KYYS
KYYS originally debuted in 1974 at 102.1 FM and enjoyed a large fanbase. It promoted itself as "KY-102", and featured a sunglasses-wearing-hippo in its logo. The name "KY" was chosen to represent the first and last letter in the spelling of Kansas City.
In September 1997, the station's new owners, American Radio Systems, decided to replace KYYS with a short-lived modern adult contemporary music format, prompting dismayed fans to convince rival company Entercom to bring back the format. And with their adult contemporary station KLTH "Lite 99.7" faring even worse than KOZN's "102.1 The Zone", 99.7 became the new home for KYYS, which, no longer being on 102.1 FM, began promoting itself simply as "99-7 KY" on October 20, 1997. The first song heard on the new KY was "Back in Black" by AC/DC. Former KY-102 personalities Max Floyd, Tanna Guthrie, Larry Moffitt, Doug Medlock, Marty Wall, and Vaughn Mac made the move as well. Later, KY alums Slacker, T.J. Price, Paul Freddrocks, Jon Hart and Frankie also made the switch, some for just short periods of time. The station would gain the KYYS call letters in early 1998, when 102.1 changed to KOZN.
In 2000, KYYS became the sister station of KQRC, which plays a more modern and heavier mix of rock. This caused KY to become a "flanker" station for Entercom, designed to protect KQRC from competition. This worked until 2005, when Union Broadcasting signed on "97-3 Max FM," a rock station directed toward taking down KQRC. When Max FM signed on, it used the slogan "Everything that Rocks." Shortly after its sign on KY changed its slogan to "Everything that Rocks" and altered its playlist to an 80s-based classic hard rock format. This caused many longtime KY listeners to jump ship to rival KCFX. Due to the failure of this change, KY returned to its standard classic rock format in a few months, but never seemed to recover all of its listeners.
In 2005, the station began playing Nights with Alice Cooper, a nationally broadcast radio show hosted by the longtime rocker. The station broadcast the Dr. Demento show at midnight on Monday morning/Sunday nights. KY hosted an annual tribute to Elvis Presley, encouraging Elvis impersonators to parade around Barney Allis Plaza in Downtown Kansas City on his birthday.
In 2007, KYYS started advertising its attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records world record for Most Guitars Played at Once. The planned song was Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. Pre-registration was offered on the station's website. In exchange for participating, commemorative t-shirts were offered. Online registration ceased around June 1, 2007. Finally, on Sunday, June 3, 2007, the attempt to break the record (previously held in Vancouver, Canada with 1,322 people) was made. The old record was beaten, with approximately 1,721 people participating in the event.