Early years at 107.1 On January 1, 1979, the station
signed on at 107.1 MHz as KAKI. It was owned by Bridges Broadcasting and was the FM counterpart to KGKO (850 AM, now deleted). The station was a
Class A, powered at only 2,500 watts, serving Benton and its adjacent towns, not the larger Little Rock market. While KGKO played
oldies, KAKI was separately programmed as a country music station. By the late 1980s, KAKI switched to
adult contemporary music. In 1992, the station changed its
call sign to match its AM counterpart, becoming KGKO-FM. It also received a
construction permit from the
Federal Communications Commission to move to 106.7 MHz, coupled with an increase in power and tower height.
Move to 106.7 In 1993, the station was bought by the Southern Skies Corporation for $1.125 million. The new owners finished moving the station to 106.7 on a new tower and relocated the studios and offices to Little Rock. The format returned to country music and the call letters were switched to KMVK, which represented "Maverick." In 1997, the station was acquired by Clear Channel Communications, now known as
iHeartMedia. The station switched its call sign to KDDK and began calling itself "The Wolf." In 2002, its call letters changed again, this time to KHKN, representing the word "Kickin'." On March 31, 2008, "The Wolf" moved to 105.1 FM (currently
KMJX) and KHKN rebranded as "TOM-FM". According to Phil Hunt, regional programming vice-president of Clear Channel, "We're going to call the station Tom FM after Tom Wood and his famous Brown Bagger show." On July 19, 2011, at 6 p.m., KHLR changed its format to
rhythmic oldies, branded as "Heartbeat 106.7." The first song on "Heartbeat" was "
Good Times" by
Chic. Although its slogan was billed as "R&B + Old School," its
playlist also featured artists from the early days of the Disco/Dance and Rhythmic Pop genres.
Return to country music On August 12, 2015 at 5 PM, after playing "
Last Dance" by
Donna Summer, KHLR flipped to country, branded as "106.7 The Ride". It launched with a "commercial free 10,000 song free ride," beginning with "
Kick the Dust Up" by
Luke Bryan. The new country format competes with former owner iHeartMedia’s country combo of
KSSN and
KMJX.
The Buz2 On November 13, 2020, morning host Doug Kramer, who had moved from
KHKN earlier that year, announced his dismissal from the station, and announced that the rest of the airstaff, including midday host AJ Parker and afternoon host Ashley King, would exit within 30 days; he claimed this was due to financial hardships brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On December 30, Signal Media announced that the station would flip to sports talk, as a supplemental sister station to
KABZ, on January 4, 2021, branded as "106.7 The Buz2", under new call sign KBZU. "The Buz2" will feature the national ESPN Radio lineup, while continuing to serve as home to Arkansas State University football, University of Arkansas-Little Rock men’s basketball and Benton High School football. ==References==