year, the station shifted to Rhythmic AC, playing recent and older R&B hits and classic soul tracks. When the HD Radio transmitter went on air, the original smooth jazz format moved to KIFM's HD2 subchannel. Soft adult contemporary (2013-2016) Without warning on August 19, 2013, at 10 a.m., KIFM flipped to Soft AC as "Easy 98.1". The rebranding came after KIFM trailed San Diego's longtime AC leader KYXY in the Arbitron ratings reports. The final song on "Smooth" was "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis, while the first song on "Easy" was "Easy" by The Commodores. After the flip, the station's ratings improved dramatically, reaching #1 in several Arbitron ratings periods. At the same time, KYXY, like many stations that were originally Soft AC, has moved closer to a more Hot AC format to attract younger listeners. On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced that it was purchasing Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup (including KIFM) in a $106.5 million deal, and would operate the outlets under a LMA deal until the sale is approved by the FCC. The merger was approved by the FCC on July 14, 2015, and the sale was completed on July 17. Adult contemporary (2016-2017) On April 21, 2016, at 5 p.m., after playing "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot, KIFM rebranded as "Sunny 98.1," and relaunched its adult contemporary format, this time moving in a more contemporary direction. The first song on "Sunny" was "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & the Waves. Prior to the change, the station had led the San Diego market with a 6.2 share in the March 2016 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings, making for a rare situation where a radio station at the top of the market ratings changed formats (though it was speculated the station made the change due to low advertising revenues with the previous format). On April 28, 2016, KIFM changed callsigns to KXSN to match the "Sunny" moniker. Concurrently, the KIFM callsign was moved to a co-owned sports radio station in Sacramento, AM 1320 KCTC. Despite the call letter switch, the KXSN HD2 subchannel is referred to as "Smooth Jazz KIFM" as a tribute to the classic Smooth Jazz station. Classic hits (2017-present) On July 24, 2017, KXSN switched to classic hits, and retained the "Sunny 98.1" branding. This returned the classic hits format to the market for the first time since 2000, when KJQY became a