KDMX - History

History

This station first began its broadcasting activities as KQRO on October 15, 1960 (although license was granted on July 2, 1959). It went dark a year later then returned to the airwaves in 1962. For that time, KQRO's format consisted mostly of classical and orchestral music. In 1965, the callsign was changed to KEIR with an unknown format.

In 1971, the call letters were changed once again to KDTX, this time with a religious format. Then over six years later, the callsign was changed to KMGC (the KDTX call letters were later used on a local TV station in 1987, ironically with Christian programming) and the Christian contemporary format continued up until September 1977. It was then changed to an adult contemporary format as Mellow 102.9 and a month later to Magic 102.9. Prior to that, a mass distribution of door-hanger flyers announced the station is coming. The station enjoyed a loyal following until May 9, 1991, when KMGC began stunting with a series of formats ranging from rock oldies (as "Cool 102.9" on May 9) to country (as "Kickin' Country" on May 10) to an all-Beatles format (also on May 10), and then party cocktail noise on May 11 and May 12, before changing to its current callsign and settling on its long-running Hot adult contemporary format as "Mix 102.9."

In 2009, parent company Clear Channel Communications laid off over 2,000 employees to lower costs and forced its "Mix" branded stations to voice track most of their airtime, leaving very few live personalities across the nation. Among laying off in Dallas, the voices of midday personality Lisa Thomas was replaced with fellow Clear Channel station KUSS's midday personality, Cindy Spicer. Late night personality Joe Kelley was replaced with voicetracking. Morning co-host Tony Zazza was replaced with weeknight personality Jen Austin and the Program Director Rick. Zazza is now the midday host at competing station KVIL. Later that year, Jen Austin was laid off as well. With afternoons, shortly hosted by PD Rick, but later satellite-fed On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

KDMX originally launched a secondary HD Radio (HD-2) subchannel known as "The Summit", broadcasting an AAA format. It has since then moved to KZPS 92.5 HD-2 to make way for Pride Radio (previously on KHKS HD-2) with a format attracting the LGBT community. As of March 28, 2011, 102.9 HD-2 is broadcasting a Soft Oldies/AC Gold format as "Sunny 102.9 HD-2", shifting "Pride Radio" back to 106.1 HD-2.

Typically, a Hot AC station wouldn't play any hip hop/rap songs or pop songs that feature rappers. However, as of 2011, KDMX began playing very few said tracks by LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, and Pitbull; as of 2012, KDMX began playing songs from artists like Flo Rida, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj.

On May 18, 2012, KDMX rebranded as 102.9 Now, dropping most modern AC artists, and shifted to an adult top 40 format. However, as of October 2012, KDMX returned to Hot AC. Some of the Modern AC artists have returned to the station's playlist, and dropped some hip hop tracks. The switch back to Hot AC was likely due to low ratings, as well as overlapping sister Top 40 KHKS.