KSTY (104.5
FM) is a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
formatted radio station licensed to
Canon City, Colorado. The station is owned by Royal Gorge Broadcasting, LLC. The signal was formerly rebroadcast by KSTY-FM1, a 3-watt booster station also on 104.5, serving the
Colorado Springs area.
History
KSTY went on the air on June 1, 1975, as KRLN-FM on 103.9 MHz, changing to KSTX on August 30, 1976.
It was the FM sister to
KRLN, and initially simulcast the AM station. KRLN-FM broadcast with 3,000 watts from a transmitter site in Canon City. On May 31, 1982, KSTX reverted to the KRLN-FM call letters.
By 1991, when the station added programming from
Unistar, KRLN-FM was a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
station.
It became KSTY on December 30, 1994.
The station remained on 103.9 MHz until 1999, when it swapped frequencies with
KYZX in
Pueblo
Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
and moved to 104.5.
Later that year, Warner Enterprises sold its stations — KSTY and KRLN, along with stations in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...
— to James Haber's JC Acquisition for $11.465 million, in conjunction with the sale of the Lincoln stations to
Triad Broadcasting.
The Warner family's Royal Gorge Broadcasting bought back KSTY and KRLN for $715,000 in 2000.
On December 8, 2005, KSTY took on on the programming and call sign of
KKCS-FM (101.9). The move was undone in 2007, and the KSTY call letters and "Star Country" moniker returned to the 104.5 frequency.
On December 23, 2024, Royal Gorge Broadcasting announced that it would close KSTY and KRLN effective January 1, 2025. The stations were the last to be owned by the Warner family, whose station group had included stations in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.
References
External links
Star Country 104.5 Facebook
* (
Guide to reading History Cards)
Country radio stations in the United States
STY
Radio stations established in 1975
1975 establishments in Colorado
Cañon City, Colorado
{{Colorado-radio-station-stub