“Classy 97” replaced the second version of KPEN at 97.7 on the FM dial in 1984, after Dallas broadcaster Ken Dowe bought the station and set out to take on South Bay easy-listening leader KBAY. It worked: within a year, KLZE was running ads touting a remarkable ratings boost which was clearly coming at the expense of KBAY.
Judy Currier, who’d worked at KLOK for many years, took over as general manager in 1986.
Two years after buying the station, Dowe sold it for a healthy profit. John and Kathleen Parker, who owned stations in Minneapolis, Las Vegas, and Honolulu, paid $4.3 million ($2.85 million in cash plus the assumption of debt) to add KLZE to their portfolio (the Parkers would add Sacramento-area stations KAHI and KHYL to their empire).
The Parkers’ ownership lasted but two years, and they, too, would realize a solid profit when they sold. The buyer in 1988 was San Jose Broadcasting Corp., controlled by Brion Applegate. Applegate’s Anaheim Broadcasting owned Anaheim stations KEZY (AM and FM). The selling price: $5,275,000.
At the time Applegate bought KLZE, it was performing respectably in the Arbitron ratings and continued to hold its own. In the fall of 1987, it ranked third among women aged 25-54 and tenth overall in the San Jose market–still trailing easy-listening competitor KBAY.
Within days of closing the deal to acquire KLZE, San Jose Broadcasting flipped the format to what new program director Steve Smith called “high-energy contemporary hit radio”. The easy-listening sound was gone, and so were the KLZE call letters. The station became KHQT on January 15, 1988. By that fall, the station was number one among teenagers in the San Jose Arbitron ratings and challenging CHR competitor KWSS for #5 overall in the market.
