The Last Day Of KNAC Heavy Metal Radio

The last day of KNAC took place on February 15, 1995, and James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of Metallica appeared as guests to show their support. The last song to be played on KNAC was Metallica's "Fade to Black" (which was played during the first hour of the metal format 9 years earlier). At 1:59 p.m., KNAC went off the air with a short farewell message from general manager Gary Price: "This is KNAC Long Beach-Los Angeles. KNAC's Pure Rock is now signing off. Thanks for your support. You have been the greatest."

The original KNAC was based in Long Beach, California and served Los Angeles and Orange counties on the FM band at a center frequency of 105.5 MHz. KNAC-FM had a variety of different formats. With a relatively weak radio signal and a small geographical area, KNAC never appeared in the Arbitron radio ratings. Outside the Los Angeles area, the station gained a huge following from heavy metal fans across the United States (via marketing and selling of t-shirts, stickers, compact discs, etc., with ads in heavy metal fan magazines). Before KNAC became popular under the heavy metal format, KNAC was branded as "The Knack." 

In 1998, under the guidance of record company promoter Rob Jones, Jr., a group of former KNAC staffers revived the station via Internet at KNAC.COM, utilizing the relatively new technology of streaming audio. The music resembles that of the "halcyon days" of the 1980s, complete with the white-on-black KNAC logo and other on-air features.

In early 2001, the KNAC.COM brand and website was licensed by arrangement to Clear Channel Interactive through a merger with Enigma Digital, previous licensor of the KNAC.COM brand and website in 1999. This license remained effective until November 2001 when Clear Channel shuttered its Internet division.