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Sacramento, California
KQJK - 93.7 Jack FM
90s Rock station Howard 93.7 (KHWD) was obviously going to rebrand with Howard Stern leaving terrestrial radio for Sirius Satellite Radio at the end of 2005. That move was made on October 25, 2005, with the station flipping to Variety Hits as 93.7 Jack FM following Stern's show. Stern remained in morning drive until the end of his contract with Infinity in December 2005.
This was the second run for Variety Hits in the market; Variety Hits aired in the form of Bob FM on the rimshot signal on 92.1 from March-August 2005.
On December 15, 2008, CBS Radio announced that it was trading WQSR to Clear Channel as part of a complicated, multi-market station trade designed to allow Clear Channel avoid ownership cap issues with the Department of Justice.
Special Audio: KQJK Legal ID (TopHour.com)
KBDB-FM - 92.1 Bob FM
(Station changed formats on 8/1/2005)
Programming a rimshot signal into a major market can be a challenging thing. But as KJAC in Colorado Springs (and as a rimshot into Denver) has shown, the Variety Hits format can work in that regard. In some cases, a rimshot or smaller station signal owned by a cluster can serve as a good testing ground for a format, i.e. in Norfolk where WPYA worked very well on a Class A signal and then got the megapush over on a 100,000 watt sister signal in the same cluster.
In the Sacramento market, 92.1 (licensed to Placerville, CA) initially went with country soon after it was purchased by First Broadcasting in September 2004 as Real Country 92.1 (KRLL, and then KREL when those call letters became available). However, Sacramento already had Infinity's 50,000 watt country powerhouse KNCI established in the market, and the demand for a secondary country choice didn't prove to be there for "Real Country 92.1."
On March 15, 2005, KREL abruptly shifted from country to Variety Hits as 92.1 Bob FM. Three days later, 92.1 Bob FM switched its call letters to KBDB-FM, making it the second Bob FM station to use those calls in 2005 (the first being what is now KBBD in Spokane, WA).
In July 2005, First Broadcasting sold 103.9 KXCL (home of 80s formatted "Flash 103.9") to Buenos Media. The company hyped an online "vote" on if Flash or Bob should be given the 92.1 broadcast slot. It is widely rumored that the decision had already been made to move Flash to the 92.1 frequency and that the vote gimmick was simply a ploy to raise awareness of the move.
On August 1, 2005, Flash 92.1 debuted, knocking Bob 92.1 out of the market. This was just the second Variety Hits station in North America to change formats.
Special Audio: KBDB-FM Legal ID (TopHour.com)
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