KSUN (1400 AM) is a Spanish-language

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 out of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, and serving the

Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the c ...

. It is locally owned by the Marques brothers and operates a

regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

music format under the branding "La Mejor". The station simulcasts on translator at K293CO 106.5 FM. The station is also the Spanish-language

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

home of

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

basketball games and

Phoenix Rising FC Phoenix Rising Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 2014 as Arizona United Soccer Club, the team is a member of the USL Championship. They won the league championship in 2023, defeating the ...

soccer matches.

History

The station signed on August 28, 1954, as KONI, the ninth radio station in Phoenix; originally KBLR, the station's callsign changed by the time it signed on. KONI became KXIV in 1961. Until 1982, KXIV was programmed with a middle of the road (MOR) music format. The station was co-owned by Ira Lavin and actor

Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. Dick Van Dyke on screen and stage, His work spans screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Dick Van Dyke, his awards includ ...

(an Arizona resident).

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 included George Scott, Jack Dey, Jim Hutton, Paul B. Mundt, and Jim Spero (who also served as

program director In service industries, such as education, a program manager or program director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing ...

). Van Dyke and Lavin sold KXIV in 1982 to local real estate developer Michael Levin, who relaunched the station with a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

format as KSUN, featuring personalities from ABC's TalkRadio Network, NBC's Talknet and audio from CNN2. The call letters had been sold to Levin by the previous KSUN in Bisbee, at the time silent and in receivership. Hourly discount auctions through a segment called "BarterBank" were also heavily advertised. Levin's tenure running KSUN was marred by suspicious vandalism and layoffs. The station fell into bankruptcy and went silent on Memorial Day weekend 1983. CAZ Broadcasting bought KSUN out of bankruptcy in 1984 and brought the station back the next year as an affiliate of the original

Radio AAHS Radio AAHS was an American radio network owned and operated by the Children's Broadcasting Corporation. The flagship station of the format was WWTC (1280 AM) in Minneapolis, from where network programming originated at the former First Federal ...

, a radio service developed for children, with adult-oriented music at night. By 1986, KSUN was running jazz full-time with minor league baseball play-by-play of the

Phoenix Firebirds The Phoenix Firebirds were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1958 to 1959, and from 1966 to 1997. Before 1986, the team was known as the Phoenix Giants. The franchise was a member of the Triple-A Pacific Coast Le ...

, having lost Radio AAHS when Children's Radio Network opted to cease distributing it outside of its owned-and-operated stations. After an abortive attempt to sell the station to TransCom, owners of KLZI 99.9 FM, and going silent again at the end of summer, Fiesta Radio purchased the station in November 1986. Radio Fiesta officially signed on March 23, 1987. The station became a sports play-by-play specialist; it was the long-time home of Spanish broadcasts of the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

(now on KHOV), first carrying all 162 games in 2004, and continues to carry Suns games. In 2021, the station will broadcast

games. In 2015, the station partnered with Mexican radio company

MVS Radio MVS Radio are a group of four international Spanish-language radio networks owned by the mass media conglomerate MVS Comunicaciones. The group of radio networks consists of Exa FM, La Mejor FM, Globo and MVS Noticias and are broadcast in a variou ...

to launch its regional Mexican La Mejor format in Phoenix.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KSUN
{{Phoenix Radio Hispanic and Latino American culture in Phoenix, Arizona Mexican-American culture in Arizona

SUN The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

Regional Mexican radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1954 1954 establishments in Arizona