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by | Mar 16, 2018 | Hosta

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WKIS (99.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Boca Raton, Florida, and serving South Florida. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs a country music radio format. Its studios are located in Audacy's Miami office on Northeast Second Avenue.[2] The transmitter tower is off NW 210 Street in Miami Gardens, shared with WTVJ.[3]

WKIS broadcasts in the HD Radio format.[4] Its HD2 subchannel carries the sports radio programming of co-owned WQAM. Its HD3 subchannel carries the national sports gambling programming as "The Bet". Its HD4 subchannel carries Israeli programming.

History

WWOG

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1965 as WWOG.[5] It was originally a non-commercial Christian radio station, owned by Homer and Carole Akers. In the 1970s, it was a beautiful music outlet, still owned by the Akers, under the corporate name WWOG, Inc.

Country music

In 1979, WWOG was bought by the Sunshine Wireless Company. The new owner changed its call sign to WKQS-FM, and switched it to easy listening as "Kiss-FM." The WWOG call letters were later transferred to a new non-commercial religious radio station at 88.1, owned by the Boca Raton Christian School.[6] (That station is now WAYF, owned by the WAY-FM Network.) The format was switched to country music in September 1981.

In 1980, Sunshine Wireless bought AM 560 WQAM.[7] WQAM had been a long-time Top 40 station but Sunshine switched it to country music. Sunshine now had an AM country station, with personality DJs, NBC News and local information, as well as WKQS, an FM country station, with less chatter and more current country hits.

In 1988, WKQS changed call letters to WKIS. Around this time, WQAM would leave the country music format, first playing oldies and then switching to all-sports.[8] This left WKIS as Miami's only country music outlet.

Ownership changes

The Beasley Broadcast Group bought both WKIS and WQAM in the late 1990s, but continued the country music and sports formats on each station.[9] The studios and offices were moved to Sheridan Street in Hollywood.

On October 2, 2014, Beasley announced that it would trade five radio stations in Philadelphia and Miami, including WKIS, to CBS Radio, in exchange for 14 stations located in Tampa, Charlotte and Philadelphia.[10] The swap was completed on December 1, 2014.[11]

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom.[12] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WKIS". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ FCC Public Inspection File
  3. ^ Radio-Locator.com/WKIS
  4. ^ https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?latitude=25.7616798&longitude=-80.1917902 HD Radio Guide for Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood
  5. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1966 page B-30
  6. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1984 page B-50
  7. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1986 page B-61
  8. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1995 page B-86
  9. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2000 page D-96
  10. ^ CBS And Beasley Swap Philadelphia/Miami For Charlotte/Tampa from Radio Insight (October 2, 2014)
  11. ^ Venta, Lance (December 1, 2014). "CBS Beasley Deal Closes". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  12. ^ CBS Radio to Merge with Entercom
  13. ^ "Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio". Entercom. November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  14. ^ Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017). "Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger". Radio Insight. Retrieved November 17, 2017.

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