KSFM
KSFM (102.5 FM) is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Woodland, California and serves the Sacramento metropolitan area.
[8][9]) In early 1974, KULA Broadcasting searched for a new programmer and new format for KSFM after upgrading the station's transmitter and improving its signal to cover the Sacramento radio market from suburban Woodland.
When the station management only delivered a $25 monthly pay raise, much of the air staff left to run KSJO in San Jose, where they installed the Earth Rock format.
The alternative news program included nationally syndicated interviews with rock stars of the day, as well as odd information that would interest the station's audience.
In January 1979, KZAP's new owners installed radio consultant Lee Abrams' "Superstars" format on the formerly freeform station.
Under the leadership of incoming programming director Jeff Lucifer, and based on the recommendations of Clifton,[12] KSFM began to gradually work its way up in the ratings with its dance-friendly "churban" (a mix of contemporary hits and urban) format.
The move occurred after KPOP, the Sacramento market's only urban contemporary outlet at the time, flipped formats to modern rock.
According to the suit, on June 30, 1989, Collins disparaged KWOD on-air as being anti-gay and anti-African American; this resulted in lost advertisers, threats to station staff, and a drop in ratings.
[20] In May 1996, Secret Communications sent KSFM and sister station KMJI (1380 AM) to American Radio Systems in a four-station swap worth $48.5 million, acquiring WQRS in Detroit and WFLN-FM in Philadelphia.
[21] KSFM continued to lead the market as the top 40 station of choice in Sacramento until the arrivals of mainstream contemporary hit radio (CHR) outlet KDND (107.9 The End) and urban-formatted KBMB (103.5 The Bomb) in 1998.
Those ingredients placed KSFM between KDND, which offered listeners a broad-based playlist, and KBMB, which heavily emphasized hip hop.
Under CBS Radio ownership, the KSFM lineup featured programming director Tony Tecate in mornings, Bre in middays, Short-E in afternoons, Nina in evenings and The Specialist overnights.
In January 2010, KSFM's Arbitron 12+ ratings stood at a 3.1 share—the lowest since the Spring 1979 report, when the station aired progressive rock.
However, by April 2010, KSFM rebounded, although it achieved nowhere the record-breaking numbers from 1994 to 1997 when 11 and 12 shares under PD's Rick Thomas and Bob West were common.
In the June 2012 Portable People Meter (PPM) report, KSFM's ratings rose enough to bring the station to fourth place in the Sacramento market.
On June 1, 2010, KSFM relocated its studios from 1750 Howe Avenue to 280 Commerce Circle in Sacramento, home to the CBS Radio cluster there.
On October 10, 2017, Entercom announced that KSFM would be the only station in the CBS Radio Sacramento cluster that the company would retain following the merger.
[24] KHTK, KNCI, KYMX, and KZZO were divested into a blind trust with Bonneville International operating them under a local marketing agreement until they could find new owners.
Michael Buhrman, former on-air personality from sister station KQKS in Denver, took over as the new PD and afternoon host, with Mia Amor from KRBQ in San Francisco working mornings, Nina Hajian voice-tracking middays from WBBM-FM in Chicago, and SOOSH*E (who was let go from KHHM after Entravision made major job cuts) taking evenings.
[30][31] In June 2023, KSFM fired its entire on-air staff and began gradually transitioning away from their 13 year stretch of rhythmic pop and mainstream hip hop.
The station has introduced more R&B into their format, cut rhythmic pop songs, inserted local artists like E-40, Too $hort, and others, and added throwbacks into their rotation with current music.
[33] As of December 2023, KSFM is the only radio station in the Sacramento market to have a heavy current Hip Hop and R&B rotation on their playlist.
