Connoisseur Media will flip longtime South Bay Classic Rock station KUFX “98.5 The Fox” to a new Country format called “Bay Country” at Noon Pacific on Wednesday, July 22.
The change ends the station’s run as a 10kW Class B FM with boosters and moves its programming exclusively to digital HD Radio signals: KUFX’s HD2 channel and KMVQ-FM 99.7’s HD3 signal in San Francisco.
Listeners will need HD Radio tuners or streaming audio to continue hearing the station.
The format switch follows Connoisseur’s decision to sell the physical facilities of KBAY-FM 94.5 in Gilroy to K-LOVE Inc. while retaining the intellectual property and call letters. The company is relocating the Country format to the stronger 98.5 MHz signal, which will also simulcast on 92.1 MHz in the East Bay.
With Country music enjoying renewed mainstream popularity in 2026, the move aims to fill a significant gap in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market. It comes years after the end of KRTY-FM 95.3 as a terrestrial station. Currently, the only other Country-formatted FMs audible in the Bay Area originate from Santa Rosa, Monterey-Salinas, and Stockton-Modesto.