they played it very safe, pretty much just transplanting 3KZ from AM to FM with not much change. And probably with good reason as 3KZ (AM) was usually sitting around the Top 3 rating stations and it now had a $30 million debt to pay back. It had a ratings boost to hit #1 in Survey 1/1990, ending Fox FM’s almost 3-year run at the top, but the novelty of the new FM station wore off very quickly.
S1/1990: 14.6% (#1)
S2/1990: 12.8% (#3)
S3/1990: 12.1% (#4)
S4/1990: 10.8% (#5)
Maybe listeners expected more from FM conversion rather than just an AM station copied across? Even as a listener, I found KZFM seemed to lack some of the audio clarity of the other FMs. It sounded like an AM station that just happened to be on the FM band.
Having 3TT convert to FM mid-year with “Classic Hits” probably didn’t help KZ much, either. And any listeners resisting the move to FM ended up finding 3MP, which hit #1 at the end of 1990 (equal with MMM) and again in S1/1991 (equal with Fox).