KCMS

KCMS

City of license	Edmonds, Washington
Broadcast area	Greater Puget Sound area, Washington
Branding	Spirit 105.3
Slogan	Safe, Family and fun (Main), Seattle's Home for the Holiday Station (seasonal)
Frequency	105.3 (MHz) (also on HD Radio)
Format	Contemporary Christian music
ERP	54,000 watts
HAAT	385 meters
Class	C1
Facility ID	14505
Callsign meaning	K Christian Music Station
Former callsigns	KGFM (?-1970) KBIQ (1970-1984)
Owner	Crista Ministries (Cristia Broadcasting)
Sister stations	KWPZ, KCIS
Webcast	Listen live
Website	www.spirit1053.com

For other uses, see KCMS (disambiguation).

KCMS 105.3 FM, known as "Spirit 105.3", is a Contemporary Christian music FM radio station in the Seattle, Washington, market. KCMS began its current format in 1984.

The station broadcasts at 105.3 MHz from Seattle (with a transmitter on [[Cougar Mountain), and includes translators broadcasting on 92.1 MHz (K221BG) in Aberdeen, Washington; 103.5 MHz (K278BH) in Astoria, Oregon; and 103.9 MHhz (K280FF) in Chehalis, Washington. It is owned and operated by Crista Ministries. The station's main transmitting antenna is located on Cougar Mountain and transmits at 54 kW.

The station is ranked 21st in the Seattle-Tacoma Arbitron PPM ratings data for September 2011 with 2.5 percent of the market share.

History

Prior to 1984, KCMS was known as KBIQ; the original calls were KGFM. KBIQ was used from about 1970 to 1984. That callsign now belongs to a Contemporary Christian music station in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Conversely, the prior usage of the KCMS callsign was for a non-religious station broadcasting at 103.1 MHz from Indio, California. In that context, the "CMS" was promoted as meaning "Classical Music Station."

In the late 1960s into the early 1970s, KBIQ was one of the most powerful FM stations on the west coast of the United States. The station transmitted with an effective radiated power of 240,000 watts from the tower site of KGDN-AM at King's Garden (now Crista) in north Seattle (19303 Fremont Ave West).

The station signal could be heard from Vancouver, BC to Vancouver, Washington. The stereo on hour logo music was edited from Mission Impossible — Operation Charm and had a 747 going from left to right channels. John Pricer was the station voiceover. "From Vancouver to Vancouver, this is the all northwest sound of stereo 105, KBIQ in Edmonds" was their top-of-the-hour ID, along with slight variants.

KBIQ stood for "known by its quality," and played easy listening music and sprinkled with some Christian instrumental music and short local newscasts. The station was automated using IGM equipment and home recorded 14" reels, but had live news announcers during most important day-parts. The station also supplied music to K-Happy, a Christian formatted FM station in Albany, Oregon.

Many KIRO alumns either got their radio careers started there, or came back to KBIQ/KGDN (AM).

The station had a good following and decent ratings, until about 1973, when Bonneville's owned and operated KIRO-FM (later branded as KSEA, now KKWF) went to the Bonneville beautiful music format.

Other Seattle stations doing easy or modified versions of the format included KLSN-FM (now KJAQ) (from the late 1960's to early 1970's), KIXI-FM (now KJR-FM), KBBX, then KEZX (now KLCK-FM) (mid 1960's to 1979), KEUT (now KMPS) (mid-1970's), and low powered station KBRD (now KMTT).

External links

• Spirit 105.3
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KCMS
• Radio-Locator information on KCMS
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KCMS