KISS-FM (99.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station in San Antonio, Texas. It airs an mainstream rock

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

and is owned by Cox Media Group. The

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

s and offices are located on Datapoint Drive in Northwest San Antonio near the South Texas Medical Center complex. The transmitter site is in Elmendorf, amid the towers for several San Antonio TV and FM stations.

History

Early years

In December 1946, the station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air. It was owned by The Walmac Company, along with

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KMAC (now KSLR). KMAC and KISS-FM simulcast their programming, mostly from the Mutual Broadcasting System. The schedule included dramas, comedies, news, sports and big band broadcasts, during the "

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment, entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcastin ...

." The simulcast ended in the late 1960s, as the Federal Communications Commission encouraged AM-FM combos to offer separate programming. KISS-FM began carrying a beautiful music format, including instrumental cover versions of popular songs as well as Broadway and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

show tunes.

Switch to rock

KISS-FM's format changed to free form progressive rock in the mid 1970s. In the 1980s, the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sever ...

stressed hit albums as the station segued to album-oriented rock. During the early years, KISS-FM DJs were mostly given a free rein; many brought in their own vinyl albums, producing their own shows within a looser rock ballad and heavy metal format. The most notable past KISS/KMAC DJs/personalities were Joe "The Godfather" Anthony and Lou Roney, who worked together for many years. With KISS-FM's hard-edged rock format, San Antonio became known as the "Heavy Metal Capital Of The World." Scores of bands can attribute their first and subsequent successes to airplay at KISS-FM. Co-owned KMAC broadcast show tunes, opera, as well as religious programs such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir until noon, when the AM station would simulcast the rock format heard on KISS-FM. At 6 p.m., KMAC would switch away from the simulcast and broadcast rock and progressive country till signing off at midnight. In those earlier years, KISS-FM signed off at midnight each night. "Spread The Word" was the popular window sticker slogan & on-air moniker during the 1970s and 1980s. On August 1, 1979, longtime station owner Howard W. Davis died, and eight months later, KMAC and KISS-FM were sold by his estate to

Raleigh, NC Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southea ...

-based

Capitol Broadcasting Company The Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) is an American media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol owns three television stations and nine radio stations in the Raleigh–Durham and Wilmington areas of North Carolina and the Du ...

for $4.65 million. Capitol president James F. Goodmon, upon announcing the sale, said that they were "excited about entering the dynamic San Antonio market and becoming a part of the community". In 1987, Adams Radio bought KISS-FM for $13 million after a previous sale to Noble Broadcast Group the year before failed to close.

Brief tenure with oldies

The rock format was set aside for a year and a half. On the morning of July 19, 1990, KISS-FM abruptly flipped to oldies as "99.5 KISS Oldies." Adams corporate programming director B.J. Hunter stated that "very simply, this was a financial decision that we had to make". Station vice president Rick Joppie noted that the station had been underperforming since 1987, and that the parent company had success with the oldies format in other markets. Joppie added that "we are a company that needs to make money". Local outrage was fierce, with the station's phone lines jammed the day of the switch. Steve Coffman, operations manager of KFAN-FM, said that the format change was "one of the more stupid moves I've seen in corporate radio". While the new owners hoped the new format would increase the station's ratings, the opposite happened. In its last full book as a rock station, KISS held a 5.0 share, and by the summer 1990 book, the station's rating fell to a 3.0 share in the coveted 25-54 demographic. By contrast, competing oldies station

KSMG KSMG (105.3 FM, "Magic 105.3") is a Hot AC formatted radio station serving the San Antonio area, licensed to Seguin. The Cox Media Group outlet operates at 105.3 MHz with an ERP of 97.5 kW from a transmitter near Elmendorf in far northwester ...

was the city's number one radio station and actually increased its audience despite KISS' flip to the format, jumping from a 7.7 share in the spring book to a 9.7 in the summer book. By Memorial Day 1991, the station had changed general managers twice. Two program directors had also come and gone, one staying less than two months, and the entire inaugural full-time airstaff was out. The Rusk Corporation, which owned

, began to lease KISS AM and FM from Adams in November 1991. Rusk began simulcasting KSMG on both 99.5 FM and 930 AM at 3 p.m. on November 8 as a stopgap measure while new formats were prepared for the two frequencies. KSMG general manager Caroline Devine remarked that "the new sounds will be anything but oldies".

Return to rock

On December 31, 1991, the rock music format returned to KISS-FM, this time with 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 ...

format. In 1997, KISS-FM was acquired by

Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

. As of 2012, the station's format was described as Mainstream Rock, although it has gone back to

in recent years.http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1992/RR-1992-01-03.pdf Despite being considered a mainstream rock reporter by Mediabase, KISS-FM has typically been an active rock station, according to Nielsen BDS.

KISS-FM callsign

KISS-FM is the legal call sign issued to this station by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It has had the call letters since its founding in 1946. The KISS-FM call sign is not related to the "KISS-FM" brand name used by iHeartMedia, Inc. iHeart uses the moniker "Kiss-FM" on many of its Top 40/CHR stations and a few using other formats. It originated with Los Angeles's KIIS-FM, which has called itself KIIS-FM since 1975. Despite San Antonio being the headquarters city of iHeartMedia, the company seems to have a

gentlemen's agreement A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...

not to have a KISS-FM-branded station in the city, while Cox has not attempted to claim rights on the branding despite holding the official KISS-FM call letters from the FCC.Nichols, Lee (Nov. 30, 2001)
Naked City
''The Austin Chronicle.'' Of note, Cox owns WALR-FM, an urban adult contemporary station in its home city of Atlanta, which utilizes the "KISS-FM" branding. iHeart has KISS-FM stations in Los Angeles, Chicago ( WKSC-FM), Dallas (

KHKS KHKS (106.1 FM) is a Dallas- Fort Worth Metroplex radio station broadcasting a Top 40 (CHR) format, licensed to Denton, Texas, and is under ownership of iHeartMedia, (formerly Clear Channel Communications). It is known as "KISS-FM (brand), Kiss ...

), Boston ( WXKS-FM), and other cities.

References

External links

* {{COXMG ISS-FM Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States Cox Media Group Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in Texas