KXKC (99.1 FM) is an American

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 for

New Iberia, Louisiana New Iberia (; ) is the largest city in and the parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, Lafayette, and forms part of ...

, in the Lafayette metropolitan area. It airs a classic country music format, and is under ownership of

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

. Its studios are located on Galbert Road in Lafayette, and its transmitter, shared with

KHXT KHXT (107.9 FM broadcasting, FM, "HOT 107.9") is a Rhythmic contemporary, rhythmic top 40 radio station serving the Lafayette, Louisiana, Lafayette area, as well as parts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The Townsquare Media outlet broa ...

and

KTDY KTDY (99.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an adult contemporary music formatted radio station in the Lafayette/Acadiana market in Louisiana, United States, owned by Townsquare Media. Its studios are located on Bertrand Road in Lafayette, and its tran ...

, is located north of St. Martinville, Louisiana.

History

Don Bonin first signed on on the 99.1 frequency in January 1969 as the FM counterpart of KNIR with the calls KNIR-FM. KNIR-FM became KDEA on August 1, 1972, playing beautiful music-

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

for the Lafayette and

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

radio markets. The format continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, when the popularity of the easy listening format began to decline nationwide and KDEA went into competition with

with a mainstream

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 ...

format.

On August 21, 1992, at 6 pm KDEA started playing the song " American Pie" by

Don McLean Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Known as the "American Troubadour" or "King of the Trail", he is best known for his 1971 hit "American Pie (song), American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minut ...

on a continuous loop. Between each playing of the song, a voice could be heard saying, "A new day begins Monday." The song continued to play over and over until 6 am Monday, August 24, when a jingle played announcing that the station was now "Hot

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

99.1, KXKC". This was followed by "

Friends in Low Places "Friends in Low Places" is a song recorded by American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was released on August 6, 1990, as the lead single from his album '' No Fences''. The song spent four weeks at number one on the Hot Country Songs, and ...

", by

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, ...

. The station had normal operations for only one day as

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

was approaching. On Tuesday, August 25 at 10 am, the station began continuous coverage of the approaching hurricane. The storm came ashore early Wednesday morning, knocking the station off the air for 20 hours when water shorted out the transmitter in

Parks, Louisiana Parks is a village in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 653 at the 2010 census, and 696 at the 2020 population estimates program. It is part of the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area. History The exact orig ...

. Hurricane recovery information dominated the station for the next few days, but by the following Monday morning, August 31, 1992, KXKC was operating as normal. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011. On September 4, 2020, KXKC dropped

Nash FM Nash is a media brand owned by Cumulus Media. It covers country music-related properties owned by Cumulus, including radio stations, digital properties and publications ('' Nash Country Daily''), Nash TV (a video on-demand service operated in pa ...

and rebranded back to "99.1 KXKC". On September 2, 2022, KXKC shifted its format to 1990s-based classic country.KXKC Shifts to 90s Country
Radioinsight - September 9, 2022

References

External links

{{coord, 30.202, N, 91.777, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Classic country radio stations in the United States Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations in Louisiana Radio stations established in 1969 1969 establishments in Louisiana New Iberia, Louisiana