KBYU began as a student-run
carrier current station at 660 AM in 1946.
T. Earl Pardoe, a professor at
Brigham Young University, suggested to student Owen S. Rich that the university should have its own radio station. Using his experience as a radio and radar technical during World War II, it became available across Provo and the surrounding area in 1948 by using the city's power lines as an antenna. The new station signed on for the first time on May 9, 1960, under the temporary calls KBRG. After negotiations to get the KBYU calls from a
liberty ship, the call letters changed to KBYU on November 9, 1960. Most of its on-air staff consists of professionals, although students do cover some weeknight and weekend on-air shifts. Students also play a key role in behind-the-scenes functions. On October 23, 2017, Brigham Young University announced that KBYU-FM and KBYU-TV would drop their existing programming and become full-time outlets for
BYU Radio and
BYUtv respectively. The planned flip of KBYU-FM was met with criticism from listeners, as it was the only terrestrial radio station in the market devoted to classical music. On April 26, 2018, the university announced that it would instead purchase 107.9
KUMT to use as a full-time outlet for BYU Radio, allowing it to maintain KBYU-FM's classical format. ==Programming==