City Palisade, Colorado Slogan "Positive Hits" First air date 2007 | Branding Air 1 Frequency 98.5 MHz | |
Broadcast area Grand Junction, Colorado | ||
KAAI (98.5 FM, "Air 1") is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Palisade, Colorado. The station broadcasts a Christian rock format to the Grand Junction, Colorado, area. KAAI is owned and operated by the Educational Media Foundation.
History
This station launched in 2007 as KAAI, a stand-alone translator of the Air 1 Christian music radio network. In March 2008, the station was bought by Covenant Educational Media, Inc. and its Contemporary Christian/Religious format was launched.
In October 2009, the station changed its call sign to KVTT on the 1st then to KJSA on the 14th. The changes were made after its sister station in Dallas, Texas, which formerly held the KVTT calls, vacated its FM frequency following a sale to a public broadcaster, which now operates that station as KKXT. The KVTT call sign now resides on a daytime-only AM station in Mineral Wells, Texas, formerly licensed as KJSA, which was operated by Covenant Educational Media from October 2009 until July 2010, when Covenant ceased operations; that station is now broadcasting a classic country format programmed by that station's current owners, Texoma Broadcasting.
The station fell silent on October 13, 2009, making it one of the shortest-running Christian music/talk formatted stations in the nation. On October 29, the station applied to the FCC for special temporary authority to remain silent for financial reasons while a suitable buyer for the station and its assets was found. Its sister station KVTT suffered the same fate on July 12, 2010, with control of that station returned to its owners, who brokered its broadcast day to Covenant. The Commission granted the station this authority on February 16, 2010, with a scheduled expiration date of August 15, 2010.
Covenant reached an agreement to sell KJSA back to the Educational Media Foundation for a cash price of $200,000 on February 4, 2010. The FCC approved the sale on March 26, 2010, and the transaction was consummated on April 8, 2010. On April 14, 2010, KJSA changed their call letters back to KAAI and returned to the air as a member of the Air 1 radio network.