This version of KSXY –known at various times as “Sexy 95.9” and “Hot 95”–succeeded KHBG on Healdsburg’s 95.9 FM frequency in 1999, giving way to KRSH in 2002.
The station’s Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format managed to grab a decent audience share at first, but declining ratings led to the decision to jettison the hit-radio format in 2002 and switch to the AAA (Adult Album Alternative) format in 2002, briefly marketing the station as “Y-95” before the change in call letters to KRSH.
The station was owned between late 1998 and 2001 by Mary and Fred Constant’s Wine Country Radio, which also owned KGRP and KRSH before selling the entire portfolio to Virginia-based Sinclair Communications, headed by Bob Sinclair (this company had no connection with television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group). Sinclair paid a reported $11 million for the Sonoma County group of stations.
