KJMS (101.1 FM) is an

urban adult contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Memphis Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and serving the

Mid-South Mid-South may refer to: * Mid-South (region), a region of the United States including portions of Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Missouri * East South Central States, a region of the United States * Memphis metropolitan area, Tennessee, U ...

, area, owned by

iHeartMedia, Inc. iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

The station's studios are located in southeast Memphis, and the transmitter site is in north Memphis. KJMS broadcasts in HD.

History

KLYX and KWAM-FM

KWAM, Incorporated, filed a construction permit for a new FM radio station in Memphis on September 12, 1963. The

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

approved the application on January 24, 1964. The station took the call letters KLYX before signing on March 10, 1965. After four years, the call letters were changed to KWAM-FM. (While the station has always been licensed east of the Mississippi River,

KWAM KWAM (990 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring a conservative talk radio format known as "The Mighty 990". Owned by Todd Starnes via Starnes Media Group, LLC, the stations serves the Memphis metropolitan area ...

had been founded in

West Memphis, Arkansas West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 26,245 at the 2010 census, ranking it as the state's 18th largest city, behind Bella Vista. It is part of the Memphis metropolitan area, and is ...

KRNB as Majic 101

On January 4, 1982, KWAM flipped to an CHR/

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

("churban") as "Majic 101". The station was the fourth urban outlet in the Memphis market, competing with

WHRK WHRK (97.1 MHz "K97") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Memphis, Tennessee. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and it airs an urban contemporary radio format. The station carries the nationally syndicated weekday morning show, ''T ...

. Soon changing its call letters to KRNB, the new station made an immediate impact on the market, moving from dead last to an 11 share. In 1990, the station rebranded as KHUL "Cool 101", an urban adult contemporary outlet.

As KJMS

In 1991, the KRNB calls would be dropped for KJMS as "K-Jams", going head to head with WHRK for the mainstream urban audience. KRNB continued to rate respectably, though it never beat WHRK. In 1996, Ragan Henry's U.S. Radio acquired KWAM and KJMS from the Dee Rivers Group for $12.5 million, as U.S. Radio itself was in the process of being purchased by Clear Channel. The purchase brought WHRK and KJMS under common ownership and prompted KJMS to shift to urban adult contemporary. Until January 2019, KJMS aired the

Tom Joyner Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American retired radio host, former host of the nationally syndicated '' The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com. Early ...

morning show. He was replaced with a local morning show featuring Mike Evans, Earle Augustus, and Stormy Taylor.

References

External links

KJMS official website
* Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States *KJMS Radio stations established in 1965 1965 establishments in Tennessee IHeartMedia radio stations {{Mississippi-radio-station-stub