KNUV is a Spanish-language station broadcasting from studios located in midtown Phoenix; the station is licensed to Tolleson, Arizona, where it maintains its transmitter facilities. It is owned by Denver-based Amigo Multimedia, Inc.
History
The station was originally signed on by E. O. Smith as KZON, before trying a Spanish format and becoming KRDS in 1963. The station operated as "Cards Country" with a moderately popular country music format prior to adopting a news/talk format in the early 1970s. It changed to a Christian talk and music format in 1975. It was simulcast on KRDS-FM 105.3 Wickenburg in the 1990s. This station is now KHOV-FM. In 1997, the station changed call letters to KMYL. KMYL aired the Music of Your Life format, and later changed to "NBC 1190", as a variety talk station which ran NBC Radio News at the top of the hour.
La Buena Onda
The format was changed in August 2005 when the station was acquired by a startup group, New Radio Venture, which brought a Spanish-language news/talk format targeting the large Spanish-speaking immigrant population in the Phoenix area. At the same time, NRV bought a Denver station, which it christened KNRV, and gave it an identical format. The newly renamed KNUV became known as "La Buena Onda". At the peak of the first Buena Onda era, KNUV had Lily Antonini Latina reporter with breaking news every half and hour and with live reports and interviews. The station also was the English-language radio home of the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. On November 9, 2007, KNUV protested the police description of the “Chandler Rapist” as a “Hispanic,” claiming it amounts to racial profiling. The man, believed to be responsible for six attacks on teenage girls starting in June 2006 was described as Hispanic, 28 to 40 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, muscular, with a mustache and black hair. Radio station 1190AM was the first hispánic news media to promote and follow up the story KNUV and KNRV signed off on July 31, 2008. The station was shut down due to "a faltering economy, ongoing crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and a tough market for Spanish talk radio".
Progressive talk format
After being silent for two months, KNUV began simulcasting crosstown station KPHX on October 9, 2008. KPHX's progressive talk radio programming, consisting of programming from Nova M Radio and Air America Radio, was moved to KNUV in January 2009 as Nova M's licensing agreement with KPHX came to an end. KNUV assumed the flagship station designation for Nova M, which later became On Second Thought before ceasing operations entirely by the spring of 2009. KPHX adopted The Lounge Sound music radio format at that time, which itself lasted only until July 2009, when KPHX returned to the progressive talk format, with significant involvement from Dr. Mike Newcomb, a key player in that format on each of the stations on which it has been broadcast in the Phoenix market dating back to 2004.
Spanish radio returns
According to the Phoenix New Times paper KNUV's doors were padlocked shut on March 2, 2009. On the morning of March 5, 2009, KNUV stopped broadcasting progressive talk and switched back to a Spanish-language format later that afternoon. In April 2009, the station went off the air due to station owner New Radio Venture's bankruptcy. On July 13, 2009, the station returned to the air again, airing paid programming in Spanish and news programming from Mexico at other times. KNUV currently airs a limited selection of local programming during the daytime and Radio Fórmula programs from Mexico at night.
