KIVA (1600

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 a 10,000 watt

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 ...

licensed to

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

airing the

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

talk lineup and also various local programming. The station also airs

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 ...

at the top of every hour and provides local traffic updates from their news department. It is owned by the Rock of Talk, LLC. Studios and offices are located at 2309 Renard Place Southeast, near the

Albuquerque International Sunport Albuquerque International Sunport , locally known as the Sunport, is the primary international airport serving the U.S. state of New Mexico, particularly the Albuquerque metropolitan area and the larger Albuquerque–Santa Fe–Los Alamos com ...

. KIVA broadcasts with 10,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s by day covering all of Albuquerque city proper and surrounding metro, with a potential listenership of approximately 1.1 million. To protect other stations on

1600 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1600 kHz: 1600 AM is classified as a regional frequency by the Federal Communications Commission. Argentina * Armonia in Caseros * EME (radio station), EM ...

at night, it reduces power to 175 watts. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

tower is on Arno Street, near

Interstate 25 Interstate 25 (I-25), also known as the Pan-American Freeway, is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 st ...

, about a mile from the studios.

Programming

On weekdays, KIVA carries mostly nationally syndicated

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

shows. They include

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...

, Bill O'Reilly,

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...

Jesse Kelly ''The Jesse Kelly Show'' (formerly known as ''America Now'' and ''The Buck Sexton Show'') is a three-hour early evening conservative talk radio show hosted by Jesse Kelly, and carried by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, Inc. It ...

, Buck Sexton and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. In January 2025, KIVA also added

Michael DelGiorno Michael Howard DelGiorno (born August 30, 1964) is an American talk radio host with a radio career spanning over 40 years. Delgiorno hosts the morning drive time show on 1510 WLAC in Nashville, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. His program is syndic ...

to its morning broadcast schedule. He'll air during the early morning hours from 4-7am MT, weekdays. KIVA also features a fan favorite local afternoon talk show, "The Rock of Talk™️" wit
Eddy Aragon
from 4:00 to 6:45 pm weekdays. Aragon was the 2021 republican candidate for Albuquerque mayor and was named the

Albuquerque Journal The ''Albuquerque Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of New Mexico. History The ''Golden Gate'' newspaper was founded in June 1880. In the fall of 1880, the owner of the ''Golden Gate'' died and Journal Publishing Company was ...

’s “radio personality of the year” from 2017 to 2020. Aragon often says you’re “in the KIVA” referencing the station’s call letters meaning of

kiva A kiva (also ''estufa'') is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circula ...

, a Native American dwelling used for political meetings. Weekend hosts include

Bill Handel William Wolf Handel (born August 25, 1951) is a Brazilian-born American radio host and attorney. Handel currently hosts two radio programs on KFI in Los Angeles, California. First is KFI's local morning drive time show, in which he comments on ...

and "Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis." Saturdays are dedicated to business talk with local broadcasts from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. On Sundays,

Christian talk and teaching Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

programs including Hometown Heroes and The Lutheran Hour as well as Free Talk Live on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Hourly news updates are provided by

History

A long history in Albuquerque radio, nearly 70 years ago, on June 6, 1956, the station first signed on as KHAM. It originally was a daytimer on AM 1580, required to go off the air at sunset to avoid interfering with other stations. It had a classic country format as KRLL from 1993 to 1995, and was the home of

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

as KDZZ from October 1997 to July 1999, but for many years was an AM

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

for

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

station "Kool 102" KZKL-FM 101.7. In 2000, 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 ...

authorized the station to move from AM 1580, a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

clear channel frequency where the Albuquerque station could not broadcast at night, to AM 1600, a regional frequency which would allow it to broadcast around the clock. The station switched to an

all news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

format as KIVA from 2000 to 2002, after the frequency switch. From 2002 to 2004, it was "The mix of New Mexico" as KANM. In early 2005, 1600 began an

format as KRKE, after stunting with an all

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

format for a couple of weeks at the end of 2004. The talk format for KIVA began on June 15, 2009, on

1550 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1550 kHz: 1550 AM is a clear-channel frequency reserved for Canada. Class A CBEF in Windsor, Ontario, broadcasts on 1550 kHz. Clear-channel status had also been shared with XHRUV in ...

. On August 28, 2012, KIVA swapped frequencies with KRKE moving KIVA to 1600, while KRKE switched from 1600 to 1550. The station was assigned the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

KNUS on November 5, 1988. On September 27, 1989, the station changed its call sign to KZKL, on November 1, 1993, to KRLL, on November 1, 1995, to KNOS, on June 14, 1996, to KZKL, on November 28, 1997, to KDZZ, on September 13, 1999, to KIVA, on October 22, 2002, to KANM, on April 1, 2005, to KRKE, and on August 28, 2012, to the current KIVA.

FM broadcast and present

KIVA first began broadcasting in June 2013 on FM translator station 95.9 FM in Albuquerque. In March 2017, KIVA began broadcasting on K229CL 93.7 which had previously aired 1240

KDSK (AM) KDSK (1240 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station, licensed to Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico, and serving the Albuquerque metropolitan area radio market. It broadcasts an oldies radio format with a playlist of approximately 10,000 son ...

until it moved to 92.9. In April 2017, 95.9 FM ceased broadcast. A recent FCC filing states that the new owner (Telebeeper of New Mexico) is negotiating with another station for rebroadcast on the translator. Today, KIVA continues to be heard on 10,000 watt AM powerhouse 1600 in the Albuquerque metro and worldwide via their apps and website with a large and loyal listener base. KIVA is the only home to the

talk lineup in the Albuquerque radio market (market 70 out of 246), featuring talkers

, Bill O'Reilly,

, Buck Sexton and ''

with

.'' As of January 2025, the station also airs a video version of their popular local show “The Rock of Talk™️” on a separate app called “Rock of Talk TV” for both android and iOS users. The station is voiced b
Aaron Bradley

References

External links

KIVA website

FCC History Cards for KIVA
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in New Mexico News and talk radio stations in the United States IVA Libertarian television and radio shows Radio stations established in 1956