KNWZ

KNWZ/KNWQ KNews 94.3

KNWZ: Coachella, California KNWQ: Palm Springs, California
Broadcast area	Coachella Valley
Frequency	KNWZ: 970 kHz KNWQ: 1140 kHz
Branding	K-News 94.3
Programming
Format	News/Talk
Ownership
Owner	Morris Communications
Technical information
Facility ID	KNWZ: 12130 KNWQ: 72030
Class	KNWZ: B KNWQ: B
Power	KNWZ: 5,000 watts day 1,000 watts night KNWQ: 10,000 watts day 2,500 watts night
Repeater(s)	KNWH 1250 AM (Yucca Valley) K232CX 94.3 FM (Cathedral City)
Links
Website	knewsradio.com

KNWZ-970, KNWQ-1140, KNWH-1250 and K232CX (94.3 Mhz in the Coachella Valley) is a simulcast news/talk station owned by MCC Radio, LLC and operated by the Desert Radio Group in Palm Springs, CA. The stations combine to serve the Coachella Valley area of Palm Springs, California, Yucca Valley area ofarea of Yucca Valley, California,[[ and surrounding desert cities.

KNWQ's transmitter is in Palm Springs (for the Western Coachella Valley and Banning area), while KNWZ is in Coachella 25 miles to the east (for the Eastern Coachella and Imperial Valleys).

"K-News" also owns and operates KNWH 1250 in the town of Yucca Valley serving the sparsely populated Morongo Basin area in a 30-mile radius. As of October 2009, K-News operates a FM radio repeater on 94.3 MHz from Cathedral City covering the entire Coachella Valley.

Programs

KNWZ/KNWQ carries such programs as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

History

The Palm Springs market had 11 radio stations in the 1970s. The region's first all news radio station was 1270 K/GUY Newsradio in Palm Desert. Owned by Jerry Jolstead, the last-place station had a daytime only signal and was an affiliate of the NBC/NIS network, which provided wall-to-wall news and sports coverage to complement the station's local coverage.

Mr. Jolstead recruited newscaster Terry Corbell in December, 1975 to be the station's news director to enhance its local news coverage and ratings. (A Palm Springs native, Mr. Corbell had been a newscaster at KPRO in Riverside, CA, which had been owned by broadcasting icon Dick Clark.) When the NBC/NIS network defaulted in 1976, Mr. Jolstead asked Mr. Corbell to design an all-news format. Mr. Corbell enticed deep-voiced, famed broadcaster Del Sharbutt to record station IDs and imagery ("The News Authority, 1270 KGUY, Palm Desert; and "What's going on is on right now -- 1270 KGUY, Palm Desert.) About 60 days later, Mr. Corbell's news format proved to be enormously successful and received a 14-share (Hooper), for second place in the ratings -- one point behind first-place KDES. The station ratings revealed that 9 out of 10 men favored K/GUY Newsradio.

For national coverage, the station used feeds from the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Mr. Corbell covered the region's top stories: Fundraising visits to Palm Springs by Ronald and Nancy Reagan; the retirement plans of former President Gerald Ford when he lost his bid for re-election; Frank Sinatra's marriage to Barbara Marx; and many other top stories. He also covered the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Dinah Shore Winners Circle and the American Airlines Tennis Games.

Most of Mr. Corbell's news reports were exclusive in nature, which he fed to KNX in Hollywood; NBC; and Mutual Broadcasting. In 1977, Mr. Corbell left K/GUY to be news director at KPLM-TV in Palm Springs.

KNWZ debuted at 1270AM in 1988 under the ownership of William Hart, a former Reagan cabinet member as the area's second attempt at an all-news format in the style of KNX and others, but soon converted to a talk radio format. The morning drive slot was occupied from 1994 - 2000 by Luigi Rossetti under the air name of "Lou Penrose." Rossetti left the station at the height of his popularity to accept a position as District Director for Congresswoman Mary Bono. The Lou Penrose Morning Talk Show was followed from 9am - 11am by former television newsman Ron Fortner. Poor ratings led to Fortner's dismissal by 1998 immediately after the purchase of the station by Morris Communications as part of the new Desert Radio Group.

The station had been simulcast on two FM repeaters and one other station (94.3, 103.9 and 106.9) from April 1995 to October 1998, when Morris purchased the stations; it then converted all three of the FM stations to music formats.

Morris then moved KNWZ to 970/1140AM on January 1, 2001. It then bought KCMJ, which had moved to 1270AM, in August 2004 and made it KNWT, "K-News 2." 1270AM is now KFUT "Recuerdo", featuring spanish oldies.

External links

• K-News radio website
• Morris Communications website
• Facility details for Facility ID KNWZ ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• Facility details for Facility ID KNWQ ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database