The station signed on December 21, 1961, with the call letters KAFI, largely simulcasting 950 AM KAHI in Auburn, California, a sister station at the time. After a signal upgrade in 1977 to target the Sacramento metropolitan area, the call letters were changed to KHYL and the station carried an oldies format known as "K-HYL". It dabbled with adult contemporary music in the mid 1980s. The studios were moved to 2435 Marconi in Sacramento and the branding became "Solid Gold 101" on June 6, 1988, and "Oldies 101" until 1991. John Parker owned the station until American Media purchased and re-branded the station as "COOL 101" in 1991. COOL 101 was imaged in the style of Drake-Chenault Top 40 Radio delivery, with the use of the Johnny MannBoss Radio Jingles, top the hour timpani and the booming voice of Charlie Van Dyke. COOL 101 also added the San Francisco 49ers football broadcasts to the station's schedule, not a common move for FM music stations in those days. KHYL was usually one of the top 5 stations in the 25-54 ratings demographic during this time until May 25, 1999, when the Gold format was switched to Urban Oldies. In 1996, Chancellor Media purchased American Media, and in 1997, moved to the current location at 1440 Ethan Way in Sacramento. On May 25, 1999, AMFM changed its longtime "Cool" oldies format to Rhythmic Oldies as "Magic 101". Rival station 101.9 KCCL (now known as KNTY picked up to "Cool" oldies format.
V101.1
In July 2001, Magic 101 branding was dropped in favor of "V101.1." After the switch, the station added R&B product to the playlist, followed by more Rhythmic Pop tracks. KHYL made adjustments in its direction by becoming more current with Rhythmic hits and less focused on R&B and Old School product, possibly to entice younger listeners away from Rhythmic Top 40 rivals KSFM and KHHM. By August 2014, KHYL officially transitioned to Rhythmic contemporary, giving Sacramento three different stations with the same format. With V101.1 seeing the lowest ratings of the three, it transitioned to classic hip hop on January 9, 2015.
KHYL-HD2
From 2008 to 2013, KHYL's HD2 subcarrier offered the Dance Top 40 "Club Phusion" format, which was programmed through iHeartMedia, Inc.'s Format Lab. It replaced an Urban Ballads & Love Songs format, which was launched in 2006. In 2013, Club Phusion's successor "Evolution" has taken its place, but has since been replaced with Big Classic Hits.
