Don Bonin first signed on on the 99.1 frequency in January 1969 as the FM counterpart of
KNIR with the calls KNIR-FM. KNIR-FM became KDEA on August 1, 1972, playing
beautiful music-
easy listening for the
Lafayette and
Baton Rouge radio markets. The format continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, when the popularity of the easy listening format began to decline nationwide and KDEA went into competition with
KTDY with a mainstream
adult contemporary format. On August 21, 1992, at 6 pm KDEA started playing the song "
American Pie" by
Don McLean on a continuous loop. Between each playing of the song, a voice could be heard saying, "A new day begins Monday." The song continued to play over and over until 6 am Monday, August 24, when a jingle played announcing that the station was now "Hot
Country 99.1, KXKC". This was followed by "
Friends in Low Places", by
Garth Brooks. The station had normal operations for only one day as
Hurricane Andrew was approaching. On Tuesday, August 25 at 10 am, the station began continuous coverage of the approaching hurricane. The storm came ashore early Wednesday morning, knocking the station off the air for 20 hours when water shorted out the transmitter in
Parks, Louisiana. Hurricane recovery information dominated the station for the next few days, but by the following Monday morning, August 31, 1992, KXKC was operating as normal. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011. 99.1" On September 4, 2020, KXKC dropped
Nash FM and rebranded back to "99.1 KXKC". On September 2, 2022, KXKC shifted its format to 1990s-based classic country. ==References==