On April 1, 1963, KUFY signed on the air. It was the FM counterpart of KOFY (now KTCT), owned by Intercontinental Radio, Inc. While the AM station aired a Regional Mexican format, KUFY played beautiful music, mostly instrumental cover versions of popular songs along with Hollywood and Broadway showtunes.
In 1975, the station flipped to an urban contemporary format and took the call letters KSOL for "K-Soul".[4] The original K-Soul broadcast on 1450 AM (now KEST). KSOL became the first urban radio station on the FM dial in the San Francisco Bay Area. Local musician Sly Stone played a part in influencing the station to make the switch.
While KSOL managed to fend off competition from KBLX unscathed throughout the 1980s, KSOL's ratings began to decline due to competition from KMEL, then a Top 40 station which was slowly evolving in a rhythmic contemporary format before going in a mainstream urban direction. Eventually, the decision was made to end KSOL and its format. The DJs were notified beforehand and held a goodbye show to send off KSOL on February 10, 1992. The final song on KSOL was "Miss You Much" by Janet Jackson. Afterwards, KSOL segued into a 72-hour loop of "Wild Thing" by Tone Lōc.
KYLD
On February 13, 1992, 107.7 FM flipped to rhythmic contemporary, branded as "WiLD 107". The first song on "WiLD" was "D.M.S.R" by Prince.[5] For the first year and a half, the station retained the old KSOL call letters.
Allen Shaw's Crescent Communications bought the station in December 1993 for $13.5 million.[6] KSOL's call letters were changed to KYLD the following year. The company also purchased 99.1 in San Jose from Viacom, and began simulcasting KYLD's programming in the South Bay, to expand coverage. Program Director Rick Thomas and Music Director Michael Martin set a plan in motion to overtake KMEL; they came up with a strategy of playing "old school" and up tempo freestyle/dance songs like those heard on heritage San Jose radio station HOT 97.7. KMEL moved from rhythmic to urban contemporary at the same time, and the two stations battled with each other throughout the mid-1990s.
KSAN
At 12:01 a.m. on July 2, 1997, KYLD moved to 94.9 FM. 107.7 and 94.9 would simulcast until Midnight on July 7, when 107.7 FM, now with the KSAN call letters, began stunting with construction noises and song clips as a prelude to a flip to classic rock at noon on July 11.[7]
On March 13, 2000, after playing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John, followed by a stunt with funeral bells, the station relaunched as "The Bone", playing classic rock with a harder edge. To initiate this change, the station played AC/DC "A to Z", all 154 songs the band had recorded at that point, aired in alphabetical order.[8]
Classic to mainstream rock
With the demise of rival rock station KSJO in 2004, the station adopted a mainstream rock format. The playlist shifted back toward classic rock in April 2017. The current playlist consists of hard rock staples from the '60s to mid 2000s.[9] The weekday on-air staff at The Bone consisted of morning team Lamont & Tonelli, as well as Chasta, Steven Seaweed and Zakk.
In early 2016, Steven Seaweed's "All Request Hot Lunch" was cancelled by the program director. In August, Lejf Jaeger left the Bone. He had been part-time weekends for ten years. With his departure, "Local Licks" was also removed from the programming.[citation needed]
Steven Seaweed retired on July 1, 2017, after 44 years of deejaying in the Bay Area, the last 20 of which had been with KSAN.[10]
