Radio Hot 96.9 (KEZE)

KEZE (96.9 FM), "96.9 The River") is an adult album alternative formatted radio station licensed to Spokane, Washington, USA. The Morgan Murphy Media station broadcasts at 96.9 MHz on the FM dial with an effective radiated power of 8.2 kW. Its transmitter is located in Millwood, Washington.KEZE is remembered by many being born in the 1960s as an album-oriented hard rock FM radio station on 105.7 FM ("Rock 106"), sporting the slogan "Spokane's Best Rock". From the late 1970s through the 1980s, the station enjoyed large audience appeal on the strength of playing the "classics" (eg. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) as well as championing newer hard rock bands such as Night Ranger, Krokus, Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, and Def Leppard. With the emergence of grunge and "the Seattle sound" in the late 80s and early 90s, KEZE adopted the harder-edged sounds of heavy guitar-based alternative rock (eg. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains). The station moved to 96.9 FM sometime in the 1990's. As the public appeal of guitar-based alternative waned in the mid-90s, KEZE attempted a "back to our roots" campaign as a Classic Rock station in 1996, only to flip to all-80s format in 1999, known as Star @ 96-9. In 2003, it added more 1990's music, and by 2004, it evolved to an Adult Top 40 format. The morning show on the station was well-known local hosts "The Breakfast Boys", who are now on sister station KZZU.On October 12, 2005, the station flipped to Rhythmic Top 40, a move that might have been spurred by rumors that another move-in might fill the void after KYWL dropped the format in 2004. Those rumors became reality in December 2005 when KQQB-FM signed with the same format as KEZE's, even though KEZE does have a better advantage over KQQB in terms of signal coverage in Spokane County proper. KQQB evolved into a Mainstream Top 40 direction, thus leaving KEZE as the only Rhythmic in the market. During this time, KEZE was known as "Wired 96-9" with the slogan "BLAZIN' TODAY'S HOTTEST MUSIC!", and was Spokane's home for the Portland, Oregon based morning show The Playhouse (radio show).On November 20, 2008, KEZE began playing Christmas music. This format change to Christmas music left Spokane without a Rhythmic Top 40 station and a home for The Playhouse. It also left speculation that the move might either be a stunt or possible format flip brewing. The temporary format change continued through Christmas Eve of that year.On Christmas Day of 2008, KEZE switched to Top Country, branding itself as "Coyote Country." This made KEZE the fourth station in the Spokane area to broadcast the country format on the FM band following KDRK ("The Cat"), KIXZ ("KIX 96"), and KICR. On May 15, 2009, Coyote Country added weekday morning show The Jay and Kevin Show which had previously aired on KDRK (93.7 FM, "The Cat") for 11 years. Jay and Kevin are joined by Sean "Slim" Widmer, formerly of Spokane's Sports Show, as their producer.On January 1, 2010, KEZE moved its Country format to 99.9, while KXLY-FM's AAA format took over 96.9.On November 12, 2010, the station flipped to all-Christmas. This makes it the second time the 96.9 has played Christmas music. It is unknown if there will be a format flip or just a temporary format before reverting to AAA after the holidays.