Broadcast area Greater St. Louis ERP 100,000 watts Class C0 Frequency 107.7 MHz Format Contemporary hit radio Branding Z107-7 | First air date 1968 (as KACO) HAAT 313 meters Facility ID 48960 City of license St. Louis Owner iHeartMedia Inc | |
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Area St. Louis MO-IL, Metropolitan Statistical Area Slogan STL's #1 Hit Music Station | ||
KSLZ ("Z107-7") is a Top 40 (CHR) FM radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The iHeartMedia (previously Clear Channel Communications) outlet broadcasts at 107.7 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. Its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, a suburb of St. Louis, and operates from studios in St. Louis south of Forest Park.
Contents
History
107.7 FM debuted on the air in 1968 as KACO, which aired an AC/MOR format until a fire took the station off the air in January 1970. Two months later, the station returned to the air and changed call letters to KGRV, "Music for Groovy Adults," offering a more upbeat AC format, which lasted until 1972, when it once again changed call letters to KKSS, "Kiss 108", but retained its AC format. By 1974, KKSS switched formats to country. A year later, KKSS switched formats to a R&B format dubbed "Black in Stereo". In February 1979, KKSS altered its R&B format and adopted the moniker "Studio 108," with a hybrid Disco-R&B format, competing with WZEN (now KMJM).
In June 1979, the calls were changed to KMJM under the moniker "Majic 108." "Majic" wanted to cater to the Black and White audiences as the St. Louis market's first ever "CHUrban" station (a forerunner to the Rhythmic Contemporary format). The station was owned by Keymarket Communications at the time. KMJM would later go on to be among the top 5 stations in the St. Louis Arbitrons during the 1980s, even as they shifted towards a conventional Urban Contemporary direction. In May 1988, KMJM was sold to Noble Communications of San Diego for $19 million. KMJM's signal was one of the best in the St. Louis area, and at this time, the station emerged as the Top R&B/Urban station in Saint Louis. On October 20, 1997, at Midnight, shortly after Jacor bought the station, KMJM moved to recently purchased sister station 104.9 WCBW, which aired a Christian format. After a 12-hour stunt with a looped heartbeat and announcements redirecting listeners to the new frequency and the launch of a new format on 107.7 later that day, KSLZ and its current Top 40 format, branded as "Z107-7", debuted. The flip was to fill a format hole left by WKBQ, who dropped the format for Modern AC in February of that year. The final song on "Majic 108" was "Good Girls" by Joe, while the first song on "Z" was "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited. (KMJM would move again, this time to 100.3 FM (the frequency of former competitors WZEN and KATZ) in November 2012.)
HD Radio
KSLZ made the conversion to HD Radio in 2006. 107.7-HD2 carried a New CHR format branded as "Z107-7 Amped." On June 22, 2016 KSLZ-HD2 switched to "Pride Radio".
Lineup
6am-10am: Elvis Duran and the Morning Show
10am-2pm: Ryan Seacrest
2pm-7pm: Jordan
7pm-12am: Tight Pants
Former on-air staff
In October 2009, longtime staff member Taylor J was let go from Clear Channel Communications. Although starting off as a daily announcer at the station, she eventually moved to weekends in order to focus on being programming director on sister station KATZ-FM. However, later that month, the station changed its format, firing all employees of the station. Taylor J's weekend show was in association with the KATZ contract. As of early-2011, Taylor J returned to the St. Louis airwaves on CBS' KYKY (Y98) FM.
In January 2014, Taylor returned to Clear Channel, which has since become iHeartRadio, to host her own morning show on KSLZ's sister station KBWX. This reunited her with former co-worker Big Mike, who also recently got promoted to hosting his own night show after many years on Weekends.