KRTY


KRTY is a commercial FM radio station located in San Jose, California and licensed to nearby Los Gatos, airing a country music format.
KRTY has two booster stations on 95.3 MHz; KRTY-FM1 licensed to Scotts Valley and KRTY-FM2 licensed to New Almaden. In addition to locally programmed country music, KRTY carries the syndicated Country Countdown USA show on Sunday mornings and Golden State Warriors games.

History of the 95.3 frequency

After obtaining a construction permit in 1964, KLGS went full-power on 95.3 MHz in September 1966, owned by the Western Stereo Company.
Tomentose Broadcasting bought KLGS in October 1968 for $133,500 and obtained the broadcast license in February 1969 for an additional $127,500. From March 1969 to June 1974, 95.3 had a freeform format with the call letters KTAO. Programming on KTAO included 48 hours of Indian music on Christmas Eve and Day of 1970 and Angela Davis announcing station identifications with calls to release the Soledad Brothers from prison.
Joseph Vieira and two partners bought KTAO in 1974 and changed the station to a Portuguese format with call letters KRVE.
The 95.3 frequency took on the call letters KATD on September 9, 1985. On November 28, 1989, KATD became KYAY and changed its format from rock to country.

KRTY (1990–present)

KATD changed to its current KRTY call sign on January 10, 1990 but retained the country format. In October 1992, Bob Kieve's Empire Broadcasting purchased KRTY for over $3 million from Randolph E. George. By the later half of the decade, as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 led to the consolidation of radio station ownership around the United States and in the Bay Area, the Empire Broadcasting family of stations including KRTY were among the last locally owned stations in the Bay Area.
KRTY attracted a front page San Jose Mercury News story for banning the Dixie Chicks song "Goodbye Earl" due to violent lyrics and hosting an on-air, call-in program on March 13, 2000 about the song. The station's editorial decision also got attention in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. KRTY later added the song to its playlist and donated to a domestic violence shelter for every play of the song.
Beginning in the 2016–17 season, KRTY became the South Bay affiliate for the Golden State Warriors radio network, after the team moved from the powerful signal of KNBR that covered the entire San Francisco Bay Area.
Owner Kieve died on May 25, 2020.