KRNB

History

KRNB was first launched at 6 a.m. on September 16, 1996, with an Urban Adult Contemporary format playing R&B music, hence the call sign. (Coincidentally, it is the western reflection of an R&B station in Philadelphia called WRNB.) At the time its only other competitor for the rest of the decade was KRBV, which went off the air as an R&B station in 1998 due to a transmitter problem that caused low ratings. In the early years of the station, it was home to The Tom Joyner Morning Show until 2002 when its new competitor KSOC-FM took over the affiliation to the show. (This marked the second station Tom Joyner DJ'ed in the Metroplex as he worked at KKDA-FM before.)

After KRBV changed formats, KRNB was the sole Urban AC for two years, but due to its transmitter location, it was easier to pick up in the northern and western portions of the Metroplex but harder to pick up in the Southern and Eastern portions, especially in the southern half of Dallas and downtown Dallas. Then it got new competition: KSOC changed formats from Jammin' Oldies to Urban AC. So KRNB modified its format to an R&B Oldies format by playing only R&B music from the 1970s to the 1980s, and changed its branding from 105.7 KRNB to Old School 105.7 (pronounced 5-dot-7). The modification did not last long; KRNB reverted to Urban AC in 2005, changed the name back to 105.7 KR&B ("&" in place of "N") and became the home of The Steve Harvey Morning Show through Premiere Radio Networks, a division of Clear Channel. (Before that, Harvey used to have a morning show on KBFB by syndicate of sister station KKBT in Los Angeles.) Like many Urban AC stations across the country, KRNB has a nighttime Quiet Storm show. In 2010, KRNB has rebranded to "Smooth R&B 105.7" while keeping its current format. Typically, an Urban AC station doesn't play a rap song in their playlists. However, KRNB has added very few R&B-influenced rap tracks such as "The Way You Move" (featuring Sleepy Brown) by Outkast, "How Do U Want It" (featuring K-Ci & JoJo) by Tupac Shakur, and "Big Poppa" by The Notorious B.I.G.

In addition to Steve Harvey, KRNB's current on-air personalities include KJ Midday, Sean Andre, Tony Mathis and Ron Chavis, and Lynne Haze.

Since 2002, it has competed with KSOC (for a time branded as "K-Soul" from 2002 to 2011 and again in 2014; and as "Old School 94.5" from 2011 to 2014) with an Urban AC format. However, as of November 15, 2014, KSOC flipped to classic hip hop, leaving KRNB as the sole Urban AC station in the metroplex.

Former KRNB

The original KRNB-FM was a tribal run student radio station in Neah Bay, Washington. Starting in 1976 the station provided news, weather and information for the Makah Indian Tribe. Located on the high school campus it was billed as "The Native American Voice of the Pacific Northwest" and operated at 10 watts with an international reach extreme southern Vancouver Island in Canada just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The station broadcast a wide range of formats including easy listening, contemporary 70s pop and at night album oriented rock. In 1982 the KRNB call letters surfaced in Memphis TN as "MAGIC 101" an R&B station now KJMS.