KUUU (92.5 FM, "92.5 The Beat") is a radio station licensed to South Jordan, Utah, serving the

Salt Lake City metropolitan area The Salt Lake City metropolitan area is the metropolitan area centered on the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau currently define the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistica ...

. Owned by Broadway Media, the station primarily broadcasts a classic hip-hop format during the daytime hours, but transitions to a

rhythmic contemporary Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and upbeat R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary never uses ...

-based playlist during the evening and overnight hours. The station's studios are located in

Downtown Salt Lake City Downtown (also called City Center) is the oldest district in Salt Lake City, Utah. The grid from which the entire city is laid out originates at Temple Square, the location of the Salt Lake Temple. Location Downtown Salt Lake City is usually ...

and its transmitter site is located southwest of the city on

Farnsworth Peak Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately south west of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The mountain is named for Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the first completely electronic t ...

in the

Oquirrh Mountains The Oquirrh Mountains is a mountain range that runs north-south for approximately 30 miles (50 km) to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range runs from northwestern Utah County–centra ...

. KUUU broadcasts in

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

, carrying simulcasts of sister stations KYMV and KEGA on its HD2 and HD3 subchannels. In turn, KUUU is simulcast on the HD3 subchannel of sister station KUDD.

History

The station was launched on September 1, 1979, and adopted its callsign KTLE on September 10. On May 19, 1982, it was modified to KTLE-FM. On May 9, 1997, it was slightly changed to KTKL. The station previously carried a " nostalgia" format; on February 27, 1999, the station flipped to

as ''U92'', and applied for the call letters KUUU to match the new branding. The launch of ''U92'' returned the rhythmic contemporary format to the Salt Lake City market for the first time since KZHT's 1997 flip to

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

.Knight PD As Salt Lake Feels `The Beat'
''Radio & Records'' (03/05/1999, page 16) The station was originally licensed to

Tooele, Utah Tooele ( ) is a city in Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 35,742 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Tooele County. Located approximately 30 minutes southwest of Salt Lake City, Tooele is known for Tooele Ar ...

, and relied on a translator on 92.3 to cover Provo, Utah. In February 2005, the station relocated from 92.1 FM to 92.5 and changed its city of license to

South Jordan, Utah South Jordan is a city in south central Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, south of Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the city lies in the Salt Lake Valley along the banks of the Jordan River between the Oquir ...

, allowing it to better cover the

Salt Lake Valley Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, and West Valley City; its total p ...

. In contrast to the conservatism of the market (due to it being the base of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

), KUUU frequently ranked among Salt Lake City's highest-rated radio stations among listeners 18–34. This demographic is especially prominent in Utah due to it having the youngest

median age A population pyramid (age structure diagram) or "age-sex pyramid" is a graphical illustration of the distribution of a population (typically that of a country or region of the world) by age groups and sex; it typically takes the shape of a pyramid ...

among all U.S. states. KUUU also gained a reputation for helping to break singles from artists such as

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), better known by his stage name Flo Rida (, ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 breakout single "Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the record for digital down ...

, Plies, and T-Pain. In 2008, program director Brian Michel credited not being owned by a larger conglomerate as giving KUUU flexibility in serving its audience, commenting that " people in San Antonio aren't telling us what to play. We have no outside consultants." In February 2008, it was reported that a

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

following the station's staff was being pitched. On June 18, 2010, KUUU, along with KUDD and KYLZ, were sold to

Simmons Media Group Redrock Media is a media company based/their headquarters in St. George, Utah, in the United States. The company owns four FM radio stations in St. George, Utah. Formally known as Simmers Media, owner Craig Hanson changed the name to Redrock ...

, who in turn sold the stations to Broadway Media in 2013. In 2016, KUUU initially applied to move from 92.5 to 92.3 and upgrade its signal coverage as part of a deal that Broadway made with Community Wireless, who moved KPCW-FM down from 91.9 to 91.7 and took ownership of KUDD that Broadway donated to them earlier, but then instead later applied to its wattage from 500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s to 3,700

s and decrease its HAAT from to , increasing its coverage area by approximately 15 miles in all directions. The station promoted hip-hop concert events such as the "U92 Summer Jam". In February 2019, KUUU held the "20th Anniversary Throwback Jam" concert at

Vivint Arena Vivint Arena (stylized as vivint arena), formerly known as Delta Center, EnergySolutions Arena and Vivint Smart Home Arena, is an indoor arena located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The arena serves as the home venue for the National Basketball Assoc ...

to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ''U92'', headlined by

Ice Cube An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be p ...

92.5 The Beat

By June 2022, KUUU's ratings had fallen to a 0.8 share, tied for 24th place in the Salt Lake City market. In an effort to bring the station back to life, Broadway Media hired Matt 'Mateo' Walling as Program Director. The station had also pivoted to predominantly carrying classic hip-hop music between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. daily, relegating current and recurrent music to the evening and overnight hours. On August 5, 2022, at 5 p.m., KUUU began stunting with a loop of " Jiggle Jiggle" by Duke & Jones and

Louis Theroux Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award. After graduating fr ...

, interspersed with bumpers promoting a "goodbye to U, but not 92" on August 8 at 3:00 p.m, and a 92-cent gasoline giveaway whose location would be revealed at that time, in addition to self-depricative jokes about the station's low ratings. At the promised time, KUUU rebranded as ''92.5 The Beat Utah's #1 For Throwbacks'' to emphasize the new positioning.

References

External links

* * * {{coord, 40.660, N, 112.202, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Classic hip hop radio stations in the United States Rhythmic contemporary radio stations in the United States UUU Mass media in Salt Lake City Radio stations established in 1992