KJR-FM (93.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. The studios and offices are on Elliott Avenue West in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood northwest of downtown. The transmitter is located on Cougar Mountain.
History
Early years (1964-1981) The station signed on the air on May 6, 1964, as KBLE-FM. It was owned by Eastside Broadcasting, as the sister station to KNBX (AM 1050). While KNBX aired country music, KBLE-FM aired a Christian radio format, with an effective radiated power of 6,600 watts.
Within a few years, the formats were flipped. KBLE-FM began playing country music while the AM station changed its callsign to KBLE and served as a Christian radio station. KBLE-FM's power was increased to 20,000 watts and its transmitter was moved to Cougar Mountain in Issaquah.
In the 1970s, the stations were acquired by Ostrander-Wilson, which returned the religious format to KBLE-FM. It also increased its power to 100,000 watts, making it audible around the Puget Sound region from Olympia to Mount Vernon.
Top 40/CHR (1981-1991) On March 17, 1981, after First Media bought the station, KBLE-FM flipped to an automated Top 40/CHR format as "The Northwest's New 93 FM". Their first song was "Use ta Be My Girl" by The O'Jays, followed by "Beast of Burden" by The Rolling Stones.
On July 8, 1981, at 5:04 p.m., KBLE-FM officially launched with a live and local on-air staff. On April 2, 1982, the call letters were changed to KUBE, and the station became known as "KUBE 93 FM". Shortly after the switch to Top 40/CHR, KUBE shot up to the top 5 in the Seattle radio market ratings (occasionally reaching #1 in some books and target demographics) and would later become the dominant CHR station in the Seattle metropolitan area. In 1988, Cook Inlet Radio Partners acquired the station.
KUBE primarily competed against two other Top 40/CHR stations in the Seattle metropolitan area: KNBQ (owned by Viacom), and KPLZ (owned by Golden West Broadcasting), creating an intense rivalry between the three stations throughout the rest of the 1980s (with the exception of KNBQ, who flipped to oldies in 1988). KUBE jocks during this period include Bobby Case, Diane McKenzie, Tom Hutyler, Kimberly "Gilly" Johnson, Barry Beck, Michele Grosenick, Thomas "Shotgun Tom" Kelly, Glenn Beck, Wendy Christopher, Mark Edwards, Jerry Hart, Trey Hernandez, Gary Bryan, Hollywood Humphries, Truck Rogers, and Brad Spencer. KUBE was also the Seattle affiliate for "American Top 40", first hosted by Casey Kasem, and then Shadoe Stevens. From July 1981 until September 1995, the KUBE morning show was hosted by Charlie Brown (formerly of KJR), Ty Flint (formerly of KVI), and Mary White.
Rhythmic (1991-2016) In November 1991, KUBE gradually shifted to a rhythmic contemporary direction as "KUBE 93 Jams" (but still retained its normal movement on mainstream titles) and maintained strong ratings during this period.
In March 1994, Cook Inlet sold KUBE to a partnership between New Century Management and the Ackerley Group called New Century Media. (KJR and soft adult contemporary station KLTX joined the group in July.) Also that month, likely because of the public outcry of a "gangland-style" drive by shooting of a Ballard High School student (which some claimed was motivated by hip hop music and a growing gangster culture in Seattle), as well as their audience's changing music tastes, KUBE shifted to a hybrid rhythmic/modern rock format as simply "KUBE 93". The station began using the slogans "Seattle's New Music Revolution" and "Channel X," a popular way to identify modern rock stations at the time. However, the station's ratings were not impressive with the format, and by November of that year, the station flipped back to a full-blown Rhythmic format. The station quickly regained its top 10 status, usually peaking at #1 in several books for the next several years.
In February 1998, the Ackerley Group bought the station outright from New Century.
For many years, KUBE marketed itself as "Seattle's #1 Hit Music Station, KUBE 93". iHeartMedia (then known as Clear Channel Communications) purchased KUBE, along with sister stations KJR, KJR-FM, KFNK and outdoor advertiser AK Media, from Ackerley Communications in 2001. On April 1, 2009, Clear Channel acquired Top 40 rival KBKS-FM from CBS Radio. At the time, KUBE was competing against rhythmic AC station KQMV (Movin' 92.5), owned by Sandusky. KUBE changed its slogan to "More Non-Stop Music", and then later to "Hits & Hip-Hop".