An additional owner was ruled unfit to hold a license due to a 1982 criminal conviction in Arizona.

[2] The stations were instead awarded to former owner Jack Grimm, his wife Jackie, and Ruth Clifford, doing business as Tempe Radio, Inc.

In 1992, after years of appeals, Grimm and Clifford took over KUKQ and KUPD-FM on new licenses, retaining the call letters, facilities and formats of the stations by buying them from Tri-State Broadcasting.

In the 1990s, KUPD became co-owned with its former competitors, KDKB and KSLX-FM, after being purchased by Sandusky Radio, which also owned stations in Seattle, Washington.

In recent years it has been headlined by acts such as Alice In Chains in 2008, Sevendust in 2009, Three Days Grace in 2010 and Papa Roach in 2011.