KPHO became the affiliate of the Blue Network, later ABC, in 1944; moved to 910 kHz and increased power in September 1949; and launched KPHO-TV, the first television station in Arizona, that December.

The station established itself as the second-rated talk outlet in the market behind KTAR and was a stop in the careers of several notable hosts, including Tom Leykis.

The second sale, to iHeartMedia forerunner Clear Channel Communications, saw the KFYI format and call sign move to 550 kHz, longtime home of KOY, while KGME's sports talk programming migrated to 910.

An affiliate of iHeart-owned Fox Sports Radio, the station also airs several local talk shows and is the current home of Arizona State Sun Devils men's ice hockey.

The firm consisted of a number of local and out-of-state investors; its president, Rex Schepp, was affiliated with station WIRE in Indianapolis, and movie star Gene Autry was a minority shareholder.

[3] During this time, Phoenix gained another radio station, KOOL (960 AM), which proved to be highly relevant to changes taking place at KPHO.

The station went on the air with 5,000 watts in June 1947 from studios in the Hotel Adams, and Autry opted to sell his minority stake at KPHO to buy KOOL.

[18] KPHO emerged successful from the hearing in April 1949, winning the right to move to 910;[19] a principal reason for KRUX losing was that it was licensed to Glendale and sought to relocate to Phoenix.

[31] Dairyland's other announcement as to the future of KPHO attracted enough opposition to delay the sale for months: it sought to drop the all-news format and convert to country.

[28] However, that application fell through in March 1972 when the company's primary owner, KHAT DJ William P. Ledbetter (known as the "Platter Parson"), acknowledged he had submitted falsified paperwork to the FCC.

[34] The logjam was resolved in June 1972, when Odom found another buyer for KHAT: Marvin Himelstein, who pledged to run the station with an all-news format.

These rumors were bolstered by reports of conversations with former employees at KTAR, the market's heritage news/talk outlet, and the sighting of Phoenix TV weatherman Dewey Hopper at the studios.

Renamed KFYI (standing for "for your information"), the new call sign was obtained for approximately $5,000 from its previous user, a station in Oakland, California,[54] that left the air earlier in the year amid financial problems.

[55] In addition to Hopper and Moynihan, KFYI also featured a morning show with longtime radio DJ and television voiceover announcer Charlie Van Dyke.

[62] Clancy Woods, who was hired to run KFYI, found the station "underdeveloped" and made changes to broaden its appeal beyond conservatives.

[62] He hired the moderate Grant Woods, who had recently left his position as state attorney general, to host a daily talk show,[61] and other program changes were made.

The addition of University of Arizona football back to the lineup marked the first time since the station began airing Limbaugh that it committed to sports broadcasts, having previously positioned itself as the antithesis to sports-heavy KTAR.

As KNNS, that station had adopted its sports radio format in 1993, shifting from talk;[64][65] its lineup of program hosts included Mike Golic and Bruce Jacobs.

Clear Channel opted to sell four of AMFM's FM stations in Phoenix and retain all of its local AMs, including KGME at 550 and KFYI at 910.

A report in The Athletic indicated that the Arizona Coyotes, which had recently signed an agreement to move their games to KGME, objected to Sileo's on-air presence based on racist and sexist comments he had previously made at stations in Florida that led him to be fired three times in a span of 20 months.

[76][77] From 2019 to 2024, the station aired Roc & Manuch, featuring former NFL quarterback Dan Manucci;[78] that program moved to KTAR AM at the end of 2024.

[80] KGME has not been able to consistently lure away professional teams from their contracts with Bonneville International's cluster, including sports talk leader KMVP-FM.

[83] While the rights to major Arizona State Sun Devils sports belong to Bonneville, KGME became the home of ASU men's hockey beginning in 2022, the team's first radio deal.