The station first signed on in 1948 as KIRO-FM. It was owned by the Queen City Broadcasting Company and it simulcasted co-owned AM 710KIRO. The two stations were CBS Radio Network affiliates, airing its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio." In 1958, KIRO-TV signed on the air as Seattle's CBS Television affiliate, which it still is today. As network programming moved from radio to television, KIRO-AM-FM switched to a full servicemiddle of the road format of pop music, news and sports. In 1963, Queen City Broadcasting, owned by Saul Haas, was sold to Bonneville International, a broadcasting corporation set up by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
KSEA and KWMX
In the late 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission began requiring FM stations in large cities to stop full time simulcasts of their co-owned AM stations. For a few years, KIRO-FM aired a Progressive Rock format, beginning in 1967. The station flipped to Beautiful Music in 1971, at first keeping the KIRO-FM call sign, and then as KSEA in 1975. The format gradually evolved from mostly instrumental Beautiful Music to a mix of instrumentals and vocals as easy listening in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, as the easy listening audience was aging, KSEA moved to soft adult contemporary music. On February 17, 1989, KSEA shifted to a mainstream adult contemporary format. KSEA also telecasted its audio on KIRO-TV throughout the late 1980s into the early 1990s when KIRO was off-air, mainly during sign-off time in overnights. The station shifted to hot adult contemporary as KWMX in April 1991, though this would last for only a short time.
Return to KIRO-FM
On September 21, 1992, the station returned to a simulcast of then-sister station KIRO. With the change, the KIRO-FM call letters were reinstated. The station broke the simulcast on July 5, 1994, airing a separately programmed talk format, while retaining the KIRO-FM call sign. The initial lineup included a simulcast of 710 KIRO in morning drive time, Rick Enloe in late mornings, Dave Brenner and Dr. Laura Schlessinger's syndicated show in afternoons, Gil Gross, Leslie Marshall at night, along with Bernie Ward and David Essel on weekends.
Hot Talk KQBZ
On January 6, 1995, the station rebranded as "100.7 The Buzz," and added the syndicated Tom Leykis Show to the lineup. KQBZ was sold by Bonneville to Entercom in March 1997. The station changed its call letters to KQBZ in May 1999, and shifted to hot talk in 2000 with the slogan "Radio For Guys." During the early 2000s, KQBZ carried Don & Mike in middays and Phil Hendrie in evenings. By November 2005, the station's weekday lineup consisted of local personalities Robin & Maynard in mornings, BJ Shea in middays, Tom Leykis in afternoons, 'The Mens Room' in evenings, and John and Jeff and All-Comedy Radio in late nights, with paid and specialty programming on weekends.
The Wolf KKWF
At 8 a.m. on November 30, 2005, in the middle of "Robin & Maynard", the station began stunting with a countdown clock to Noon the same day. At that time, the station flipped to country as "100.7 The Wolf" with the new call letters KKWF. The first song played on The Wolf was "How Do You Like Me Now?!" by Toby Keith. With the flip, The Men's Room and BJ Shea moved over to sister stationKISW. Tom Leykis moved over as well, but on tape delay, from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Entercom acquired KKWF's long-time country rival KMPS in November 2017, as a result of its merger with CBS Radio. In the immediate aftermath of the merger's completion, KMPS dropped its country format in defense of KKWF, and ultimately flipped to soft adult contemporary on December 4, 2017. Rock station KVRQ would flip to country later the same day.
HD radio
KKWF signed on HD Radio operations in 2006. 100.7 HD 2 carried a comedy radio format simply branded as "All Comedy Radio." The format had been heard overnights when the station was KQBZ. On June 18, 2011, the signal flipped to Smooth Jazz, filling the void left open by KWJZ when that station flipped to Modern AC on December 27, 2010. In late February 2012, the Blues format from sister station 103.7 HD2 was bumped to 100.7 HD2, effectively ending the smooth jazz format. In early June 2018, 100.7-HD2 and 94.1-HD2 swapped formats, with the blues format moving to 94.1-HD2 and the classic country format moving to 100.7-HD2.
