KSOF (98.9 FM "Soft Rock 98.9") 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 radio ...

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 ...

Dinuba, California Dinuba is a city in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 21,453 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area. The Alta District Museum is located in Dinuba in a restored rai ...

, and serving

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

and Tulare counties. It is 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 ...

KSOF carries an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

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 broadcasting, ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

for much of November and December. Most of the programming is syndicated: "Valentine in the Morning" comes from co-owned

KBIG KBIG (104.3 FM, 104.3 MYfm) is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Los Angeles, California and serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a hot AC format heavy on music from the 2000s to ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

is from

John Tesh John Frank Tesh (born July 9, 1952) is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. He hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligen ...

's "Intelligence for Your Life", and evenings feature the call-in and dedication show "

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label=Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved b ...

." KSOF's studios and offices are located on Shaw Avenue in North Fresno. KSOF 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 hav ...

(ERP) of 19,000

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 (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

tower is off Pierce Valley Drive atop Eshom Point, in

Badger, California Badger is an unincorporated community located in Tulare County in California at an elevation of 3,038 feet. It has a population of 140. The zip code is 93603 and the area code 559. It is normally reached by California State Route 245. It is in ...

. KSOF broadcasts in the

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 ...

hybrid format; the station's HD2 subchannel plays 1980s music branded as "Lost 80s Hits", which can also be heard on

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

History

On June 5, 1975, the station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

as KLTA. It was the FM counterpart of

KRDU KRDU (1130 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Dinuba, California, and serving the Fresno-Visalia radio market. It airs a religious radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KRDU is regarded as America's first commercial Christi ...

(1130 AM). On October 26, 1983, the station changed its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

to KOJY. On February 12, 1990, the station changed its call letters to KJOI. Then on October 17, 1997, it switched to the current KSOF. In the mid-1970s through the early 1990s, the station had an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

format. In late 1990, the station switched to a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

format and was named "Lite FM". The station used the "Lite" name until October 1997, when it became "Soft Rock 98.9". In the early 2000s, KSOF moved into a mainstream AC direction. In October 2008, former

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

radio personality Teri Ann Schlesser became the midday DJ, music director and public service director. Formerly with the Nelson & Terry Show on KRSK, Schlesser replaced Kristen Kelley who moved on to program another radio station. On the morning of October 27, 2011, morning hosts "Brady and Rose" (Mike Brady and Rose Ortega) were replaced by "Bronson and Christine" (Bob Bronson and Christine Nagy) from New York sister station

WLTW WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood o ...

. In 2018, Schlesser moved into the morning

shift, the station's only live DJ.

References

External links

* * Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States SOF Radio stations established in 1970 1970 establishments in California IHeartMedia radio stations {{California-radio-station-stub