101.1 FM, '''K224CJ''' 92.7 FM, and '''K292DF''' 106.3 FM are a
Dance Music Trimulcast station serving the
Phoenix area. KNRJ is licensed to
Payson, Arizona , which is 57 miles north of
Phoenix , while K224CJ is a 10-watt translator from
South Mountain 's antenna farm to provide a better signal to the Phoenix area. Both are owned by Sierra H Broadcasting.
KNRJ's
Dance Music product includes
House ,
Techno , and
Club music, as well as
Remixes of
Pop and
R&B hits. The mixshow lineup includes some of the worlds top talent, Paul Oakenfold, Car Cox, Rod Carrillo, Armin Van Burren, Marcus Schulz, Spencer Thomas, Eddie Amador, Dj Perry, Dj Kilo, Mickey "Mixin" Oliver (Chicagos Hot Mix 5), Victor Dinaire, Chris Shannon and many more.
KNRJ is also a reporter in
Billboard Magazine 's
Dance Radio Airplay panel.
In the late 1990s, signed on from Payson, Arizona as a
Classic Hits format station named '''
Loop 101 '''. In 2000, the callsign was changed to '''KAZL''' ('''K''' '''A'''ri'''Z'''ona '''L'''oop), and '''K224CJ''' 92.7 FM from South Mountain and '''K292DF''' 106.3 FM in
Flagstaff were applied for and signed on during the same period. The station's goal was to be an alternative to
KSLX , another classic hits station serving the Phoenix area. KNRJ, K224CJ, and K292DF never achieved sufficient ratings.
The dismal ratings were followed by a format change on
18 June 2002 : KAZL stunted becoming an all-commercial station. This only lasted for three days, however. Stunting, or fooling the listeners, is a common radio tactic while changing formats. In this case listeners were led to believe that the station would now only be playing commercials. Steven Szalay, Operations Manager, created an entire phony radio format complete with sweepers, liners, I.D.'s and recorded DJ comments as well as a collection of classic radio commercials. The station received a great many calls asking if this was serious, some called to express their appreciation of the joke, some believed it and asked that the classic hits format be returned. The point is to try to get press coverage to announce a big change at the station at a particular time and date to drive curious listeners to the frequency. Many other stations have played the same song or nonsensical phrase over and over for days as a stunt for the same purpose.
The stunting was stopped at 5pm three days later (
21 June 2002 ) and because of the clever and original stunting did receive considerable press coverage for the end of the stunt and the start of a format similar to
WKIE in Chicago, CHR Dance. At this time it was known that WKIE was sold and to be changed to a Spanish language format. Chris Shebel the program director of WKIE programmed the music of KAZL for nearly a year by e-mail. Also, the name changed to "Energy 92.7 & 101.1"; to match, the callsign on 101.1 became . WKIE was also known as Energy; the name was chosen for KNRJ to continue the legacy. The station still gets calls from Chicago visitors asking if they are the same Energy that was in Chicago.
KNRJ targets Phoenix; although KNRJ's 101.1 signal does reach the northern portions of
Maricopa County , K224CJ brings crucial coverage to the Phoenix metropolitan area and can be heard in the central and southern portions of the region, although recently K224CJ has been suffering from severe multipath distortion. Its main signal on 101.1 between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon has interference from 101.1 FM
KPLD in
Saint George, Utah , the K292DF translator brings coverage to the Flagstaff area due to this interference. Past
Seligman, Arizona , the signal from 101.1 FM
KRRK in
Lake Havasu City disrupts any KNRJ reception.
