City New Iberia, Louisiana Slogan Country For Life | Branding Nash FM 99.1 Frequency 99.1 MHz | |
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Broadcast area Lafayette metropolitan area First air date January 1969 (as KNIR-FM) | ||
KXKC is a radio station licensed for New Iberia, Louisiana in the Lafayette, Louisiana metropolitan area.It operates on FM frequency 99.1 MHz with a country music format, and is under ownership of Cumulus Media.
History
Don Bonin first signed on the 99.1 frequency in January 1969 as the FM counterpart of KNIR with the calls KNIR-FM. KNIR-FM eventually became KDEA-FM in the early 1970s, playing Beautiful music/Easy Listening for the Lafayette and Baton Rouge radio markets. The format continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, when the popularity of the Easy Listening format began to decline nationwide and KDEA went into competition with KTDY with a mainstream Adult Contemporary format.
On August 21, 1992 at 6pm KDEA starting playing the song "American Pie", by Don McLean on a continuous loop. Between each playing of the song, a voice could be heard saying, "A new day begins Monday." The song continued to play over and over until 6am Monday, August 24, when a jingle played announcing that the station was now, "Hot Country 99.1, KXKC". This was followed by "Friends In Low Places", by Garth Brooks, and KXKC was born. It has lasted for 21 years.
The station had normal operations for only one day as Hurricane Andrew was approaching. On Tuesday, August 25 at 10am, the station began continuous coverage of the ever closer hurricane. The storm came ashore early Wednesday morning, knocking the station off the air for 20 hours when water shorted out the transmitter in Parks, Louisiana. Hurricane recovery information dominated the station for the next few days, but by the following Monday morning, August 31, 1992, KXKC was operating as normal.
In 2003, Don Bonin exited the radio business, selling KNIR to Radio Maria and KXKC to Citadel Broadcasting in exchange for KRXE (now KFXZ-FM) and KFXZ (now KYMK-FM), which he immediately sold to Pittman Broadcasting Services. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.