KMEL

KMEL (106.1 FM) is a Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California. It is owned by iHeartMedia.

KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadcasts a "superpower" Class B signal of 69,000 watts from a transmitter atop the San Bruno Mountains south of San Francisco. The station's powerful signal is heard all over the Bay Area and covers areas as far north as Santa Rosa, as far east as Elk Grove in the southern portion of Sacramento County, and as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is currently one of the highest rated stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the largest listening audience males 18-to-34 demographic.

History

1940s-1977

106.1 FM began as KGO-FM, sister station of KGO. The FM station was originally licensed at 96.9 FM in 1946. KGO-FM moved to 106.1 FM on November 3, 1947, with facilities at a former General Electric plant on East 12th Street in Oakland. On January 14, 1955, KGO-FM moved from 106.1 to 103.7.

RKO General, owner of Top 40 powerhouse KFRC 610 AM, eventually purchased the station and on November 30, 1960, it became KFRC-FM. The station's call letters changed to KFMS in November 1968, then KKEE in October 1972. In September 1973, the KFRC-FM call letters were reinstated, and the station began a "nostalgia rock" format, playing oldies and soft rock as "K106".