KSSX

KSSX

City of license	Carlsbad, California
Broadcast area	San Diego, California
Branding	95.7 KISS FM
Slogan	"The Rhythm Of San Diego"
Frequency	95.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) 95.7-2 KSSX-HD2, Country
First air date	August 22, 1965
Format	Rhythmic AC
ERP	28,000 watts
HAAT	202 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	67664
Callsign meaning	KISS X
Former callsigns	KARL (1965-1979) KKOS (1979-1995) KUPR (1995-1997) KMCG (1997-1998) KMSX (1998-2001) KJQY (2001-2002) KOCL (2002-2004) KUSS (2004-2011) KOGO-FM (2011-2013)
Former frequencies	95.9 MHz (1965-1995)
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	KGB-FM, KHTS-FM, KIOZ, KLSD, KMYI, KOGO
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	957kissfm.com

KSSX (95.7 FM, "95.7 KISS FM") is a Rhythmic AC-formatted radio station licensed to Carlsbad, California. KSSX is one of the seven San Diego stations owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications.

History

This station has its roots as a Class A (local) station at 95.9 MHz known as KKOS, which was previously known as KARL (a MOR station from 1965-1979) and KUPR. During this period the station had various formats, including adult contemporary, CHR, and AAA.

On September 15, 1995, the station upgraded to Class B status, moved to 95.7 MHz, and became KUPR, still keeping the AAA format. In November 1996, the station stunted by playing 10,000 country songs in a row. On March 5, 1997, the station became KMCG "Magic 95.7" with an adult R&B format.

KUSS's logo as "New Country 95.7"

The station was sold by Nationwide Communications to Jacor/Citicasters (later to be acquired by Clear Channel), and subsequently on October 5, 1998, it became KMSX "Mix 95.7" (meanwhile the "Magic" R&B format was moved to 92.5 XHRM). KMSX began with a hot AC format and then changed to 1980s music on November 10, 2000. On November 21, 2001, the station swapped formats and call letters with "K-Joy" 94.1 (also owned by Clear Channel), and became KJQY, playing oldies from the 1960s and 1970s. On January 3, 2002, the station became known as KOCL "Kool 95.7", until January 5, 2004, when Clear Channel moved the oldies format to 99.3 FM (which then changed on September 1, 2005 to a Spanish oldies station, "La Preciosa" XHOCL-FM). The country music format on 99.3 was moved here, and 95.7 FM became KUSS "US 95.7". The station now broadcasts in HD Radio. KUSS HD2, 95.7-2, aired classic country music. On March 20, 2008, the station was rebranded as "New Country 95.7".

The country format on KUSS disappeared on November 7, 2011 at 7:00 AM in favor of simulcasting KOGO (AM 600). The final song on "New Country" was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. On November 14, 2011, KUSS changed their call letters to KOGO-FM.

The simulcast ended on November 16, 2012, at 7:00 pm, when KOGO-FM began airing a stunt of Christmas music. This was most likely due to the fact that, unlike many other talk radio stations across America that simulcast programming on the FM dial, the FM simulcast never improved KOGO's ratings. The stunt lasted until December 26, 2012 at 9:57 AM, when, after playing "Silent Night" by Josh Groban, the station flipped to Rhythmic Oldies, branded as "95.7 KISS FM", with a logo based off of sister station KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and format mirrored in the style of KISQ/San Francisco, WMOV-FM/Norfolk, and KHHT/Los Angeles. The station launched with "Kiss" by Prince, followed by "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees. KOGO-FM is currently competing against longtime Rhythmic Oldies outlet XHRM-FM, who, ironically, started their format on 95.7 in 1997 before moving to 92.5 FM in 1998. KOGO-FM plays more soft rock (from artists like Hall and Oates and Wham!), new wave (from artists like OMD), and rock (from artists like Stray Cats) hits than XHRM-FM, which has a heavy Hispanic composition added to their music mix.

As of mid-February 2013, the station began including more 1990s, 2000s and recurrent songs, prompting a shift towards Rhythmic AC. On February 22, KOGO-FM changed their call letters to KSSX to match the "KISS" branding. After being jockless for the first 3 months, the station added Chio (formerly of XHITZ-FM) as their morning show host on April 8, as well as adding Sean Sarille to evenings.

Previous uses of the KOGO-FM call sign

There have been three FM signals in San Diego County, on which the KOGO-FM call sign has appeared.

The first, 94.1, which appeared in 1961 and ended in 1972 when 94.1 once again regained its original call letters KFSD. Today the original KOGO-FM is KMYI. KOGO-FM was a Classical station. 94.1 began broadcasting the classical format in 1948 when it signed on the air, and continued it until 1995 when it changed to the Eagle.

The second KOGO-FM was at 94.5 in Temecula. 94.5 had the call letters KOGO-FM from 1999 until 2002, and is now KMYT. 94.5 KOGO-FM was a simulcast of AM 600 KOGO.

All three stations (94.1, 94.5, and 95.7) are currently owned by Clear Channel.

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for KSSX
• Radio-Locator information on KSSX
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KSSX
• SDRadio.net
• Clear Channel
• FCC Callsign History