The 96.5 frequency originally signed on the air on December 22, 1959 as KADI, the sister station to AM 1460KADY in St. Charles. The stations were owned by William R. Cady ; KADI-FM, the first new commercial FM in St. Louis since 1955, mostly simulcast the AM station's programming. In 1965, as KADY failed due to financial difficulties, KADI was sold to Vanguard Broadcasting and returned to the air in 1966. In 1969, Richard J. Miller, owner of KXLW 1320 in suburban Clayton, acquired KADI and relaunched it with a progressive rock format. In 1972, KADI-FM was moved down one notch on the FM dial to 96.3 MHz to allow new station KSCF in Florissantto go on the air at 97.1 MHz. In May 1987, the station's call letters were changed to KRJY and the station switched to a soft adult contemporary format as "K-Joy 96". In late 1991, the station switched to 1950s/1960s oldies as "Jukebox 96." In 1993, the station was sold by R.J. Miller to Heritage Media, who also owned 92.3 WIL-FM and 1430 WRTH. On March 24, 1994, at noon, the station adopted the KIHT call letters and "K-HITS 96" identity, flipping to a "Greatest Hits of the '70s" format, which would evolve into classic hits over the next few years. Heritage's St. Louis properties were sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in the mid-1990s, and Sinclair sold the station to Emmis Communications in 2000. Shortly after, 96.3 became the flagship for the #1 rated "Steve & DC" morning program in October 2000. The fans of the much-talked about duo immediately followed them down the dial from 106.5 to 96.3 and lifted KIHT-FM from 10th place to #1 in Persons 25-54 in only one ratings period upon the release of the Arbitron Fall 2000 book—a feat that continues to go unmatched in St. Louis radio history. In 2014, while keeping a Classic Hits direction, KIHT added more music from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, to compete against adult hits-formatted 106.5 WARH. On January 30, 2015, at 5 a.m., after playing "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J, KIHT flipped to an adult-leaning Top 40/CHR as "Now 96-3". The first song on "Now" was "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift. On February 5, 2015, KIHT changed call letters to KNOU to match the "Now" branding. In January 2018, KNOU and KFTK-FM were sold by Emmis to Entercom. In March 2018, after Entercom began managing the station under a local marketing agreement, KNOU shifted to a more mainstream CHR as its positioning was redundant to new sister station KYKY.
