The station signed on the air on October 10, 1959.[4] Its original call sign was KOCW and it was owned by Grayhill, Inc. It was a rare stand-alone FM station in an era when few people owned FM receivers. Most FM stations at that time were co-owned with an AM or TV station. In 1960, Claude Hill bought out partner Meredith Gray. The station had an easy listening format, known as "Good Music."
KOCW was sold to Dawson Communications/Turnpike Broadcasting Corporation in 1968 and became KMOD on April 15 of that year. It had a progressive rock format. The call letters represented the word "modern." Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner to today's iHeartMedia, acquired the station in 1973 out of bankruptcy. It became the sister station to 1300 KXXO (now KAKC).
KMOD is known as the nearly 30-year home of disc jockeys Brent Douglas and Phil Stone, who hosted morning drive time. The pair originated the character Roy D. Mercer, the notorious and popular prank caller who regularly threatened to "open a can of whup-ass" on the person he called for some fabricated wrong the person supposedly had done. Eventually the person might find out the call was a prank. Stone and Douglas' show was ended due to the latter's refusal to sign a new contract.[5] Stone died in 2012.
Actress Jeanne Tripplehorn was also a DJ at KMOD in the 1980s. She used the air name Jeanne Summers.[6]
