KHHM

The station debuted with a Regional Mexican format in 1996 as KRYR and then by choice of license holder Paula Nelson, switched to Urban Contemporary during the wave of Hip-Hop/R&B stations that sprang up nationally in the late 1990s. In November 1997, the call letters changed to KBMB, with the moniker "Better Mo' Better Music." Initially, the station was an affiliate of the satellite-fed "Touch" format from ABC Radio, a contract pursued and finally secured by the station's first Operations Director Thomas Turner. Later, the moniker "The Bomb" was adopted by choice of owner Paula Nelson, and with the aid of promos, liners and drops produced by Bob Jones, the programming focused on targeting the largely ignored hip hop community. Stations such as KSFM, a predominate leader in the market as an CHR, were not on the new Hip Hop wave, creating the void KBMB filled.

Reflecting the market's demographics, 7% of the Sacramento radio market is African American, so although KBMB was the only Black-owned station (Diamond Broadcasting, the original license holder) at the time, it relied primarily on white females 18–34 for its ratings and commercial appeal. While it was marketed as a Rhythmic/CHR in 1998 as a way to target beyond the core audience and to attract more mainstream advertisers to the station, it managed to maintain an unofficial urban format through its ABC Network affiliation and its own music selection. It was the home of the syndicated Doug Banks Morning Show, making KBMB one of few urban stations in the West Coast to carry a syndicated morning show. It also carried the Tom Joyner Morning Show for a short period upon the station's debut but actually had both on for a while, after moving Banks to mid-days.

In its early days, KBMB once had personalities like former Program Directors Randy "Jayare" Johnson (who hosted locally oriented hip hop shows "the Basement" and "Ground Zero and is now a member of the hip hop group Beataroundabush) and Ibrahim "E-Bro" Darden (who is the current program director at WQHT Hot 97 in New York) and Deshawn "D-Funk" Robertson, host of the highest rated Afternoon Drive-Time show in the station's history, "The Afternoon Flava Show" (He is currently a professional stand-up comedian). From its inception, the station competed fiercely for ratings with heritage competitor KSFM for the very lucrative 18–34 female demographic. The station was committed to Sacramento community causes, as well as its inclusion of urban-leaning artists that traditionally were seldom heard on Sacramento radio. Though competing with an undersized signal which was originally 3 kW but later upped to 6 kW, the upstart station gave heritage KSFM (50 kW) a run for its money in the ratings. It even gained competition from KHYL in 2001 upon that station's format changed from oldies to Gold-oldies leaning R&B.

But in 2004, after years of litigation between the station's majority owner, Paula Nelson (the last local independent station owner, and the only African American station owner in Sacramento) and Bustos Media, the station was forcibly sold to Entravision communications, a predominantly Spanish language corporate entity. Johnson, Nelson, and all other managers were terminated, and the management team of the local Entravision cluster assumed the reins, despite the abysmal ratings at Entravision's existing properties. Almost immediately the format was constrained in a failed attempt to compete with KSFM and pop rival KDND more directly.

After Entravision acquired KBMB, the officials systematically went about disassembling the predominantly African American air staff. The sentiments expressed by Entravision head of Radio programming Jeff Lieberman were that the station was just too ethnic to compete in Sacramento (these, despite the Bomb's history of ratings success with a predominantly African American cast of characters). A pronounced push to make the station more Latin oriented began with the hiring of a nearly all Latin air staff and the infusion of Spanish into the station's imaging. The longtime urban contemporary format was permanently gravitated to a rhythmic format. The Doug Banks Show was dropped in favor of a locally based morning show, but KBMB returned to a syndicated morning show with Big Boy's Neighborhood, before that, too, was dropped when the urban-turned-rhythmic format on KBMB ran its course in 2009.

On January 11, 2010, after months of dismal ratings, KBMB dropped "The Bomb" in favor of "HOT 103.5" and terminated Nikia Moore, the last of its daily African American air talents. It has also shifted from a hip hop-focused approach to a broader contemporary Hit direction that includes primarily pop crossovers that wouldn't have been played in the past. In addition, it has also replaced Big Boy's Neighborhood with more music mornings, while a more Latin-friendly morning show is sought.[2]

On June 25, 2010 it was announced that KBMB would change its call letters to KHHM to match its "HOT 103.5" handle. The move coincides with launch of the station's "103 days of Summer" campaign.[3] In February 2011, KHHM morphed to contemporary hit radio with a Rhythmic lean at first, but since the transition, they have moved into a more Mainstream direction with the addition of artists like The Script, Selena Gomez & The Scene, Coldplay, Christina Perri & Andy Grammer to its playlist and in April 2011 was moved to Mediabase's Top 40/CHR panel. By September 2011 Nielsen BDS moved KHHM from the rhythmic contemporary panel to the Top 40/CHR panel as it has become less dependent on Rhythmic hits; BDS still continues to list KHHM as a Top 40/CHR reporter although Mediabase returned the station back to the Rhythmic panel in 2014. It now has increased competition with Top 40/CHR rival KDND, and hot adult contemporary stations KZZO & KUDL. Hot adult contemporary station KGBY was considered a rival until December 1, 2011, when that station became KFBK-FM to simulcast KFBK-AM. KHHM's flip to top 40 joins other California markets with two top 40 stations such as Los Angeles' KAMP-FM & KIIS-FM and San Francisco's KMVQ-FM & KREV, and most recently San Diego with KEGY & KHTS-FM.

The station would make headlines on November 22, 2016 when, just two days after Kanye West cuts short, and after 30 minutes, abruptly ends, a concert performance at Sacramento's Golden 1 Center (which would be his final stop on his Saint Pablo Tour as he would cancel it before checking into a facility for medical treatment), KHHM's then-PD/Airstaffer Justin "JayMarzz" Marshall announced that they're done with playing West's songs for good as its morning show made that statement by retaliating with cutting off his single "Fade" before Marshall slammed the rapper for criticizing the fans, fellow musicians, and bias towards radio not supporting him.[4]

On July 2, 2019, staffers at KHHM informed that they have been let go as Entravision is running the station jockless ahead of a planned return to a Spanish-language presentation. As of July 8, 2019, KHHM began running bilingual liners alongside the music. The news ends a 22-year run for KHHM's Top 40 format in both Mainstream and Rhythmic directions that date back to its start as KBMB.[5]

On July 29, 2019 KHHM, along with sister station 98.9 FM KCVR-FM Columbia-Modesto, California changed their formats (KHHM from rhythmic contemporary and KCVR from a previous simulcast of Country sister KNTY) to a bilingual rhythmic CHR simulcast, branded as "Fuego 103.5". They're the second and third stations to flip to a Bilingual Top 40 format in California, following KLLI Los Angeles (on July 18, 2019). According to Entravision, KHHM presents a music mix ignited by today's top trending global Latin Urban music movement mixed with (English-language and Pop-oriented) Contemporary Hits. The move makes KHHM at least a partial competitor to Top 40/CHR rival KUDL again due to its lean towards Mainstream Top 40 currents. The first song played on "Fuego" was "Baila Baila Baila" by Ozuna.[6] Whereas bilingual stations usually feature airstaffers who speak more than one language, KHHM's presentation is mostly English-language.[7]