Radio station in Wichita, Kansas
KEYN-FM
(103.7
MHz
) is a
radio station
operating in
Wichita, Kansas
, owned by
Audacy, Inc.
The station broadcasts a
classic hits
music format, featuring hits from the 1970s and 1980s. The station's studios are located on East Douglas Avenue in East Wichita, while the transmitter is located outside
Colwich, Kansas
.
History
[
edit
]
KEYN-FM signed on the air in October 1968 as a
Top 40
/
CHR
station, the first stereo FM station west of the Mississippi River. The station was co-owned with
KEYN
(then at 900 AM, now
KSGL
), with both stations simulcasting until 1975, when the AM flipped to
country
. In the 1970s, their studios were located at 2829 North Salina in Wichita. Later, studios were moved to the west end of the Central Heights Shopping Center at Central Avenue and Ridge Road. During that time, the station's identification jingle was "FM 104 KEYN The Rock Of Wichita", and featured a graphic depicting the faces of
Mount Rushmore
, wearing stereo headphones. In 1974, KEYN AM and KEYN-FM was purchased by Robert Freeman, Lowell Denniston, and Frank Carney. Their AM sister station was sold in 1977, though KEYN-FM would become a sister station to
KWBB
(1410 AM) shortly thereafter. The station was purchased by TM alum Jimmy Long and country music artist Charley Pride doing business as Long-Pride Broadcasting in 1980; also that year, KEYN (AM) flipped to
oldies
under new KQAM call letters.
[2]
During the Top 40/CHR years, KEYN went by a few names, including "104 FM KEYN", "MusicRadio 104 KEYN", "103.7 KEYN", and "Power 104 KEYN".
Long-Pride Broadcasting sold KEYN-FM and their sister station KQAM in 1987 to Aberdeen Communications. On August 30, 1989, at Noon, after almost 22 years of playing the hits, KEYN-FM flipped to oldies as simply "KEYN FM 104". The final song as "Power 104" was "
The End of the Innocence
" by
Don Henley
, while the first song under the new format was "
Ticket to Ride
" by
The Beatles
.
[3]
[4]
Aberdeen allowed their company to go to receivership in 1991, and was bought by
Clear Channel Communications
the following year.
[5]
Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, KEYN's format gradually evolved to
Classic Hits
. It previously used the slogans as "Good Time Oldies", "Wichita's Fun Oldies", and "The Greatest Hits of All Time". Their current slogan is "Greatest Hits 103.7 KEYN". Triathlon Broadcasting bought the station in 1994;
Entercom
(now Audacy) bought KEYN-FM in February 2000.
[6]
[7]
[8]
In early 2015, the station moved from the Brittany Place Shopping Center at East 21st Street and North Woodlawn Avenue to the Ruffin Building at 9111 East Douglas, formerly the Pizza Hut headquarters.
[9]
Previous logos
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for KEYN-FM"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
Bob Curtright, "KQAM Splits From KEYN-FM",
The Wichita Eagle-Beacon
, September 17, 1980.
- ^
Bob Curtright, "KEYN trades Top 40 rock for 'good-time oldies'",
The Wichita Eagle-Beacon
, August 30, 1989.
- ^
KEYN-FM/Wichita Format Change - August 30, 1989
- ^
David Algeo, "Radio 'duopolies' hit Wichita",
The Wichita Eagle
, November 1, 1993.
- ^
Bud Norman, "Radio giant buys Wichita stations",
The Wichita Eagle
, February 25, 2000.
- ^
Chris Shull, "Jazz station will stay on the air",
The Wichita Eagle
, March 11, 2000.
- ^
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/2001/D-Radio-All-BC-YB-2001.pdf
[
bare URL PDF
]
- ^
"Entercom Radio to move to Ruffin Building"
. Archived from
the original
on 2014-10-19
. Retrieved
2014-06-24
.
External links
[
edit
]