Bay Area Radio Station Bought By Seattle's KEXP

SAN FRANCISCO — A new music station is heading to Bay Area radio dials as new ownership prepares to take over KREV 92.7 FM.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Alameda-licensed broadcaster transmits from a tower on Candlestick Hill, primarily serving listeners around San Francisco and the East Bay.

KREV's history encompasses an array of genres and call letters, broadcasting jazz music as KJAZ from 1959 to 1994, then rotating through rock, dance, hip-hop and top 40 formats in the decades since. The beleaguered station entered receivership in 2020, stemming from legal and financial issues, broadcasting as Pirate Radio 92.7, Revolution 92.7, and most recently as 92.7 The Hustle.

Seattle independent powerhouse KEXP announced Thursday it had finalized a $3.5 million purchase of the station and its assets at a bankruptcy auction, with plans to bring its curated playlists anchored by "real human hosts" to Bay Area listeners in the coming weeks.

The listener-supported station has evolved over the decades from a small, student-run operation to an international tastemaker through its free online web stream and popular "Live on KEXP" YouTube video series.

"First, we're incredibly proud of who we are — a Seattle-based radio station and arts organization that reaches millions of people all around the world," CEO Ethan Raup wrote in a letter to donors Thursday. "On any given week, KEXP's audience now includes tens of thousands of streaming listeners and over a million YouTube viewers. We already know that a good portion of our community lives outside the Seattle market — and that's a strength."

Raup said the changeover is pending "a few technical and regulatory details," including a formal approval of the transfer from the Federal Communications Commission. KEXP expects to begin broadcasting on KREV in the coming months, at first airing "more or less the same programming" as its Seattle counterpart.

Within the first six months, KEXP plans to roll out a Bay Area-focused show to highlight the local music scene.

The purchase was made possible from a $10 million bequest left to KEXP in a listener's will, and Raup said forecasts suggest the Bay Area expansion will generate a positive cash flow within a few years.

"That means we'll be able to sustain and grow Bay Area-specific programming while also providing support for KEXP's work in Seattle and worldwide," he said. "For that reason, we see this plan as a way of reinvesting existing funds in a different kind of asset — in this case a radio station rather than a traditional financial instrument like stocks or bonds."