The station began broadcasting in 1976 with the call letters KAEZ and played a format that included a mix of urban contemporary, soul, jazz and blues. The station played very little hip hop or in the early 1980s, you could say that KAEZ was labeled as the Black Jack-FM because of the variety of Black music the station played and the obscure music mix it had at the time, playing everything from R&B to Jazz, even some music from the 1940s and 1950s. KAEZ remained on the air until November 23, 1985, when the station had a fire that silenced the station along with going bankrupt causing the station to be sold to Price Communications. On February 25, 1986, the station returned to air, the callsign was changed to KIMY, and switched to adult contemporary until August 7, 1987, when it switched to classic rock as KRXO.
On July 10, 2013, Tyler Media announced that the station would adopt a Sports format, and be known as "107.7 The Franchise" replacing the station's longtime Classic Rock format. That programming and format moved to KRXO-HD2, a digital channel which is also simulcast on translator K283BW at 104.5 MHz. Programming on the new sports format includes OU sports, NFL games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights. Additional programming is from SB Nation Radio Network.
Ownership changes
On July 15, 2012, Ty and Tony Tyler's Tyler Media entered into an agreement with Renda Broadcasting to purchase that company's Oklahoma City radio cluster for $40 million. In accordance to limits imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on the number of radio stations a single broadcasting entity can own in a single market, Tyler sold KTLR and KKNG to WPA Radio for $1.6 million. Tyler's purchase of KRXO and its sister stations was consummated on November 13, 2012.
HD radio
KRXO-FM along with its sister FM stations in Oklahoma City including KOMA and KMGL transmit an HD Radio signal allowing a digital version of the main programming as well as second and third channels carrying other programming for listeners with HD Radio-capable receivers. In 2005, Tony Renda Jr., the general manager of Renda Broadcasting said his company had signed a deal with iBiquity to start offering HD Radio on the company's 24 stations in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Oklahoma in 2006. During the spring 2008 ratings period, previous KRXO owner Renda switched off their HD signals on all three of their stations in Oklahoma City including KOMA-FM, KMGL-FM, and KRXO-FM — because of coverage issues. "It's a temporary problem," Don Pollnow, Renda market manager said at the time. "Our engineer is working on it with the manufacturer." OU fans with radios at the stadium had complained that the station's play-by-play was behind the actual game action. As a result, KRXO's HD Radio digital signal is often disabled during its University of Oklahoma football broadcasts.
