WKSP (96.3
FM) also known as "96.3 Kiss-FM", is an
urban adult contemporary
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
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 ...
in
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...
. Licensed by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) to the nearby community of
Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Aiken County, in western South Carolina. It is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. Founded in 1835, Aiken was named after William Aiken, the president of the Sout ...
, the station broadcasts with 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 17.5 kW. Its studios are located at the Augusta Corporate Center near the
I-20
Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Scroggins Draw, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. Between ...
/
I-520
Interstate 520 (I-520) is a auxiliary Interstate Highway that encircles most of Augusta, Georgia, and North Augusta, South Carolina, as a three-quarter beltway around the western, southern, and eastern parts of the main part of the Augus ...
interchange in Augusta, and the transmitter tower is south of
Edgefield, South Carolina
Edgefield is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Edgefield County.
Edgefield is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area.
Geography
Edgefield is l ...
.
History
WKSP signed on the air initially in Kingstree SC in the late 1960s WKSP stood for We're Kingstree A Sportsmans Paradise. It was owned by the Williamsburg Country Broadcasting Corp with ownership by HY Hodges, Montague Jacobs, and Edward F Seeger. At the age of 21, Edward F. Seeger became the youngest owner/operator of a radio station in the U.S. Under Seeger's ownership, WKSP 1090 ( Kingstree, South Carolina) was recognized as the "Station of the Year" by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association and Seeger was named the Broadcaster of the Year with the prestigious Richard G Shafto Award. Williamsburg County Broadcasting sold the station to Gregory Knopp. Knopp was later convicted of trafficking in Cocaine and the FCC took the station's license and deleted the channel and frequency of 1090 which had been allocated to Kingstree SC. Following this the call letters were picked up by the owners of WPBM in Greenville SC, actually implementing those call letters in 1996.
The station signed on at 95.9 FM as WLOW-FM on September 17, 1966. Then in 1980, it changed its call letters to WPBM in and branded its self as " Z-96".
In 1986, the frequency was changed from 95.9 to 96.3 as the station increased its power and moved into Augusta. The station became WRXR with an
Album Oriented Rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-orient ...
format under the handle "96-RXR". The station kept the format for the next decade.
In the fall of 1996, WRXR 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 ...
as "96X". 96X never took off in the market in its 3 years on the air and was flipped to
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
in 1999 with the WKSP call letters. The call letters WKSP were previously assigned to station 1090 AM in Kingstree, SC which went off the air in the 1980s.
The station 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 ...
HD3 translators
See also
*
Media in Augusta, Georgia
Media outlets in the Augusta, Georgia (United States) market include eight television stations, 24 FM radio stations, nine AM radio stations, one Internet radio station and numerous print media.
Television
All broadcast television stations are ...
External links
96.3 Kiss-FM— official website
*
{{coord, 33.685139, N, 81.9265, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
HD Radio stations
KSP
Radio stations established in 1966
Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States
IHeartMedia radio stations