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KZON
KZON (103.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Gilbert, Arizona, United States, and serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. It simulcasts an Rhythmic Hot AC radio format with co-owned KMVA (97.5 FM) Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona, as "Hot 97.5/103.9." The two stations are owned by the Riviera Broadcast Group with studios on 7th Street in Midtown Phoenix.
The transmitter is on East Ocotillo Road at North Schnepf Road in San Tan Valley, Arizona. KZON is also heard on two FM translators: 94.9 MHz in Chandler and 96.1 MHz in Fort McDowell.
The station signed on the air on February 25, 1981. Its original call sign was KQEZ. It called itself "Easy Country 103" and its city of license was Coolidge, Arizona. It was powered at only 3,000 watts, a fraction of its current output, so the station primarily focused on the Casa Grande Valley.
In 1991, original owner Larry E. Salsburey sold the station to Scott Christianson's Chriscom. KQEZ, however, fell on financial hard times in the early 1990s. In September 1992, KQEZ's disc jockeys informed listeners that they had not been paid in a month; at that time, owner Christianson said he could not pay workers because of $200,000 in debt. In April 1993, the station went off the air altogether.
Two months later, the station was sold to J.M. Wolz, the first of three license transfers in a year. Wolz put the station back on the air with a classic rock format as KAZR. A signal upgrade followed providing the southern sections of the Phoenix area with a clear signal.
On March 20, 1995, the format was flipped to a modern rock/top 40 hybrid branded as “The Blaze.” A change of call letters to KBZR followed the change of format.
In the spring of 1996, the station began moving its transmitter closer to Phoenix. At the same time, the station began a 6-month stunt of an automated Rhythmic Oldies format, only going by the moniker "S.T.E.V.E." The name was an acronym standing for "Songs That Everyone Vociferously Enjoys."
On October 30, 1996, at 3:30 p.m., the station completed its upgrade, and the station once again began stunting, this time with people chanting "Party! Party! Party!" for several hours which ended with a sound of a record scratching and a male announcer saying "Arizona's Party Station" in reverse, which led to its new name and slogan, and the station flipped to a hip hop-emphasizing rhythmic top 40 format as "103.9, Arizona's Party Station". The call letters were changed in the spring of 1997 to KPTY to reflect the station branding. Despite the station's signal limitations, KPTY did well in the ratings. In fact, rival KKFR, which was airing a broad-based Mainstream Top 40 format at the time, began to move towards hip hop-emphasizing rhythmic top 40 format as well, and took away much of KPTY's audience.
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KZON
KZON (103.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Gilbert, Arizona, United States, and serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. It simulcasts an Rhythmic Hot AC radio format with co-owned KMVA (97.5 FM) Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona, as "Hot 97.5/103.9." The two stations are owned by the Riviera Broadcast Group with studios on 7th Street in Midtown Phoenix.
The transmitter is on East Ocotillo Road at North Schnepf Road in San Tan Valley, Arizona. KZON is also heard on two FM translators: 94.9 MHz in Chandler and 96.1 MHz in Fort McDowell.
The station signed on the air on February 25, 1981. Its original call sign was KQEZ. It called itself "Easy Country 103" and its city of license was Coolidge, Arizona. It was powered at only 3,000 watts, a fraction of its current output, so the station primarily focused on the Casa Grande Valley.
In 1991, original owner Larry E. Salsburey sold the station to Scott Christianson's Chriscom. KQEZ, however, fell on financial hard times in the early 1990s. In September 1992, KQEZ's disc jockeys informed listeners that they had not been paid in a month; at that time, owner Christianson said he could not pay workers because of $200,000 in debt. In April 1993, the station went off the air altogether.
Two months later, the station was sold to J.M. Wolz, the first of three license transfers in a year. Wolz put the station back on the air with a classic rock format as KAZR. A signal upgrade followed providing the southern sections of the Phoenix area with a clear signal.
On March 20, 1995, the format was flipped to a modern rock/top 40 hybrid branded as “The Blaze.” A change of call letters to KBZR followed the change of format.
In the spring of 1996, the station began moving its transmitter closer to Phoenix. At the same time, the station began a 6-month stunt of an automated Rhythmic Oldies format, only going by the moniker "S.T.E.V.E." The name was an acronym standing for "Songs That Everyone Vociferously Enjoys."
On October 30, 1996, at 3:30 p.m., the station completed its upgrade, and the station once again began stunting, this time with people chanting "Party! Party! Party!" for several hours which ended with a sound of a record scratching and a male announcer saying "Arizona's Party Station" in reverse, which led to its new name and slogan, and the station flipped to a hip hop-emphasizing rhythmic top 40 format as "103.9, Arizona's Party Station". The call letters were changed in the spring of 1997 to KPTY to reflect the station branding. Despite the station's signal limitations, KPTY did well in the ratings. In fact, rival KKFR, which was airing a broad-based Mainstream Top 40 format at the time, began to move towards hip hop-emphasizing rhythmic top 40 format as well, and took away much of KPTY's audience.