KYNO (940 AM) is a

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

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

and is owned by John Ostlund and Katrina Ostlund. KYNO airs 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 ...

format, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

for much of December. KYNO's

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...

s and offices are on Fulton Street in Fresno and 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 ...

is off Avenue 384 in Monson, California. KYNO operates with 50,000

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 around the clock, the highest power permitted for American AM radio stations. 940 KYNO is the most powerful Oldies radio station in America with daytime coverage from Sacramento to Bakersfield and throughout the Central Coast of California. But because AM 940 is a clear channel frequency, KYNO 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 ...

to avoid interfering with Class A stations XEQ in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and

CFNV CFNV (940 kHz) is a French language AM radio station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by RRR Media 7954689 CANADA and was licensed in 2011. CRTC records indicated that the station was not operating for most of the license term. CFNV ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. Even with these restrictions, it can be heard across much of the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

at night with a good radio.

Station history

KFRE

KFRE was first licensed on August 18, 1937, on 1190 kHz. It moved to 890 kHz in 1939 then to 920 kHz in 1941 as a result 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). It moved to the current 940 kHz frequency in 1942.

KYNO

KYNO Fresno signed on in 1948 with 1000 watts on 1300 kHz (White's Radio Log, Fall 1948) KYNO from 1956 and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, was a Top-40 station, and was the #1 "Hooper" rated station in Fresno under the ownership of Gene Chenault. KYNO was the testing ground for the " Boss Radio" format that would be adopted at major market stations such as KHJ,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

; KFRC,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

CKLW CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW is owned by Bell Media and has a news/talk radio format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with ...

, Windsor-

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. Program director

Bill Drake Bill Drake (January 14, 1937 – November 29, 2008), born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.Douglas, Susan, ''Listening In: Radio and ...

and

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s such as K.O. Bailey, Les Turpin, Ed Mitchell, and Gary Mack went against the cross town rival 1340 KMAK (now

KCBL KCBL (1340 AM broadcasting, AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Fresno, California, KCBL is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and has a sports radio, sports format. Most of its programming originates from Fox Sports Radio, ...

), its program director Ron Jacobs and DJs Robert W. Morgan (who would become legendary in Los Angeles), Jim Price, Glenn Adams, Jay Stevens, Frank Terry & Tom Maule. This radio war is now known as the "Battle Of Fresno." Eventually, KYNO stopped playing music and for a time was an all-sports station that carried the

Fresno Grizzlies The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

. They also broadcast live games of the Fresno Cardinals (St. Louis farm team) up to 1956, and the independent Fresno SunSox (1957). The team became a farm team of the San Francisco Giants in 1958 (Fresno Bee Radio Logs - various) From 1999 until August 30, 2008, KYNO was 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 ...

Christian music Christian music is a genre of music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christianity, Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its f ...

and preaching station, known as ''Radio Guadalupe''. KYNO changed frequencies from 1300 AM to 940 AM on April 1, 2010, and then changed frequencies from 940 AM to 1430 AM on October 6, 2012.

KFIG

In 2008, the station was purchased by John Ostlund, owner of FM station KJWL. The new ownership changed to a politically conservative

news/talk 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, interviews ...

format (one of five such formats in the region) on September 1, 2008, starting with a lineup featuring nationally syndicated talk show hosts, such as Bill O'Reilly,

Dennis Miller Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American political commentator, stand-up comedian, talk show host, writer, actor and former sportscaster. Miller was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' fro ...

Dr. Laura Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

Don Imus John Donald Imus Jr. ( ; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show '' Imus in the Morning'' was aired on various stations and di ...

and

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' is an American television talk show broadcast by CNN from June 3, 1985 to December 16, 2010. Hosted by Larry King, it was the network's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Ma ...

. On October 6, 2012, KYNO dropped the news talk format to become a full-time

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 ...

station, as an

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

Network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

under new call letters, KFIG. It also broadcast some local sports shows in the afternoon and early evening. KFIG carried both

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

and

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

games, as well as

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

and

Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games.

KYNO's comeback

On July 19, 2021, KYNO returned to the 940 dial position and began broadcasting oldies music. The KFIG call letters and sports format moved to 1430.KYNO Fresno To Move To 940
Radioinsight - July 12, 2021

Previous logos

References

External links

KYNO official website

FCC History Cards for KYNO
{{coord, 36, 29, 20, N, 119, 19, 33, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title YNO Oldies radio stations in the United States Fresno State Bulldogs football Radio stations established in 1937 1937 establishments in California