City Sunnyvale, California First air date March 1961 (as KHYD) | Branding KDFC | |
Broadcast area San Jose/Oakland/San Francisco, California Slogan Classical. And then some. Frequency 104.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
KXSC (104.9 FM) is a radio station based in Sunnyvale, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the University of Southern California and airs a classical music format.
Contents
KXSC broadcasts in HD.
History
KXSC (104.9 FM) began in 1961 as KHYD, a 3,000 watt station operating from a house on Mowry Avenue in Fremont, California. The station call letters changed to KFMR in 1964. Under new ownership in the early 1980s, KFMR aired a religious format, but in 1983, it became Spanish-language KDOS.
By December 1983, the station adopted KBRG, call letters that had been abandoned by another station earlier that year. The station continued the Spanish-language music and variety format, and the Oakland Athletics baseball games in Spanish, with Amaury Pi-Gonzales as announcer. The station was still licensed to Fremont, California.
On December 31, 1997, in a three-station frequency swap, KBRG moved to 100.3 and 104.9 became KUFX.
In August 1998, the station's owners (Jacor) changed the format to modern adult contemporary and the call letters to KLDZ. Six months later, the format and call letters were changed to new wave music/alternative rock classics KCNL, which was switched to alternative rock on January 15, 2001.
KCNL's call letters were briefly changed to KMJO on October 14, 2005, and changed back to KCNL ten days later, though there was no format change involved. It was likely that Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia), the owners at the time, wanted to park the KMJO call letters temporarily.
On January 1, 2006, KCNL dropped alternative rock and flipped to Spanish. It was named "La Romántica" for a couple of months, but was later renamed "Enamorada 104.9".
Ratings for the station had dropped from a 3.4 share to a 1.3 share during that time. Because of this, KCNL announced the return of the alternative rock format in late February 2007. The station relaunched on February 28, 2007, with "Beautiful Day" by U2 as the first song in the resurrected Channel 104.9 format.
After 11 months without airstaff, on January 22, 2008, "Joe" returned to host afternoons.
On September 18, 2009, KCNL switched to the "La Preciosa" Spanish-adult hits format. On March 2, 2010, Clear Channel Communications sold the station to Principle Broadcasting Network (San Jose, California) for $5 million. KCNL changed to the "iFM" Spanish-language variety format. On Saturday and Sunday nights from 8 pm to midnight, KCNL aired "Save Alternative," which also aired 24 hours a day on an HD2 channel and online at www.savealternative.com.
According to Radio Survivor, on March 30, 2012, Principle Broadcasting Network sold KCNL to the University of Southern California for $7.5 million. On May 2, 2012, it was announced that the Spanish-language format would end on Memorial Day (May 28), 2012. On May 20, 2012, "Save Alternative" ceased broadcasting on KCNL-HD2.
On May 25, 2012, the call letters were changed to KDFC and the format to classical music, with coverage expanding to the South Bay and the Peninsula areas. The change took place three days earlier than originally planned.
The KXSC call letters, already being used by USC’s AM and online-only stations, were adopted 2010 when change was mandated after receiving notice from an FCC-licensed station.
18-year-old Bill Stairs was among the alumni of early days of KFMR who went on to a career as a DJ, program director and broadcast consultant in markets from Spokane, Sacramento and San Diego in the west to Boston and Chicago in the east.
Another early DJ at KFMR was writer Timothy Perrin, winner of the 2007 Angie Award for best screenplay.
Additional frequencies
In addition to KXSC, the programming of KDFC is transmitted by these stations and translators to widen its broadcast area.