It broadcasts an Adult Top 40 radio format and is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonneville International, a profit-making subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The station carries the Brooke & Jeffrey morning drive time show, syndicated by Premiere Networks from KQMV Seattle.

Brown Broadcasting changed the branding to "The Zone" in September 1995 and the format to a wide-ranging AAA mix it promoted as "bands you've never heard of.

In addition, KZZO has vowed not to play any gold or recurrent songs from the 80s or 90s, a message aimed directly at rival KGBY, whose playlist featured a more conventional hot AC approach.

By December 2011, KZZO became the only hot adult contemporary radio station in Sacramento due to Clear Channel changing KGBY to news-talk as KFBK-FM, simulcasting KFBK.

[9] Bonneville International began operating KZZO, KYMX, KNCI and KHTK, as well as four other stations in San Francisco, under a local marketing agreement upon the closure of the merger on November 17, 2017, on behalf of the Entercom Divestiture Trust.

[15] This was a variation of the popular radio promotion called "The $10,000 Fugitive" done on numerous stations across the country such as WBLI in Long Island.

KDND, owned by Entercom, not CBS like The Zone, used a full day worth of advertising promoting a contest on another radio station.

On the other hand, its height above average terrain (HAAT) is 100 meters (330 ft), using a tower not as tall as most Sacramento FM outlets.