KUFX is owned by Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International. It was previously operated by Entercom; as part of its merger with CBS Radio, the company was required to divest four of its radio stations in San Francisco in order stay within ownership caps. KUFX was placed in a trust and its operations taken over by Bonneville under a local marketing agreement; the company acquired the station in 2018.
On January 24, 2011, KUFX began simulcasting on KUZX 102.1 MHz in San Francisco. This simulcast switched to 102.1-HD2 on August 1, 2014; 102.1 now broadcasts as KRBQ.[2]
History
For the history of the 98.5 FM frequency in San Jose prior to 1998, see KOME.
KUFX was originally located at 94.5 FM, then 104.9 FM, and moved to 98.5 FM on June 19, 1998.[3] Before this, the 98.5 frequency was the longtime home to KOME, which is best remembered as a major Bay Area AOR station throughout the 1970s and into the 1990s. Several of the KUFX staff were employed by KOME. KUFX refers to itself as "98.5 KFOX".
KUFX is the official radio station for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League. In a 2006 column, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News noted that he could only listen to a broadcast of a Stanley Cup playoff game on KUFX since his cable company did not carry OLN (later Versus, now NBC Sports Network), which had exclusive television rights to the game. That situation, he noted, provided an ironic twist to him living in the technology-rich Silicon Valley.[citation needed]
The morning show was hosted by Greg Kihn, a musician who had a few Top 40 hit songs in the 1980s, until September 14, 2012.[4]
KFOX also holds a Last Band Standing competition every year, between bands that play classic rock cover songs. The three categories of competition include Cover Bands, Tribute Bands, and Under 18 Bands. The past overall winners are Aja Vu in 2004 (A Steely Dan tribute band and two-time winner of its category), The Strobe in 2005 (An Under 18 band from Leigh High School who specializes with Peter Frampton songs), and last years winner, Sage (a cover band).
In June 1997, KUFX, KBAY, and KBRG were involved in a three-way frequency swap, which saw KUFX moving from 94.5 to 104.9, and later to 98.5 FM. KBAY moved to 94.5, and KBRG got the coveted 100.3 signal and studios. 104.9 eventually became KCNL.
KUFX logo when simulcasting on 102.1 from 2011-2014
On January 11, 2011, Entercom Communications agreed to purchase KUFX, and on January 18, Entercom announced an agreement for the call sign and intellectual property of the company's KDFC-FM in San Francisco and their classical music programming (but not the frequency) to be acquired by the University of Southern California's Classical Public Radio Network. That move allowed them to simulcast KUFX's programming on the 102.1 MHz frequency, as KUFX's main signal on 98.5 only provides grade B coverage of San Francisco. This simulcast switched to 102.1-HD2 on August 1, 2014, when KUZX flipped to Rhythmic AC as KRBQ.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced that it would merge with Entercom. To comply with FCC ownership limits, it was announced that KUFX, along with sister stations KBLX and KOIT, CBS-owned KMVQ, and a cluster in Sacramento, would be divested.[5] Under a local marketing agreement, Bonneville assumed operations of the stations following the completion of the merger on November 17.[6] On August 3, 2018, Bonneville announced that it would acquire all of the divested Entercom stations it had been operating for $141 million;[7][8] the sale was completed on September 21, 2018.[9]
On December 28, 2018, KUFX launched a 1970s hits format on its HD2 subchannel.[11] In early September 2020, the subchannel flipped to a rock format, branded as "Highway 1".
