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| Broadcast area |
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| Frequencies |
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| Programming | |
| Format | Contemporary worship music |
| Subchannels |
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| Network | Air1 |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Educational Media Foundation |
| History | |
First air date |
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Former call signs |
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| Technical information[1][2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID |
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| Class |
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| ERP |
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| HAAT |
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Transmitter coordinates | |
| Translator(s) | See list |
| Links | |
Public license information |
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| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | air1 |
KAIV, licensed toThousand Oaks, California, United States, andKYZA, licensed toAdelanto, California, are radio stations on 92.7 MHz broadcasting theAir1 Christian radio network to areas north ofLos Angeles. The stations are owned alongside Air1 by theEducational Media Foundation. KAIV servesVentura County and far northwesternLos Angeles County, while KYZA covers theVictor Valley.
The two stations had independent histories prior to 1997. The Victor Valley station started life in 1959 asRiverside-based KACE-FM, and KNJO signed on four years later to serve Thousand Oaks and theConejo Valley. In the 1990s, the Amaturo Group acquired these two stations and a third 92.7 facility—KRCI, originally onCatalina Island. After the latter was moved off the mainland, in 1997, all three stations were combined into a new regional radio service, thebeautiful music–formatted Lite 92.7. The Riverside station moved to the Victor Valley in 2002. Amaturo changed the brand on the trimulcast twice: to female-leaningadult hits in 2005 under the Jill FM moniker and toclassic hits as Playlist FM in 2011. On December 1, 2012, the Educational Media Foundation began leasing the signals while it purchased them, integrating them into itsAir1 network. In 2025, KYLA (the former KRCI) split from the trimulcast to switch to the EMF-ownedRadio Nueva Vida.
The Thousand Oaks Broadcasting Company applied on August 7, 1961, for aconstruction permit to build a new FM radio station in town, which theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) granted on October 17, 1962.[3] Thousand Oaks was a partnership of twoColumbia Pictures employees, a Los Angeles attorney, andSandy Koufax, pitcher for theLos Angeles Dodgers; at the time it filed for the permit, it was interested in stereo broadcasting, which only two Los Angeles–area stations were capable of.[4] After receiving FCC approval, the station almost was derailed by an adverse zoning ruling involving its studio location, theConejo Valley Shopping Center, which had an illegal third entrance from Moorpark Road.[5] The company successfully appealed the ruling to theVentura County Board of Supervisors.[6][7]
KNJO, call letters representing the Conejo Valley, began broadcasting on April 1, 1963.[8] KNJO was a community-oriented radio station featuring local news, sports, and remote broadcasts from a variety of local events.[9] Within two years of signing on, the station faced its first ownership change. In August 1964, a minority stockholder petitioned for Thousand Oaks Broadcasting Company to be declared in bankruptcy.[10] After negotiations, the new management took over later that month,[11] though the change in control was not filed with the FCC until August 1965 and did not take effect until March 1966.[3]
In 1970, KNJO was acquired by John H. Poole, former owner of KBIG radio onCatalina Island, and Alan Fischler.[12][13] Vice president Bob Jacobson agreed to buy the station in 1979[14] in 1980, it was instead sold to the Palomar Broadcasting Corporation ofEncino.[15] The transaction marked Poole's definitive withdrawal from broadcasting to focus on the wine industry.[16]
Ira Barmak, owner of Thousand Oaks AM stationKMDY, acquired KNJO in 1987.[17] While the sale was pending at the FCC, the studios in the shopping center, by this point renamed the Park Oaks Shopping Center, suffered a fire; the station was off the air for several days before relocating elsewhere in the complex. Both stations moved to new quarters after the transaction closed, with a relocation of the KNJO transmitter site required as a condition of vacating the premises.[18] Comedy Broadcasting exited radio between 1991 and 1992; it sold KMDY toDanny Villanueva[19] and KNJO to Flagship Communications Company, owned by attorney Darry Sragow.[20][21] Under Flagship, the station added helicopter traffic coverage for commuters into and out of Los Angeles as well as local newscasts and a daily news summary from theNews Chronicle newspaper.[22] During its ownership, in 1993, a brush fire destroyed the KNJO transmitter site, and in the middle of studio renovations, theNorthridge earthquake took it off the air for 30 hours. In October 1995, the general manager died of leukemia. This prompted Darry Sragow and his wife Susan to consider selling.[23]
KYZA signed on June 16, 1959, as KACE-FM, originally broadcasting fromRiverside at 1,000 watts. Owned by Ray LaPica,[24] it simulcast co-ownedKACE (1570 AM) during the day and offered a simulcast to provide stereo music at night using AM and FM.[25] The KACE stations switched frommiddle of the road music to country in 1972.[26] To give the FM a new identity, it became KCNW in April 1974.[24][27]
KACE and KCNW changed call signs to KHNY-AM-FM on February 17, 1976,[24] accompanying a format flip toadult contemporary.[28] The FM became KWDJ in 1983, and by 1988 it was back in the country format.[29] It changed call letters again to KQLH and its format to adult contemporary on December 25, 1990; the call sign had been dropped by 95.1 MHz in San Bernardino when that station, previously adult contemporary, flipped to country asKFRG in 1989.[30] With its more powerful signal, KFRG had quickly beat out KWDJ as theInland Empire's leading country music station, prompting the shift.[31]
In 1992, Riverside County Broadcasters sold KQLH to the Amaturo Group, which owned KFRG.[32] Amaturo flipped KQLH the next year toclassic country, moving it in with KFRG at its studios inColton. Intended to launch with new KCKZ call letters,[33] local competitor KCKC objected, so the station retained the KQLH call sign for the time being and called itself Cactus Radio.[34] The format at the renamed KAKT did not stick, as in August, the station shifted to a younger-skewing country format. It rebranded as "OJ 92.7", with matching KOOJ call letters, because it played "artists with juice".[35][36]
In 1993, a third station on 92.7 MHz started in Southern California, originally as KRCI and broadcast fromCatalina Island.[37] Amaturo, already owner of KOOJ since 1992, bought KRCI as well as KNJO in 1995.[23][38]
In January 1997, KOOJ became KXEZ.[39] On February 24, the trimulcast began as Lite 92.7, with KLIT (the former KRCI), KNJO, and KXEZ airing asoft adult contemporary format.[40] The programming originated at KNJO's Thousand Oaks studios.[41] Later in 1997, KXEZ became KELT; two years later, the Riverside station gained its own morning show.[42]
On March 29, 2002, Amaturo Group informed the Riverside employees of KELT that the station would leave theInland Empire for theVictor Valley by moving toAdelanto, a suburb ofVictorville. Adelanto had no stations licensed to it, a critical factor in securingFederal Communications Commission approval for the city of license change.[43] In 2005, KMLT added a 38-wattbooster, KMLT-FM1, on Castro Peak nearMalibu, California; its city of license is Malibu Vista.[44]
KLIT was moved toFountain Valley with a change of transmitter location, broadcasting from a mountain southeast ofNewport Beach at 690 watts. This provided a better signal coverage of the interior portions ofOrange County. After this shift, with the arrival ofJack FM onKCBS-FM 93.1 in 2005, Amaturo Group moved to compete. On May 20, the company dismissed the airstaff of Lite 92.7 and adopted an automatedadult hits music format branded as Jill FM. The new format was geared to be a more female-friendly sound, known as Jill, as opposed to the more male-oriented format on Jack FM.[45][46] KYLA became KJLL-FM, while the other two stations adopted call signs containing JL (KMLT became KHJL, and KELT became KAJL). In 2009, Jill FM adjusted its format tosoft adult contemporary music with the same focus as rivalKOST (103.5 FM).
On February 14, 2011, Jill FM flipped toclassic hits as Playlist 92.7, with the first song iunder the new format being "Somebody" byBryan Adams.[47] The new format featured hit songs spanning the period from 1964 to 2010, consisting of a mix of top 40, R&B, adult contemporary andalternative rock. In 2012, new call signs of KLST-FM, KLSI, and KLSN were adopted to match the rebranded format.
On December 1, 2012, at midnight, the Playlist FM stations switched to the nationally syndicatedChristian contemporary hit radio (CHR) networkAir1. The network's owner, theEducational Media Foundation, assumed operational control at that time under a lease while it awaited purchase of the stations.[48] This transaction brought the Christian CHR format to suburban areas of Los Angeles with the station's multiple rimshotClass A signals.[9] At the time of the flip, Air1 played music from a wide variety of contemporary Christian artists such asTauren Wells,TobyMac,Group 1 Crew,Seventh Day Slumber, andSkillet. The feed was also heard onKTLW's network of Class A FM translators in portions of the northern Los Angeles area as well as on a 92.7 FM repeater in southwestern parts of the metro.[49]
The Air1 network flipped tocontemporary worship music on January 1, 2019.[50][51]
The call sign for KYRA was changed to KAIV on February 6, 2025.[52]
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT | Class | FCC info | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K220FR | 91.9 FM | Thousand Oaks, California | 76219 | 250 | 588 m (1,929 ft) | D | LMS | Relays KAIV (HD2) K-LOVE |
| K221GB | 92.1 FM | Barstow, California | 121962 | 27 | −3 m (−10 ft) | D | LMS | Relays KYZA |