KNGY

Infobox Radio station
name = KNGY


city = Alameda, California
airdate = 1959
frequency = 92.7 (MHz)
area = San Francisco Bay Area
format = Dance Contemporary
owner = Flying Bear Media
erp = 3,600 watts
haat = 128 meters
branding = "Energy 92.7"
slogan = "Energy 92.7, Pure Dance"
class = A
website = [http://www.energy927fm.com/ energy927fm.com]
callsign_meaning = ENerGY|

KNGY (92.7 FM, "Energy 92.7") is a dance Top 40 music formatted radio station that serves the San Francisco area. Its city of license is Alameda, California, and it is owned by Flying Bear Media, a broadcasting company.

KNGY offers a current-based mix of dance music, with Top 40, R&B remixes, disco and club classics from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s added into the presentation. In addition, "Energy 92.7" broadcasts sophisticated and mood-enhanced tracks including down-tempo groove, future jazz, electronic rock and chillout beats.

History

Jazz music as KJAZ

As KJAZ from August 1, 1959 to July 31, 1994, the station aired a jazz format. Founded by Pat Henry, KJAZ prided itself on broadcasting only jazz music, and a 1965 station brochure proclaimed KJAZ "northern California's first and only fulltime jazz station".

In 1994, KJAZ was sold after owner Ron Cowan, in a financial crisis, deemed the station unprofitable. Since the demise of the jazz format, some KJAZ programmers and announcers have made their way to KCSM.

Since then, the KJAZ call sign has been used by various FM radio stations around the country, and is currently the call sign for a silent station in Point Comfort,Texas owned by Fort Bend Broadcasting of Austin, Texas.

*"See also KJAZ"

Rock music as KXJO

Though listeners mounted a fundraising effort to keep KJAZ on the air (by some reports raising $1.5 million), the station was sold in 1994 and KJAZ was converted to a different format. For a time, they simulcast the rock format of KSJO in San Jose as KXJO.

Dance and urban music

On May 26, 2002, the 92.7 frequency's history as a dance music outlet would begin as KPTI, "92.7 PARTY," which was launched under former owner Spanish Broadcasting System. Nearly two years later, on March 17, 2004, it was sold to new owners, who flipped the format to R&B/hip-hop as KBTB, "Power 92.7, The Beat of the Bay." After it failed to attract an audience, along with controversy from rival KMEL (which made headlines in the press) and on top of that, seeing the sale falling apart, the station was put on sale again.

KBTB was acquired by Flying Bear Media. CEO Joe Bayliss flipped the station back to dance music on October 2, 2004 as Energy 92.7 under guidance by Chris Shebel, who earlier was program director of Energy 92.7&5 in Chicago, Illinois at WKIE/WKIF/WDEK and consulted the launch of Energy 92.7 & 101.1 in Phoenix, Arizona at KNRJ. The station kept the KBTB call letters for several months before changing to KNGY, and kept the The Beat of the Bay slogan for over a year, but changed it to Pure Dance in 2006. Airplay on Energy 92.7 influences the playlists of radio stations and dance clubs nationally.

On July 17, 2005, KNGY moved its signal from its old tower on Russian Hill to the Sutro Tower, improving coverage in the South Bay, but later changed back to their old site due to signal issues. The effect is clear to South Bay listeners, who receive a split signal between KNGY and KTOM, a country-format station from the Santa Cruz area. In areas around the North Bay where line-of-site propagation is weak, listeners receive a split signal between KNGY and KZSQ, a mix station from the Sonora, California area. Energy 92.7 can also be heard on Comcast Digital Cable throughout the Bay Area on digital cable channel 964 and live online at energy927fm.com.

KNGY is a reporter in Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Airplay panel and is the most-listened-to dance/electronic radio station on the West Coast.

In December 2005 KLLC (Alice@97.3) San Francisco program director John Peake was hired as Energy's new program director, filling the vacancy left by Shebel. Prior to coming to San Francisco pre-KLLC, Peake was the PD of influential Top 40 KRBE/Houston, Texas, a station that was also known for adding Dance cuts into their traditional playlist. In July 2008 Peake resigned from the PD job, which would be quickly filled by Don Parker, who, like Peake, also has credentials in programming Dance-leaning stations as he was the PD of Rhythmic contemporary outlet KKFR/Phoenix during its Dance-intensive days in the late 1980s and mid 1990s.

References

* [http://www.jazzwest.com/archive/articles/archives/kjaz.html KCSM Scores Old KJAZ Library]
* [http://www.timhodges.net/SPIRIT/ In the Spirit of KJAZ]

External links

* [http://www.energy927fm.com KNGY official website]
*FMQ|KNGY
*FML|KNGY
*FMARB|KNGY
* [http://energy927sf.blogspot.com Energy 92.7 Weekly Charts]
* [http://danceradio.blogspot.com U.S. Dance Radio Post]
* [http://simdancemix.blogspot.com U.S. Dance Radio Megamix]