In 1989, the station signed on with a Contemporary Christian music format. Its call sign was KLIQ, better known as Q-102. Its sister station was KFIA, owned by Olympic Broadcasting. In September 1991, it simulcast with KFIA except during drive times and on the weekend when it aired Christian music. Its call sign was changed to KFIA-FM.
Smooth jazz: 1993-1997
In October 1993, the station switched to a smooth jazz format and the call sign changed to KSSJ. During this period, it was known as "101.9 The City."
Owner American Radio Systems sold 101.9 to EXCL Communications (now part of Entravision Communications) and the KSSJ intellectual property moved to Entercom's 94.7 FM in 1997.
Spanish: 1997-2000
The station became KRRE and aired a Spanish format called "Radio Romantica."
Oldies: 2000-2006
In 2000, KSSJ flipped to oldies (as Cool 101.9 under the KCCL-FM calls) after KHYL dropped the format for Rhythmic Oldies. The call sign was changed to KNTY on July 19, 2006.
Country: 2006-2019
In 2006, the station changed formats to Country music as "101.9 The Wolf" with the call letters KNTY.
Regional Mexican: 2019-2020
On July 2, 2019, staffers at KNTY and its Columbia-Modesto simulcast KCVR-FM, along with sister KHHM, informed listeners that they have been let go. Both stations were to flip formats on July 8, 2019, with KNTY to take a Regional Mexican presentation. The news ended a 13-year run with Country for "101.9 The Wolf," and a short 4-month run for "98.9 The Wolf."[4]
On July 8, 2019, KNTY changed its format from country to a simulcast of Regional Mexican-formatted KRCX-FM 99.9 Marysville, branded as "La Tricolor".[5]
Ranchera: 2020-2021
On January 7, 2020, KNTY split from its simulcast with KRCX-FM and launched a Ranchera music format, branded as "José 101.9".[6]
Fuego bilingual CHR: 2021-present
As part of a shuffle of formats, frequencies and call letters in Entravision's Sacramento cluster, on July 20, 2021, KNTY dropped the ranchera format and "José" branding, and began simulcasting the "Fuego" bilingual top 40 format, which was heard on KHHM (103.5 FM).
"Fuego" moved exclusively to 101.9 FM on August 2. At that time, the KHHM call letters moved to the 101.9 facility. Simultaneously, 103.5 relaunched as classic country-formatted KNTY.[7][8]
