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WKYS, "The People's Station", is a radio station that serves the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The station broadcasts from a class B signal with an effective radiated power of 24,500 watts (24.5 kilowatts(kW) on 93.9 MHz frequency. WKYS has a city of license of Washington, D.C. and is owned by Radio One.
[edit] History
Previously the station was owned by NBC. During its early days it was known as WWRC, with a jazz format.The transition from the Beautiful Music format into what is now WKYS was originally then owner NBC's attempt to move the Top 40 format that was on sister station WRC-AM to make way for an all news format on the AM. For a while in 1975 the two stations simulcasted the Top 40 format. Shortly after the simulcast was broken off, the original AM Top 40 format continued for a short while on the FM, but later, seeing the coming boom in Disco music, WKYS and adopted a highly successful disco format, and branded itself as WKYS, "Disco 93.9". The disco format eventually evolved into the present urban contemporary format, WKYS, "93.9 Kiss FM". NBC eventually sold the FM station to Albimar Commucations.Several years later the station was sold to Radio One. In the mid 1990s, WKYS was forced to drop the "Kiss FM" moniker changed to "93.9 WKYS" because Clear Channel held ownership of the moniker. However as of recent, WKYS has reintroduced the "Kiss FM" with its over the air branding.
Also, for many years, WKYS was home to legendary radio personality, Donnie Simpson, who was with the station from the 1970s to 1993. Now the station is the flagship of the nationally syndicated Russ Parr Morning Show.
[edit] Competitors
WKYS competes with rival Rhythmic Crossover station WPGC easily. Plus it also competes with Urban AC station's WMMJ (sister station thereof) and Howard University's WHUR.
[edit] External links
