At 98.5 FM, KXRQ had offered a wide open format (lite pop in the day, jazz at night) but went dark in early 1968 as the FCC ordered the owners to sell it due to poor management. It re-emerged later that year in November as KZAP under the new ownership of Lee Gahagan. He was a pioneer in three and four channel FM stereo. Gahagan, who came from a wealthy family and attended Princeton University, owned KZAP until his apparent suicide at age 27 in 1972. The family then sold off the station to New Day Broadcasting, headed by Ed Beimfohr, who kept the station artistic, but had programming people such as Robert Williams gradually move the station in a more commercial direction, which was part of a national trend among freeform stations. A big reason freeform was transforming into a more streamlined presentation was the rise of national radio consultant Lee Abrams, who is credited as the creator of the format known as "album oriented rock." Abrams would
ultimately consult KZAP starting in 1979, when the KZAP freeform era clearly ended. The station's entire history is documented in the story The Legend of KZAP.