KBBL can trace its beginnings to a Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction that granted a license to the tiny Sonoma County community of Cazadero. A construction permit was granted in 2006 and licensee Ace Radio put the station on the air as KGRP on June 28, 2007.
The KGRP call letters, alluding to the grapes that fuel Sonoma County’s fabled wine industry, had earlier been used on a Forestville station that would become KSXY, perhaps proving that grapes are sexy.
It wasn’t long before the station changed hands. In September 2007, legendary Sonoma County broadcaster Gordon Zlot’s Redwood Empire Stereocasters acquired the station.
For the first few years of Zlot’s ownership, the station failed to appear among the top ten stations in the Santa Rosa market. In 2010, the station switched to a Country music format and changed its call letters to KTRY.
In 2015, KTRY began branding itself “The Bull”, while changing the station’s call letters to KBBL.
The music mix was tweaked to appeal to a more contemporary Country listening audience.
That lasted until 2020, when KBBL sent the country music packing, shifting to a Contemporary Hit Radio format, billing itself as “106.3 The Beat”. The format change included yet another set of call letters: KJZY.
KJZY was another station in the Redwood Empire Stereocasters portfolio, and in February 2020, KJZY became KBBL and KBBL became KJZY.
This lasted until 2022, when Redwood Empire Stereocasters signed a Local Marketing Agreement with the Christian nonprofit broadcaster Educational Media Foundation. EMF would install its Air1 service, focusing on contemporary Christian music, on the station, which swapped call letters again to return to KBBL.
“The Bull” lived on, however. What was billed as “Country Legends The Bull 99.1” was installed on the HD-2 channel of KJZY.
