KMBY (1240 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Monterey, California Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a popu ...

and serving the Monterey, Salinas and Santa Cruz areas. The station is owned by Hanford Youth Services Inc and broadcasts a classic hits format. It

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

s via FM

Translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

K240EV on 95.9 MHz.

History

The station went on the air in 1935 as KDON. It moved from 1210 to 1240 kHz in 1941 when

NARBA The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

took effect. Saul Levine's Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc., bought KNRY from IHR Educational Broadcasting in December 2013. The format was changed to

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

in early January 2014. In May 2014, KNRY dropped the jazz format and began stunting, first with a simulcast of Los Angeles classical station KMZT-FM ("K-Mozart") and then with a loop of 25 alternative rock songs. On June 9, KNRY-FM ( K294CA) became

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

"Alt 106.7." KNRY simulcast KMZT-FM. On March 30, 2015, KNRY changed their format from a simulcast of classical-formatted KMZT-FM to

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

, branded as "K-SURF 1240". The syndication was also heard on KKGO's HD2 subchannel in Los Angeles. In April 2020, KNRY went silent. In October 2020, Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters transferred the station to

Hanford Hanford may refer to: Places *Hanford (constituency), a constituency in Tuen Mun, People's Republic of China *Hanford, Dorset, a village and parish in England *Hanford, Staffordshire, England *Hanford, California, United States *Hanford, Iowa, ...

Youth Services Inc but retained the callsign and studio equipment. The donation was consummated on December 7, 2020. Hanford Youth Services relaunched the station as

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

-formatted KNBI—branded KMBY, using the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

associated with this station between 1949 and 1978—in December 2020. The transfer required Hanford Youth Services to close its low-power FM station in Hanford, KOAD-LP, as a group cannot own a full-service and a low-power FM radio station at the same time. The KMBY call sign formally returned on April 20, 2022.

References

External links

* * MBY Classic hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1935 1935 establishments in California {{California-radio-station-stub