June 27, 2000, the station switched to a talk radio format. It primarily carried conservative talk programming. Syndicated shows hosted by Michael Savage and Michael Medved appeared, along with "Imus in the Morning" hosted by Don Imus. KZNS In 2001, the station was acquired by the Simmons Media Group, which also owned popular adult contemporary station 100.3 KSFI. On November 12, 2001, KDYL's call sign was changed to KZNS. That same day, Simmons Media changed the format of the station, airing CNN Headline News in the daytime and sports talk in the afternoon and evening. Soon thereafter, sports talk programming occupied the station's entire schedule, calling itself "The Zone." When Simmons acquired the station, the KDYL call letters were assigned to a Tooele, Utah, station, then at 990 kHz, and the owner of that station, then Thomas Mathis, was compensated to release the KDYL call letters, changing the call sign of his station to KTLE. Prior to the Tooele station having the call sign of KDYL, those call letters were assigned to the 1320 kHz Salt Lake City station, now known as KNIT. Simmons wanted to call this station KDYL because those call letters had been in use for a long time in the Salt Lake City radio market. As of February 1, 2011, KZNS' "The Zone" sports talk programming also began to be heard on co-owned KZNS-FM 97.5 licensed to Coalville, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb. Some time later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed KZNS to increase its power to 50,000 watts by day and 670 watts at night. As part of the change in ownership of the Utah Jazz, the sale of the station from the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies to Smith Entertainment Group was finalized on May 27, 2021. On September 30, 2021, it was announced that Bonneville International, owner of the KSL AM and FM stations, would be taking over operations of The Zone sports network. The arrangement with Bonneville will result in select Utah Jazz games being aired on KSL. Founding host Gordon Monson and some producers were laid off by the new management. The Zone introduced a new lineup effective October 20. References External links FCC History Cards for KZNS Sports radio stations in the United States ZNS Mass media in Salt Lake City