City Denver, Colorado Branding Que Bueno First air date June, 1948 | Broadcast area Denver-Boulder Frequency 1280 kHz Format Regional Mexican | |
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KBNO (1280 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Denver, Colorado, United States, it serves the Denver-Boulder area. The station is currently owned by Latino Communications, LLC.
History
KBNO signed on May 16, 1948, as KTLN on 990 kHz. It was owned by Alfred M. Landon, former governor of Kansas. It moved to 1150 kHz in 1951. It moved to its current frequency in 1954.
In 1981, the station joined in a long-term simulcast with then-sister station KBRQ (including its flip to oldies in 1987), which would last until August 1, 1996, when 1280 flipped to a talk format as "Ralph 1280" (which would later be renamed "1280 The X"). On March 21, 1999, the station returned to a simulcast with now-KXKL. Two months later, 1280 became the third home of Denver's heritage classical station KVOD.
In September 2000, Latino Communications, owned by Zee Ferrufino, bought KVOD from Clear Channel for a reported $3.3 million. Ferrufino announced plans to rename the station to KBNO (which was formerly on 1220 AM), and said that he planned to rehire numerous former KBNO personalities to play what he called "Mexican regional music," among other styles. The following month, Colorado Public Radio acquired the KVOD intellectual properties, call letters and music library (the deal would be completed in March 2001). KVOD would cease independent operations after 43 years on December 15, 2000. CPR then moved the classical format to 90.1 FM.