KFNN (1510 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 504,258 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Arizona, third-most populous city in Arizona, after Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, T ...

, and serving the

Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the c ...

. News Talk Radio in Phoenix, it airs a financial news and talk

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, broadcasting from studios in North Scottsdale. KFNN is owned by CRC Broadcasting Company, Inc., headed by Ronald Cohen. The company also owns

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

1580 The Fanatic KQFN, as well as KJJZ 102.7 The Fanatic in the

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

area, and a financial expo called Financial Fest. KFNN has a lineup of local and national money related programs, with some nationally syndicated

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

show hosts. KFNN says it had the first full-time financial format of its kind in the U.S., starting in 1988. By day, KFNN is powered at 22,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), 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 quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. However, because 1510 AM is a

clear-channel A clear-channel station is a North American AM broadcasting, AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classifi ...

frequency reserved for Class A

WLAC WLAC (1510 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts a talk radio radio format, format. The radio studio, studios are in Nashvill ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, KFNN must reduce nighttime power to only 100 watts to prevent interference. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

at all times. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Black Mountain Boulevard at Rough Rider Road in Phoenix. KFNN can also be heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

K287BX at 105.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

in Mesa.

History

Early years

Maricopa County Broadcasters, owned by Sheldon Engel, built KALF in 1962. The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on November 2. It was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

, required to go off the air at sunset. In 1970, it was relaunched as KMND ("Command Radio"), simulcasting an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

music format with co-owned 93.3 KMND-FM. KMND-AM-FM was acquired by the Dwight-Karma Broadcasting Corporation in 1971. The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

s switched KDKB and KDKB-FM, playing an Album Oriented Rock format. In 1978, the simulcast was broken and 1510 AM flipped to an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

sound of the 1950s and 60s. The call letters were changed to KDJQ. In 1980, the format at AM KDJQ changed to

new wave music New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop music, pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of Punk subculture, punk culture". It was originally used as a catch-all fo ...

for a brief time. The station became KNTS on November 6, 1984. On August 23, 1986, the station changed its call sign to KJAA with a

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

format.

KFNN

On December 12, 1988, 1510 AM changed its call sign to KFNN. The format switched to all business and financial news. The station's transmitter and towers at the time of the change were located in Mesa, its

city of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

as stated on its

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

license. It was originally a 10,000-watt daytime signal until 1991, when the station towers were relocated to North Phoenix. From there the signal was authorized to increase to 22,000 watts daytime, and nighttime authorization was added. In 2013, KFNN began

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

ing on FM, through translator station K257CD on 99.3 MHz. In 2017, the 99.3 translator began simulcasting co-owned KQFN's

format. KFNN's FM signal began using a new translator, K287BX on 105.3 MHz.

Business and financial format

Along with two other original partners, Ronald Cohen began the station's format with largely syndicated format from

Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market ...

and other radio networks. However, after several years, live, local programming began airing throughout the week. Don McDonald's financial planning program was one of the first major national shows broadcast on the station, along with Ken and Daria Dolan, who featured a money and investment related program syndicated from the WOR Radio Network. KFNN introduced a local wake up show, ''Business for Breakfast''. Ken Morgan was its original host. He had been a long time morning show host and station manager, with much of his career spent in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. Mark Asher is the current host. Other national business and money shows heard on KFNN included

Clark Howard Clark Brian Howard (born June 20, 1955) is an American author and radio/podcast host, focused primarily on personal finance, consumer protection, and related topics. He has hosted ''The Clark Howard Show,'' which began in 1989 and has lasted ov ...

, Gary Kaltbaum and Ray Lucia. In 2011, KFNN re-branded from "1510 KFNN, Financial Newsradio" to "Money Radio 1510 & 99.3 FM." The station's brand was changed to reflect the broader nature of program content that relates to all matters money. Some programs are also heard in the Palm Springs market on co-owned KPSF 1200 AM. In 2019, KFNN began adding some conservative and libertarian-leaning political talk, including Todd Schnitt,

Chris Plante Christopher Plante (born 1959) is an American talk radio host and journalist currently hosting a syndicated radio program heard on Westwood One and a nightly TV talk show on Newsmax TV. Early life Plante was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Ju ...

, Michael J. Knowles and

Ben Shapiro Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator, media host, and attorney. He writes columns for Creators Syndicate, ''Newsweek'', and ''Ami Magazine'', an ...

. It airs

in the early morning, evenings and some weekend hours. Some paid

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...

is also on the schedule. Most hours begin with an update from USA Radio News.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KFNNKFNN Website
* * {{coord, 33, 41, 34, N, 112, 00, 09, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title FNN Radio stations established in 1962 1962 establishments in Arizona Business talk radio stations Business mass media in the United States