KKSS (97.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and broadcasting to the Santa Fe and Albuquerque metropolitan area. KKSS airs an urban-leaning rhythmic contemporary radio format branded as "Kiss 97.3". Owned by American General Media, its radio studios and offices are in Northeast Albuquerque (a mile north of Central Avenue). KKSS has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts. The transmitter is in the Valles Caldera National Preserve in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. History The station first signed on the air in 1969 as KAFE-FM, keeping that call sign until 1985. It was the FM counterpart to KAFE (810 AM, now KSWV) in Santa Fe. On September 16, 1985, after upgrading the signal and acquiring new broadcasting equipment, KAFE-FM switched its call letters to KKSS. The format was initially described as being "a popular, contemporary music format which will be between the hard rock music of Q106-FM and the soft contemporary music of KOB-FM". The station was owned by New Mexico Broadcasting Inc. In 1986, KKSS and AM sister station KAFE were sold to SunGroup Broadcasting for $2.2 million. Following SunGroup's purchase of the station, the company had surveyed the market and found that there was a demand for urban music. In March 1987, the company appointed Bill Thomas as operations manager and program director. While the format had leaned toward urban music from the start, it still featured some album rock crossovers. KKSS had struggled in the ratings during its first year on air, battling two other mainstream top 40 stations in the area, while public radio station KANW was playing mostly urban music at the time. Thomas had committed to evolving the format to make it stand out from its competitors, while also making it work in the largely Hispanic market. This would be done featuring more dance music and less R&B ballads, while still bordering on CHR in some dayparts. Thomas predicted that the format "is going to continue to erode CHR as we know it, and will continue to grow". The effort would succeed as KKSS would become the leading CHR in the area by late 1987, often ranking highest among teens and young adults. By early 1990, after competing CHR KNMQ flipped to country, KKSS saw its shares more than double, ranking it at #3 overall. It also would continue to do well throughout the 1990s with the