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 By
Casey McBride |
 akersfield
has strong historical ties
to Country music. Located
at the Southern tip of the
San Joaquin Valley, agriculture
is the city’s second
biggest industry. Much of
the population is made up
of American refugees from
the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma
and the dry plains of Texas
who settled here during and
after the Great Depression.
The cavernous dance hall,
the Rainbow Gardens, was located
just south of Bakersfield
and was a regular stopping
point for touring Country
and Western groups like Bob
Wills and the Texas Playboys.
It was in small Bakersfield
honky tonks that homegrown
future stars like Merle Haggard
and Buck Owens honed their
craft.
In 1958, radio station KIKK
went on the air playing Country
and Western music for Bakersfield.
In 1960 the call letters were
changed to KUZZ. Local Country
and Western television star
Herb Henson was the station
manager. In fact, he effected
the call letter change to
reflect his own stage moniker,
"Cousin" Herb Henson.
At that time KUZZ was at 800
on the AM dial as a ‘daytimer,’
a station which was prohibited
by the FCC from broadcasting
after sundown.
Buck Owens purchased KUZZ
from its owners in 1966 at
the 800 AM position and a
year later purchased the 107.9
frequency, bringing it to
Bakersfield from San Clemente.
Owens immediately put the
FM station on the air as alternative
rock station KBBY-FM, programming
mainly ‘underground’
rock and roll while Owens
continued to play Country
and Western music on KUZZ.
Station newsletters from the
late 60s show that KUZZ broadcast
regularly scheduled Farm Reports
and an hourly Gospel Moment
with everything closing down
at sunset.
Following the 1969 demise
of Owens’ KBBY-FM, Buck
quickly switched the call
letters to KZIN-FM, showing
its ties to KUZZ-AM and changing
the programming to Country
and Western. KZIN was a 24-hour
signal, which differed from
its sister station only slightly
by playing more album product
and often giving newer artists
stronger airplay than KUZZ.
The idea of a 24-hour Country
AM station was still uppermost
in Owens’ mind and,
in 1977, plans were finalized
to purchase the 970 AM position
then occupied by rival Country
station KBIS. At the same
time, KUZZ’s 800 AM
daytime frequency was sold
to the Four Square Gospel
Church headquartered in Los
Angeles. Their plans were
to broadcast a Christian format
out of Bakersfield.
In January 1977, KUZZ and
KZIN-FM officially split on-air
at midnight with the song
"New Kid In Town"
by the Eagles (a rather neat
way of signaling that KZIN
was now KKXX-FM, an album
oriented Rock station). KUZZ
was now 24-hours, full-time
Country music, which was what
company president Buck Owens
had wanted all along...or
was it?
By the early 1980s, technology
had progressed to the point
where AM stereo was a reality
rather than a dream. Owens
began to take a long serious
look at possibilities in the
Bakersfield market. By 1984
he had increased KUZZ’s
transmitting power to 5,000
watts and purchased another
station ’s lower dial
position from which to broadcast.
The station was KAFY (formerly
the number one rock station
during the 1960s) which, by
the early 80’s, was
now Country with the very
attractive dial position of
550 AM.
Simply stated, the two stations
would merely exchange positions
on the dial. Not so simply,
it was an unprecedented move
in broadcasting. The FCC could
cite many cases whereby one
station had purchased another’s
dial position, but none that
had ever exchanged frequencies.
In Bakersfield a concerted
promotional effort by KUZZ
eased the historic exchange,
and the KUZZ listening audience
moved down the dial to 550
AM along with the station.
In the minds of station personnel,
this was an important transition
because KUZZ had, since 1978,
been occupying the number
one spot according to the
Arbitron Survey ratings. Rarely
out of the top three stations
in the market, KUZZ usually
alternated with sister station
KKXX in the top position.
The Bakersfield radio market
truly belonged to Buck: two
top stations, two extremely
popular and winning formats
but another major change was
on the horizon. AM stereo
wasn’t working. The
public wasn’t purchasing
AM stereo units and, with
competitors threatening to
bring the Country format to
the FM band, Owens answered
the challenge in 1988 by replacing
KKXX with KUZZ. By simulcasting
Owens got the clean FM sound
the Country audience demanded
and the enormous coverage
afforded by the AM d |
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