KRUZ Is Back In Cali

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Cumulus announced on Monday that it has brought the legendary KRUZ-FM call letters back to California’s Central Coast with the launch of Classic Hits radio station KRUZ 103.3. Concurrently, Classic Hip Hop station 103.3 The Vibe (KVYB-FM) signed off in the Santa Barbara market and debuted in the Oxnard market as CHR-formatted 106.3 The Vibe, Oxnard’s Hit Music Station.

Sommer Frisk, Regional Vice President/Marker Manager, Cumulus Oxnard/Ventura, said: “Everything good takes time. And, after more than a decade, it’s time we bring KRUZ 103.3 FM back to the Central Coast. It’s also the right time to move 106.3 The Vibe to Oxnard to give the fans what they’ve been begging for. With the combination of KRUZ 103.3’s powerful signal, along with the synergy of its legendary sister brand 106.3 The Vibe, we will provide new and exciting ways for our listeners and marketing partners to engage with the fans up and down the Central Coast. We could not be happier to welcome Brandon Young to our superstar programming team headed by Operations Manager, Justin Taylor. This duo is unstoppable and are ideal for this huge project.”

1 COMMENT

  1. 103.3 in Santa Barbara, now KRUZ again, isn’t just a big signal. It’s gigantic for an FM, grandfathered with 105kw at 2,969 feet above average terrain, 4,062 feet above sea level on Broadcast Peak, atop the Santa Ynez Mountains. It’s a signal that blankets both the South and Central Coasts.

    Power isn’t everything, of course. The current 12+ winner in Santa Barbara is KCLU, a 640 watt AM with a 140 watt FM translator. And it’s the translator that gets most of the listening. (See https://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2019/04/04/public/.)

    By moving 103.3 to classic hits, Cumulus is going after the commercial leader in Santa Barbara, KTYD/99.9, a rocker with 34kw on Gibraltar Peak, which has a much better vantage over Santa Barbara itself. (Broadcast Peak, though higher, is far to the west.)

    It’ll be interesting to see how this goes.

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