City Seattle, Washington Frequency 1250 kHz AM | Branding Desi 1250 AM Format Full Service | |
Broadcast area Seattle metropolitan area First air date May 14, 1922 (as KTW at 833) | ||
KKDZ (1250 AM) is a radio station in Seattle, Washington. The station operates at 1250 kHz with 5,000 watts full-time.
Contents
History
KKDZ is one several AM stations in Seattle that signed on in the 1920s, having debuted on the air on May 14, 1922 as KTW. Originally at 833 kHz, KTW would switch signals to 740 kHz by 1924, 660 kHz by 1925, 760 kHz by 1927, 1270 kHz by 1928, and 1220 kHz by 1931, before moving to its current signal in 1941. Commercial programming would start in 1946.
After KTW was sold in 1964, they would debut a Top 40 format, which lasted only nine months before switching to the "Nashville Sound", a country format. It flipped to News/Talk as "2-Way Radio" in 1971. But financial problems would result in the station being sold and a format flip to Urban adult contemporary, along with a call letter change to KYAC in 1975. KYAC moved its format over from 1460.
K-Fox
In 1981, the station was sold to Northstar Broadcasters, and renamed KKFX ("K-Fox"). Vice President and General Manager John L. Hawkins implemented "Greatest Hits" music during the day to serve a general audience, a format he had success with at San Francisco station KNEW and others. Because the nighttime radio audience has a different listener profile, K-Fox aired "Night Beat -- The Beat of the Fox" (emphasizing R&B and dance music, also known as Rhythmic contemporary), during the evening hours. Night Beat proved so popular that the station evolved to playing it full-time, using the slogan "K-Fox -- Seattle's Hottest Music". (In 1987, the station would drop its rhythmic format in favor of satellite-fed R&B oldies, though it would return to rhythmic a year later.) The station was known for a howl sound effect dropped between songs (it didn't matter that wolves howl while foxes bark). This format continued with minor variations until KKFX signed-off in March 1993.
Kidstar and Radio Disney
On May 14, 1993, the station returned to the air as KKDZ, where they would serve as the flaghip station for the fledgling "KIDSTAR" children's radio network, which was based in Seattle. However, financial problems would force the station off the air on March 22, 1997. In August of that same year, KKDZ returned as an affiliate of Radio Disney, who would later buy the station outright in 1998.
The cessation of operations of KARR (AM) in February 2014 due to the expiration of the lease on their transmitter site also affected KKDZ, as it used the KARR site for night time operations. KKDZ has filed an STA to run on lower power from their separate daytime transmitter site.
Desi 1250
On August 13, 2014, Disney put KKDZ and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network. In May 2015, a deal to sell the station to Universal Media Access (owners of KLOK in San Francisco) for $500,000 was announced.
On September 17, 2015, the sale of KKDZ was consummated, at which point it officially dropped its Radio Disney affiliation and switched to a South Asian format (featuring Hindi, Punjabi and English language programming), branded as "Desi 1250."