This station signed on in 1956 as KRSN-FM. For nearly three decades the station broadcast at low wattage and only covered Los Alamos. It would not enter the Albuquerque radio market until November 1985 when it launched as KKHJ with an adult contemporary format after upgrading to a 100,000 watt signal. Shortly after the station which was owned by Community Broadcasting Co. would be sold to KKBR Inc. for 1.2 million dollars. In August 1986 it changed to KKBR and broadcast a 50s and 60s oldies format called "The Bear". The format would be a top rated success in the Santa Fe market. However despite the success in Santa Fe the Utah based owners would focus their efforts on the Albuquerque market which had much more revenue potential. In March 1990 98.5 would change to KRBL with an Album-oriented rock format called "The Rebel Rocker" targeting a younger audience in Albuquerque. This would also prompt KBOM 106.7 to change from a Spanish contemporary format to oldies shortly after. Later on with new competition following KZRQ moving to the 105.1 FM frequency in late 1991 replacing a top 40 format, KRBL would move to pick up the mainstream CHR/Top 40 format rebranding as "Lazer 98.5" in June 1992. A year later in June 1993 98.5 would go dark in order to move to a new transmitter as well as to new studios in Santa Fe. This came as the station would be sold to Plaza Broadcasting which also owned country formatted KNYN 95.5 for $650,000. Following consummation the station returned to the air in early November 1993 as KTMN and would air a Classic Rock format called "The Mountain". After KIOT dropped Adult Album Alternative for classic rock in Fall of 1995, KTMN shifted its programming to fill the AAA void while continuing to use "The Mountain" brand. In 1996 KNYN and KTMN were sold to American General Media. AGM would retain the formats on both stations and operate them from Santa Fe for another year. However by 1997 AGM would move its operations to Albuquerque and would then change the format to oldies and call letters to KABG in June in another attempt to generate better ratings in Albuquerque.
KABG
KABG launched in Summer 1997 as "Big Oldies 98.5". It then went on to overcome two other long running oldies stations in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe markets, KBOM 106.7 in Santa Fe and KZKL 101.7 in Albuquerque which dropped the format in 2002 making KABG the only FM oldies station in both markets until its format change in 2007. Local radio veteran Bobby Box would host the morning shift for several years helping to make the station popular with its target audience. For many years the station had been known as "Big Oldies" but in 2007 it rebranded to just "Big 98.5" phasing out the word "oldies" as it has followed most other oldies stations across the country in shifting to a more 1970s focused "classic hits" format in order to improve its audience in the 25-54 age range demographic. It had also changed its website. Despite this, the station still played a small amount of 1950s/early 1960s oldies for a few more years. Today the format is mostly focused on music from the 1980s with a small amount of music from the 1990s added. On September 20, 2019 KABG was granted a construction permit to move its broadcasting facility to Sandia Crest at 13,800 watts.
