KXFX succeeded KVRE-FM in 1988 when former radio consultant James Kefford’s Keffco paid more than $5 million to buy the station as well as co-owned KWFN (formerly KQTE and before that, the AM version of KVRE) from John Detz Jr. and Cindy Paulos. Kefford had financial backing from the Australian firm Apulia PTY Ltd.
Within months, Kefford blew up the freeform programming, installing a more-focused rock format. Under Kefford’s ownership, the station began calling itself K-FOX, later referred to as “The Fox”. Kefford explained the change to The Press Democrat: “The mainstay on FM is consistency. (With the old KVRE), each disc jockey just came in and picked their own records. We weren’t retaining any listeners except loyalists.”
It was the end of an era, with reaction among those loyalists perhaps encapsulated by a letter written to Guerneville’s The Paper. “KVRE is gone,” the letter began, “and it feels like someone drove a stake through ‘the heart and soul of Sonoma County’.”
“The Fox” tried to build a new identity, and in fact, did continue playing much of the music to which KVRE-FM listeners had been accustomed as part of a more tightly-formatted album-oriented rock sound. One community-outreach effort came after the November 1988 elections, when the station offered to trade audio cassettes for the leftover campaign signs that represent an eyesore in many communities. More than 1,000 signs were surrendered.
Not long after KXFX launched, competitor KPLS hired local legend Bill Bowker as Program Director. He brought with him a Sunday night blues hour that he had been doing at KVRE-FM before Kefford’s purchase.
Over the objections of KXFX, which claimed it would be harmed by listener confusion, KPLS asked the FCC for the KVRE call letters and got them. But the call letter switch lasted less than 90 days. A Sonoma County judge agreed with Kefford’s contention that the KPLS-to-KVRE call letter swap was “confusing to the public and damaging to KXFX” and issued a preliminary injunction against 1150 AM’s use of the KVRE call letters.
In early 1989, KXFX moved to new facilities near Bennett Valley Road–a facility that Kefford grandiosely dubbed “Fox Plaza” (never mind the fact that there was already a Fox Plaza in San Francisco).
Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting bought KXFX in 1992 for $2.8 million, initially operating the station via a local marketing agreement (LMA) before final Federal Communications Commission approval of the sale. Fuller-Jeffrey had been founded a dozen years earlier by veteran broadcasters Bob Fuller and J. J. Jeffrey; they would eventually cash out of the radio business in 1999 by selling their portfolio to Citadel Broadcasting. Fuller-Jeffrey’s move into Sonoma County included the purchases of KSRO, KLCQ, and KMGG.
In 1996, KXFX and KSRO were scooped up by The Amaturo Group, a family concern headed by broadcasting legend Joseph C. Amaturo. His wife Wini and son Lawrence were officers of the company. Lawrence Amaturo would go on to build his Sonoma Media Group into a North Bay media powerhouse while also investing in auto dealerships and commercial real estate.
“The Fox” continued to prowl the airwaves until the spring of 2011, when the format shifted from AOR to CHR and the call letters were changed to KHTH.
