgun Willie's. At 4 PM on August 6, KTNI flipped to conservative talk as "101-5 The Truth".
The Truth was Denver's lowest rated AM or FM radio station, and the lowest rated of all the formats on the frequency, according to Arbitron's PPM rating service. Local paid programming included "Green Rights Radio", "Lacrosse Talk" (which was the only radio show dedicated to the sport), "real talk 360" and "Zinna". It carried much of Talk Radio Network's programming lineup, including The Phil Hendrie Show, the alleged cult leader Roy Masters, Mancow's Morning Madhouse, Jerry Doyle, The Savage Nation, and Rusty Humphries. Tape-delayed broadcasts of Neal Boortz, Curtis Sliwa and Phil Valentine completed the station's weekday lineup.
Jammin 101-5 - Denver's Old School Jamz
On September 3, 2010, at 4 PM, KTNI changed their format to Rhythmic Oldies/Urban Oldies as "Jammin 101-5". The first song on "Jammin" was "Jam On It" by Newcleus. This marks the second time the format and moniker have been used in the market, the first time when it was on 92.5 FM (KDJM; now Country music KWOF) from May 1999 to December 2005. The station brought back former KDJM afternoon host Cha Cha to host mornings in November 2010, as well as adding afternoon personality "SLiM" (formerly of KMEL/San Francisco). The station used jingles formerly heard on KPTT during its run as a Rhythmic AC station.
On September 23, KTNI's call letters were changed to KJHM-FM to reflect the "Jammin" moniker.
"True Old School, Smooth R&B"
As of late June 2012, KJHM shifted from a Rhythmic Oldies format to a mix of Urban Adult Contemporary and Urban Oldies as "The New Jammin 101-5, True Old School and Smooth R&B" under veteran programmer Mike Marino, formerly of KHHT/Los Angeles, which launched as a straight Urban AC before moving to Rhythmic Oldies. However, Marino is quick to dismiss that KJHM is not a Urban AC, since the format plays R&B hits and classics for a mass-appeal audience who grew up listening to that music.
Shift to Rhythmic AC
On October 1, 2015, at 5 PM, KJHM shifted to a full-blown Rhythmic AC format, dropping the 1970s and 1980s songs, and refocusing their playlist on 1990s rhythmic hits, 2000s rhythmic/pop hits, and current/recurrent rhythmic/pop hits. The change was made due to the results of a listener survey posted on their website. KJHM also changed their slogan to "The Next Generation".
Back to Rhythmic Oldies
On March 18, 2016, KJHM reverted to Rhythmic Oldies. The station's second go-around with the format includes the return of 1970s and 1980s tracks (along with less neo-soul and more disco), while retaining some 1990s and 2000s rhythmic/R&B tracks, as well as some re-currents and currents held over from the previous format. The change was made due to poor ratings with the October 2015 change, when the station received a 1.4 share of the Denver radio market.
Ratings
As of the December 2010 Winter Arbitron Ratings, Jammin 101-5 scored a 1.8 share with a cume of over 230,000. It had yet to beat its 92.5 predecessor, which had a signal that covered the entire market, and was owned by a major company (first being Chancellor Media, then Infinity Broadcasting, and finally CBS Radio).
As of June 2014, the station's ratings have improved to a 3.6 share, surpassing predecessor KDJM.