KSL (radio)

Infobox Radio station
name = KSL / KSL-FM


city = AM: Salt Lake City, Utah
FM: Midvale, Utah
area = Salt Lake City and Vicinity
branding = KSL Newsradio
slogan =
airdate = May 6, 1922
frequency = AM: 1160 kHz HD Radio
FM: 102.7 MHz
FM: 102.7 HD-2 for Global Unsigned Bands
format = News/Talk
power =
erp = AM: 50,000 watts
FM: 25,000 watts
haat = FM: 1140 meters
class = AM: A (Clear channel)
FM: C
facility_id = AM: 6375
FM: 54156
callsign_meaning = Salt Lake City
former_callsigns = KZN (1922-1924)
KFPT (1924-1925)
owner = Bonneville International
licensee = Bonneville Holding Company
sister_stations = KRSP, KSFI, KUTR
"Also part of the Bonneville Cluster: TV Station KSL-TV"
webcast = [http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=21 Listen Live]
website = [http://www.ksl.com ksl.com]
affiliations = ABC News

KSL Newsradio is a radio programming service based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is broadcast simultaneously on AM station KSL (1160 kHz at 50,000 watts) and FM station KSL-FM (102.7 MHz, Midvale). Both stations are owned by Bonneville International Corporation, which is in turn owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). KSL's AM signal reaches most of the western US at night, as well as some areas in western Canada.

History

Originally designated with the call letters KZN, KSL began life as the radio arm of the "Deseret News", a Salt Lake City newspaper also owned by the LDS Church. The station's first broadcast came on May 6, 1922 in the form of a talk by then-LDS Church president Heber J. Grant.

In 1924, it changed its calls to KFPT, and then adopted its current call letters, with their association to Salt Lake, in 1925 after they became available (they had previously been used by an early radio station in Alaska). A series of power boosts over the next decade brought the station to its current 50,000 watts (daytime broadcast power) in 1932. It spent time at several frequencies over the years before settling at 1160 kH in 1941. It can be heard across much of the country west of the Mississippi River at night.

Soon after becoming a clear-channel station, it joined the CBS Radio Network. It remained with CBS until 2005, when it switched to ABC.

The station's owners made their initial foray into FM broadcasting in 1947 when they brought KSL-FM onto the then-very-sparsely-populated FM dial at 100.3 mH. The FM station format was "beautiful music", a contrast to the then-current KSL format of news and commentary interspersed with adult contemporary music. The FM station was sold to a private owner in the mid-1970s due to FCC regulations on station ownership (which have since been greatly relaxed). The station, now known as KSFI, was re-acquired by the KSL ownership group in 2003.

The station's owners made their entrance to the field of television broadcasting when they launched KSL-TV (Channel 5) in 1949. The TV station was also affiliated with the television arm of the Columbia Broadcasting System. KSL-TV switched affiliation to NBC in 1995.

KSL's most famous program -- "Music and the Spoken Word" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (the oldest series in nationwide network broadcasting), continues to be distributed by CBS Radio to this day. It airs each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. local time (11:30 a.m on the East Coast). It is also broadcast on television on KSL-TV (to the local market) and worldwide on BYU Television and the Hallmark Channel.

Another notable program was Herb Jepko's "Nitecaps", which began in the 1960s and was one of the first U.S. radio stations to be syndicated nationally.

In the mid-1980s KSL adopted an all-talk format, completely dropping its broadcast of music (except for the Tabernacle Choir broadcast).

On September 3, 2005 KSL began simulcasting at 102.7 MHz FM, replacing KQMB (STAR 102.7, also owned by Bonneville), a hot adult contemporary station. Bonneville says this was done to make it easier for people to listen to the station inside office buildings (assuming the FM signal could more easily penetrate such structures), and because STAR 102.7 had been losing market share since the first of the year (although, according to ratings it was still one of the top stations in its market segment.)Fact|date=August 2007

The Sean Hannity Show airs on KSL during the week from 1-4 PM.

ee also

*KSL-TV
*List of Salt Lake City media

References

External links

* [http://www.ksl.com/ KSL Newsradio site]
* [http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=101701 Story about the new FM signal]
* [http://www.ubstudios.com/rtli/slcams.html KSL's tower along with other signals in the area]
*AMQ|KSL
*AML|KSL
*AMARB|KSL
*FMQ|KSL-FM
*FML|KSL
*FMARB|KSL
*Geolinks-US-buildingscale|40.77944|-112.09889