KUZZ
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| KUZZ-AM/FM | |
| City of license | Bakersfield, California |
|---|---|
| Frequency | FM: 107.9 MHz AM: 550 kHz |
| Format | Country |
| ERP | FM: 6,000 watts AM: 5,000 watts |
| HAAT | FM: 416 m |
| Class | FM: B AM: B |
| Callsign meaning | after "Cousin" Herb Henson, local TV star and station manager prior to Buck Owens' purchase of station [1] |
| Former callsigns | KKXX-FM (1977-1988) KZIN-FM (1969-1977) KBBY-FM(1966-1969)[2] |
| Owner | Owens One Company |
| Sister stations | KCWR |
| Website | www.kuzzradio.com |
KUZZ (107.9 FM) and (550 AM) are radio stations broadcasting a country format. Licensed to Bakersfield, California, USA, it serves the inland central California.
The station is owned by Owens One Company, which is controlled by the estate of the late Buck Owens.
KUZZ was also the call sign of television station channel 45 which Owens owned at one time. It is now MyNetworkTV affiliate KUVI.
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[edit] History
Bakersfield has strong historical ties to Country music. Located at the Southern tip of the San Joaquin Valley, agriculture is the city’s second biggest industry. Much of the population is made up of American refugees from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma and the dry plains of Texas who settled here during and after the Great Depression. The cavernous dance hall, the Rainbow Gardens, was located just south of Bakersfield and was a regular stopping point for touring Country and Western groups like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. It was in small Bakersfield honky tonks that homegrown future stars like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens honed their craft.
In 1958, radio station KIKK went on the air playing Country and Western music for Bakersfield. In 1960 the call letters were changed to KUZZ. Local Country and Western television star Herb Henson was the station manager. In fact, he effected the call letter change to reflect his own stage moniker, "Cousin" Herb Henson. At that time KUZZ was at 800 on the AM dial as a ‘daytimer,’ a station which was prohibited by the FCC from broadcasting after sundown.
Buck Owens purchased KUZZ from its owners in 1966 at the 800 AM position and a year later purchased the 107.9 frequency, bringing it to Bakersfield from San Clemente. Owens immediately put the FM station on the air as alternative rock station KBBY-FM, programming mainly ‘underground’ rock and roll while Owens continued to play Country and Western music on KUZZ. Station newsletters from the late 60s show that KUZZ broadcast regularly scheduled Farm Reports and an hourly Gospel Moment with everything closing down at sunset.
Following the 1969 demise of Owens’ KBBY-FM, Buck quickly switched the call letters to KZIN-FM, showing its ties to KUZZ-AM and changing the programming to Country and Western. KZIN was a 24-hour signal, which differed from its sister station only slightly by playing more album product and often giving newer artists stronger airplay than KUZZ. The idea of a 24-hour Country AM station was still uppermost in Owens’ mind and, in 1977, plans were finalized to purchase the 970 AM position then occupied by rival Country station KBIS. At the same time, KUZZ’s 800 AM daytime frequency was sold to the Four Square Gospel Church headquartered in Los Angeles. Their plans were to broadcast a Christian format out of Bakersfield.
In January 1977, KUZZ and KZIN-FM officially split on-air at midnight with the song "New Kid In Town" by the Eagles (a rather neat way of signaling that KZIN was now KKXX-FM, an album oriented Rock station). KUZZ was now 24-hours, full-time Country music, which was what company president Buck Owens had wanted all along...or was it?
By the early 1980s, technology had progressed to the point where AM stereo was a reality rather than a dream. Owens began to take a long serious look at possibilities in the Bakersfield market. By 1984 he had increased KUZZ’s transmitting power to 5,000 watts and purchased another station ’s lower dial position from which to broadcast. The station was KAFY (formerly the number one rock station during the 1960s) which, by the early 80’s, was now Country with the very attractive dial position of 550 AM.
Simply stated, the two stations would merely exchange positions on the dial. Not so simply, it was an unprecedented move in broadcasting. The FCC could cite many cases whereby one station had purchased another’s dial position, but none that had ever exchanged frequencies. In Bakersfield a concerted promotional effort by KUZZ eased the historic exchange, and the KUZZ listening audience moved down the dial to 550 AM along with the station. In the minds of station personnel, this was an important transition because KUZZ had, since 1978, been occupying the number one spot according to the Arbitron Survey ratings. Rarely out of the top three stations in the market, KUZZ usually alternated with sister station KKXX in the top position. The Bakersfield radio market truly belonged to Buck: two top stations, two extremely popular and winning formats but another major change was on the horizon. AM stereo wasn’t working. The public wasn’t purchasing AM stereo units and, with competitors threatening to bring the Country format to the FM band, Owens answered the challenge in 1988 by replacing KKXX with KUZZ. [3]
[edit] Programming
The station features local programming, starting with Steve Gradowitz and Geoff Emery in the morning and new to the morning show is Tanya Steward. Casey McBride follow the morning show taking you through the rest of the morning and part of your midday. KC Adams is on during you lunch time and takes your requests called KC's Cafe during your lunch hour and finishes up the midday shift. Chris Connor is on in the afternoons. Chris features Afternoon Trivia. Donna James takes you through your evenings and features the Top 8 at 8. Wrapping up the nights and taking you through the latenight hour is the syndicated program After Midnite with Blair Garner (Syndicated in Hollywood).
[edit] References
- ^ KUZZ Bakersfield Best Country Music Radio Station
- ^ "KUZZ Callsign History", FCC. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ [[1]]
[edit] External links
- 107.9 KUZZ
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KUZZ
- Radio Locator information on KUZZ
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for KUZZ
- Query the FCC's AM station database for KUZZ
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for KUZZ
- Radio Locator Information on KUZZ
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