KNIT (1320

kHz 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 uni ...

) is an AM

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 ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. It is one of the oldest stations in Salt Lake City, established in 1922 as KDYL. The studios are on South Murray Boulevard. KNIT carries a

Christian radio Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

format supplied by Your Network of Praise, featuring Christian music and teaching programs. The

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

also has stations in

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

, and

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. The network holds periodic

fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

s on the air to support its ministry. National religious leaders heard on KNIT include David Jeremiah, Joni Eareckson Tada, Chuck Swindoll and Jim Daly. KNIT is a Class B station with its

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 ...

on Pitchfork Lane in

Murray, Utah Murray () is a city situated on the Wasatch Front in the core of Salt Lake Valley in the U.S. state of Utah. Named for territorial governor Eli Murray, the city had a population of 50,637 as of the 2020 United States Census. Murray shares borde ...

, near Interstate 215. It broadcasts at 730

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, using a single non-directional antenna. The station shares this

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

with KJJC 1230 AM. Programming is also 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 ...

K233DV at 94.5

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 ...

Draper, Utah Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah counties in the U.S. state of Utah, about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. As of the 2020 census, the population is 51,017, up from 7,143 in 1990. Draper is part of two metropolitan area ...

History

KDYL

Effective December 1, 1921, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in charge of radio at the time, adopted a regulation formally establishing a broadcasting station category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for entertainment broadcasts, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for farm market and weather reports. On May 8, 1922, the Telegram Publishing Company, publishers of the ''Salt Lake Telegram'' newspaper, was issued a license for a new station on the shared 360 meter "entertainment" wavelength. This was the second broadcasting station licensed in the state of Utah, following KZN, which had been licensed 17 days earlier and had made its debut broadcast on May 6. The new station's

call letters 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 Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

were KDYL, which was randomly assigned from an alphabetical roster of available call signs. Earlier stations had received three-letter call signs, and KDYL was the first western broadcasting station to receive the new standard of a four-letter call sign. This may have caused some confusion, as early reports in the ''Telegram'' incorrectly listed the call letters as "KDL". The station was constructed by Ira J. Kaar for A.L. Fish and the newspaper.Tim Larson and Robert K. Avery
"Utah Broadcasting History"
1994, Utah History Encyclopedia,

Utah Education Network The Utah Education Network (UEN) is a broadband and digital broadcast network serving public education, higher education, applied technology campuses, libraries, and public charter schools throughout the state of Utah. The Network facilitates inte ...

. Accessed May 21, 2022. At its introduction, the newspaper promised "a service unrivaled in the inter-mountain region". KDYL's debut broadcast, 7:00 to 8:00 and 9:00 to 10:00 on the evening of May 10, 1922, included a mixture of live singing, including by Theo Pennington, Columbia phonograph records provided by Auerbach's phonograph department, bedtime stories and news bulletins. During the 1920s KDYL's transmitting frequency was changed multiple times, including 1200 kHz, 900 kHz, 1220 kHz, a non-standard self-assigned 1215 kHz, back to 1220 kHz, 1160 kHz, 1280 kHz, and finally, as part of a major national reallocation under the provisions of the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...

General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...

, to 1290 kHz. The Newhouse Hotel became the owner in 1924, and in 1926 Sidney S. Fox's Intermountain Broadcasting Corporation, located at the Ezra Thompson Building, gained ownership. During the

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

, KDYL aired a line up of dramas, comedies, news, sports,

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

s and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

broadcasts. In the 1930s, the station affiliated with CBS Radio Network. On September 1, 1932, KDYL became an

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

affiliate, after KSL affiliated with CBS. The March 1941 implementation of the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

(NARBA) moved the stations on 1290 kHz, including KDYL, to 1320 kHz. KDYL was now authorized for 5,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts at night, with an outstanding construction permit for 5,000 watts nighttime directional operation. Sydney Fox later invested in the construction of its

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

s KDYL-FM (now KBEE) in 1947 and in KDYL-TV (now

KTVX KTVX (channel 4) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Ogden-licensed KUCW (channel 30), an owned-and-operated station of The CW. The two stations sh ...

) two years later. In 1953, Fox sold KDYL-AM-FM-TV to the Time-Life Corporation for $2.1 million, which changed the TV station's call letters to KTVT.

Top 40 KCPX

In late 1959 Columbia Pictures Electronics, Inc. purchased KDYL-AM-FM and KTVT, and changed their call signs to KCPX, KCPX-FM, and KCPX-TV. Through the 1960s and 70s, KCPX carried a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format that was very popular in the Salt Lake City area. During this time, the station competed heavily for listeners with crosstown rival KNAK (now KZNS). As Top 40 listening switched to FM, the station's ratings fell. Columbia Pictures, which had just been acquired by

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

, sold KCPX and KCPX-FM to Price Broadcasting in 1982. (The TV station had been sold to separate owners in 1975.)

KBUG and KEMX

In 1983, the station's call sign was changed to KBUG. Initially the station aired an

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format.Ratings Report
, ''

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

'', April 1984. p. 128. Accessed August 23, 2015 By 1986 the format had been changed to

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 ...

. In 1987, the station's call sign was changed back to KCPX, and the station continued airing an oldies format.Lynn Arave,
KCPX-AM is Now KEMX and Has an `Easy Mix' Sound
, ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is a multi-platform newspaper based in Salt Lake City, published by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS ...

'', August 5, 1988. Accessed August 23, 2015 On August 1, 1988, the station's call sign was changed to KEMX, and the station began airing an "Easy Mix" format consisting of softer songs from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, as well as some country crossover hits. The Easy Mix format lasted only a year.

KUTR and KCNR

On August 7, 1989, the station began airing the " LDS Contemporary" format, aimed at Mormon listeners, that had previously aired on KUTR (now KKAT). On September 14, 1989, the station's call sign was changed to KUTR. Citing insufficient support from advertisers, KUTR dropped the LDS music format on January 31, 1992, and 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 the adult contemporary format of KCPX-FM. On February 18, 1992, the station changed its call sign back to KCPX. Along with its FM sister station, KCPX used the slogan "continuous favorites, from yesterday to today."Lynn Arave,
KCPX Will Retain Format Despite Pact
, ''

'', May 1, 1992. Accessed August 23, 2015 In April 1992, Citadel Associates (a forerunner of

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company founded and developed by Larry Wilson. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the count ...

), owner of KLZX (93.3 FM) and KCNR (860 AM), began programming KCPX and KCPX-FM under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

(LMA). Later that year, Citadel moved KCNR's

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

format from AM 860 to AM 1320. On August 11, 1992, the station's call sign switched to KCNR to represent

CNN Radio Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news ...

, its main supplier of national news. In 1993, the station adopted 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. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format.

Sports format

In late August 1996, the station flipped to a

sports talk 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 ...

format. On August 30, 1996, the station's call sign was changed to KFNZ to go along with its new identification as "KFAN". Citadel Broadcasting bought KFNZ and KBEE-FM outright from Price Broadcasting in 1997. In 2007, Larry H. Miller, who owned the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

and

KJZZ-TV KJZZ-TV (channel 14) is an independent television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CBS affiliate KUTV (channel 2) and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYU (channel 12) in St. George. The ...

, began operating KFNZ. The station's owner, Citadel Broadcasting, merged with

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

on September 16, 2011. The Larry H. Miller Group bought rival

KZNS-FM KZNS-FM (97.5 MHz, The KSL Sports Zone) is a commercial radio station licensed to Coalville, Utah, and serving the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. It airs a sports talk radio format and is owned by Jazz Communications LLC, which is a divis ...

(97.5) and KZNS in May 2012, after the end of its local marketing agreement (LMA) with KFNZ. Most of the station's programming, including Utah Jazz broadcasts, were moved to KZNS. while KFNZ retained the "KFAN" branding with a new Cumulus-programmed schedule. KFNZ featured programming from CBS Sports Radio. It was the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...

for the

Utah Grizzlies The Utah Grizzlies are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. Franchise history The current Utah Grizzlies franchise started in 1981 as the Nashville South Stars i ...

. KFNZ was also responsible for providing analysis and coverage for the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the Big 12 C ...

, University of Utah Utes,

Salt Lake Bees The Salt Lake Bees are a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team that plays in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Based in South Jordan, Utah, the team plays its home games at The Ballpark at Am ...

Utah State Aggies The Utah State Aggies are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Utah State University, located in Logan, Utah. Utah State fields 16 – seven men and nine women – National Collegiate Athletic ...

, and Weber State Wildcats.

Religious format

Cumulus elected to sell the land used for KFNZ's transmitter site, due to its increased value in the expanding Salt Lake City real estate market. On February 27, 2017, the station ceased broadcasting,KFNZ Goes Dark
/ref> and the next day Cumulus filed with the FCC to cancel its license. However, Cumulus subsequently received an offer to buy the station for $100,000 from Vic Michael of Kona Coast Radio, owner of radio stations in Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming.
/ref> Therefore, Cumulus rescinded its license surrender request, instead filing for a Special Temporary Authorization to temporarily remain silent. The sale was completed on August 22, 2017, and on October 18, 2017, the new owners changed the station's call letters to KNIT. Kona Coast Radio was required to relocate the transmitter site, and the station remained off the air for two years during this process. In 2019, KNIT resumed broadcasting as a

station, becoming a Your Network of Praise affiliate. KNIT was now transmitting from KJJC's tower, which required a power reduction from the original 5,000 to 730 watts. Effective June 6, 2020, Vic Michael transferred KNIT's license from Kona Coast Radio to his also wholly-owned Michael Radio Company, LLC. Effective March 18, 2021, Michael sold the station to Hi-Line Radio Fellowship, Inc. for $200,000.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KNIT
(covering 1927-1980 as KDYL / KCPX) {{Salt Lake City Radio Mass media in Salt Lake City Radio stations established in 1922 1922 establishments in Utah NIT (AM)