KENZ - History

History

KENZ first signed on as 107.5 The End January 1, 1996 with R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Originally owned by The Slaymaker Group dba Monarch Broadcasting, the station was sold to Citadel Broadcasting in 1998. After a 14-year run, on April 21, 2010, Citadel flipped formats to a Generation X type music, before reverting back to "The End" and alternative music in December 2010.

Much of the original staff came from now cross town rival KXRK, X96. Jimmy Chunga, a weekender and Producer of The Radio from Hell Show at X96 was hired to lead the morning show. Chunga first did the show solo, then was teamed up for a short time with a female co-host. He was joined by Marcus soon afterward. Andrea was hired away from X96 to work the midday shift. Biff Raff returned to the Salt Lake market after spending time in Austin, TX and Denver, CO to be the program director. He also did an afternoon on-air shift. Dom Casual was the station's first Music Director and afternoon drive jock. Barb Thomas worked the night shift. Mister West left X96 as well and brought the Saturday Night Cold Case to The End. Norm Church also left X96 to work on-air as well as take over marketing responsibilities for the station.

In 1999, the KENZ morning show "Chunga and Marcus" hosted a contest titled "The Cruise of Dreams," after which Marcus did not return to the show. Shortly after the departure of Marcus, Mister West joined the morning show as Chunga's partner. This was a role reversal of sorts as Chunga had been West's partner on the "Saturday Night Cold Case," a call-in request show during West's weekend shift dating back to their days at X96.

At the end of 2005 Citadel Broadcasting moved the station from the 107.5 MHz frequency to the stronger and farther reaching 101.9 MHz frequency. Even though they were no longer at the "end" of the dial they retained the name.

In 2006, Bruce Jones (Biff Raff), the End's first and only Program Director at the time, announced he would be leaving the End and radio in general. Mike Peer, of New York City's K-ROCK, was selected at the end of 2006 to become the new Program Director of KENZ. Peer had actually worked for Bruce Jones in Austin, Texas before Jones headed to Denver and then returned to Utah to start the End.

On December 6, 2007, Chunga announced that Mister West had left the station and the Chunga and Mister show. Chunga explained that both his and Mister's contracts were up this year and he had planned to retire at the end of the year. Citadel Broadcasting gave him a good deal and he chose to stay. Citadel management decided not to renew Mister's contract. However, according to the February 22, 2008, edition of the Deseret Morning News, Mister claims that Chunga demanded Mister be fired (as part of Chunga's own contract negotiation).

On November 18, 2008, during the Tuesday CD Review, it was announced that the Parker Show would air for the final time on November 26, 2008. Parker later said that the only reason was budget cuts and that he feels no resentment towards management for the decision. Dallan as part of the parker show was laid off at the same time.

On January 1, 2010 Chelsea Earlewine announced on her Facebook page that she was moving to California, and thanked all her fans for their support.

On April 21, 2010, 101.9 The End changed format and adopted a jockless "Gen X" format that focused largely on ‘90s music and let go of their on-air staff, with the exception of Cort Johnson, who ran all station promotions and acted as the stations sole on-air personality. This was an incredibly unpopular change. On December 21, 2010, the station reverted back to the more familiar "101-9 The End", returning to an Alternative format, with a music focused morning show, "The Morning Alternative with Cort."

On July 5, 2011, Chunga returned to the The End to join Cort for the "Chunga & Cort" morning show.

On Monday, August 29, 2011, after 11 years at The End, Cort announced that he would be leaving the The End and moving to Portland, Oregon. His last show was Wednesday, August 31, 2011.

Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.