KSPE (94.5 FM, "La Musical 94.5 FM") is a commercial

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 ...

that is licensed to Ellwood, California, a district of Goleta in

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

. It is owned by Rincon Broadcasting and broadcasts a classic regional Mexican music format. The KSPE studios and offices are on East Cota Street in Santa Barbara and the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is located on West Camino Cielo in the

Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California, southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast ...

. While the station's

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

is only 810

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the tower is in

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

, making KSPE a Class B FM station covering the Santa Barbara radio market and parts of Oxnard— Ventura.

History

The station first signed on on April 6, 1989 as KCQR, an

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US rad ...

station calling itself "94 Rock". It was owned by South West Broadcasting, Inc. In 1994, the station was sold to Spectacular Broadcasting, Inc. for $1.2 million. The following year, KCQR changed its

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 ...

to KSPE-FM to match that of co-owned station KSPE (1490 AM) in Santa Barbara and began

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) ...

ing the AM's

regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

music format, with both stations branded "La Musical". In October 1998, Spectacular sold KSPE-FM and its AM counterpart to Jacor Communications (later

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

) for $4.6 million. The AM station switched its call letters to KBKO, while KSPE-FM was separately programmed as "La Preciosa", playing regional Mexican

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 ...

. On January 11, 2007, Clear Channel sold all of its radio stations in Santa Barbara, including KSPE-FM, to Rincon Broadcasting for $17.3 million. KSPE-FM changed call letters in 2010, first to KIST-FM on July 19, then to KFYZ on September 10. The Spanish oldies format remained until December 21, 2010, when the station flipped to

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

with the branding "Z94.5". In September 2017, the station reverted to its previous classic regional Mexican format, this time with the call letters KSPE and branded as "La Musical".

References

External links

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FCC Public Inspection File contour map
{{coord, 34.526, N, 119.959, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title SPE Radio stations established in 1989 1989 establishments in California SPE Oldies radio stations in the United States