KCRF-FM (96.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to

Lincoln City, Oregon Lincoln City is a city in Lincoln County on the Oregon Coast of the United States, between Tillamook to the north and Newport to the south. It is named after the county, which was named in honor of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The pop ...

, United States. The station is currently owned by Xana Oregon, LLC. It began operating in November 1981 as an adult contemporary station owned by a husband and wife, Charles Rowe and Kim Singer, who were also TV news anchors. Singer and then Rowe each departed to return to that profession, and the next owners declared bankruptcy in 1989. The station broadcast an oldies format as late as 1999 before flipping to classic rock. It left the air after a 2023 foreclosure, was sold, and returned to the air in May 2024.

History

The station was assigned the call letters KCRF on August 3, 1981; it signed on November 1. It was built by the Rainbow Broadcasting Company and originally offered a middle-of-the-road,

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

music format. Rainbow was owned by a husband and wife, Charles Rowe and Kim Singer. Rowe and Singer each had careers as TV news anchors before and after starting KCRF-FM, Singer at

KATU KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed independent station KUNP, channel 16 (which KATU simulcasts on its sec ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

and both at stations in Los Angeles. Singer returned to Portland TV news at

KPTV KPTV (channel 12) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Vancouver, Washington–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX (channel 49). The two stations sh ...

in 1984, leaving Rowe to operate KCRF-FM; Rowe became an anchor at KREM in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

, in 1987; 20 years later, when he retired from KREM, he recalled his time building and owning KCRF as "the most fun I've ever had ... I'm very proud of that station. I wasn't making a lot of money but I sure was having a lot of fun." After Rowe moved to Spokane, KCRF-FM was sold to Matrix Media, which paired it with KBCH, Lincoln City's AM station. The stations were knocked off the air after a fire on May 5, 1989, destroyed their studios; the fire was believed to be caused by a lit cigarette. After the fire, Matrix declared bankruptcy, and KBCH-KCRF was acquired by Oceanlake Broadcasting Corporation. Oceanlake agreed to sell the stations to Q Media in 1996 but still owned them in 1999 when a sale was agreed to Yaquina Bay Communications, owner of three stations in Newport. KCRF-FM, along with its sister stations ( KNPT and KNCU in Newport, KBCH in Lincoln City, and

KWDP KWDP (820 AM broadcasting, AM) was a radio station broadcast license, licensed to serve the city of license, community of Waldport, Oregon, United States. The station, which began broadcasting in 1988, was owned by David J. Miller and the broadca ...

in Waldport), shut down on December 31, 2023. The closure followed the August foreclosure of the stations' Newport studios, which were sold to Oregon Coast Bank in a sheriff's sale on December 5. At the time, KCRF offered a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

format. Xana Oregon, owned by Thomas Hodgins and Christopher Jacky, acquired KNCU and KCRF-FM from Yaquina Bay Communications for $115,000 in a sale filed with the FCC in April 2024.

References

External links

CRF-FM Classic rock radio stations in the United States Lincoln City, Oregon Radio stations established in 1981 1981 establishments in Oregon {{Oregon-radio-station-stub