KNUV

KNUV (1190 AM) 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 by the 1960s. 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 (later an infomercial and brokered 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" (The Good Wave). At the peak of the first Buena Onda era, KNUV had 45 reporters and was the English-language radio home of the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.