KISQ

KISQ (98.1 MHz), is a commercial FM radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. It broadcasts a soft adult contemporary radio format, known as "The Breeze," and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The radio studios and offices are in the SoMa district of San Francisco.
KISQ has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 75,000 watts. The transmitter is on Wolfback Ridge Road in Sausalito, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. KISQ broadcasts using HD Radio technology. The station also has booster stations on 98.1 MHz in Concord and Pleasanton.
History.
KAFE.
98.1 FM first signed on the air on July 17, 1958 as KAFE with a classical music format. KAFE was owned and built by engineer Dan Solo, who had previously worked at 1400 KRE (now KVTO). Saying that automation made operating a station cheaper, he applied for a license in 1957. 
Solo's first proposed transmitter site, a tower at his home, wound up violating a zoning ordinance, and KAFE signed on from a site atop Grizzly Peak. Solo sold his station to Hal Cox in 1959; Cox relocated the tower to Sausalito.
KABL-FM.
In 1965, the McLendon-Pacific Corporation acquired KAFE and paired it with its existing station, KABL 960 AM (now [[KNEW (AM)|KNEW). KABL-FM featured a [[beautiful music]]/[[easy listening]] format. It played quarter hour sweeps of mostly instrumental [[cover version]]s of popular songs, as well as [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] show tunes. The [[call sign]] KABL stood for "cable cars," a San Francisco attraction. The station often played the sound effect of the bell from a cable card when identifying itself.
By the early 1990s, the format had given way to [[soft adult contemporary]], and competed directly with 96.5 [[KOIT]], which had successfully made the same transition a few years earlier. The format was a modest success, although it was unable to overcome KOIT's dominance in the ratings. On March 15, 1993, KABL-FM re-branded as "B98" and transitioned to a mainstream AC format focused on hit songs from the 80s and 90s, placing the station between soft AC KOIT and hot AC [[KIOI]]. The move did little to improve station ratings.
KBGG.
On February 14, 1994, KABL-FM switched to a [[1970s in music|1970s-based classic hits]] format, branded as "Big 98.1". Jay Peterson was music director during this time. The [[Call sign|call letters]] were changed to KBGG-FM on January 2, 1995. Later that year, Shamrock Broadcasting of [[Burbank, California]], reached a deal to sell KBGG, as well as [[KNEW (AM)|KNEW]] and [[KSAN (FM)|KSAN]], to Chancellor Media.
The format was a moderate success. The station later expanded its playlist to include songs from the late 1960s and early 1980s.
As KISQ.
[[Image:KISQ-FM logo.png|thumb|left|upright|Logo, 1997–2009]]
[[Image:Kisq-fml.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Logo, 2010]]
[[Image:Kiss Logo2010.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Logo, 2010–2012]]
[[Image:KISQ_98.1_KISS_FM_2015_logo.png|thumb|right|upright|Logo, 2015–2016]]
On July 22, 1997, after playing "[[No Matter What (Badfinger song)|No Matter What]]" by [[Badfinger]], KBGG began [[stunting (broadcasting)|stunting]] with sounds of radio tuning and ground control transmissions, while promoting a new format to come. At 1 p.m. the next day, Chancellor Media (later to become AMFM, Inc., and then [[iHeartMedia|Clear Channel Communications]] (now [[iHeartMedia]])) flipped KBGG to [[Urban AC]] as KISQ, "98.1 Kiss FM". The first song on "Kiss FM" was "[[Let's Groove]]" by [[Earth, Wind & Fire]]. 
KISQ leaned heavily on a format similar to [[Soul music|Classic Soul]]/[[Urban Oldies]], with a [[playlist]] of more old school R&B music with occasionally few new R&B songs (mostly mainstream with no neo-soul). This may have helped garner a diverse audience of blacks, Latinos, whites and Asians. The station's owners may have also formatted the playlist this way not only to protect longtime [[Urban Contemporary]]-sister station [[KMEL]], which plays some old school in addition to current Hip Hop/R&B, but to differentiate itself from competitor [[KBLX]], which plays new and old R&B. [[Mediabase]] began reporting the station's playlist, with newer music of those sourced from rhythmic AC stations. By [[2008 in radio|2008]], KMVQ took on the Top 40 format at the time the "MOViN'" format declined in popularity, allowing KISQ to evolve its format more in a [[rhythmic AC]] direction.
By 2011, the station was described as having a gold-based Rhythmic Oldies format, with no currents. It also began playing a few [[New wave music|new wave]] hits from the 1980s from artists such as [[The Police]] and [[Human League]]. At the same time as the format adjustment, the station changed its logo to one bearing resemblance to a logo most urban oldies/rhythmic oldies used during the peak time of the format in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
In June 2015, the station added "Throwback" to its slogan while adding some [[classic hip hop]] in its playlist, removing the [[New wave music|new wave]] and [[Disco]] tracks from the station (most of which moved over to sister [[KOSF]]), in order to better compete with [[KRBQ]]. The next month, the station reduced most of the classic hip hop tracks in favor of more familiar upbeat R&B and dance tracks, as well as ballads.
98.1 The Breeze.
On April 13, 2016, at 2 p.m., after playing "[[Kiss and Say Goodbye]]" by [[The Manhattans]] and "[[End of the Road (Boyz II Men song)|End of the Road]]" by [[Boyz II Men]], KISQ flipped back to [[Soft Adult Contemporary]] as "98.1 The Breeze." The first song on "The Breeze" was "[[Easy (The Commodores song)|Easy]]" by [[The Commodores]]. Core artists of the format include [[Adele]], [[Whitney Houston]], [[Mariah Carey]], [[Billy Joel]], [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]], [[Lionel Richie]], [[Elton John]] and [[George Michael]].
Due to KISQ's success, iHeart launched "The Breeze" in several other cities. There are now stations branded as "The Breeze" (or a variant thereof) in a number of [[media market|radio market]]s in the U.S. and Canada, some owned by iHeartMedia and a few with other owners. iHeartRadio also has a Soft AC channel called "The Breeze" on its app. About 30 iHeartMedia FM stations around the U.S. air the service on one of their [[HD Radio]] [[digital subchannel]]s.
Boosters.
KISQ is rebroadcast on the following FM boosters:
External links.
[[Category:Radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area|ISQ]]
[[Category:Soft adult contemporary radio stations in the United States]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1958]]
[[Category:1958 establishments in California]]
[[Category:IHeartMedia radio stations]]