KBIG (104.3 FM, 104.3 MYfm) is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Los Angeles, California and serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format heavy on music from the 2000s to the present day. KBIG has studios located in Burbank, California and its primary transmitter is based on Mount Wilson.
History
Early years
The original KBIG (740 AM) was founded by John H. Poole in 1952, originating from Catalina Island off the coast of California. Known as "The Catalina Island Station", Poole knew KBIG would have wide coverage of Southern California by broadcasting the station's directional signal across ocean water. KBIG was heard from Santa Barbara to San Diego, including the large audience in Los Angeles. The station became popular as it presented an island theme and scheduled music, news, and commercials on a different sequence from his competitors. "We knew if you changed stations during a commercial, you would always find music on K-BIG," Poole claimed. The KBIG call letters were selected in honor of the station's original disc jockey, Carl "Mr. Big" Bailey. The AM station was sold to religious broadcasters in 1980 and now operates as KBRT.
On February 15, 1959, KBIQ officially signed on the air for the first time, and began simulcasting their AM sister station. At the time of its launch, the station aired a beautiful music format, playing lush instrumental versions of Hollywood, Broadway, and pop songs with an occasional vocal. KBIG-FM also had its staff of "KBIG Singers", who would sing the station's jingles and also record station albums to offer to listeners.
Over time, the beautiful music format began to age. In 1987, the station dropped instrumentals and became a soft adult contemporary station, placing it in direct competition with KOST (103.5 FM), which had made a similar transition a few years earlier. Both stations enjoyed high ratings and were heard in many Los Angeles offices and workplaces.
The "Upbeat" evolution
By 1990, KBIG-FM dropped the 1960s songs and began playing more current hits. In 1992, KBIG-FM shifted to hot adult contemporary (hot AC). This lasted until 1995, when the station moved back to mainstream AC to again compete with KOST. In the 1990s, KBIG-FM aired Disco Saturday Night, a weekly show featuring disco music. In late 1996, KBIG-FM once again moved to a hot AC format.
In 1997, KBIG-FM owner Bonneville International conducted a nationwide six-station swap with Chancellor Communications valued at $740 million; in exchange for KBIG-FM, Bonneville obtained country music-formatted KZLA (93.9 FM). In 1998, Chancellor relaunched its new station as "The New K-BIG 104", replaced most of its airstaff, and switched back to a mainstream AC format. During this time, KBIG-FM briefly became the Los Angeles area affiliate to the nationally syndicated love-song show Delilah.
In 1999, Chancellor acquired KOST and KFI from Cox Radio. The same year, Chancellor and Capstar had merged, forming AMFM, Inc. With AMFM now owning KOST, management moved KBIG-FM to a hot AC format with a lean on 1980s gold, uptempo AC currents, and rhythmic pop.
In 2000, AMFM was purchased by Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia). David "Chachi" Denes, age 28, became KBIG-FM's program director in 2003. On July 18, 2005, KBIG-FM made sweeping changes to its presentation by reducing commercial time and airing 30-minute music blocks, dropped jingles and the top of the hour IDs (i.e., "... It's four o'clock in the West ..." would no longer be heard), and tweaked their playlist by dropping current hits in favor of recurrents from the 1980s and 1990s, with most of the music leaning towards a rhythmic approach. DJs also began to read out the individual letters of the station's ID, "K-B-I-G", instead of "K-Big" (although briefly in mid-2007, the "K-Big 104" slogan would sometimes be used). In addition to the station's Boogie Nights program weeknights, in July 2006, KBIG added the dance mix show Thump Radio on weekend late nights. Despite speculation that the station would shift to a dance format, management insisted that there were no changes in the works at the time.