KRLV (920 kHz) is a commercial 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 ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, United States, serving the Las Vegas area. Owned by Lotus Communications, KRLV airs a

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

focused on the Las Vegas Raiders of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. The station's studios and offices are located in the unincorporated community of Spring Valley in Clark County. A secondary studio is located at the Raiders headquarters and practice facility in Henderson. 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 ...

is located off Wild Jan Drive, northwest of downtown Las Vegas.

History

Early years as KORK

In 1951, the station first signed on as KORK at 1340 kilocycles. KORK was owned by the Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company, located in the Hotel Thunderbird, and it was powered at only 250

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. KORK was an NBC Red Network affiliate, broadcasting NBC's schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

s and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

remotes. In 1955, it was bought by the Southwestern Broadcasting Company, which put Channel 3, KORK-TV (later KVBC, now KSNV) on the air in that same year. In 1961 KORK got an FM counterpart, 97.1 KORK-FM (now KXPT).

Move to AM 920

In 1968, KORK, airing a full service Middle of The Road format, moved to 920 on the AM dial. Going to the 920 spot allowed KORK to increase its daytime power to 5,000 watts and slightly boost its nighttime power to 500 watts. The 920 facility was first licensed in 1948 as KRAM; that call sign concurrently moved to the 1340 license. During its heyday under the ownership of Donrey Media, KORK was among the most popular stations in Las Vegas for adults. Its lineup included well-known

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s, such as Red McIlvaine, Walt Reno and Ron Murphy. The simulcast morning

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

newscasts of KORK/KORK-FM in the 1970s kept both stations high in the ratings. During the latter part of the decade, the newsroom was led by news director Bill Buckmaster (later a talk show host at KWFM in Tucson) and included reporters Jackie Glass (now a District Court Judge in Las Vegas) and Steven L. Herman, (currently a

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

correspondent in Asia). The trio was frequently heard on

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 ...

radio network newscasts. By the early 1980s, KORK became an

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

station, airing NBC Radio News at the beginning of each hour.

Sports KBAD

KORK changed its call sign to KBAD on April 4, 1997 and began airing an all-sports format. It was known briefly as "K-BAD AM 920." KBAD was an

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

affiliate until March 3, 2008, when that programming was transferred to KWWN. It then picked up

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...

programming from

KENO Keno is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries. Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some va ...

, which in turn affiliated with

ESPN Deportes Radio ESPN Deportes Radio was an American Spanish language sports radio network created and produced by Disney-owned ESPN. Programming included call-in talk shows and commentary from hosts about a full range of sporting events, including soccer, ...

. KBAD aired '' The Jim Rome Show'' until its move to CBS Sports Radio, whose Las Vegas affiliate is KXST. On July 1, 2013, KBAD switched affiliations to NBC Sports Radio and rebranded as ''920 The Game"'' On August 5, 2019, KBAD became one of the first terrestrial radio stations in the country dedicated entirely to sports betting, as the station became an affiliate of The BetR Network.

As KRLV

The call sign was changed to KRLV on March 20, 2020; the call sign was transferred from its sister station on 1340, now KKGK. On July 27, 2020, Lotus Communications announced that KRLV and KOMP would become the new flagship stations of the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL after the team moved, and that KRLV would relaunch with a new on-air lineup as ''Raider Nation Radio''. The new lineup and branding launched on August 3, 2020 including a morning show co-hosted by Clay Baker and Mike Pritchard, a show hosted by the Raiders lead beat writer at the

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal' ...

and Lincoln Kennedy, a show hosted by J. T. the Brick, and a weekly show hosted by the team's head coach. The former "The Game" programming moved to KLAV. On January 11, 2021, the station added The Rich Eisen Show after dropping

Mike Greenberg Michael Darrow Greenberg (born August 6, 1967) is an American television anchor, television show host, radio show host for ESPN and ABC, and novelist. At ESPN, he hosted the weekday evening, most often Monday, ''SportsCenter'' and previously ES ...

's show Greeny after it moved to a new timeslot. The second and third hours of the show are carried. Alongside the Raiders, the station is also the flagship station of the Las Vegas Aviators radio network and carries select games from the Sports USA Radio Network. The station otherwise features programming from SportsMap and the Vegas Stats & Information Network.

Former programming

In the 2019–20 season, KRLV (then KBAD) broadcast UNLV Rebels baseball and UNLV Lady Rebels basketball games. The station was previously an affiliate for the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

and was the flagship station of the former

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

's Las Vegas Gladiators before they moved to

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. KRLV also carried Vegas Vipers XFL games. Boxing analyst Al Bernstein once had a weekday show on KBAD.

References

External links

{{Sports Radio Stations in Nevada Sports radio stations in the United States RLV (AM) Radio stations established in 1948 1948 establishments in Nevada Lotus Communications stations