106.5 FM
Strauss-Abernathy Broadcasting, owners of Liberty's AM station KCXL, first broadcast on 106.5 FM on May 8, 1978 with a Top-40 station, KFIX. In November 1979, the station flipped to progressive rock and changed call letters to KSAS. In March of 1983, the station slightly modified its format to album rock as "106.5 KKCI". Legendary Kansas City DJ Randy Miller started his career at KKCI. In October of 1986, the station flipped to the overcrowded soft AC format as "106.5 K-Lite" with the call letters KLYT. There were already 6 stations playing the format in the market. In August of 1988, the station returned to album rock as "106.5 KXXR" with "Roll With It" by Steve Winwood being the first song played. Like the station's first time with the format, the station competed against KYYS. On June 15, 1990, at 3 PM, due to falling market share, the station flipped to a Rhythmic-leaning CHR as "X-106", with "Me So Horny" by 2 Live Crew being the first song played. By early 1992, the station moved towards a more mainstream direction and branded simply as "106.5 KXXR".
On February 15, 1992, at midnight, KXXR swapped frequencies with KCFM, a country station at 107.3 FM. The station's final song before the switch was "2 Legit 2 Quit" by MC Hammer. Once KCFM's country format moved to 106.5, the station ran an all-Garth Brooks marathon, then changed call letters to KKCJ and branded as "CJ 106." The "CJ" stood for "Country Junction." Due to a crowded market for country music (which resulted in low ratings for KKCJ), KKCJ began a month long stunt in March of 1995 with all-polka music and Hootie and the Blowfish tunes. One month later, the station flipped to smooth jazz as "106.5 The City" with the KCIY call letters. The first song on "The City" was "Smooth Operator" by Sade. Despite its apparent popularity in the workplace over soft rock stations KUDL (which became their sister station in 1997), KLTH and KSRC and Kansas City's place in jazz history, the format was yanked on August 10, 2003 after playing "Neither One of Us" by Gladys Knight & The Pips. After that, sister country station WDAF moved from 610 AM to 106.5 FM. The two stations simulcasted until September 10th, when 610 adopted a sports talk format to compete against WHB. After the demise of KCIY, the former smooth jazz format was aired on Saturday mornings and Sunday nights on KUDL.
In 2006, station owner Entercom announced that a smooth jazz format will debut on 106.5-HD2.
On January 10, 2007, months after moving to its new Mission, Kansas studios, WDAF-FM changed branding to 106.5 The Wolf.
Read more about this topic: WDAF-FM