The rumors had been out there for weeks that Alpha’s KXTG (The Game) Portland, Ore., would move its sports format to AM and go Adult Top 40, perhaps along the lines of Alternative-leaning KLCK (Click 98.9) Seattle. But it was hard to imagine quite where they’d put one. Portland already has KRSK (The Buzz), although that station features high-profile personality in afternoons and evenings. And doing a modern-leaning format like Click would be very close to Alpha’s Triple-A KINK.

Despite its Click-like positioner, “Today’s Modern Mix,” the new KBFF (Live 95.5) landed as a very straight-ahead ’90s-through-today Hot AC. That’s to the extent that any Hot AC station can be called straight-ahead, given the fast-evolving nature of the format. The station goes as far left in Click’s direction as Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man,” but there’s enough Usher that it’s not Modern AC and enough heritage Hot AC material that it’s not going straight at CHR KKRZ (Z100).

Here’s the station at 7:30 p.m. on launch day, May 25, under Keola Lui-Kwan, getting a long-deserved PD shot here after APD stints at Country sister KUPL and KBWF (The Wolf) San Francisco.

• Rob Thomas, “Lonely No More”
• Bruno Mars, “Just The Way You Are”
• No Doubt, “Don’t Speak”
• Daughtry, “Life After You”
• Mumford & Sons, “Little Lion Man”
• My Chemical Romance, “Sing”
• Uncle Kracker, “Drift Away”
• Lady Gaga, “Born This Way”
• U2, “Beautiful Day”
• Usher, “DJ Got Us Falling In Love”
• Carrie Underwood, “Before He Cheats”
• The Script, “For The First Time”
• Train, “Hey, Soul Sister”