KYFO-FM

The El Paso Broadcasting Corporation was granted a construction permit to build a new 100 kW FM station in Ogden on May 16, 1977. The construction permit took the call letters KVFM.[1] After being renamed Utah Broadcasting Corporation in 1982, the permittee signed the station on in June 1983;[2] two months later, Utah Broadcasting sold KVFM to Sherman Greenleigh Sanchez Broadcasting of Utah, owners of KJQN (1490 AM).[3] As a result, KVFM became KJQN-FM "KJQ", partially simulcasting its AM sister.[2]

KJQ flipped to alternative on March 1, 1988, with many of its new airstaff refugees from the former KCGL-FM, which was flipped to religious programming when it was sold in 1986.[4] The station also expanded its reach by broadcasting on translators at 92.7 MHz in Salt Lake City and 104.9 in Provo (activated in 1989).[5]

Abacus Broadcasting Corporation acquired KJQN-AM-FM in 1989 for $700,000; Abacus was owned by minority shareholders from the original permittee.[6] While the format remained unchanged, the early 1990s brought mounting troubles. In the final months of 1991, 23 of the station's 25 employees quit their jobs,[7] after the station hired its third general manager in 14 months and rumors swirled of a format flip; staffers quit because they questioned the ownership's commitment to "modern music".[8] Only two DJs, the hosts of the morning show, remained with KJQ;[9] the station also lost 75 percent of its music library and some equipment, as well as several advertising clients.[10] The former KJQ employees then brokered out time on KZOL (96.1 FM), which became KXRK on February 13, 1992.[11] When the former employees acquired KXRK outright in 1993 for $925,000, the application included a copy of a lawsuit filed by the former KJQN-FM, alleging that its former employees took equipment, including a former milk truck used for remote broadcasts known as the "Milk Beast", when they defected, and that the ex-KJQ staffers used KJQN-owned trademarks and made defamatory remarks about their former station.[12]

Nearly eight months after the mass defection that birthed KXRK, Abacus had seen enough. It flipped KJQN-FM to KKBE-FM "The Killer Bee", a contemporary hit radio outlet, on October 6, 1992.[13] KKBE-FM drew many of its staff from alumni of KWCR-FM, the radio station at Weber State University.[14] The Killer Bee, however, did not last eight months itself; in May 1993, it yielded to gospel from the Super Gospel Network, after it was rumored that the station would go country.[15] Owner Michael Haston revealed that he had been faked out when contemporary competitor KZHT flipped to rock and then changed right back days later, leaving KKBE in a three-way format battle; furthermore, ratings were hurt when the Provo translator was out of service for three months.[16]

By the end of 1992, Abacus Broadcasting had filed for bankruptcy.[17] The Chapter 7[18] bankruptcy case was resolved when KKBE-FM and KJOE (the former KJQN AM) were purchased at auction by the Bible Broadcasting Network for $455,000 in 1994; both stations flipped to BBN religious programming as KYFO FM and AM.[19]