The Frequency Goes Quiet: KXNT 840 AM Signs Off After Nearly Forty Years

On September 1, Las Vegas loses a voice that has been on the dial since 1986. The station isn't dying because listeners left. It's dying because the tower it broadcasts from is going away, and nobody could find it a new home.

A Frequency That Outlasted Four Owners

KXNT's story on the AM dial goes back to 1986, when the frequency signed on as KVEG under Roberts Communications Corp, mixing talk segments with middle of the road music. Early hosts included Sam Greenfield, Dominick Brascia, Lou Epton and Irwin Schiff, plus syndicated personality Tom Leykis, a lineup that reads like a snapshot of what local AM radio sounded like before news and talk formats fully took over the band.

That shift arrived in 1997, when the station adopted the KXNT call letters, with the NT standing for News/Talk, and rebuilt its schedule around syndicated heavyweights like The Rush Limbaugh Show and Coast to Coast AM. From there the station passed through a chain of corporate hands typical of American radio consolidation: Infinity Broadcasting bought in during 1998, Infinity was renamed CBS Radio in 2005, CBS Radio merged into Entercom in 2017, and Entercom rebranded itself as Audacy in 2021. Through all four names on the ownership ledger, the call letters and the 840 spot on the dial stayed put.

Why the Signal Is Actually Going Quiet

The closure has nothing to do with ratings or advertisers walking away. According to reporting on the shutdown, KXNT's transmitter site is going away, and Audacy was unable to line up a replacement location for the tower that keeps 840 on the air in Southern Nevada.

Morning host Alan Stock relayed the company's explanation to listeners directly, saying Audacy had looked at several backup transmission setups but simply couldn't land on one that penciled out. He described the search for a fix as coming down to a "technically and financially viable" option that never materialized. Trade outlets covering the Las Vegas radio market echoed the same account, framing it as a consolidation move forced by real estate and infrastructure limits rather than a business decision to kill the format outright.

The Voice Most Associated With the Call Letters

If any single person is identified with KXNT's run, it's Alan Stock, who joined the station's morning lineup in 1999 and was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2003. Stock anchored roughly ten hours of continuous live coverage on September 11, 2001, and was back behind the microphone through the overnight hours of October 1, 2017, guiding listeners through the aftermath of the mass shooting on the Strip.

That history travels with him rather than staying behind on 840. Starting September 1, Stock's program shifts to 101.5 KDWN, and Audacy is moving the syndicated Erick Erickson Show to the same station, preserving both a local voice and a national one even as the AM frequency that carried them for decades falls silent.

What a Closed Frequency Leaves Behind

Roughly 40 full and part time KXNT staffers are staying on with Audacy in other roles, according to the company, which softens the human cost of the shutdown even as it ends the run of a specific dial position. For a market built on constant reinvention, from imploded casinos to relit neon signs, a frequency going dark is a quieter kind of loss, no ribbon cutting, no landmark building to photograph, just static where a familiar voice used to be.

It also marks a small milestone for anyone tracking how Las Vegas media history gets preserved, or doesn't. Unlike a demolished motel or a shuttered casino, there's no facade to save and no historic district to petition for. What KXNT leaves behind is closer to an oral history: four decades of call letters, hosts and breaking news coverage that will now live only in archives, transcripts and the memories of the people who tuned in at 840.

Milestones on KXNT's Forty Years

The station's run traces almost the entire modern history of Las Vegas AM radio, from a talk and music hybrid to a full news and talk operation.

1. 1986 — KVEG signs on: Roberts Communications Corp launches the frequency with a talk and middle of the road music format.
2. 1997 — Callsign becomes KXNT: The station rebrands as News/Talk 840, adding The Rush Limbaugh Show and Coast to Coast AM.
3. 1998 — Infinity Broadcasting buys in: The first of four corporate ownership changes the station would see over the next three decades.
4. 1999 — Alan Stock joins the morning lineup: Stock becomes the host most associated with KXNT's on air identity.
5. 2001 — Nearly ten hours of live 9/11 coverage: Stock anchors continuous coverage as the September 11 attacks unfold.
6. 2005 — Infinity becomes CBS Radio: A corporate rename, with the station and staff otherwise unchanged.
7. 2017 — Entercom merger and overnight shooting coverage: CBS Radio merges into Entercom the same year Stock works through the night covering the October 1 mass shooting.
8. 2026 — Transmitter site loss ends the run: Audacy signs KXNT off on September 1 after failing to secure a new tower location.

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