splitting the AM and FM stations, changing the FM to a country format as KCNW. The experiment was undone the next year, and KCNW returned to being KXOA-FM. Both stations were then sold to Producers, Inc., of Milwaukee for $500,000 in 1963. Upon the 1965 enactment of the FM Non-Duplication Rule, which curtailed simulcasts of AM and FM stations in large markets, KXOA-FM partially separated from its AM counterpart and broadcast adult contemporary music from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm, and then simulcasting KXOA's Top 40 programming until it signed off at midnight. In 1969, the station raised its effective radiated power from 12,500 watts to more than 49,000. In 1970, the KXOA stations were split by then-owner Fuqua Industries, with the AM station leased to investors involved in the ownership of KSJO in San Jose and the FM to a group led by L. Ray Rhodes. However, the Rhodes group did not materialize, and three months later, Fuqua filed to sell the station to a consortium consisting of Drake-Chenault, a national program syndicator, and Brown Broadcasting, which owned KGB-AM-FM in San Diego. The sale became effective at the start of 1971; the FM retained the call sign, while the AM became known as KNDE. Drake-Chenault moved the station to Loma Vista Drive off Fulton Avenue. In early 1971, the station flipped to oldies, and after a brief dalliance with progressive rock known as "Earth Rock", the oldies format returned in 1973. Rock and adult contemporary In 1974, the Browns bought Drake—Chenault's half of KXOA-FM. The station re-branded as Super Stereo K108, featuring Top 40 music and album-oriented rock (AOR) at night. By early 1975, the station had shifted to a soft AOR format, which would be successful throughout the remaining half of the 1970s. During its existence, the Browns bought back KNDE and returned it to the fold as KXOA, to air a harder AOR mix. Art Schroeder, the KXOA-FM program director during this period, credited the "safe" approach with attracting many listeners not wishing to hear punk rock. After KXOA-FM was among several stations affected by the rapid rise of KZAP (98.5 FM) at the start of the 1980s, the station pivoted to a soft adult contemporary format using the K108 moniker, remaining successful throughout the decade and leading the market in ratings and revenue in the mid-1980s. The KXOA stations also had a regionally recognized news team