KXEQ

Reno got its second radio station[3] when KATO signed on for the first time on July 9, 1946.[1] Owned by the Sierra Broadcasting Company, KATO was a Don Lee/Mutual affiliate and broadcast with 250 watts from a transmitter at Sixth and Cassinella streets on the eastern edge of town.[3] Robert Stoddard, the station's founding general manager, bought out Sierra Broadcasting in 1953[4] for $47,600.[5]

KATO was approved in 1958 to relocate its transmitter to a site east of town.[6]

On May 28, 1959, KATO became KBET.[6] Later that year, tragedy struck when 43-year-old newscaster and account executive Ernie Ferguson committed suicide on Thanksgiving.[7] Stoddard's Comstock Telecasting Corporation made an application for television channel 4 in Reno in 1960;[8] while it was not selected, KBET did increase its power to 1,000 watts in 1961.[6] It broadcast from studios at the Mapes Hotel downtown after having gone on the air from the basement of an Elks lodge.[9]

KBET was fined $5,000 by the Federal Communications Commission in 1971 for fraudulent billing practices that allowed an appliance distributor to double-bill its suppliers.[10]

Stoddard died in July 1975 of a heart attack while golfing in northern California;[11] he was remembered for his folksy local newscasts and involvement in local high school sports.[12] The First National Bank of Nevada took control of the KBET license[6] and sold the country music outlet to the highest bidder the next year: Sierra Broadcasting, owned by Bob and Julie Day and Royce Adams.[13]

After an attempt to sell the license to Sterling Broadcasting in 1980 fell through, KBET was sold the next year to Reno Electronics,[6] owned by former KOLO radio-TV general manager Stan Weisberger; the new ownership retained KBET's country format but sought to relocate the studios and acquire new equipment.[14] However, by 1984, the station had flipped to oldies, perhaps because Reno had five country stations,[15] and the next year it went in a middle-of-the-road direction and branded as "KBEST".[16]

1986 saw the sale of KBET and its Las Vegas sister, KNUU, to Doug and Christina Trenner's CAT Broadcasting for $2.1 million.[17][18] A major format change followed: in May 1987, the station became KRCV, "Reno's Christian Voice"—the city's only Christian radio station.[19] Although KRCV did not make money, a coalition of 75 business leaders, pastors and station listeners mounted an effort to buy the station outright the next year, with Trenner's blessing.[20] In addition to its religious programming, KRCV presented Reno Silver Sox baseball and high school football broadcasts.[21][22]

However, by 1991, KRCV was silent and CAT Broadcasting had filed for bankruptcy. As a debtor-in-possession, it sold KRCV to Rolando Collantes, owner of KSVN in Ogden, Utah and KGEN in Tulare, California, for $30,000 in 1991.[23] KXEQ debuted on 1340 AM on December 14, 1991, as "La Super Q", with studios in a converted house on Linden Street.[24][25]

In 2014, KXEQ began broadcasting the Alex "El Genio" Lucas syndicated morning show.[26]