KALE

• 1. Introduction

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  KALE has worn more names in a few years than most radio stations carry in a lifetime. It signs on today at 960 AM as "106.1 The Bridge," a contemporary Christian station licensed to Richland, Washington, serving the Tri-Cities area. But that calm tagline hides a restless past. Inside one decade this single signal called itself More FM, then Classic Hits 106.1, then Big 106.1, then Santa 106.1, then More FM again, before landing where it sits now. Why does one station keep changing its identity? What made it dominant once, and what pulled it back to the middle of the pack? And how did a tangle of owners, a blocked sale, and a federal regulator's eight-page letter all converge on a frequency in eastern Washington?

• 2. The AM Heyday

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  the 1st of April 1950 is the day the signal first went out, broadcasting with 1,000 watts on AM 900 kHz under Yakima Broadcasting Corp. For years the station played a Top-40 format, the sound that defined commercial radio for a generation. Its strongest run came in the early to mid-1970s, when KALE reached the high point of its life as an AM station. Ratings told the story plainly. The station sat at or near the top of the age 18-to-49 block, and it ranked high among teen listeners too, often leading the market in sales billings. Behind the music was a working newsroom that earned recognition. The news department collected numerous regional and statewide Society of Professional Journalists awards. The good years did not hold. As listeners drifted from AM to FM through the latter 1970s and early 1980s, that dominance faded, and in the early 1980s the station traded Top-40 for a more adult contemporary sound.

• 3. A Chain Of Owners

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  Sterling Recreation Organization held the station through the 1970s, the first in a long relay of owners. After Sterling came Revitalization Partners, and then New Northwest Broadcasters, based in Seattle, took control. The arrangement grew complicated by debt. New Northwest Broadcasters owed more than $16 million, an obligation that would eventually decide the station's fate. Each handoff brought new plans and new pressures to a signal that had once led its market on its own terms. The next owner would not simply buy the station. It would buy the debt around it.

• 4. The Blocked Sale

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  In December 2010, Townsquare Media announced plans to acquire 12 stations owned by New Northwest Broadcasters. The problem was arithmetic. Townsquare already owned 11 stations in the Yakima and Tri-City areas, so it intended to spin off 11 stations once the deal closed. The plan also called for moving some formats to new frequencies, with some call signs expected to change. Federal regulators were not persuaded. In July 2011, the FCC stopped Townsquare Media's plan to buy the 12 Tri-City and Yakima outlets. The 30th of July 2011 Tri-City Herald quoted an eight-page letter from the FCC, which said the proposed use of a divestiture trust "was a substantial departure from the kinds of uses previously approved by the commission and dismissed five sets of applications that would have reassigned the radio station licenses." The deal was dead, and 12 stations were left waiting for a buyer.

• 5. The Fargo Buyer

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  On the 6th of November 2011, the Tri-City Herald reported that a radio owner from Fargo, North Dakota, was paying more than $6 million for the 12 Tri-Cities and Yakima stations. The mechanism was unusual. Ingstad Radio Washington agreed to buy, at a discount, more than $16 million in debt owed by New Northwest Broadcasters, purchasing it from a creditor, CIT Group. The discounted price came to about $6.7 million for all 12 stations. The Tri-Cities group in the sale was a spread of formats: KUJ-FM, a Top-40 hits station; KIOK-FM, country; KEGX-FM, classic rock; KTCR, talk radio; KKSR-FM, variety hits; and KALE itself, then a FOX Sports affiliate. The Yakima side added KXDD-FM and KARY-FM, KRSE-FM and KHHK-FM, the ESPN affiliate KJOX, and the news station KBBO. By the 15th of May 2012, the Tri-City Herald reported KALE had switched to a "Country Legends" classic country format, with its sports programming moved to sister station AM 1340.

• 6. Moving Studios

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  Road 68 in Pasco, Washington was the station's first studio home, sharing the site with its transmitter. From there the studios moved to 218 W. Kennewick Ave. in Kennewick, then shifted again in 1978 to 310 W. Kennewick Ave. when KALE's FM station, KIOK at FM 94.9, was licensed and began broadcasting. That second Kennewick address carried its own history. The site at 310 W. Kennewick Ave. had been the historic Benton Theatre, which at the time of the move was also owned by Sterling Recreation Organization. After several years broadcasting from North Columbia Center Blvd. in Kennewick, the station settled into its current home at 4304 S. 24th Ave. in Kennewick in 2012, the same year it adopted classic country.

• 7. The Format Carousel

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  the 24th of February 2016 marks the start of a dizzying stretch of reinventions, when KALE became adult contemporary as "106.1 More FM," simulcast on FM translator K291BS at 106.1 FM in Richland. That branding lasted months. On the 19th of September 2016, the station turned to classic hits as "Classic Hits 106.1," swapping formats with KKSR 95.7 in Walla Walla. After playing Christmas music through the holidays, it rebranded on the 26th of December 2017 as "Big 106.1." The whiplash continued the next year. On the 26th of July 2018, KALE flipped back to adult contemporary and the More FM name, while KKSR 95.7 switched to contemporary Christian. This second More FM run was brief. On the 31st of October 2018, the station began stunting with Christmas music again as "Santa 106.1," though the Brooke & Jubal morning show stayed on the air. On the 26th of December 2018, KALE returned to adult contemporary and More FM. Then on the 17th of June 2022, it changed once more, to contemporary Christian as "106.1 The Bridge," the identity it carries now under Stephens Media Group.