Adult standards/oldies radio station in Mercer Island/Seattle, Washington
KIXI
(880
AM
) is a
radio station
licensed to
Mercer Island
/
Seattle, Washington
. It operates
24 hours a day
with a daytime power of 50,000
watts
and a nighttime power of 10,000 watts from a transmitter in Mercer Slough Nature Park in Bellevue, where studios are also located (although in a separate location).
Format
[
edit
]
KIXI features nostalgic music, such as rock and roll classic
oldies
mixed in with
musical standards
.
[2]
The music spans from the early 1950's through the early 1980's. In recent years tthe station has moved away from
big band
music but occasionally plays some. It is the only station in the Seattle area to feature the
Imagination Theatre
and
Twilight Zone
radio dramas.
KIXI remains one of the few AM radio stations that continues to successfully program music on the AM band.
[
citation needed
]
It also enjoys some of the highest ratings of any "Nostalgia" formatted station in the US.
[
citation needed
]
On June 1, 2006, KIXI started to carry the nationally syndicated format
Music of Your Life
format from Jones Radio Networks. Jones stopped carrying Music of Your Life via satellite in January 2008 in favor of its own standards format, called "
Jones Standards
" (which has since been discontinued and absorbed into
Dial Global
's
America's Best Music
network). However, KIXI remained until April 2009 an affiliate of Music of Your Life, now distributed by Planet Halo, Incorporated.
The station was the first AM station in Seattle to transmit its signal in
IBOC
digital radio
during a joint demonstration with Harris Corporation and iBiquity, the licensee of the new digital AM transmission method. KIXI can also be heard in
HD Radio
on
KRWM
106.9 FM HD3.
History
[
edit
]
KIXI took the air in 1947 as KXRN, a 250-watt
Renton
station broadcasting at 1220 kHz during daytime hours only. KXRN was owned by the Interlake Broadcasting Company. It was built by Frank C. Cook, who was also the radio announcer. In 1951, the station moved to 1230 kHz and changed its call letters to KLAN a year later.
KLAN became a full-time station broadcasting with 1,000 watts at 910 kHz in 1957. Purchased the following year by former KRSC and
KJR
personality Wally Nelskog, the station became
top-40
KQDE, or "Cutie Radio." A sister station on 1230 kHz in
Everett
, KQTY, also used the same branding. One of Seattle's first black deejays, Bob Summerrise, brought an R&B influence to his airshift on KQDE. (Summerrise would later own
soul
-formatted KYAC, which took the air in 1964.) In 1960, KQDE would change its call letters to the more phonetic KUDY and changed its
city of license
to Seattle.
Failing to make an impact in the top-40 battle dominated by KJR and KOL, the station became
beautiful music
KIXI in late 1961. (The call letters were a
Roman numeral
representation of the station's "9-1" dial position.) Bob Liddle, formerly of
Portland, Oregon
stations KXL and KEX, joined the airstaff and would stay with KIXI for 45 years. During the 1970s, Liddle teamed with Dean Smith on
News 90
, one of Seattle's first all-news morning drive programs.
A partnership led by
J. Elroy McCaw
, owner of Tacoma television station
KTVW
and father of future
cellular telephone
tycoon
Craig McCaw
, purchased a 50-percent interest in KIXI in 1963. The group also acquired FM beautiful music station
KGMJ
from Rogan Jones, founder of the pioneering radio automation firm IGM. KGMJ became KIXI-FM and simulcasted the AM station's programming. McCaw died suddenly of a stroke in 1969, exposing a considerable amount of debt accumulated from his
speculation
on radio and television stations, including
WINS
in New York and
KYA
in San Francisco. With the exception of a small
cable television
system in
Centralia
, McCaw's entire broadcasting portfolio was sold off to pay down the debt service. Wally Nelskog and two
Richland
physicians purchased KIXI and KIXI-FM in 1971.
The beautiful music simulcast ended in 1980, with the AM side adopting an
oldies
format and the FM station programming
adult contemporary
as "KIXI Lite." A move to the 880 kHz frequency a year later allowed for a daytime power boost to 50,000 watts, and in 1986, a nighttime increase to 10,000 watts. With the move, KIXI (AM) began running a satellite-fed
adult standards
format. That same year, Nelskog sold the station to Thunder Bay Communications. In December 1987, the group sold the AM station to Sunbelt Communications, while the FM station, which had become KLTX, was sold to Ackerley.
[3]
[4]
KIXI was purchased by
Sandusky Radio
, owners of
KLSY
, in November 1991. Hiring personalities such as Jim Dai and Dan Murphy in 1993, the station dropped the AM Only satellite service for a locally voicetracked lineup. Bob Dearborn, best known for his work at
WCFL
in
Chicago
, was the KIXI
program director
from 1994 to 1999. He was replaced by Bob Brooks, formerly of KLSY.
While the aging demographics of the adult standards audience forced many stations in larger markets to drop the format in the late 1990s, KIXI continued to enjoy modest success, often selling advertising time as an "add-on" to spots on KLSY or the other stations in the Sandusky Seattle group. Finally, in a move that led to an outcry from a loyal listener base, KIXI abruptly began airing
Music of Your Life
satellite programming on June 1, 2006. With the exception of Dan Murphy, who continued to voice station promotions and weekday weather forecasts, the entire KIXI airstaff was terminated. In April 2009, KIXI dropped the Music of Your Life programming after three years and returned to local programming. In the past ten years the station graually modified its sound to more of an oldies format playing some rock and roll oldies as well as some early soft rock along with some traditional pop standards mixed in. In July 2013, Sandusky announced it would sell its radio holdings in Seattle and Phoenix, Arizona to
Hubbard Broadcasting
. The sale was completed that November.
[5]
However, the station is now largely voicetracked and automated - with total operations being overseen by Dan Murphy. Covid 19 forced cuts at KIXI on May 12, 2020. Dan Murphy was cut from the staff by Hubbard Broadcasting
A typical hour of music on KIXI - May 20, 2020 3 to 4 PM
[6]
1 Zombies - She's Not There
2 Santo & Johnny - Sleep Walk
3 Glen Campbell - By The Time I Get To Phoenix
4 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Shop Around
5 Bill LaBounty - Dream On
6 Len Barry - 1-2-3
7 Petula Clark - Kiss Me Goodbye
8 Four Seasons - December 1963 (Oh What A Night)
9 Ron Holden - Love You So
10 Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - A Fine Romance
11 Kai Winding - More
12 Beatles - Let It Be
13 Brecker Brothers feat. Carl Carlwell - Not Tonight
14 Shirelles - Dedicated To The One I Love
15 America - Ventura Highway
16 Eydie Gorme - If He Walked Into My Life
17 Bobby Vee - The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
18 Barbara Streisand - Woman In Love
19 Tony Bennett - Rags To Riches
20 Crests - 16 Candles
References
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]
External links
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]
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47°34′59″N
122°10′52″W
/
47.58306°N 122.18111°W
/
47.58306; -122.18111