By day, KIXW is powered at 5,000 wattsnon-directional. At night, to protect other stations on 960 AM from interference, it reduces power to 20 watts. The transmitter is off Rincon Road in Apple Valley.[2]
On June 5, 1954, the station signed on as KAVR.[3] The call sign stood for "Apple Valley Radio". The station was owned by Newton T. Bass, under the corporate name Apple Valley Broadcasting. KAVR was a daytimer, powered at 5,000 watts, but it had to sign-off at sunset.
In 1998, the station was sold to Crown Broadcasting. At the time, it aired an oldies format. It later switched to a talk radio format.
Controversial hosts
In the early 2000s, KIXW had a locally based talk program, "The Barb Stanton Show". The show was cancelled in mid-May 2007 after Ms. Stanton made comments on the air regarding what she perceived as the massive influx of Asian-Americans into the Victor Valley. The comments were prompted when she found out that a Victorville-based bank was about to be bought out by Pasadena-based East West Bank, owned by Dominic Ng, a third-generation Asian-American resident of Pasadena.
In 2019, KIXW was under fire once again when host Jeff Duran made controversial comments regarding non-binary and transgender teens. The host was fired and replaced by alternate local paid programming.[4]
