area seattle tacoma metropolitan area branding star 101.5 slogan today s best mix frequency 101.5 mhz fm first air date 1959 as keto format hot adult contemporary erp 100 000 watts haat 372 meters class c0 facility id 21663 callsign meaning k plus former handle former callsigns keto 1959 1976 kvi fm 1976 1981 owner sinclair broadcast group sinclair radio of seattle licensee llc webcast listen live website star1015.com kplz fm 101.5 fm is a commercial radio station located in seattle washington . kplz fm airs a hot adult contemporary music format branded as star 101.5 . kplz broadcasts on a frequency of 101.5 mhz with an erp of 100 000 watts through a transmitter located on cougar mountain while its studios and offices are co located with television partner komo tv within komo plaza formerly fisher plaza in the lower queen anne section of seattle directly across the street from the space needle . history edit from its founding in 1959 until 1976 the station at 101.5 was keto and carried easy listening and country music formats . during the 1970s am radio dominated the seattle airwaves . the major country station was kayo 1150 . top 40 stations in the city included kol which became country station kmps in the mid 1970s . in 1976 seattle was a two station battleground between king1090 and the legendary kjr 950 . when golden west broadcasters bought the station they decided to name the station kvi fm or the fm kvi and flip to a top 40 format becoming the company s first station with the format . the first song played under the new format was beginnings by chicago . the fm kvi s first program director was frank colbourn who relocated to seattle from monterey california to sign on the new format . the new format quickly became very popular as am music began to lose its audience to the fm band . colbourn lead the station to ratings success and earned the station twelve gold records from artists such as stevie wonder exile and donna summer . however there was some confusion between kvi which aired a talk format and its new golden west broadcasters sister station kvi fm . the station then in 1978 became k plus 101 and changed its call letters to kplz . this signaled the beginning of the end of contemporary music stations on seattle am radio . in the late 1970s while kjr and king maintained mainstream top 40 formats k plus became the area s de facto disco music station . the death of disco combined with the sign on of top 40 upstart kble fm now kpwk signaled a tough ratings environment for kplz in the early 1980s which slightly moved towards an adult contemporary format using the slogan the music magazine and branding as simply kplz . however under the leadership of program director jeff king and eventually casey keating the station became the city s dominant top 40 station during the 1980s . the station moved back towards top 40 by 1982 by changing the slogan to hot hits using the jingle package and formatics developed by mike joseph who created the hot hits format in the early 1980s . kplz would again change monikers to z 101.5 before moving back to 101.5 kplz in the early 1990s . kube struggled for a time but ultimately adopted a rhythmic chr approach in early 1992 . kplz s ratings dropped while kube ascended the ratings ladder and kplz tried various angles of the format such as counteracting kube s rhythmic direction with a more mainstream chr direction as well as emphasizing hits from the previous 5 years . when that strategy didn t work kplz began playing more rhythmic titles by january 1993 . fisher bought the station in january 1994 . on january 28 at 1 pm kplz finally gave up on top 40 and became adult top 40 as star 101.5 . the first song on star was waiting for a star to fall by boy meets girl . the kent and alan morning team remained intact and continue on air to this day . throughout the 1990s and 2000s and currently kplz would be challenged by krwm mainstream ac kbks fm top 40 which shifted to hot ac in 2016 and klsy ac but flipped to adult top 40 in 2002 only to flip to rhythmic ac in 2006 as kqmv . seattle would gain a second hot ac in march 2012 when klck fm flipped formats from alternative rock . kplz has a more rhythmic direction as compared to klck which had an alternative slant . klck has since changed formats to rock leaving kplz to compete solely against kbks . on april 11 2013 fisher communications announced that it would sell its properties including kplz fm to the sinclair broadcast group . 1 although sinclair primarily owns television stations the company intends to retain kplz kvi and komo . 2 the deal was completed on august 8 2013 . 3 references edit malone michael april 11 2013 . sinclair to acquire fisher stations for 373 million . broadcasting & cable . retrieved april 12 2013 . allison melissa april 11 2013 . komo owner fisher communications agrees to sale . the seattle times . retrieved april 12 2013 . sinclair broadcast group closes on fisher communications acquisition . all access . august 8 2013 . retrieved august 8 2013 . external links edit official website query the fcc s fm station database for kplz radio locator information on kplz query nielsen audio s fm station database for kplz v t e radio stations in the seattle tacoma market by am frequency 5301 570 630 710 770 820 850 880 950 1000 1050 1090 1150 1180 1210 1230 1250 1300 1330 1360 1380 1400 1420 1450 1460 1490 1520 1540 1560 1590 1620 1680 by fm frequency 88.5 88.9 89.5 89.9 90.1 90.3 90.7 90.9 91.3 91.7 92.5 93.3 94.1 94.9 95.7 96.1 96.5 97.3 97.7 98.1 98.9 99.9 100.7 101.5 102.5 102.9 103.7 104.1 104.5 104.9 105.3 106.1 106.9 107.7 noaa weather radio frequency 162.425 162.475 162.55 by callsign karr kasb kbcs kbks fm kble kbro kcis kcms kdds fm kexp fm kfnq kfoo kghp kgnw kgrg kgrg fm khb60 khho khtp king fm kiro kiro fm kisw kitz kncl518 klfe kixi kjaq kjr kjr fm kkdz kkmo kknw kkol kkwf kkxa klay klsw kmia kmih kmps kndd knhc knts komo komo fm knkx fm kplz fm kpwk kqmv kriz krko krwm kser ksuh ktth kube kuow fm kups kvi kvrq kvti kwyz kxpa kxxo kyfq kyiz kziz kzok fm wwg24 wxm62 1 travelers information station for wsdot satellite radio local traffic weather xm channel 221 sirius channel 156 nearby radio markets northwest washington portland vancouver bc victoria & mid island wenatchee yakima see also list of radio stations in washington v t e sinclair broadcast group sorted by primary channel network affiliations abc katu katv kdnl tv khgi tv kwnb tv khgi cd komo tv ktul ktvo kvii tv kvih tv wbma ld wchs tv wear tv wgtu wgtq1 wham tv1 wicd wics wkef wjla tv wlos wpde tv wset tv wsyx wtvc wxlv tv cbs kbak tv kboi tv kdbc tv keye tv kfdm kgan kgbt tv khqa tv kima tv kepr tv klew tv kmeg1 krcg ktvl kutv kval tv kcby tv kpic wgfl1 wgme tv whp tv wkrc tv wpec wrgb wsbt tv wtvh1 wwmt the cw kfdm kfre tv kmys1 kocb kvcw kxvo1 kyuu ld wbui1 wbsf1 wcwf wcwn wfli tv1 wlfl wnab1 wnuv1 wstq lp wswb1 wtlf1 wtto wdbb wtvx wucw wvtv wwho1 wwmb1 fox kabb kbfx cd kbsi kbtv tv1 kdsm tv kfox tv kfxa1 kfxl tv kmph tv kokh tv kpth kptm krxi tv ksas tv kuqi wach wbff wdky tv wfxl wgxa wluk tv wmsn tv wolf tv1 wpfo2 wpgh tv wrgt tv1 wrlh tv wrsp tv wccu1 wsmh wtat tv1 wtgs wtte1 wuhf wutv wvah tv1 wyzz tv1 wztv mynetworktv kame tv1 kdbc tv kmtw1 kmyu ktov lp kutv kvcw dt2 wabm wciv wcgv tv wdka1 wfgx wmya tv1 wmyg lp1 wmyv wnyo tv wpnt wqmy1 wrdc wstr tv1 wtcn ca wtvz tv wutb1 wuxp tv nbc kmtr kmcb ktcw1 krnv dt kenv dt3 ksnv weyi tv1 wjac tv wjar wnbw dt1 wnwo tv woai tv wpbn tv wtom tv wpmi tv1 wstm tv wtov tv wtwc tv spanish language univision kunpmmx kuns tvmmx kunw cd kvvk cd korx ca azteca wwhb ca other stations comet whoi ind. kjzz tv wjtc1 metv wyme cd1 wtlh1 retro tv kxpx lp this tv wdsi tv1 radio stations komo komo fm4 kplz fm kvi programming cable channels newschannel 8 dc metro tennis channel subchannel networks american sports network comet series other assets full measure w sharyl attkisson ring of honor acquisitions act iii broadcasting allbritton communications barrington broadcasting fisher communications four points media group freedom communications guy gannett communications newport television river city broadcasting 1 operated by sinclair under an lma . 2 owned by corporate media consultants group itself 49 % owned by max media and operated by sinclair . sale to cunningham broadcasting pending fcc approval . 3 owned by intermountain west communications company and operated by sinclair . sale to cunningham broadcasting pending fcc approval . 4 owned by south sound broadcasting sinclair programs this station as a simulcast of komo am . coordinates 47 32 38 n 122 06 29 w 47.544 n 122.108 w 47.544 ; 122.108 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kplz fm & oldid 737223357 categories radio stations in seattleadult top 40 radio stations in the united statesradio stations established in 1959sinclair broadcast grouphidden categories coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged 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