Under former ownership of the locally based Desert Sky Media (which also owned KOAS, then a smooth jazz station), the station was ""V-108"", launched in 2002 at first as a Rhythmic Top 40 formatted station. Months later, due to a fierce competition with heritage KLUC and the newly launched KVEG, it shifted to an Urban Adult Contemporary format and carried the Tom Joyner Morning Show and the Michael Baisden show. It was moderately successful but it only lasted for three years. Riviera Broadcast Group acquired both KVGS and KOAS from Desert Sky, and flipped KVGS on October 21, 2005 to an alternative-based radio station (with a slight lean towards adult album alternative) as ""Area 108"" (""Area 107.9"" as of October 2007). In September 2009, it re-branded again as "107.9 The Alternative".