KEXC

KREV

Alameda, California
Broadcast area	San Francisco Bay Area
Frequency	92.7 (MHz)
Branding	92.7 Rev FM
Programming
Format	Top 40 (CHR)
Ownership
Owner	Royce International
History
First air date	1959.
Call sign meaning	REVolution
Technical information
Facility ID	36029
Class	A
ERP	3,600 watts
HAAT	128 meters
Links
Website	927rev.com

KREV (92.7 FM, "92.7 Rev Fm") is a Top 40 (CHR) music formatted radio station that serves the San Francisco Bay Area. Its city of license is Alameda, California, and it is owned by Royce International.

History

Jazz music as KJAZ

As KJAZ from August 1, 1959 to July 31, 1994, the station aired a jazz format. Founded by Pat Henry, KJAZ prided itself on broadcasting only jazz music, and a 1965 station brochure proclaimed KJAZ "northern California's first and only fulltime jazz station".

In 1994, KJAZ was sold after owner Ron Cowan, in a financial crisis, deemed the station unprofitable. Since the demise of the jazz format, some KJAZ programmers and announcers have made their way to KCSM.

Since then, the KJAZ call sign has been used by various FM radio stations around the country, and is currently the call sign for a silent station in Point Comfort,Texas owned by Fort Bend Broadcasting of Austin, Texas.

• See also KJAZ

Rock music as KXJO

Though listeners mounted a fundraising effort to keep KJAZ on the air (by some reports raising $1.5 million), the station was sold in 1994 and KJAZ was converted to a different format. For a time, they simulcast the rock format of KSJO in San Jose as KXJO.

Dance and urban music as KPTI/KBTB/KNGY

On May 26, 2002, the 92.7 frequency's history as a dance music outlet would begin as KPTI, "92.7 PARTY," which was launched under former owner Spanish Broadcasting System. Nearly two years later, on March 17, 2004, it was sold to new owners, who flipped the format to R&B/hip-hop as KBTB, "Power 92.7, The Beat of the Bay." After it failed to attract an audience, along with controversy from rival KMEL (which made headlines in the press) and on top of that, seeing the sale falling apart, the station was put on sale again.

KBTB was acquired by Flying Bear Media, backed by Alta Communications and Tailwind Capital. CEO Joe Bayliss flipped the station back to dance music on October 2, 2004 as Energy 92.7 under guidance by Chris Shebel, who earlier was program director of Energy 92.7&5 in Chicago, Illinois at WKIE/WKIF/WDEK and consulted the launch of Energy 92.7 & 101.1 in Phoenix, Arizona at KNRJ. The station kept the KBTB call letters for several months before changing to KNGY, and kept the The Beat of the Bay slogan for over a year, but changed it to Pure Dance in 2006.

On July 17, 2005, KNGY moved its signal from its old tower on Russian Hill to the Sutro Tower, improving coverage in the South Bay, but later changed back to their old site due to signal issues. The effect was clear to South Bay listeners, who received a split signal between KNGY and KTOM, a country-format station from the Santa Cruz area. In areas around the North Bay where line-of-site propagation is weak, listeners received a split signal between KNGY and KZSQ, a mix station from the Sonora, California area. Energy 92.7 was able to also be heard on Comcast Digital Cable throughout the Bay Area on digital cable channel 964 and live online.

KNGY was a reporter in Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Airplay panel and is the most-listened-to dance/electronic radio station on the West Coast. KNGY as "Energy 92.7" offered a current-based mix of dance music, with Top 40, R&B remixes, disco and club classics from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s added into the presentation. It also broadcasted sophisticated and mood-enhanced tracks including down-tempo groove, future jazz, electronic rock and chillout beats.

In December 2005 KLLC (Alice@97.3) San Francisco program director John Peake was hired as Energy's new program director, filling the vacancy left by Shebel. Prior to coming to San Francisco pre-KLLC, Peake was the PD of influential Top 40 KRBE/Houston, Texas, a station that was also known for adding Dance cuts into their traditional playlist. In July 2008 Peake resigned from the PD job, which would be quickly filled by Don Parker, who, like Peake, also has credentials in programming Dance-leaning stations as he was the PD of Rhythmic contemporary outlet KKFR/Phoenix during its Dance-intensive days in the late 1980s and mid 1990s.

On weekends, KNGY turned their broadcasts to a show called "Ghetto House Radio" which aired every Saturday at midnight. The program featured a house/dance music mix with a mix of rap and "ghetto" music until 2 a.m. Sunday morning, when Trevor Simpson's world town mix comes into play.

In February 2009, KNGY added former KGO-AM talk show host Karel to their lineup. His program aired from 9PM to 12Mid Monday through Thursdays and it was the only time that the station did not play any music. However, after five months, Karel's program was dropped from the lineup in June 2009 due to low ratings and financial issues.

Top 40 as KREV

In July 2009, Flying Bear announced that KNGY was sold to Ed Stoltz's Royce International Broadcasting for $6.5 million. AllAccess reported that the station will become a CHR-format station with the new callsign KREV.

At 9:08pm (PDT) on September 10th, 2009 KNGY's format was changed to 92.7FM The Revolution. The first song to play was Pink's "Get This Party Started." It is unclear how the former stations' talent will be worked into the new station, if at all. The flip to Top 40 marks KREV's entry into an already interesting CHR race in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it will have to compete for listeners with CBS Radio's Rhythmic-leaning Mainstream Top 40 KMVQ and Clear Channel Communications Rhythmic Top 40 powerhouse KYLD, both of whom have more signal coverage than KREV.

KREV's playlist is much similar to KFRH 104.3 Now FM in Las Vegas, which is also KREV's sister station.

Controversy

On September 10th 2009, the examiner reported that the new owner Ed Stoltz had fired most of the staff of The Energy 92.7 FM right before it had switched it's signal to its new station "The Revolution". Accusations have surfaced that the new owner, Ed Stoltz is a big homophobe and possibly the reason for all the firings.

References

• Template:Wayback
• In the Spirit of KJAZ

External links

• Energy 92.7 Weekly Charts
• U.S. Dance Radio Post
• U.S. Dance Radio Megamix
• Facility details for Facility ID KREV ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's FM station database