The 2009 purchase by Ed Stolz’s Golden State Broadcasting of KNGY began with blowback in San Francisco, where Supervisor Bevan Dufty convened a City Hall hearing for his resolution encouraging Stolz “to continue with the Community/Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender/Dance radio format that has made Energy 92.7 one of the most unique and popular radio stations in San Francisco and the Bay Area”.
It made no difference. Energy 92.7 was gone, replaced by a mainstream Top 40 format marketed as “Rev FM” (for “The Revolution”, not “The Reverend”). The changeover would mark the beginning of a turbulent fifteen years for the station.
Stolz, who’d put Sacramento FM station KWOD on the air in the 1970s, was a controversial and litigious figure who had a history of tangling with the big music-licensing agencies. That particular issue reared its head again in 2016. Several music labels – including some of the largest, like Sony/ATV, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group – filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that KREV and two other stations owned by Stolz had played music in their catalogs without obtaining the required licenses.
The case went to trial, Stolz lost and was ordered to pay about $1.25 million in damages, he appealed, and the matter dragged on until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. At that point, Stolz told the court he’d need to see KREV and his other stations to pay the damages.
The sale never happened. The plaintiffs then asked the courts to appoint a receiver for Stolz’s stations.
By the end of 2020, the receiver had identified a buyer: religious broadcaster VCY America agreed to pay $6 million for KREV and the other two Stolz stations. VCY had been programming the stations under a lease agreement. The sale proceeds would cover the outstanding copyright judgment as well as other debts Stolz had run up, including $300,000 he owed to the homeowners association at a San Francisco high-rise condominium atop which the KREV antenna sat.
But the saga wasn’t over. Stolz filed motions claiming the receivership should have been dissolved because he’d paid off the copyright verdict. A frustrated federal District Judge Jesus Bernal urged VCY America to push the Federal Communications Commission to approve its acquisition of the KREV and the other Stolz stations with an “enough is enough” message.
And somehow, Stolz won. After Stolz filed for bankruptcy, the FCC handed control of the stations back to his company Royce International. In early 2022, VCY America yanked its programming off KREV and the station went dark.
The station briefly returned to the air with dance and hip-hop music before the Stolz era ended with the sale of KREV via a bankruptcy auction.
KEXP, the Seattle-based noncommercial radio broadcaster, agreed to pay $3.75 million for KREV and its assets. In March 2024, the embattled station began its new life as a Bay Area outpost for KEXP, re-christened KEXC.
