KMXV is a Top 40 station based in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The Steel City Media outlet operates at 93.3 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. Its current slogan is "Kansas City's #1 Hit Music Station". It is also one of two Top 40s competing in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the other being KCHZ. The station's studios are located at Westport Center in Midtown Kansas City, and the transmitter site is in the city's East Side.
History
The station began in 1958 as KCMK-FM, a classical station, but had several format changes over the next sixteen years. County DJ Jack Wesley "Cactus Jack" Call was at the station for one week when he was killed on January 25, 1963 in a car crash. Singer Patsy Cline sang at a benefit for him at Memorial Hall on March 3, 1963. She was unable to leave Kansas City the next day because the airport was fogged in and was killed in a plane crash on March 5, 1963 en route from Fairfax Airport to Nashville. In 1974, KWKI-FM became "The Rock of Kansas City." With this format, it became the first true mainstream FM rock station in Kansas City. After a short period of religious programming beginning in 1978, the station achieved its strongest ratings to date with a switch to soft adult contemporary as KLSI-FM on July 4, 1982. The first song on "Classy" was "Kansas City Lights" by Steve Wariner. Following the purchase of the station by Apollo Broadcasting in April 1990, the station rebranded as "Mix 93" in July of that year. In addition, their call letters were changed to KMXV, and the station shifted towards the growing Hot AC format, though the station's playlist largely remained the same. Due to the lack of a full-signaled Top 40 outlet in the market, KMXV began a slow transition to the format in late 1993 and early 1994, shifting the AC format and personalities over to then-sister KUDL. On March 28, 1994, the change to "Mix 93.3" was complete. In the beginning, KMXV offered a heavily dance-leaning rhythmic Top 40 direction, but by 1996, under the direction of new program director Jon Zellner, it had evolved to a more broad-based mainstream Top 40 approach that, at times, leaned towards adult/modern product. By the Spring of 1997, Zellner led KMXV from 14th to the #1 ranked radio station in Kansas City, a position it held three other times throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Regent Broadcasting bought the station in June 1995, with Jacor purchasing it in October 1996. Jacor then spun the station off to American Radio Systems in July 1997. Infinity Broadcasting bought ARS on September 19, 1997, with Infinity changing its name to CBS Radio in December 2005. KMXV was sold off by CBS to Wilks Broadcasting in November 2006 as part of a nationwide reduction of radio stations by CBS. On June 12, 2014, Wilks announced that it was selling its Kansas City cluster to Pittsburgh-based Steel City Media. The sale was approved on September 26, 2014, and was consummated on September 30. Despite being in competition with top 40 station KKSW and rival KCHZ offering more rhythmic content than KMXV, Mix has maintained high ratings for years. However, this changed in late 2010, when KCHZ began overtaking them in the ratings, as that station was ranked #2 with a 6.2 share, while Mix had a 5.6 share and ranked #5 in the market. To combat this, the station began leaning more towards rhythmic content, while slightly edging away from its long-time adult lean, and with sister stationKCKC having relaunched its AC format with an upbeat approach in 2014, KMXV has moved more towards a current-based presentation in line with other Top 40/CHRs in the United States.
