KZWC succeeded KKIS-FM in 1993 when budding Spanish-language radio entrepreneur Amador Bustos bought the station out of receivership. Bustos had launched Z-Spanish Network a year earlier with an initial $150,000 investment. His game plan focused on the rapidly-growing Hispanic market and a realization he explained to the Sacramento Bee: “We knew we could not afford to buy a station in San Jose or San Francisco. It would cost $10 million to serve one million Hispanics. We figured out another way. Beam the program to smaller markets and collectively gather a million listeners.”
Starting with KZSA in Cameron Park, CA, Z-Spanish Network quickly added two other stations, all at 92.1 on the FM dial. The Walnut Creek property was one of them.
The La Z format was aimed at 18-to-34 year old listeners and Bustos described it as particularly focused on the Mexican experience shared by California Spanish-speakers.
Z-Spanish Network was able to attract venture capital investment, growing its portfolio to 33 owned stations nationally along with 42 affiliates. It became the largest Spanish radio group in the country. It had grown to 15 stations in its first four years and then doubled within the next four years. In August 2000, Bustos sold Z-Spanish Network to Entravision for $475 million.
By then, KZWC had been peeled out of his portfolio. The station was sold to Jacor Communications in the summer of 1998 for $4.5 million. Jacor switched the call letters to KFJO and began simulcasting San Jose’s KSJO in a three-station arrangement known as “92 Rock”. Alameda’s KZSF was the third signal in the group.
