KYIS (98.9
FM, "98.9 KISS FM") is a
hot 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 ...
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 ...
serving the
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
area and 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 87 ...
. KYIS-FM's studios are located in Northwest Oklahoma City and a transmitter site is in the Northside of the city.
History
The earliest known format of the station is
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 ...
when it went by the call letters KFJL in the 1970s. Another early callsign of the station was KYFM with its transmitter located on the Lakeshore tower near the Northwest Expressway and May Avenue. At one point, the transmitter location was co-located on the
890 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 890 kHz: WLS in Chicago and KBBI in Homer, Alaska, share Class A status on 890 kHz. WLS is the only station on that frequency to broadcast with 50,000 watts during nighttime hours. 21 ...
tower at Britton and Eastern. The calls were then changed to KTLS (The LifeStyle), and flipped to a Christian format.
It changed calls in September 1980 to KLNK, and ran 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 ...
format known as "The Link." Bill Lacey of Zuma Broadcasting changed calls again in 1983 to KZBS, and the station was known as "Z99" and "99FM" for a time. KZBS was known for many extravagant promotions including a home giveaway that was surrounded by a great deal of controversy. KZBS switched between
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 " con ...
,
Rhythmic Top 40
The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and previously named Rhythmic Songs, Rhythmic Top 40 and CHR/Rhythmic) is an airplay chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine.
The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on ...
and
hot 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 ...
, and switched full-time to Hot AC, becoming KYIS (KISS-FM), on August 28, 1991. The station became successful in 1993 with new Program Director Jon Zellner, who hosted afternoons. Zellner hired the Jack and Ron morning show and Kathi Yeager for middays. KYIS started making serious inroads against competitor
KJYO
KJYO (102.7 FM), known as "KJ103", is a Top 40 (CHR) radio station serving the Oklahoma City area owned by iHeartMedia. Its transmitter is in Northeast Oklahoma City, and its studios are located at the 50 Penn Place building on the Northwes ...
with Zellner and later with another program director, Ray Kalusa. Jack and Ron stayed on until 2016, when they were moved to sister station
KQOB
KQOB (96.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Enid, Oklahoma, and serving the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. It is owned by Champlin Broadcasting and calls itself ''Freedom 96.9''. ...
.
Dial/Greyhound repossessed KZBS from Zuma in 1990, and then the station was debt-combined with KATT in August 1994.
As of 2016, KYIS' morning show is hosted by Joey Combs and Heather Emery, with Nugget as producer and Abe Froman as his assistant. They’ve won the “Best Morning Show” award of the Oklahoma Gazette every year they have been at KYIS. Martha Steele handles afternoons & The Adam Bomb Show is on at Night.
External links
KYIS official website*
KZBS Repossession Court Document
YIS
Hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States
Cumulus Media radio stations
{{OklahomaCity-stub