KSBW-FM at first simulcast the programming on KSBW 1380 AM, by the late 1960s it was broadcasting an automatedbeautiful music format. It featured quarter-hour sweeps of soft instrumental cover versions of adult pop music, with limited talk and commercials.
Top 40 and Rhythmic Contemporary
KSBW-FM became a Top 40/CHR station as KDON-FM in the early 1980s. The KDON call sign has a Top 40 heritage in the Monterey-Salinas market going back to the mid-1960s, when it was used on 1460 AM. The AM station on 1460 kHz gave up those call letters and its Top 40 format to become a talk radio station. KDON-FM began as an automated Top 40 station with no disc jockeys. This was not uncommon for FM Top 40 stations in those days, when most radios only received AM stations. As the years progressed and more listeners switched to the FM band, on-air personalities were added.
The format evolved into Rhythmic Contemporary by 1988 and since then has remained one of the highest rated stations in the Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz radio market.
In the early nineties, Mancow Muller hosted a local morning show on KDON (he would later go onto success as a morning host in Chicago and syndicated around the country).
