In 1947, a license for a Las Vegas radio station at 1340 kHz was first applied for. It took until 1951 for the station, KORK, to first sign-on.[5] KORK was owned by the Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company, located in the Hotel Thunderbird, and it was powered with only 250 watts. It was an NBC Radio Networkaffiliate, broadcasting a schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, game shows, soap operas and big band broadcasts. In 1955, it was bought by the Southwestern Broadcasting Company, which put KORK-TV (channel 3, now KSNV) on the air in that same year. In 1961, KORK got an FM counterpart, 97.1 KORK-FM (now KXPT).[6]
In 1968, KORK, airing a full servicemiddle of the road format, moved to 920 kHz (today KRLV). Going to 920 allowed KORK to increase its daytime power to 5,000 watts. Meanwhile, Nevada Broadcasting, Incorporated, acquired the 1340 frequency, and began airing country music as KRAM. At this point, KRAM was powered at 1,000 watts by day, but still had to reduce power to 250 watts at night.[7] It was an affiliate of the ABC Entertainment Radio Network.
In 1985, the station was acquired by Southern Nevada Radio, which changed the call sign to KMTW. By the early 1990s, KMTW had become an all-news station, carrying CNN Headline News.
In 1995, Far West Radio acquired the station. On August 9, the new owner changed its call sign to KRLV.[8] It aired a talk radio format for several years. In 2004, Continental Broadcasting bought the station, putting on a Spanish-language format of music, news and sports.
In April 2017, Lotus acquired the radio rights to the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League, with KRLV serving as the flagship station. It was also announced that KLAV's FM translator K255CT would switch to a simulcast of KRLV on 98.9 FM.[10] The call sign was changed to KKGK on March 20, 2020;[8] the KRLV call sign moved to the former KBAD.