City Moorhead, Minnesota Branding Today's Froggy 99.9 Frequency 99.9 FM (MHz) | Broadcast area Fargo-Moorhead Slogan "#1 For New Country" First air date 1978 (as KVOX-FM) | |
KVOX-FM (99.9 FM, "Froggy 99.9") is a country radio station located in Fargo, North Dakota (licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to twin city Moorhead, Minnesota), owned by Duey Wright's Midwest Communications, Inc.
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History
KVOX-FM went on the air in 1978, branding themselves as "Stereo Country K100". This would remain as their branding until April 1, 1994 when they switched to the "Froggy" Moniker which is still used to this day. It was at this point the station "frogified" everything as they do today. For example, the studio is called the "Frogpond", the phone line is called the "Frogline", their forecast called the "Frogcast", and until Fall 2009, "frogified" on-air names (such as Pete Moss, Hoppy Gilmore and Jeremiah Bullfrog). They have since moved towards regular on-air names.
In 2009, Froggy rebranded as "Number One For New Country, Today's Froggy 99.9."
Ownership
In May 1999, Triad Broadcasting reached a deal to acquire this station (along with KQWB 1660 AM (Sports), KQWB-FM 98.7 (Active rock), KLTA 105.1 (Hot AC), and KPFX 107.9 (Classic rock)) from brothers Jim and Tom Ingstad as part of a twelve-station deal valued at a reported $37.8 million.
On November 30, 2012, Triad Broadcasting signed a Definitive Agreement to sell all 32 of their stations to Larry Wilson's L&L Broadcasting for $21 Million. Upon completion of the sale on May 1, 2013, L&L in turn sold the Fargo stations to Jim Ingstad, who had just sold his competing cluster to Midwest Communications. An LMA (Local Marketing Agreement) was placed so Ingstad could take immediate control of the stations, and the sale became final July 2, 2013. The sale was worth $9.5 million.
On May 7, 2013, less than a week after the second sale, a new term of Ingstad's original sale to Midwest Communications came to light. It was announced that Ingstad and Midwest would swap country stations. This would send Froggy to Midwest, and competitor KBVB (BOB 95) back into the hands of Ingstad. The swap took place Sunday August 5, 2013 at 6pm. Following the ownsership swap, Morning show Jesse Amanda and Pike's contracts were withheld by Radio FM Media under the agreement that they could not be put on rival BOB95. After a brief hiatus, the trio is now the morning show at KLTA (Big 98.7).