KMVE (106.9 FM) 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 radi ...

that is

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 ...

California City, California California City is a city located in northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, California, United States. It is north of the city of Los Angeles, and the population was 14,973 at the 2020 census. Covering , California City has the third-largest ...

, United States and serves the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and t ...

area. The station is owned by High Desert Broadcasting and broadcasts a

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 "cont ...

format as a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

KGMX KGMX (106.3 FM, "K-Mix 106.3") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Lancaster, California and serves the Antelope Valley area. The station is owned by High Desert Broadcasting and broadcasts a top 40 (CHR) format. The station is ...

History

The station first signed on May 22, 1999 as KCEL (106.9 K-Cell). Owned by Kathryn J. Efford, it aired a variety format focusing on

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, and

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 ...

. KCEL hosted many local specialty shows from its studios in California City, including one on Wednesday evenings that showcased

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

. In September 2003, KCEL switched to a full-time oldies format. This lasted until the following month, when Efford sold the station to High Desert Broadcasting for $500,000. The new owner then flipped KCEL to a regional Mexican format. On January 1, 2009, KCEL swapped frequencies with sister station KMVE on 96.1 FM. With the move, 106.9 FM assumed the KMVE

call letters 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 ...

and began airing a

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 1980 ...

format now branded as "Classic Top 40 106.9". In 2011, High Desert Broadcasting assigned KMVE to Mojave Radio LLC, owned by Keith Yokomoto, for $100. The station retained the classic hits format. In June 2019, KMVE dropped classic hits and began

ing sister station

(106.3 FM) and its

format.

References

External links

* * {{Lancaster-Palmdale Radio MVE Classic hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in California California City, California