On April 30, 2015 KKCL was granted a Federal Communications Commission construction permit to increase day power to 5,000 watts.

[3] Because 1550 kHz is a clear channel frequency reserved for Canada and Mexico, KKCL's night power is limited.

[7] Later it partnered with Lincoln Financial Media outlet KKFN for sharing Nuggets and Avalanche games, while leasing out KQKS' HD2 sub-channel to cover the Denver-Boulder area that its FM translator can not reach.

On June 1, 2015, the station flipped to a marijuana-themed classic rock format, branded as Smokin 94.1 (referring to its FM translator), and changed its call letters to KBUD.

The format was aimed at the region's cannabis culture; Paskin himself served as the drive-time host under the alias "Gary Ganja" (and performed a news update at 4:20 p.m as "O.G.

The station picked up syndicated Bubba the Love Sponge as its morning show (owing to its namesake's support of marijuana legalization), and played clips from stoner films as well as comedy sketches recorded by Paskin.

On February 29, 2016, KKCL returned to the air, coupled with an FM translator station on 96.9, carrying a Modern AC/AAA format, branded as "The Cloud".