KOLA


KOLA is a commercial Classic Hits music radio station in Redlands, California, broadcasting to the Riverside-San Bernardino, California, area on 99.9 FM. KOLA was founded by Fred Cote, first owner and general manager. Its studios are in Redlands, California and the transmitter tower is in Moreno Valley.

History

99.9 FM originally signed on in 1959 as KFMW, with transmitter located on Box Springs Mountain southeast of Riverside. Fred Coté bought the station sometime in 1968, and changed the call sign to KOLA and switched from KFMW's MOR/beautiful music format to a soul and Top 40 format. In the winter of 1970–71, KOLA moved its studios to the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside.
In 1980, the station switched to Album Oriented Rock with Ted Ziegenbusch as their programming consultant through 1987. In 1987 the station switched back to a more Top 40 music approach. In the 1990s KOLA played oldies from the '50s '60s and '70s. Around 2007, most of the 1960s hits were dropped and adapted to play more hits of the 1970s and 1980s. By spring of 2013, KOLA had dropped all the 1960s hits and switched to a 1970s-80s-90s classic hits format. In 2018, KOLA dropped most of the 1970s hits and began adding songs from the early 2000s.
KOLA continues to broadcast from the same tower at the same 29,500 watts on its original license from 1959 as KFMW.