Сан-Антонио қаласының KZEP FM радиосының тарихы

Radio station in San Antonio, Texas

KZEP FM (104.5 MHz) is a Spanish CHR radio station broadcasting in and around San Antonio, Texas, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, (formerly Clear Channel Communications). Its studios are located in the Stone Oak neighborhood in Far North San Antonio, and the transmitter site is atop Tower of the Americas downtown. KZEP was formerly owned by Lotus Communications until May 2008.

In 1986, the station dropped the KXZL call letters for KZEP FM, using the short lived slogan Quality Rock. Shortly after rebranding, KZEP shifted to classic rock, which was a relatively new format at the time. KZEP's call letters are a reflection of the music that 104.5 was known for during the majority of its life, as Led Zeppelin was one of the station's core artists during its entirety of airing rock music. KZEP faced competition from several stations over its lifetime, including KISS, KMFR and KTKX. Despite being one of as many as four different rock oriented stations in San Antonio, KZEP maintained a strong presence in the ratings, leading to a nearly three decade tenure as "San Antonio's Classic Rock Station". On May 15, 2008, Lotus Communications announced that they would swap KZEP to Clear Channel Communications in exchange for Clear Channel's KWID in Las Vegas and KBKO in Bakersfield, California. KZEP was Lotus' only property in the San Antonio market, while they had larger clusters in the latter markets. The swap was completed on July 29, 2008.

On August 8, 2014, at Noon, KZEP's classic rock format moved to FM translator 93.3 K227BH and 104.5 KZEP's HD2 channel, as KZEP FM's main signal flipped to a classic leaning Rhythmic CHR format known as "Hot 104.5." Clear Channel referred to the classic rock format as KZEP HD and on air promotions still used the name KZEP. The flip had been expected to give rival KBBT a serious competitor, as they have dominated the San Antonio Nielsen Audio ratings since its 2000 sign on, which has seen the last four Rhythmic competitors who have tried to take KBBT out within the past decade come and go. On June 24, 2015, K227BH switched to a simulcast of KZEP's HD3 subchannel (a simulcast of classic country formatted KRPT ("K Buc Country"), ending KZEP's nearly 30 year run with classic rock over the air in San Antonio.

On April 19, 2017, at 5:30 p. m., KZEP changed their format to Spanish CHR, branded as "104.5 Latino Hits". The final song on "Hot" was "What Goes Around Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake, while the first song on "Latino Hits" was "Chantaje" by Shakira.

KZEP HD2 currently airs the classic rock format formerly broadcast on both 93.3 and the main signal of KZEP before that. The KZEP HD2 classic rock format also continues to broadcast online at the website.