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KGHL (790
kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...
) is an AM
radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
broadcasting a classic country
format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...
licensed to
Billings, Montana Billings is the most populous Lists of populated places in the United States, city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, i ...
, United States. The station is currently owned by KGHL Radio LLC, which is owned by the Northern Broadcasting System and features programming from
CBS News Radio CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
,
Compass Media Networks Compass Media Networks is an American radio network. The company launched in January 2009. It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann. The company focuses on radio and offers representation and m ...
, and
United Stations Radio Networks United Stations Radio Networks (United Stations) is a radio network that provides a variety of radio programs and programming services for radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. It is based in New York City. History The comp ...
. KGHL's studios and offices are located in the Northern Broadcasting building on First Avenue North in downtown Billings; the transmitter is in Lockwood. KGHL was the first radio station in Billings and remained dominant into the 1980s.


History


Billings's first, Billings's only

The Northwestern Auto Supply Company opened KGHL, broadcasting initially on 1350 kHz, on the evening of June 8, 1928; the first announcer heard over the station was Eric Thornton, who served as program director and was hired from KOIL in
Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...
. The highlight of the inaugural program was a remote address by Governor John E. Erickson, speaking from the state capital of
Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...
; the equipment to enable the governor to deliver his remarks over the station was flown from Billings to Helena earlier that day in hazardous conditions, landing with an empty gasoline tank. Original studios for the station were located on the third floor of the auto supply company's building in downtown Billings; with limited room, some bands played on the roof. Northwestern had begun selling radios in 1924, but without a local station, they found sales and radio demonstrations difficult in the Billings area, where only one station was reliably received, KFKX at
Hastings, Nebraska Hastings is a List of cities in Nebraska, city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Neb ...
. KGHL was not the first radio station to operate in the state of Montana—that distinction belongs to KFBB (now
KEIN Kein or KEIN may refer to: *Kein language Kein, also known as Bemal, is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. References Kokon languages Languages of Madang Province {{Madang-lang-stub ..., a language of Papua New Guinea * ''Kein'' (EP), ...
) in
Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...
—but its arrival marked the beginning of a new era in broadcasting in the state with the 1928 commissioning of a new self-supporting tower, one of the tallest in the United States at that time. The tower stood for 72 years until being demolished in 2020. In 1929 KGHL brought the first network radio programming to Montana when it aired the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
broadcast of
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
's inauguration. Over the course of the 1930s and 1940s, KGHL grew substantially. After
General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
had assigned the station a new frequency of 950 kHz, ( Guide to reading History Cards) it raised its power to 500 watts in 1929 and then to 1,000 watts in 1930. The second power increase also included a transmitter move to a site outside of the city. The next year, it became a full NBC affiliate, with the ability to air programming from NBC's Red and Blue networks or its then-separate Gold and Orange circuits on the West Coast. In 1934, the station was allowed to operate experimentally on 780 kHz, which was extended until becoming permanent in 1936. Further technical boosts came later in the 1930s with a final power increase to 5,000 watts in 1938.
NARBA The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...
moved KGHL, and other stations on 780, to 790 kHz.


New competition, new owners

KGHL stood alone in Billings for the first 18 years of its existence. In 1946, station KBMY (1230 AM) was established by the Billings Broadcasting Corporation, and 1951 brought KOOK (970 AM), owned by the Montana Network. The new competition prompted original owner Campbell to quit, and he sold KGHL to the Walter Schott Company of Cincinnati in 1952, along with the auto supply company, a farm at the KGHL transmitter site, and a cattle ranch. Schott renamed the Northwestern Auto Supply Company to Northwestern Industries in 1953. Northwestern sold KGHL in 1954 to the Midland Empire Broadcasting Company for $270,000; the four principals of Midland hailed from the oil and gas industry. Midland Empire immediately moved to apply for a television station; in November 1955, the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
granted it a construction permit for channel 8, and after prevailing against court challenges to the grant, KGHL-TV signed on March 15, 1958. New quarters at 214 N. 30th Street were constructed for the combined radio-TV operation. In 1962, Midland Empire sold KGHL radio and television to Crain-Snyder Television of Great Falls; KGHL-TV changed its call letters to KULR-TV upon Crain-Snyder taking over on January 1, 1963. As part of the deal, the new owners immediately spun off the radio station to the Copper Broadcasting Company, owned by
George C. Hatch George C. Hatch (December 16, 1919, in Erie, Pennsylvania – August 30, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah) was an American businessman who owned several communications businesses and helped pioneer cable television. He was a founder of Western M ...
. The sale brought KGHL its first radio sister stations in the state,
KOPR KOPR (94.1 FM) is an American commercial radio station licensed to serve the community of Butte, Montana. KOPR airs the syndicated, "Custom Rock Hits" music format from Jones Radio Networks. The station has aired an adult hits format for s ...
in
Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...
and KMON in Great Falls. Additionally, the station moved its studios to the transmitter site. Hatch built and signed on an FM sister station to KGHL, KBMS (98.5 FM), in August 1977. In 1984, KGHL began broadcasting in
AM stereo AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...
.


Sunrise Montana ownership

After more than 20 years, Hatch sold KGHL and the FM station, then known as KIDX, for $3 million in 1985 to Dick Elliot. Elliot had previously become general manager of the two stations in 1982 before stepping down to buy two stations in his hometown of Salt Lake City. By this time, KGHL had become a country music outlet, which dominated the ratings in Billings and earned national honors for stations in its market size. Elliot moved the stations' studios and offices out of the transmitter site and to a business park along
Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...
. During his ownership, KGHL ratings sank as music listening move to FM. In 1986, the station posted a 31.4 percent share of the market, nearly double the nearest competitor; three years later, however,
Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
showed KGHL in a tie for second with just 12.2 percent share as three FM stations gained ground: contemporary stations KYYA (93.3 FM) and KZLS (97.1 FM) and country KCTR-FM 102.9.


KGHL in the 1990s

In 1991, Pegasus Broadcasting Company of Helena, whose CEO was Chris Brennan, purchased KGHL-KIDX from Elliot. The president of Pegasus, Dan Snyder, was the same Snyder that had purchased then-KGHL-TV in 1962. Pegasus also took over the operations of KKUL AM 1230/ FM 95.5, which were at the time owned by the First Security Bank of Livingston. In March 1992, 95.5 became KGHL-FM and entered into a simulcast with 790 AM. In early 1993, KGHL-FM dropped the call letters and rebranded as KDWG "The Dawg" in an attempt to go after KCTR "Cat Country". ("The Dawg" moved to 98.5 FM later in the year as part of a frequency swap between it and KIDX's long-running Magic adult contemporary format.) As The Dawg established itself on FM, KGHL became a news/talk outlet by 1995, when Brennan placed his Montana radio holdings under the control of the
One on One Sports SportsMap was a sports radio network that was distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplied its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, thro ...
network, which he headed. The next year, the station picked up play-by-play of the
Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...
baseball team. Brennan sold his AM-FM pairs in Billings and Helena to American Cities Broadcasting in 1997 for $3 million, by which time KGHL had moved back to a classic country format. After acquiring KRSQ, then at 101.7 FM, American Cities sold its Billings cluster to New Northwest Broadcasters in 1999.


Northern Broadcasting ownership

New Northwest continued to own KGHL until 2009, when its entire five-station Billings cluster was spun off to company president and CEO Pete Benedetti. Benedetti sold KGHL, its lone AM, to KGHL Radio, LLC, in 2011, retaining a 30 percent stake in the new licensee; Benedetti retained the separately programmed KGHL-FM, which changed its call letters to KEWF as a condition of the sale. The majority owners of KGHL Radio, Taylor and Shannon Brown, integrated the station with the Northern Ag Network, a syndicator of farm news to stations, which they also owned; Brown grew up listening to KGHL as a child in Sand Springs.


FM translator

In 2016, Taylor Brown acquired K234CP, an FM translator at 94.7 FM, to rebroadcast KGHL on the FM band; it was moved to Billings from
Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...
.


References


External links

*
FCC History Cards for KGHL
{{Billings Radio GHL (AM) Radio stations established in 1928 1928 establishments in Montana