KNZZ
| City | Grand Junction, Colorado |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Grand Junction, Aspen |
| Frequency | 1100 kHz |
| First air date | May 1, 1926 (in Edgewater, moved to Grand Junction on January 31, 1931) |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts day 36,000 watts critical hours 10,000 watts night |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 39465 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°57′6″N 108°25′10″W / 38.95167°N 108.41944°W |
| Former callsigns | KFXJ (1931-1956) KREX (1956-1984) KVEE (1984-1989) KJYE (1989-1990) |
| Owner | MBC Grand Broadcasting, Inc. |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 1100knzz.com |
KNZZ (1100 AM) is a radio station licensed to Grand Junction, Colorado, United States, the station serves the Grand Junction area. The station is owned by MBC Grand Broadcasting, Inc.
They are an affiliate of the BYU Cougars Sports Network.
KNZZ signed on for the first time on May 1, 1926 as KFXJ, operating out of Edgewater. It was owned by Rex Howell, who ran the station himself--including the advertising. He originally intended to base the station in Denver, but was unable to do so because the equipment for the station had originally been licensed for portable use. Under the regulations of the day, it thus could not operate in any city with a fully licensed radio station. For this reason, Howell built his studios at a house in Edgewater, just two blocks from the Denver city limits. For all intents and purposes, though, it was a Denver station, and quickly established itself as one of the city's leading stations. It established such a strong reputation that it was widely expected to garner the CBS Radio affiliation for Denver. When it lost out to KLZ, Howell decided to move the station to Grand Junction, which didn't have any radio stations at the time. KFXJ signed on from Grand Junction on January 31, 1931 from an Art Deco and block glass building on Hillcrest Manor.
Howell added a television station in 1954, KFXJ-TV. However, searching for a more distinctive callsign, in 1956 he changed the call letters to KREX-AM-TV--after his first name. He added KREX-FM in 1960. He sold the stations to a Cincinnati group in 1966, but reclaimed control after several missed payments in 1969. Howell died in 1978, and his estate broke up his empire in 1984, earning a handsome return on Howell's original investment of 58 years prior. The television station still has the KREX-TV calls, and still operates out of the building Howell originally built for its former radio sister.
The AM station changed its calls to KVEE after the sale. On 1989-11-15, the station changed its call sign to KJYE and on 1990-04-30 to the current KNZZ.
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Wikipedia