KZNU (1450 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

broadcasting a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

format to the

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

, United States, area. The station is owned by Canyon Media.

History

The 1450 kHz frequency was home to

KDXU KDXU (890 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format. Licensed to St. George, Utah, United States, the station is currently owned by Townsquare Media. KDXU is also an affiliate of the BYU Cougars Sports Network. KDXU signed on in ...

from 1956 until 1985. In September 1985 KDXU switched its radio frequency to 890 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. KDXU broadcast engineer and local cable-TV owner Ray Carpenter filed for a new radio station on 1450 kHz, which was granted by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC); KATJ began operating with an adult contemporary music format in December using the former KDXU transmitter. The new station took its call letters from Carpenter's six grandchildren: Kelly, Amy, Traci, Troy, Jared and Joel. In November 1986, former

Bonneville International Bonneville International Corporation is a media and broadcasting company, wholly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation. It began as a radio and TV networ ...

executives Joseph A. Kjar, Donald Bybee and Blaine W. Whipple, organizing as Color Country Broadcasting, purchased the station from Carpenter, changing the call sign to KDLX "DeLux Radio" on January 1, 1987. KDLX moved immediately to new studio facilities Kjar, Whipple, and Bybee sold the station in November 1988 to Las Vegas broadcaster Jack London (Paul G. Maziar) who subsequently filed bankruptcy. London's partner in the purchase was veteran broadcast executive E. Morgan Skinner, Jr., a former Bonneville employee. The two sought to change the station's call letters to KSLI, for their consulting venture, Skinner and London, Inc. The change, which went into effect on November 16, drew the ire of Bonneville for being too close to its KSL radio and television stations in Salt Lake City; Bonneville threatened action against the station and ordered it to stop using the KSLI call letters by November 29. To avoid legal costs, London and Skinner acquiesced and changed the call letters to KSGI. On New Year's Eve 1988, the Quail Creek Reservoir Dam near

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

broke, sending a wall of water down the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

and causing over US$11 million of damage to houses, farms, roads and utilities, including KSGI, whose transmitter site was located near the river in St. George. The dam breach destroyed the transmitter building and tower site, sending parts of the transmitter downstream nearly Skinner put the station back to the air within two weeks, with the assistance of Las Vegas broadcaster Steve Gold, Las Vegas-based tower builder Dennis Todd and Las Vegas broadcast engineer Patrick O'Gara. In addition, the group bought the bankrupt KCCZ television station in 1993 and returned it to air as KSGI-TV. Skinner sold the station, together with KZEZ 99.9 FM, which Skinner built with partner Lavon Randall, to

Simmons Media Group Redrock Media is a media company based/their headquarters in St. George, Utah, in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental Unite ...

of St. George in 1998. Simmons operated KSGI under an LMA, changing the call sign to KTSP "Total Sports" in 1998 and again to KZNU in 2001. Simmons was unsuccessful at getting FCC approval of the purchase, resulting from multiple ownership issues, and partnered with M. Kent Frandsen to organize Canyon Media Corporation, of which Western Broadcasting, LLC (Simmons) retained a thirty-percent (30%) non-attributable interest. Canyon Media Corporation acquired KZNU and KZEZ in 2005; the latter is currently broadcasting country music with the call letters KONY.

References

External links

* * {{Simmons Media Group ZNU News and talk radio stations in the United States