Could have had much more to do with the station's content than the signal strength/quality.
We'd have to call in the Old Gringo for some color commentary on the sale of KRIZ to Family Life Radio. The Buckeye Boyz find it hard to believe FLR purchased 12~Thirty for big bucks in hopes of keeping the Top 40 audience. There are quite a few instances of Ancient Modulation stations selling at ridiculous prices in the Seventies, only to see their values go down faster than a streetwalker on EVB

As I seem to recall.... Doubleday wanted to buy a station somewhere else - and that being the good ol' days when the ownership limit was capped at SEVEN - gawd that seems but a faint memory - as does having real people in real studios with time checks and local weather and... Oh, excuse me.... Anyway, Doubleday dumped the smallest <coverage area> station they had. Which was KRIZ.
Now Eddddddduardo can come in and rewrite history with his unique South of the Border flavor.