KVON

KVON
Napa, California;
Broadcast area	Napa County/Sonoma County
Frequency	1440 kHz
Branding	Mega Mix 1440/96.9
Programming
Language(s)	Spanish
Format	Spanish AC
Ownership
Owner	Wilfred Alexander Marcencia and Julissa Marcencia; (Wine Down Media LLC);
Sister stations	KVYN
History
First air date	November 17, 1947
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	74430
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts day; 1,000 watts night
Transmitter coordinates	38°15′45.00″N 122°16′56.00″W / 38.2625000°N 122.2822222°W
Translator(s)	96.9 K245DK (Napa)
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	kvon.com

KVON (1440 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a Spanish AC radio format. Licensed to Napa, California, it serves the Napa County/Sonoma County region of Northern California. The station is owned by Wilfred Alexander Marcencia and Julissa Marcencia, through licensee Wine Down Media LLC.

By day, KVON's transmitter broadcasts a 5,000-watt signal. At night, to avoid interfering with other stations on 1440 AM, the station reduces transmitter power to 1,000 watts. The station uses a directional antenna pattern at all times utilizing a 4-tower array during daytime and 3-tower array during nighttime operations.^[2] The station's transmitter and antenna array are located at a site south of the Napa, California, adjacent to the Napa River. The station also simulcasts on the FM band on 96.9 MHz with 12 watts from an antenna that is co-located on a site it shares with KVYN near Yountville, California.

History

On November 17, 1947, KVON first signed on.^[3] Originally it broadcast with 500 watts of power around the clock, before getting a power increase.^[4] The station was owned by Thomas L. Young from 1971 to 1996. During Young's ownership, he founded sister station KVYN which went on the air in 1975.^[5]^[6]

In May 2017 an announcement was made that the station along with KVYN had been sold by Wine Country Broadcasting to Wine Down Media for $425,000. The transaction was consummated on August 1, 2017.^[7]

On December 14, 2021, KVON announced that it would flip to Spanish language programming on January 3, 2022, and some previous programming elements would move to sister station KVYN.^[8] The station is currently the only station in Napa County broadcasting in Spanish 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The format is Spanish AC, branded as "Mega Mix 1440/96.9.^[8] The switchover to the new format is a culmination of a 5 year transition, bourne out of several events starting with the October 2017 Northern California wildfires, followed by the 2019 California power shutoffs and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over one third of Napa County's population is Latino and during these events, Spanish speaking residents had a difficult time retrieving and understanding coverage and implications of these events at the local level.^[9] The station's ownership was granted a license to broadcast by the FCC on December 8, 2021.^[10]