K-Love radio station in Grand Junction, Colorado
KLFV (90.3 FM) is a radio station in Grand Junction, Colorado. The station broadcasts a contemporary Christian format from the K-Love radio network; the station and network are owned by the Educational Media Foundation.
History
90.3 FM began broadcasting as KJOL ("Joy of the Lord") on April 24, 1982,[1] after missing a planned Christmas 1981 launch. It was the second religious radio station in the Grand Junction area, after KCIC, which had signed on in 1979; however, KJOL broadcast with more power than KCIC. KJOL was owned by the Columbus Evangelical Free Church and broadcast from its facilities; operations were managed by an interdenominational alliance of local churches, the Western Slope Church Ministries Association.[2] From the start, KJOL adopted a more contemporary gospel sound than the traditionally oriented KCIC; the programmer, Stan Bruning, had come from KWBI-FM in Denver.[2]
The mid-1980s saw a major ownership transition for the young religious station. In 1984, Columbus Evangelical sold it for $24,000 to Western Bible College, owners of KWBI-FM; the church sought to ensure KJOL's continued financial stability with the sale.[3] After the sale closed in 1985,[3] KJOL, which had previously been a major conservative voice and drove protests at abortion clinics and grocery stores that sold pornographic materials,[4] toned down its rhetoric and slightly increased the proportion of music in its broadcast day.[3] The changes and Western Bible College-developed format took hold in February, after the station was silent for a week;[5] the former general manager who had spearheaded the protest activities exited in June.[6]
After a couple of mergers, Western Bible College became Colorado Christian University by 1989,[7] and later expanded its educational offerings to the Western Slope and opened a center in Grand Junction in 1991.[8] The university sold its entire regional radio network to EMF in 2000; local operations were shuttered that October in favor of rebroadcasting EMF's K-Love programming as KLFV, and the religious talk and teaching programming disappeared altogether.[9] Former KJOL station manager Ken Andrews began efforts to bring a new local Christian station to Grand Junction;[10] those efforts succeeded when he reached an agreement to broker out 620 AM and relaunch it as the new KJOL effective July 1, 2001.[11]
