It is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonneville International, a profit-making subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Because AM 1140 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A stations XEMR-AM in Monterrey, Mexico, and WRVA in Richmond, Virginia, KHTK must broadcast with a directional antenna at all times to avoid interference, using a five-tower array.

The station was originally owned by Hercules Broadcasting, licensed to Stockton, California, and operating at 1130 kHz with 1,000 watts of power.

Following the establishment of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations starting on May 3, 1927.

[6] In addition, they were informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard.

[7] On May 25, 1928, the FRC issued General Order 32, which notified 164 stations, including KGDM, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it.

Listeners were not only exposed to artists such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson, but enjoyed two decades of on-air personality stability.

KRAK-FM would eventually move ahead in the ratings, later becoming KNCI through changes after a purchase by CBS Radio and frequency switching.

One of KHTK's initial sports hosts was Pro Football Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood, who co-hosted with Mike Remy, the station's former program director.

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom which locally owned KKDO, KUDL, KSEG, KRXQ, and KIFM.

[14] On November 1, Entercom announced that Bonneville International would begin operating KHTK, KYMX, KZZO and KNCI via a local marketing agreement (LMA) when the merger of CBS and Entercom closed on November 17, while their licenses were placed into a divestiture trust pending a sale to a different owner within 180 days.

In June 2020, Bonneville fired Napear for insensitive remarks towards former Kings player DeMarcus Cousins in a series of Twitter feeds regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.