The station known as “Wild 107” and later “Wild 94.9” traces its roots to a February 1992 format change at KSOL. The station played Tone Loc’s version of the song “Wild Thing” for 24 consecutive hours to unveil its new branding: Wild 107. The KSOL call letters were heard only during legal ID’s.
For the next two years, Wild 107 with its urban contemporary format built buzz, courted controversy, and put itself into a battle with KMEL for the ears of younger listeners. Morning host Erich “Mancow” Muller gained attention with a long list of stunts, including spending a weekend encased in ice, riding a bull–backwards–at the Grand National Rodeo and Stock Show, and enticing couples to enter a first-to-get-pregnant contest.
On May 26, 1993 Muller arranged a stunt that involved blocking all five lanes of the Bay Bridge so another member of the morning team, Chuy Gomez, could get a haircut. Muller said it was his way of reacting to an incident in which President Bill Clinton had reportedly slowed air traffic in Los Angeles by having Air Force One held while his stylist worked on the presidential coiffure (it was later determined that there had in fact been no effect on other flights).
To say the stunt flopped would be an understatement. KSOL general manager Scott Fey suspended “Mancow” for a week, the station was hit with a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit, and Muller was hit with criminal charges that led to a fine and probation.
A few weeks after the stunt, KSOL had a new owner, Crescent Communications. In the spring of 1994, the station’s call letters were changed to KYLD.
The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 unleashed a torrent of money into the radio industry, and Crescent cashed out of KYLD, selling it to Evergreen Media for $44 million.
A year later, Evergreen and Susquehanna Broadcasting worked out a deal in which they essentially swapped frequencies, with KYLD landing at 94.9 on the dial and KSAN shifting to 107.7. In a move typical of the dizzying radio acquisition era of the late 1990s, Evergreen morphed into Chancellor Media Corporation in 1997, then merged with Capstar to become AMFM, and later, merged with iHeartMedia’s predecessor Clear Channel Communications.
The new frequency changed nothing in terms of programming. Wild 94.9 imported a morning program called “The Dog House” from San Jose’s KHQT. Hosts Jeffrey “JV” Vandergrift and Dan “Elvis” Lay continued to push the envelope and deliver strong ratings until their dismissal in 2005.
In the ensuing years, KYLD has remained a contemporary hit radio station, playing mainstream Top 40, pop, and hip-hop hits and billing itself as “The Bay’s #1 Hit Music Station”.
