KQXR is a commercial

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 in

Payette, Idaho Payette is a city in and the county seat of Payette County, Idaho, United States. The population was 7,433 at the 2010 census.Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

metro area on 100.3 FM. The station is owned by

Lotus Communications Lotus Communications Corporation is a media company that owns numerous radio stations and a few TV stations, and is one of the largest privately owned radio station groups in the United States. Headquarters are located in Los Angeles, and the comp ...

with studios located at 5257 Fairview Avenue #260, Boise, Idaho 83706. "The X"—as the station is commonly known, plays an

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

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, ...

and positions themselves as "100.3 The X...Rocks." The station was a finalist for

Radio and Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

magazine's 2007 Industry Achievement Award for best Alternative Station for markets 100 and up. Other finalists include

WKZQ-FM WKZQ-FM (96.1 FM, "96-1 KZQ") is an Alternative Rock radio station licensed to Forestbrook, South Carolina and serves the Grand Strand area. The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast at 96.1 MHz wi ...

, WJSE,

WBTZ WBTZ (99.9 MHz "99.9 The Buzz") is a commercial FM radio station in Plattsburgh, New York, broadcasting to the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh radio market, heard around the Champlain Valley and into Montreal. The station is owned by Hall Comm ...

KXNA KXNA (104.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an alternative format. Licensed to Springdale, Arkansas, United States, it serves the Fayetteville (North West Arkansas) area. The station is currently owned by Elizabeth Marquis. The station wa ...

, and WSFM. The station won the "Small Market Radio Station of the Year" at the RadioContraband Rock Radio Convention in 2017.

Journal Communications Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

and the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

announced on July 30, 2014 that the two companies would merge to create a new broadcast company under the E. W. Scripps Company name that will own the two companies' broadcast properties, including KQXR. The transaction is slated to be completed in 2015, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. In January 2018, Scripps announced that it would sell all of its radio stations. In August 2018,

announced that it would acquire Scripps' Boise & Tucson clusters for $8 million. The sale was completed on December 12.

History

KWBJ (1978-1984)

The station signed on at 100.1 FM in 1978 with the call letters KWBJ.

Top 40 (1984-1993)

The station had a rock-leaning top 40 format branded as ''Power 100'' in the

Ontario, Oregon Ontario is the largest city in Malheur County, Oregon, United States. It lies along the Snake River at the Idaho border. The population was 11,366 at the 2010 census. The city is the largest community in the region of far eastern Oregon, also k ...

area at 98,000 watts, reaching the signal to most of the Treasure Valley including

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

Caldwell Caldwell may refer to: People * Caldwell (surname) * Caldwell (given name) * Caldwell First Nation, a federally recognized Indian band in southern Ontario, Canada Places Great Britain * Caldwell, Derbyshire, a hamlet * Caldwell, East ...

, Nampa, and most parts of

Ada County Ada County is located in the southwestern part of Idaho, United States. As of the 2021 United States census estimate, the county had a population of 511,931, making it by far the state's most populous county; it is home to 26.8% of the state's p ...

Rock (1993-1995)

In 1993, KQXR moved to the present frequency following a realignment and picked up a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

format around the same year branded as ''Pirate Radio 100.3''.

Alternative (1995-2010)

KQXR flipped to

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

and rebranded as 100.3 The X on August 25, 1995.https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-RandR-IDX/IDX/90s/95/RR-1995-08-25-OCR-Page-0028.pdf#search=%22kqxr%22 The X started out playing Alternative rock however the music overlapped with J-105 (

KJOT KJOT (105.1 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Boise, Idaho. It is owned by Lotus Communications and carries an adult hits radio format known as Jack FM. KJOT plays a wide variety of hits from the 1960s until today, concentrating most ...

). In the 2000s,

dropped active rock for classic rock, paving the way for KQXR to incorporate more hard rock.

Active rock (2010-present)

The station shifted to a full fledged active rock format in 2010.

References

External links

Official Website
* {{coord, 43.825, N, 116.509, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title QXR Active rock radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1978 Lotus Communications stations