Broadcast area Monterey, California Facility ID 60852 Frequency 1200 kHz Format Christian radio Area Monterey First air date 2001 | Class B Website ihradio.com City of license Soquel Owner Immaculate Heart Radio Branding Immaculate Heart Radio | |
Power 25,000 watts day
10,000 watts night | ||
KYAA (1200 AM) is an American radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. It is licensed to Soquel, California, and serves the Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay, and San Jose area. The station is owned by IHR Educational Broadcasting Between 2001 and early 2013, the station played a wide variety of oldies music from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and was the only oldies station in that time period in the Monterey Bay Area.
Former Los Angeles KHJ boss jock Don Murray (Carlson) began the station along with radio veteran Denis 'Catfish' Miller . The station used the call letters KYA, minus the additional 'A', as a tribute to the top 40 station in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s with the same call letters. Murray and Miller used the old KYA jingle package, and the station sounded just as it had before. Local radio veteran David Mars also worked on the station for a time. The station was simulcast on FM and AM and reached its peak of success in 2004. It was sold back to Salinas' Wolfhouse broadcasting after a failed LMA by People's Radio, and the format was dropped in favor of a more urban hip hop format, ending KYA and its rock and roll roots. The AM part, 1200 adopted the 'music of your life' format, which was shelved by Joe Rosa, owner of People's Radio.
People's Radio, Inc. tried to sell the station for quite some time without success. It donated KYAA to IHR Educational Broadcasting, which airs its Immaculate Heart Radio Roman Catholic religion format. The license to cover to IHR was granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on July 29, 2013.