98.5 KLUC has been a long time Top 40 station in Las Vegas. The signal was originally owned by Rainbow, Incorporated as KRBO-FM. Rainbow sold it to Meyer Gold, who signed it on in 1963. Western Cities Broadcasting bought KLUC in the mid-1970s. In 1985, Western Cities was acquired by Nationwide. In 1995, a couple of years before Nationwide Communications was acquired, American Radio Systems bought KLUC, and then CBS Radio in 1997. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th. KLUC-FM broadcasts in HD.
Music
From the mid-1970s to 1983, KLUC was a rock leaning Top 40. In 1977 KLUC experimented with a "Disco Format" in the evenings, but it was short-lived. This changed in the fall of 1983, when KLUC added more R&B and dance music product. KLUC "leaned dance" through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s before officially shifting to Rhythmic CHR in 1993 even though KLUC remained the mass appeal station in the Las Vegas market. Through its many years KLUC would play everything from the biggest rhythmic hits to big pop hits. This was especially true during the late 1990s, when KLUC heavily played the boy bands that were popular during that era. KLUC has long been recognized as an industry leader, having won numerous awards as "Station Of The Year" in the US from Billboard, Gavin, Radio & Records and S.I.N. KLUC was the first station in the Las Vegas market to achieve over 500,000 weekly listeners and still holds the title year after year as "The Most Listened To Radio Station In Nevada."
Trivia
Up until 1978 they simulcasted with sister station1140 AM. They returned to a simulcast in 1987 for several years. At one time in the 1970s and early 1980s, KLUC had studios located on the Howard Hughes property at the Frontier Hotel. When KFMS changed from top 40 to rhythmic top 40 in 2002, KLUC changed to a more CHR Top-40 format versus a previous Rhythmic format, but continued to report to Mediabase and Nielsen BDS as a Rhythmic reporter although remaining the mass appeal station for Las Vegas. That all changed in April 2014 when both monitored trades moved KLUC to the Top 40/CHR panel as CBS Radio has begun converting their CHR formatted station to a model based on the "AMP" brand. This leaves KSFMSacramento, California as the only CBS Radio outlet in the West Coast that is still a Rhythmic Top 40.
