KBIU is a radio station broadcasting an Adult hits

Adult hits

Adult hits is a radio format, popular in the early 2000s, that does not adhere to a specific music genre, but instead draws from a wider playlist...

 format. Licensed to Lake Charles

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...

, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...

.

History

The station's original call letters were KGRA and it broadcast under the moniker of "Nova 104" during the mid-1970s to 1981. Nova 104 played a format of AOR (Album Oriented Rock) music with laid back air personalities who each programmed the music for their individual shows from one of the largest vinyl album libraries in Louisiana. The format featured everything from AC/DC to Frank Zappa and included progressive country such as Jerry Jeff Walker and Rusty Wier. Nova 104 also featured a weekend Jazz show which added to their diversity and appeal. The station offered a "hip" alternative to the news that complimented the AOR format by running nationally produced entertaining news bites called News Blimps and locally produced tidbits called Nova Information. The station was also community oriented putting on several concerts over the course of its history to raise money for worthwhile causes including the "Save The Arcade" campaign. Then in 1981 the station switched its format to Top 40 and its call sign to KBIU. In 1986 the format was flipped to Hot AC and the moniker changed to "B104 - The B". In 2005, the station switched from broadcasting at 103.7 FM to 103.3 FM. It had most recently continued the format although the moniker became "B103 The B". The station was flipped to a Variety Hits format under the Jack FM branding in May 2008.

The station was originally located physically on the 6th floor of The Pioneer Building in downtown Lake Charles which is now Lake Charles' City Hall. The station's original frequency was 103.7 and broadcast at 100,000 watt

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

s from a 150 meter tower originally allowing for a great area coverage allowing it to also cover the Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

 area.

The station was downgraded in power, height, and frequency from 103.7 to 103.3 in 2005 by its current owner Cumulus Media in an attempt to allow for KHJK

KHJK

KHJK is an Adult Alternative-formatted radio station serving the Houston and Beaumont, Texas, areas. The studios are currently located in the Westchase Bank Building at 9801 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, with its transmitter facility located southeast of Devers, Texas, in Liberty County...

 to be re-aligned as a Houston,Texas rimshot station.