On May 13, 1958, the stationsigned on as KRSI. It was owned by Radio Suburbia and its studios were located at 4500 Excelsior Blvd. in St. Louis Park. On July 1, 1962, it started an FMsister station at 104.1 MHz, which, following many format changes, is now KZJK. At one point, both stations were owned by Red Owl Stores. In October 1972, the two stations moved to what is now the AM station's current studio and transmitter facility in Eden Prairie. The 950 AM frequency has been home to many formats. KRSI was one of the first Top-40 stations in the Twin Cities in the late 1950s. While it was owned by Roy H. Park, KRSI carried one of its most popular formats, simulcasting with 104.1 KRSI-FM as Top 40 "All Request Radio," between 1968 and 1972. Over the years the station has been through many formats, including:
AM 950 simulcast with co-owned 104.1 during a number of periods in its history. The station was running a combination format of news, sports and business news when it was sold by previous owner CBS Radio in 2004. The company that purchased KTNF was founded by Minnesota attorney Janet Robert and former Minnesota CongressmanBill Luther in November 2003, as a result of their concern about the impact right wing talk radio had in the 2002 elections and inspired by Sydney Blumenthal's book The Rise of the Counter-Establishment: The Conservative Ascent to Political Power. When Air America Radio made its debut on March 31, 2004, WMNN, where the group leased airtime, became one of the new network's original affiliates with Al Franken's show, as well as Democracy Radio's Ed Schultz. Eventually, more syndicated and local shows were added. After the sale of WMNN six months later, the format split to broadcasting on both 740 AM and 1530 AM. In October 2004, 950 AM was purchased, and became the permanent home of "Air America Minnesota". In the summer of 2004, the station was purchased by Janet Robert, former Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for the US House of Representatives, to provide a local outlet for syndicated programming from the former Air America Radio network. The station has gotten more and more of its programs from Dial Global which syndicated The Stepanie Miller Show and The Bill Press Show. Along the way, Air America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reorganizing under new investors. By the time Al Franken launched his Senate campaign, Air America was KTNF's source for The Thom Hartmann Show and a handful of weekend programs. Air America ceased operations in January 2010.
