City San Diego, California First air date 1949 (as KFSD-FM) | Branding Star 94.1 | |
Broadcast area San Diego metropolitan area Slogan San Diego's Best Music Variety Frequency 94.1 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
KMYI (94.1 MHz, Star 94.1) is a commercial FM radio station in San Diego, California. KMYI airs a hot adult contemporary music format branded as Star 94.1. The station is owned by iHeartMedia. Its studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood on the northeast side, and the transmitter is located in La Jolla. It broadcasts from the KGTV Tower, shared with several other San Diego FM stations and Channel 10 KGTV.
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KMYI broadcasts in HD. It carries the news/talk programming of sister station KOGO on its HD2 channel.
History
The station signed on in 1949 using the call sign KFSD-FM and simulcasting AM 600 KFSD (now KOGO). It carried the AM station's format of Middle of the Road music with news and personalities. As one of the earliest FM stations in Southern California, it was originally powered at 100,000 watts, and even today has more power (77,000 watts) than most of its rivals, which normally are limited to 50,000 watts. As FM radios became more available, especially among the affluent and audiophiles, KFSD-FM adopted a Classical music format in 1956, for which it was known for nearly four decades.
KFSD-FM was sold by Lotus Communications to Nationwide Communications in 1996. The new owners decided Classical music would not have enough listeners and revenue, so the format was switched to classic hits as "94.1 The Eagle" on January 16, 1997, with the call letters KXGL. KXGL was acquired in 1998 by Jacor Communications, which was later acquired by Clear Channel Communications.
On August 10, 1998, KXGL dropped the classic hits music format and call letters, switching to soft adult contemporary music as KJQY, known as "K-Joy 94.1 Soft and Easy Music" to compete with leading AC station 96.5 KYXY. (The K-Joy call sign was on a previous KYXY competitor, 103.7 KJQY.) In 2000, KJQY changed to a new format called "Soft Oldies." When Oldies station KBZT left the format in November of that year, KJQY became a mainstream oldies station (later moving to 95.7 and 99.3 and rebranded as "KOOL").
On November 21, 2001, KJQY swapped formats and call letters with "Mix 95.7", also owned by Clear Channel (now KSSX). For a short time, it played Christmas music until December 25, 2001, when it acquired the KMYI call letters and became known as My 94.1 with its present Hot AC format. For a time, KMYI was simulcast in Temecula, California on 94.5 KMYT until December 2, 2004, when KMYT switched to a smooth jazz format.
On September 19, 2005, noted San Diego radio duo "Jeff and Jer" came to KMYI, and the station was rebranded as Star 94.1, picking up both the morning show and the moniker of the former "Star 100.7 KFMB-FM", which had switched to the Jack FM format earlier in 2005.
On August 20, 2009, Jeff and Jer exited Star 94.1 to be replaced by AJ Machado from sister Top 40 station 93.3 KHTS-FM. On August 31, 2009, "AJ in the Morning" debuted on Star 94.1 with his morning crew from Channel 933 and co-host Delana, formerly on the Jeff and Jer Show. AJ Machado left Star 94.1 in June 2012 and was replaced by Jesse Lozano in the Morning. Today, KMYI's chief rivals are KYXY, which has moved closer to a Hot AC format to gain younger listeners, and KXSN, which broadcasts an adult contemporary format and calls itself "Sunny 98.1."
Clear Channel Communications became iHeartMedia in 2014. Through all of the changes that have occurred since becoming a Hot AC station, the one constant at KMYI has taken place during the final weeks of the year: On the weekend before Thanksgiving, KMYI kicks off its annual tradition of playing all Christmas music, returning to its regular Hot AC format on December 26th.
Star on your Car and other contests
Star 94.1 wanted to "bribe" its listeners to remain loyal, so, it asked people to put Star 94.1 bumper stickers on their cars. The contest started on September 3, 2006, and ended at 3:36 PM Pacific Time on September 14, 2006, when Star passed the 10,000 sticker limit. This promotion began with former morning show hosts Jeff & Jer but stickers are still available to this day.
Morning shows
KMYI has had many morning shows throughout the years, currently with Jesse Lozano in the Morning - as Jesse and Delana. Jesse also hosts afternoons on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, also known as Boy Toy Jesse.
Previous mornings shows on STAR 941 include AJ in the Morning and Jeff and Jer. Jagger and Kristi had their own morning show on in the My 94.1 days of the station.