KSAL (1150 kHz "NewsRadio 1150") is a commercial AM

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

that broadcasts a news-talk

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 was compelle ...

. Licensed to Salina,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

, it serves the Salina-

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

area. The station is owned by Christopher Miller, through licensee Meridian Media, LLC. KSAL is powered at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. By day it uses a non-directional antenna. But to protect other stations on 1150 AM from interference, at night it switches to a directional antenna with a four-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is on North Woodward Road in New Cambria. Programming is also heard on 250 watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tra ...

K294DI at 106.7 MHz in Salina. On weekdays, KSAL begins with "The KSAL Morning News." Before sunrise, it also carries two news magazines, " This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal" and " America in the Morning." There are also local talk and sports shows in the late afternoon and evening. The rest of the schedule is

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

conservative talk programs: Brian Kilmeade, " The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," " The Ramsey Show with Dave Ramsey," "Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis" and " Coast to Coast AM with George Noory." Weekends feature some repeats of weekday shows, as well as " The Tech Goddess with Kim Komando," " Somewhere in Time with Art Bell" and sports programming from

SportsMap SportsMap is a sports radio Radio network, network that is distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its h ...

. Most hours begin with world and national news from Fox News Radio.

History

Early years

The station went on the air in . It was Salinas' first radio station, originally powered at only 250 watts by day and 100 watts at night, broadcasting at 1500

kilocycle The cycle per second is a once-common English name for the unit of frequency now known as the hertz (Hz). The plural form was typically used, often written cycles per second, cycles/second, c.p.s., c/s, or, ambiguously, just cycles (Cy./Cyc.). The ...

s. The studios were in the former Salina Journal building at the southwest corner of Seventh and Iron, which today is a parking lot. The station's

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 assig ...

was originally KSJS - the "SJ" standing for the '' Salina Journal'' daily newspaper. Its first owner was R.J. Laubengayer, who not only was president of the Salina Journal and KSAL, but director of Consolidated Printing and the Farmers National Bank in Salina. Laubengayer served as the station's General Manager. KSAL became a

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation pla ...

of the NBC Blue Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news and sports. The Blue Network later became the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...

. When network programming moved to television, KSAL switched to a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * Fu ...

, middle of the road format, with popular adult music, news and sports. Through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, KSAL stayed with ABC as an ABC Information Network affiliate.

Personalities

One of KSAL's first personalities was Ken Jennison. He started his professional radio career (after 4 years at Kansas State University) in 1949. He began as a copywriter, putting together daily "logbooks" that tracked each day's broadcast from the moment the station went on the air at 6 a.m. to when it signed off with the "Star-Spangled Banner" at midnight. "Everything was written down -- programs, commercials, introductions, music selection -- everything was in that book," Jennison said. "It would be given to the announcer, and he would follow it exactly. If you had a news break at 3 p.m., you had to time it out right." In the early 1960s, tape was introduced. Announcements and commercials would be prerecorded on cassette tapes, Jennison said, and that took some of the pressure off disc jockeys. Live music also was a staple in the early days of radio. A popular program of the 1960s was the Sonny Slater show, which featured musicians playing live at the studio at noon on Saturdays. Live music programs didn't last long on local radio. "It was difficult to fill up a program with live music all the time," Jennison said.

Adding an FM station

In May 1974, KSAL added an FM station at 93.7 MHz. Its call letters were KYEZ, with the EZ standing for

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, ...

music. That station also joined ABC as an ABC-FM News affiliate. Much of its original programming was

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

quarter hour sweeps of

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

. Today it is a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

station. In the 1980s, KSAL was the only radio station in the area that had its own color weather radar that could help predict when thunderstorms were entering a certain area.

Switch to news-talk

As music listening moved to the FM dial in the 1980s and 90s, KSAL began airing more talk programming, in addition to music. In April 1996, music programming on KSAL ended and the station format was changed into news-talk. KSAL also concentrates on local high school and regional sports. In addition to area

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...

and other sports coverage, KSAL is the

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

for

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

sports and

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expa ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

for the Salina area.

Former hosts

* Jim Rose, Ken Jennison, Rick Mach, Greg Martin, George Pyle, Dan Robins, Bob Sheldon, Bob Davis, Brian Collins, Tom Mulligan, Jeff Comfort, Sonny Slater, Larry Mohlenbrink, J. Steven Smethers, Phil (Grossardt) Ross, Jim Robertson, Bruce Steinbrock, Don (Schwartz) Bradley, Steve Kohl and

Clarke Sanders Clarke Sanders is an American politician. He serves as a Republican member for the 69th district of the Kansas House of Representatives. Career In 2021, Sanders was elected for the 69th district of the Kansas House of Representatives. He ...

. Despite rumors to the contrary, ABC news commentator

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

was never employed by KSAL. He was station manager for KFBI, which had remote studios on the second floor of the Fox-Watson Theatre in Salina in the mid-late 1930s.

References

External links

{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Kansas News and talk radio stations in the United States

SAL Sal, SAL, or S.A.L. may refer to: Personal name * Sal (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname Places * Sal, Cape Verde, an island and municipality * Sal, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province * Ca ...

Salina, Kansas Radio stations established in 1937 1937 establishments in Kansas