Desert Broadcasters launched its two new brands in Palm Springs at this afternoon as 920 KKGX Palm Springs became Conservative Talk “KGX Real Talk” while 1340 KWXY Cathedral City will return to its heritage Soft Oldies/Beautiful Music identity.
KKGX’s all-syndicated programming lineup will include the Armstrong & Getty in mornings, Chris Plante from 10am-12pm, Todd Schnitt from 12-3pm, Palm Springs based Chad Benson from 3-6pm, America Now with Buck Sexton 6-9pm, Beyond Reality Radio 9-11pm, Kate Delaney 11pm-3am, and Doug Stephan 3-5am.
KGX debuted atat 3:00pm after a two hour special on both frequencies that featured Station Manager Kevin Barrett, Chad Benson, a Southern California aircheck and jingle montage, and tributes and interviews with former station owners Glen Barnett and Ric and Rozene Supple.
1340 will become “Relaxing Music” featuring “wall-to-wall music with minimal interruptions”. KWXY on 1340/98.5 was one of the last Beautiful Music stations until the FM was flipped to Classic Hits in 2010. 1340 eventually segued to Adult Standards before that format was moved to its then translator and an HD subchannel after the translator was sold to Alpha Media in 2015. In its final days prior to going dark last summer, 1340 KWXY aired the Liberal Talk format that had previously been heard on 1450 KPTR.
Original Report 3/14: Desert Broadcasters has returned 920 KKGX Palm Springs (formerly KPSI) and 1340 KWXY Cathedral City CA to the air and is currently stunting on both frequencies.
KKGX and KWXY are both running hourly music block for listeners to vote on. Among the choices are Marching Bands, Surf Music, Disco, The Hamilton Soundtrack, and All-Macarena. A countdown clock on the website indicates the permanent formats will launch on Thursday, March 16 at 1:00pm. 920 KGX will eventually be rebroadcast on 99.1 K256CU when it is launched.
Both stations went dark in August 2016 as former owners Ric and Rozene Supple ended their operations. Garry Wing’s Desert Broadcasters acquired the stations in October for $375,000. Wing is a former on-air personality and programmer who owns call-out research company Comquest.
If there’s a stunt that Garry would do, it’s an hour of Macarena…
He’s an expert at music research, so expect his homework to be done well prior to launch.