KMBS (AM)

KUZN signed on the air on August 4, 1956. The 1,000-watt, daytime-only station^[1] was owned by Howard E. Griffith and broadcast primarily country and gospel music.^[4] KUZN moved to new quarters on Parkwood Drive in 1967, when Griffith launched a television station, KUZN-TV channel 39.^[5] An expansion into FM radio followed the next year with KUZN-FM 98.3.^[6] In the mid-1960s, Gary Burbank worked at KUZN as "Johnny Apollo, the blue-eyed soul brother in the front row".^[7]

Griffith, who also was an engineer who had developed a new type of television antenna and who had twice attempted to establish local TV stations, died of a heart attack in February 1976.^[8] The next year, KUZN and the FM station (by this point known as KYEA) were sold to Morgan Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Chuck and Kay Morgan, for $305,000.^[9] The buyer was intimately familiar with the Griffith stations, as he had worked for KUZN since its 1956 establishment as staff announcer and served as general manager since 1961.^[10] Under Charles Morgan, the station became KMBS in 1994, it changed formats several times, including contemporary hit radio, jazz^[11] and lastly oldies, which was the format at the time of Chuck Morgan's death and the transfer of KMBS to his widow Kay.^[12] The FM station was sold off in 1986.^[13]

Kay Morgan sold KMBS in 1993, to Red Bear Broadcasting Company, owned by Chuck Redden.^[14] Under Redden, the station has aired a variety of oldies and talk formats; it also aired Fox Sports Radio for a time.^[15]

• Facility details for Facility ID 55336 (KMBS) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• KMBS in Nielsen Audio's AM station database