KSCS (96.3 FM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 radi ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

and broadcasts a

hot country Hot Country is a 24-hour music format produced by Westwood One. Its playlist is composed of country music released from the late 1990s to the present. Core artists include Luke Bryan, Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum), Blake Shelton, ...

music

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

. The

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

s are in the Victory Park district in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

just north of

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

. KSCS and

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WBAP are responsible for activation of the

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort W ...

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and both ...

when hazardous weather alerts,

disaster area A disaster area is a region or a locale that has been heavily damaged by either natural, technological or social hazards. Disaster areas affect the population living in the community by dramatic increase in expense, loss of energy, food and serv ...

declarations, and

AMBER Alert An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert (SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in ...

s for child abductions are issued. KSCS has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...

(ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is off Mansfield Road in

Cedar Hill, Texas Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United Stat ...

, amid the

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

s for other FM and TV stations. KSCS uses

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

technology; its HD2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

carries the

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

programming of KLIF (570 AM).

Programming

KSCS is the home of ''Hawkeye In The Morning'', currently the longest-running morning radio show in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The show features Mark "Hawkeye" Louis and Michelle Rodriguez, who previously hosted Middays since 2011. Formerly known as "The Dorsey Gang", the morning show featured Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame member Terry Dorsey. Dorsey and Louis won numerous awards including ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s Major Market Air Personalities of 1998 and the Academy of Country Music's 2008 Personalities of the Year. Dorsey and Louis teamed up in July 1988, a partnership that would last until Dorsey's retirement in December 2014. KSCS was named "2009 Major Market Radio Station of the Year" by the

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country musi ...

and “2020 Major Market Radio Station of the Year” by the

Country Music Association The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...

. Afternoons have been hosted by Al Farb since 2018. "Nights with Elaina" is heard weekday evenings. Sundays feature the "

American Country Countdown ''American Country Countdown'', also known as ''ACC'', is a weekly internationally syndicated radio program which counts down the top 40 country songs of the previous week, from No. 40 to No. 1, according to the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay ch ...

with

Kix Brooks Leon Eric Brooks III, better known by his stage name Kix Brooks (born May 12, 1955), is an American country music artist, actor, and film producer best known for being one half of the duo Brooks & Dunn and host of radio's '' American Country ...

History

Classical WBAP-FM

The station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A dig ...

the air on March 8, 1949 as WBAP-FM. It originally broadcast on 100.5 FM and was under the control of

Amon G. Carter Amon Giles Carter Sr. (born Giles Amon Carter; December 11, 1879 – June 23, 1955) was the creator and publisher of the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', and a nationally known civic booster for Fort Worth, Texas. A legacy in his will was used t ...

, as part of his Carter Publications Company. The station moved to 96.3 FM in 1955. At first, it largely

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simult ...

ed co-owned WBAP (820 AM), with some separate classical music shows at night. In the 1960s, WBAP-FM switched to all-classical music, which had been a popular format in the early days of FM radio. The classical format benefited from

FM stereo FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

, which improved the quality of music broadcasts.

Country KSCS

WBAP had much success broadcasting a

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inn ...

format known as "Country Gold," beginning in 1970. Management decided to extend the country music brand to FM. On January 15, 1973, WBAP-FM switched to a country format known as "Silver Country Stereo". The call letters changed to KSCS to match the slogan. The initial design behind KSCS was to play country music but with

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

-style FM formatics, featuring three or four songs in a row without talking, as well as using low-key announcers and carrying a lighter commercial load compared to AM stations. A year later, Carter Publications sold KSCS to Capital Cities. Capital Cities acquired the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the Disney General Entertainment Content#Current assets, ...

(ABC) in 1985, using that company's name. As more people began acquiring FM radios and listening to FM for music, KSCS benefited from being the only country station on the FM dial. The rise in popularity of country music in the late 1970s led to KSCS becoming a dominant station in the ratings. It also brought competition in the form of

KPLX KPLX (99.5 Hertz, MHz, "99.5 The Wolf") is a commercial radio, commercial FM radio, FM radio station broadcasting a gold-based country radio, mainstream country radio format. It is city of license, licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serves the D ...

, which entered the country music market in 1980.

The Terry Dorsey era

KSCS was the number-one radio station overall in Dallas/Fort Worth from 1980 to 1982. The station's ratings started to sag after the ''

Urban Cowboy ''Urban Cowboy'' is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy ( Debra Winger). The film's success was credited for spu ...

'' era faded, and with tough competition from KPLX. In 1988, KSCS hired away KPLX's star morning host Terry Dorsey. With Dorsey's arrival, the ratings started to improve again, just as country music's popularity started to rise again. KSCS returned to the number one spot in the Dallas/Fort Worth

Arbitron ratings Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

in 1990, and stayed there for 14 consecutive ratings periods. To this day, that is still the longest winning streak in Dallas/Fort Worth ratings history. KSCS, along with ABC's other non-

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

and

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN" ...

stations, was sold to

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia ...

in 2007. In January 2008, KSCS was re-branded as "The Big 96.3." However, in November 2009, it reverted to its legacy branding in use since the 1980s.

New Country 96-3

On January 4, 2011, at 5 p.m., the station re-branded as "New Country 96.3 KSCS, Texas' Most Country Guaranteed". Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011. This made KSCS a

to its longtime rival, KPLX. In March 2015, KSCS tried an experiment, adding pop crossover songs by

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to t ...

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first rec ...

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and A&R. After ...

and a few other

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

artists with no ties to the "New Country" format. By Fall 2015, KSCS eliminated the pop crossover songs and returned to its core "New Country" artists. In mid-July 2019, KSCS rebranded as "New Country 96.3" without the KSCS call letters in the branding.

KSCS-HD2

KSCS launched its HD2

in 2008 to broadcast "The Texas Twister", carrying all

Texas country music Texas country music (more popularly known just as Texas country or Texas music) is a rapidly growing subgenre of country music from Texas. Texas country is a unique style of Western music and is often associated with other distinct neighboring s ...

. The format was previously on KTYS (96.7 FM, now KTCK-FM). After the Cumulus takeover in 2011, the HD broadcasts were temporarily discontinued. The HD2 subchannel was dormant until February 2013. It then began simulcasting the

format on co-owned KLIF.http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=5 HD Radio Guide for Dallas-Ft. Worth

References

External links

New Country 96.3 official website DFW Radio Archives DFW Radio/TV History Longtime country radio host Terry Dorsey dies just months into his retirement KSCS Show Lineup
* {{Cumulus Media Country radio stations in the United States SCS Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Texas Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company