KOOL-FM - History

History

KOOL-FM began programming oldies music in 1971, a format brought to the station by Jerry Osborne, who used the air name Dan Coffey. Since the station did not have an oldies library, Osborne supplied all of the music from his own collection. The Dan Coffey Show, which aired on Saturday and Sunday nights, from 6:00 to midnight, immediately became the most popular program on KOOL-FM — so much so that they hired a woman (Pam MacKenzie) whose only job it was to answer the flood of calls and music requests for the Dan Coffey Show. At the time, no other station in the Phoenix market had an oldies format, and Osborne was given the freedom by KOOL-FM (then owned by Gene Autry) to play anything he wanted.

Now the door to success was opened and by the end of 1971 the entire station followed. They switched to an all-oldies format. In 1975, Osborne left radio to start his own publishing company. Before he left, he recorded thousands of oldies for the KOOL-FM music library.

By about 1983, KOOL was playing a small amount of 1980s music as well. Still, they focused on the music of the late 1960s. The station was co-owned with KOOL-AM 960. That station played strictly the music of 1955-1969 with an emphasis on the pre-1964 oldies. The stations were both owned by Adams Communications, along with then-CBS affiliate KOOL-TV, channel 10. Ownership and affiliation changes in the 1980s and 1990s saw it becoming KTSP and then Fox-owned KSAZ-TV.

Adams kept KOOL-AM-FM when KOOL-TV was sold. The oldies format remained unchanged throughout the 1980s. They even brought their founder, Jerry Osborne, back via telephone interviews with him — a regular feature of the morning show with B.J. Hunter.

In the early 1990s, KOOL 960 began simulcasting KOOL-FM. At that point the music from the late 1970s and early 1980s was eliminated almost completely. The bulk of the music played was from 1964 to 1969 with a couple of songs per hour from the early 1970s and several pre-1964 oldies per hour. The station became more focused at that point. Colfax Broadcasting acquired the stations in 1994.

In 1996, Chancellor acquired KOOL-AM-FM. At that time they acquired several other stations in the market, bringing them to over their ownership limit of 8. They opted to sell KOOL-AM-FM was sold to Salem Media in 1997 and the AM, renamed KPXQ, became a Christian Talk station. In 2002, KPXQ became NewsTalk 960 KKNT focusing on conservative talk radio.

KOOL-FM went to Infinity/CBS Radio. The music continued to be about the same until about 1999. At that point more late 1970s songs were added while the pre-1964 oldies were cut back slightly. In 2001, some early 1980s music was added and the pre 1964 oldies were cut to about 2 per hour. By 2003, as was the case was the oldies format continued to evolve, the pre 1964 oldies were eliminated almost completely with a handful of exceptions. More 1980s titles were also added at that point. Today the station, like most oldies outlets, has more of a classic hits format rather than a true oldies format.

In February 2008, CBS Radio made major layoffs that sent many longtime personalities packing, including Bill Gardner, John Michaels, Camelback Jack (who will later return), Dave Shannon, and several part-time personalities that had been with the station over the years, including Liz Boyle, Dennis Mitchell and Tony McGraw, aka "Skippy".

With the public release of Arbitron PPM data in July '09, KOOL-FM continues to be one of the most listened to stations in Phoenix with an airstaff anchored by 30 year market veterans Tom Peake and Steve Goddard along with the return of Camelback Jack at night and radio veteran Jeffrey T. Mason in middays.