[5] A few years after the station adopted its new call sign, Tom Donahue convinced Metromedia to establish a freeform rock format on KMET and KSFR in San Francisco (which then became KSAN) after a dispute with the owners of KPPC-FM.

Donahue brought over most of those who went on strike at KPPC, including his Los Angeles tag team partner in former KFWB "Swinging Gentleman" B. Mitchel Reed.

He had become enamored with the underground rock sound after attending the Monterey Pop Festival and shortly afterward bonded with fellow top 40 veteran Donahue over their increasing unhappiness with AM radio and its restrictions.

In the process, KMET quickly became a shell of its former self: playlists were tightened and hit-oriented, disc jockeys became less personal in their presentation, and the station was heavily constructed by outside consultants.

This drove KMET's ratings down to the point of being well behind established AOR pioneer KLOS as well as behind KROQ-FM, a station that rose from the ashes of KPPC-FM to become the trademark radio home in Los Angeles for the new wave and punk scenes in the 1980s.

"[6][7] At that time, the station went jockless and automated while playing an ominous countdown to noon on February 14, 1987 set to the opening bars of Tangerine Dream's "Sunset Drive".

[8] The fired KMET jocks were given the chance to give a full goodbye to listeners via on-air tributes from their former rivals KLOS and KLSX.

The KMET call letters were picked up a few weeks later by an AM station in the nearby Riverside-San Bernardino market that currently airs a Talk format.

Metropolitan Broadcasting also began offering a syndicated version of the "Wave" format via the Satellite Music Network to other markets, many ironically competing against these traditional stations, including in San Diego (KSWV), Kansas City (KCWV), Denver (KHIH), Chicago (WTWV), Detroit (WVAE), and Cleveland (WNWV).

Eventually, Frank Cody left to be a radio consultant for the budding NAC format (and he also later created the term "smooth jazz"), and John Sebastian (former programmer of KHJ who had launched similar sounding WBMW in Washington, D.C. months prior) was hired as KTWV's new program director.

The core group of these included Danny Martizen, David Hirsch, Don Burns, Talaya Trigueros, Keri Tombazian, Amy Hiatt and Bob Dearborn.

In February 2010, KTWV, under former KOST Program Director Jhani Kaye, moved the station to a smooth adult contemporary direction directly competing with KOST by increasing the amount of crossover vocals and dramatically reducing the number of instrumentals played (with those remaining being pop covers or format basics) with all references to "Smooth Jazz' dropped.

With this change, original Wave airstaffers Don Burns (who had transitioned to Voice-tracking from his home in Palm Springs)[9][10] and Keri Tombazian were both let go.

June 2014 saw the return of longtime assistant PD Ralph Stewart, who became program director and reintroduced mainstream AC/pop crossovers into the playlist.

In February 2015, after the flip of KHHT from rhythmic oldies to urban contemporary as KRRL, KTWV shifted further to urban adult contemporary by adding more classic soul and classic and current R&B to fill the void of KHHT's departure, adopted a new "Soul of Southern California" slogan, and dropped most of the mainstream AC/pop crossovers, firmly positioning KTWV against KJLH.