without informing the other party that the call would be broadcast. That summer, the scope of the license hearing widened when the Black Media Coalition of Tucson filed a petition to deny, saying KIKX did not have an affirmative action program. The kidnapping hoax, however, dominated the hearing. In October 1976, administrative law judge Thomas B. Kirkpatrick ruled that the renewal of KIKX's license would not serve the public interest, stating that KIKX's "arrogant disregard for the public cannot be too strongly condemned". The station remained on air as Walton appealed to the FCC; it also transitioned to a country format on September 17, 1977 and switched its ABC network from Contemporary to Entertainment. Denial of final appeals, closure, and Emergency Broadcast System incident In 1980, the FCC by a majority vote denied Walton's appeal, stating that Walton had demonstrated a lack of control over his station; two commissioners, Anne P. Jones and James H. Quello, dissented. KIKX was now one of a handful of stations whose licenses had been revoked for a hoax. The case continued in the courts, where a divided federal appeals court upheld the revocation of the station's license. Despite initially stating his intentions to take the case to the Supreme Court, Walton had enough. He telephoned general manager Jim Scopac, expressing that he had decided to "just take it off" the air. On Friday, the station's employees were informed of the station's closure and opted to keep it a secret. Walton's fight to retain the station had cost more than $250,000 ($ in dollars). Another contributing factor to the station's closure was its low ratings; in the station's last appearance in a ratings book—the Spring 1982 Arbitron survey—KIKX, with a 0.7 rating, ranked dead last among Tucson's radio stations. In the same survey, its country competitor KCUB 1290 garnered a 9.0 rating. At midnight on Sunday, July 18, 1982, KIKX went off the air. "The Last Cowboy Song" by Ed Bruce was the final song played over KIKX. KIKX's shutdown left a gap in Emergency Broadcast System coverage for Pima and Santa Cruz counties, as KIKX was the originating station for EBS alerts to those two counties. When emergency officials surveyed 10 local media outlets on Monday, July 19, they found five were still monitoring the silent frequency for EBS alerts, while the other five were monitoring KTKT 990 AM, the designated backup station; the