Sacramento’s top classic hits radio station is about to go off the air.
This week, Results Radio signed an agreement to transfer the license of KCCL (101.5 FM, K-HITS) to Oxnard-based Lazer Broadcasting, the owner of several Spanish-language radio stations across California.
The deal was first disclosed in an application filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a transfer of KCCL’s license from Results to Lazer. The valuation of the deal is around $1.9 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
The purchase is expected to get regulatory approval. Upon closure of the deal, KCCL will flip from a classic hits format station to Regional Mexicana and will adopt the “Radio Lazer” moniker.
Officials at Lazer say the purchase is expected to help the Radio Lazer brand further penetrate the Sacramento market. The brand is already used on KBAA (103.3 FM) in Grass Valley, which reaches the Auburn market but doesn’t penetrate the greater Sacramento region beyond that.
KCCL first took to the airwaves in 1996 with the call letters KMJE and a soft rock format under the “Sunny 101.5 FM” brand. It eventually swapped call letters with a station on 92.1 FM in the Sacramento market, and became “101.5 K-HITS” in early 2013.
The station has a loyal following in the Sacramento market, particularly among older radio listeners. It eventually forced KHLX (93.1 FM), owned by iHeart Radio, to end its classic hits format; that station began simulcasting news-talk station KFBK in December 2013.
In a twist of irony, iHeart Radio will have one of the market’s two remaining classic rock stations when KCCL flips from that format to Regional Mexicana after Results’ deal with Lazer closes. KRYV (93.7 FM, The River) has offered a classic rock format since it abandoned the Jack FM format in 2017. The other station, Audacy’s KSEG (96.9 FM, The Eagle), has broadcast classic rock music since 1990.
