KASE-FM


KASE-FM is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Austin, Texas. It is owned by iHeartMedia and airs a country music radio format. It shares studios and offices with four sister stations in the Penn Field complex in the South Congress district of south central Austin within walking distance of St. Edward's University. The transmitter site is off Waymaker Way in Austin, amid towers for other FM and TV stations..
KASE-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format. It airs alternative rock on its HD2 subchannel, "Alt 97.5," which is also carried on translator station K248CU on 97.5 MHz in Austin. KASE-FM and Alt 97.5 can also be heard on the iHeartRadio platform.

Programming

Weekday mornings, The Bobby Bones Show from Nashville is heard on KASE-FM. It is syndicated by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, KASE-FM features "The Best of Bobby Bones." Overnight KASE-FM carries CMT After Midnight with Cody Alan. The rest of the schedule is staffed by local DJs.

History

Beautiful music

KASE-FM first signed on the air on March 30, 1969, playing an automated beautiful music format. It was co-owned with AM 1300 KVET, a popular AM country station. KASE-FM was powered at 26,500 watts, a quarter of its current power.
After a little over a decade on the air, management saw an opening for a new FM format in Austin. While the AM station would continue to play an older, personality style of country and western music, KASE-FM was designed to appeal to younger country fans.

Switch to country

Bill Mayne, KASE Program director at the time, recalled in a 2010 interview, the Friday afternoon in 1981 when KASE "came out of Mantovani and went into the Waylon Jennings song Are You Ready for the Country and had every dentist's office, nursing home and doctor's office in the city of Austin calling to complain."
The "Continuous Country" format became a hit with Austin listeners and has consistently been voted by radio general managers as one of the top twenty "Most Admired Stations" in America. It was the first station to win the "Station of the Year" award from the Country Music Association four times and was given its second Billboard Magazine "Station of the Year" award in 1997.
In 1990, KASE-FM got a country sister station on the FM dial, when AM 1300 KVET began simulcasting on 98.1 MHz. KASE-FM would continue aiming at the 18-34 and 18-49 demographic, while KVET-FM was designed to appeal to the 25-54 year old country fan.

Change in ownership

In 1998, KVET, Inc., which owned KVET-AM-FM and KASE-FM, sold its stations to Capstar, Inc. Capstar was later merged into Clear Channel Communications, which today is current owner iHeartMedia.
Over the years KASE-FM is usually Austin's top country station, with KVET-FM close behind. According to Nielsen ratings, both stations consistently rank in the top ten. KASE-FM has also been nominated for the Country Music Association "Large Market Station of the Year" Award numerous times.

Personalities

Current:
Former:
KASE-HD2 launched an LGBT-oriented Dance format to translator K248CU on January 12, 2016. The format last until January 2018, and flipped to its current Alternative Rock format.