KHCS (91.7 MHz) is a non-commercial educational FM

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

broadcasting a

contemporary worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are ...

format. Licensed to Palm Desert, California, United States, the station serves the

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by lan ...

area and can be heard from Banning to

North Shore North Shore or Northshore may refer to: Geographic features Australia *North Shore (Sydney), a suburban region of Sydney **Electoral district of North Shore **North Shore railway line, Sydney *Noosa North Shore, Queensland * North Shore, New So ...

, over most of the

Coachella Valley , map_image = Wpdms shdrlfi020l coachella valley.jpg , map_caption = Coachella Valley , location = California, United States , coordinates = , width = , boundaries = Salton Sea (southeast), Santa Rosa Mountains (southwest), San Jacin ...

. KHCS airs the nationally syndicated Air1 worship music network around the clock. Prior to the station's sale to

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's large ...

in April 2018, KHCS was a

contemporary inspirational Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

-formatted station known as "Joy92". It was owned by Prairie Avenue Gospel Center and carried a variety of locally produced Christian programming as well as inspirational music.

History

The station initially was assigned the call letters KYRH on February 7, 1990, by the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

; on April 1, the station changed its call sign to KHCS. However, the station would not make its on-air debut until January 1993, three years later. From its inception, KHCS was owned by Prairie Avenue Gospel Center, a church based in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, and carried a

format. Branded "Joy92" and positioning itself as "the Desert's Christian Radio", the station aired a variety of music, talk and teaching programming, much of it produced locally in Southern California. On April 5, 2018, KHCS entered into an affiliation agreement with

to carry the latter's

Christian contemporary hit radio Christian contemporary hit radio (sometimes abbreviated as Christian CHR) is a radio format that is common in the United States and Australia focusing on playing current and recent music as determined by the contemporary Christian music Top 40. ...

network Air1; the Joy92 programming was dropped. On April 20, EMF purchased KHCS from Prairie Avenue Gospel Center for $450,000; the purchase was consummated on June 27, 2018.

References

External links

HCS Educational Media Foundation radio stations Air1 radio stations Contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in California HCS {{California-radio-station-stub