KSON (103.7 FM) - currently branded as "103.7 KSON" - is a San Diego Country station, owned and operated by Entercom. KSON broadcasts on HD Radio. The HD-2 channel is "KSON Legendary Country" which broadcasts a Classic Country format.

History

The station originally signed on in February 1965 as KSDO-FM, and aired country music. It was co-owned with KSDO AM. In 1971, KSDO-FM became KOZN-FM, playing a beautiful music format. On May 20, 1979, the call letters were changed to KJQY and the station was known as "K-Joy". The station evolved into an adult contemporary format in the late 1980s as "Sunny 103.7", then on February 16, 1995, it became "Rock Mix 103.7" KMKX, playing classic rock music.[12]

On July 5, 1996, the call letters changed to KPLN and the station was then known as "The Planet", continuing with a classic rock format. At that time, it was the radio home of Brad Martin (now afternoons on KPBS-FM),Cindy Pace (now on The Walrus 105.7) and Dan Lopez (now syndicated).

Free FM

On October 25, 2005, the station changed formats from classic rock to an FM talk format with the brand "Free FM", and their call letters changed on October 28 from KPLN to KSCF. In December 2005, Howard Stern left the terrestrial airwaves and moved to Sirius Satellite Radio. At the beginning, Adam Carolla was their morning show host. He started January 3, 2006, replacing Stern.

On March 1, 2006, The Phil Hendrie Show was replaced by the Dick and Skibba Show, a local show formerly from 97.1 Free FM. The show aired in the 7pm-10pm time slot, then the only live and local talk show in San Diego in the evening. As a result, this pushed Phil Hendrie to a later 10pm-1am time slot. Dick and Skibba were fired on February 14, 2007, according to program director Jim Daniels, the show was too cerebral for San Diego.

On March 5, 2007, the Generation Y University show replaced the Dick and Skibba show. The show was hosted by three 23-year-old men who were all Mt. Carmel High School alumni who grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos. The show had previously aired on Sunday afternoons from 5pm-7pm. The show was cancelled on April 25, 2007 and replaced by Generic Radio. The show, hosted by Howie and Pags, was an irreverent look at the stories of the day, including observational humor, interviews and live in-studio musical performances by many local acts.

At first, CBS Radio had high hopes for KSCF with extensive marketing aimed at attracting the adult male demos, but ever since they switched formats from KPLN to Free FM, the station's ratings started to drop. In fall 2005, (when 103.7 became Free FM), ratings were 2.2, mainly due to Howard Stern being the morning show host. In the beginning of 2006, 103.7's ratings dropped in half to a rating of 1.1, due to a much less popular Adam Carolla morning show. The ratings would later slip in Summer 2006 to a rating of 1.0, and remained at 1.0 in the Fall 2006.

In the end, the attempt to make Free FM a success in San Diego had proven to be too difficult and like other Free FM sister stations in New York City (WFNY) and San Francisco (KIFR), which returned to active rock and classic hits respectively, KSCF decided to switch formats in June 2007. To add to the demise of the Free FM family of stations, Its sister station in Phoenix (KZON) flipped to Rhythmic Contemporary at the same exact time as KSCF's format switch.

Sophie @ 103.7

On June 22, 2007, at 3PM (PDT), KSCF flipped to Oldies as "K-Surf 103.7." The first song played was "Surfin' U.S.A." by The Beach Boys. They were supposed to be the market's first FM Oldies outlet since 2005, when XHOCL had the format prior to its flip to Regional Mexican. The last song played in the short-lived oldies format was "Bobby's Girl" by Marcie Blane. Following "Bobby's Girl" at 5PM (PDT), the Oldies format turned out to be a stunt as the station revealed its true format, a Modern AC as Sophie @ 103.7, adapted slightly from sister station KLLC in San Francisco, which is known as Alice @ 97.3. Its first song under this format was Jack Johnson's "Upside Down", followed by Fall Out Boy's "Thnks fr th Mmrs."

Energy 103.7

On March 29, 2012, CBS Radio announced that at 5 p.m. (PDT) that day, it would flip KSCF to a CHR format with a heavy emphasis on upbeat Rhythmic, Dance and Pop hits targeting Teens and Adults 18–34 years old, as "Energy 103.7". In a statement made to radio industry website All Access, SVP/Market Manager Bob Bolinger noted that "Today's charts are dominated by energetic and upbeat Top 40 hits and the fans of this popular music are among the most engaged and digitally focused listeners. Using a powerful combination of over the air and online will produce a superior product and great results for brands that support the station."[13][14]

Throughout the rest of the day, 103.7 ran jockless, with liners promoting to listen at 5:00 p.m.; at that time, after playing Ke$ha's Blow (which began to repeat on a loop, gradually getting faster, on the word "blow", before grinding to a halt, leading into an introductory montage), "Energy" was launched, with the first song being Calvin Harris' Feel So Close.[15] CBS also applied for a call letter change to KEGY; the call letters were officially granted on April 2nd. "Energy" currently competes with KHTS-FM and XHTZ.

KEGY has evolved to integrate popular DJs of the EDM movement heavily in their playlists, web coverage[16] and in their live events. In June 2014, they held a private show for the EDM supergroup Disclosure, where they took over the popular electronic dance nightclub Fluxx for their listeners.[17] This promotion was part of their Ultimate Summer Experience which gave listeners free lifestyle experiences, live shows and a chance to win a new car.[18]

On September 4, 2012, radio show host AJ Machado announced via AJ in the Morning's Facebook page that he would be joining KEGY in morning drive. AJ and his longtime producer, Hula, have been without a radio show home since leaving Star 94.1 in mid-July of the same year.

KSON

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom (which owns KBZT, KXSN and KSON).[19] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th. At 9 p.m. on the 16th, after playing "Havana" by Camila Cabello, KSON would move to 103.7. The first song on KSON at 103.7 was "When It Rains It Pours" by Luke Combs. The move comes as KSON's former simulcast partner KSOQ was spun off to the Educational Media Foundation as a condition of the merger to meet ownership limits set by the FCC, and that 103.7 has a stronger signal than KSON's former frequency at 97.3 FM. Both 103.7 and 97.3 would simulcast for three days before "Energy" was moved to 97.3 the following Monday (the "Energy" format was temporarily moved online during that time).[20][12]
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