KMXP (96.9 FM) is a commercial

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 ...

music

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 ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, owned and operated by

iHeartMedia 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 ...

. Its studios are located in Phoenix near

Sky Harbor International Airport Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a civil–military public airport east of downtown Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is Arizona's largest and busiest airport, and among the largest commercial airports in th ...

and its transmitter is in South Mountain Park.

History

96.9 received its license as KEPI in 1962. Owned by Ward James Atkinson and sold within months to Golden Sounds, Inc., KEPI found it hard to stay on the air. In January 1964, it asked for authority to go silent for up to six months; ultimately, in the time needed to sell the station, it took nine months. When 96.9 returned to the air in October 1964, it was KMEO (later with the FM suffix), broadcasting

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 ...

music programming as "Cameo", which it held through several different owners. In the late 1980s, the format evolved into 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 ...

music format. In 1991, it became

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

-formatted "Sunny 97" (KPSN), which would spark a whirlwind of format and callsign changes: on November 28, 1994, it became

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

KCHT (later KHTC) (first as "96.9 K-Hits FM", then as "The New 96.9 Classic Hits"), then rebranded to KGLQ ("Eagle 96.9") in September 1997. On September 4, 1998, at midnight, after playing "

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album ''News of the World''. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at num ...

" and "

We Are The Champions "We Are the Champions" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band's sixth album ''News of the World'' (1977). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems.

" by

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

, KGLQ began stunting with the sound of a ticking clock and liners advising listeners to listen at that time and poking fun at competing radio stations. At 3pm that day, 96.9 adopted its current format,

, as KMXP “Mix 96.9”. The first song on "Mix" was " New Sensation" by

INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...

.https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1998/RR-1998-09-11.pdf

HD Radio

Mix 96.9's

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 ...

signal is multiplexed. The main signal is a simulcast of Mix 96.9's hot adult contemporary programming. The second channel carries

PRIDE Radio Pride Radio (stylized as PRIDE Radio) is an LGBTQ+ lifestyle and top 40 radio network launched by Clear Channel Communications Format Lab under the direction of Michael Albl, who conceived the format, on terrestrial HD2 & HD3 stations and onlin ...

programming for the LGBTQ community featuring a mix of dance and dance-leaning pop music.

Former logo

References

External links

* {{iHeartMedia 1962 establishments in Arizona Hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Nationwide Communications Radio stations established in 1962 MXP IHeartMedia radio stations