City | Dallas, Texas |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Dallas-Fort Worth |
Slogan | The Voice of the People |
Frequency | 89.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
First air date | August 6, 1983 |
Format | Community, Variety |
ERP | 55,000 watts |
HAAT | 259 meters (850 ft) |
Class | C1 |
Facility ID | 601 |
Transmitter coordinates | 32°35′24″N 96°58′21″W / 32.59000°N 96.97250°W |
Callsign meaning | NON-commercial |
Owner | Agape Broadcasting Foundation, Inc. |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | www.knon.org |
KNON (89.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a community radio format. Licensed to Dallas, Texas it serves the Dallas-Fort Worth area and is owned by Agape Broadcasting Foundation, Inc. KNON (for NON-commercial) is a non-profit, listener-supported radio station, deriving its main source of income from on-air pledge drives, underwriting or sponsorships by local small businesses, and benefit events. KNON was picked Best Radio Station in Dallas in 2011 by The Dallas Observer and D-Magazine. In 2012 KNON was picked Best Radio Station for Music by the Dallas Observer.
KNON is on the air 24 hours, seven days a week. The volunteer disc jockeys play their own music or conduct talk shows during programs specifically targeted to various demographic profiles. KNON has a small paid staff of 4 full-time people.
KNON broadcasts in HD.
KNON began broadcasting in 1983 using 90.9 MHz. Its predecessor on the frequency was KCHU, a non-commercial station that began broadcasting on August 28, 1975. KCHU operated until August 1977, when it went off the air owing to financial shortfalls. The 90.9 frequency was transferred to Agape Broadcasting as KNON in 1979. The station remained silent through 1980, which was then a license renewal year in Texas (radio stations then operated on a three-year license cycle). By 1984, Criswell Bible Institute (now Criswell College) had begun operating KCBI-FM from a downtown Dallas rooftop with 1,500 watts on 89.3 FM. They aspired to raise power and height and to relocate to the Cedar Hill, Texas tower farm, and faced limitations.
By the mid-1980s, a number of groups, among which the Criswell Bible Institute was the most prominent, petitioned the FCC to have the 90.9 FM frequency assigned to another broadcaster. Criswell had cited past operational deficiencies on KNON's part as justification for the frequency reallocation. The end result was a swap of frequencies between KCBI and KNON in May 1988. The KNON online history museum can be found here.