KTAR (AM)
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KTAR (620
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 an AM commercial radio station licensed to
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 ...
, United States. Owned and operated by
Bonneville International Bonneville International Corporation is a media and broadcasting company, wholly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation. It began as a radio and TV networ ...
, it features 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 ...
format airing programming from
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 ...
. The studios are located in north Phoenix near
Piestewa Peak Piestewa Peak ( ; , formerly Squaw Peak), at is the second highest point in the Phoenix Mountains, after Camelback Mountain, and the third highest in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in the Piestewa Peak Recreation Area within the ...
, and the station broadcasts with 5,000 watts from a transmitter site near the corner of 36th Street and Thomas Road. KTAR was established in 1922 as KFAD, owned by the McArthur brothers, and became one of just two stations in Phoenix (alongside KOY) from the early 1920s through 1940. It was purchased by ''
The Arizona Republican ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. History Early years The newspap ...
'' (soon renamed the ''Arizona Republic'') in 1929 and adopted its present call sign in January 1930 as part of a major overhaul. From the 1930s for several decades, KTAR was the key
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 affiliate in the state. Its program director,
John Howard Pyle John Howard Pyle (March 25, 1906 – November 29, 1987) was an American broadcaster and politician who served as the ninth governor of the U.S. state of Arizona from 1951 to 1955. An opponent of polygamy, he authorized a raid on a Fundamental ...
, jumped from radio to politics and served two terms as
Governor of Arizona A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
. KTAR, which added a television station (KVAR, later KTAR-TV) in 1954 and an FM radio station in 1960, grew into one of the most important broadcasters in the state. After dropping music programming in 1973 to focus on news, talk, sports, and information, it consolidated itself as the leading station of its kind in Phoenix under the ownership of Combined Communications Corporation and Pulitzer Broadcasting; Bonneville has owned KTAR since 2004. While KTAR primarily broadcasts network programming and live sports overflow, its local programming was spun out in two stages onto the FM band. In 2006,
KTAR-FM KTAR-FM (92.3 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Glendale, Arizona, and serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. It is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonneville International, a profit-making division of the ...
92.3 began airing all of KTAR's news and talk programming, and the AM station adopted a full-time sports format. KPKX (98.7 FM) was flipped from music to become
KMVP-FM KMVP-FM (98.7 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station in Phoenix, Arizona, featuring a Sports radio, sports format branded as "98.7 FM Arizona's Sports Station". Local programming airs on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and ...
"Arizona Sports" in January 2014, allowing the AM station to become a full-time ESPN Radio outlet and moving local sports talk programming to FM. As Bonneville holds the radio broadcast rights to most major professional and college sports in Phoenix, KTAR carries games in the event of scheduling conflicts with KMVP-FM.


History


Early history

Effective December 1, 1921, the
United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...
, in charge of radio at the time, adopted a regulation formally establishing a broadcasting station category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for entertainment broadcasts and 485 meters (619 kHz) for farm market and weather reports. On June 21, 1922, the McArthur Brothers Mercantile Company, at 134 South Central Avenue in Phoenix, was issued a license for a new station on the shared 360-meter "entertainment" wavelength. The station's call letters, KFAD, were randomly assigned from an alphabetical roster of available call signs. KFAD was the third broadcasting station licensed in the state of Arizona and, as KTAR, is the oldest surviving one. The original station was built by Arthur Anderson, who would remain with KFAD and later KTAR until his death in 1956 and along the way claimed various Arizona radio firsts. The KFAD call letters were first printed in ''The Arizona Republican'' in November, when the station gave radio concerts at the
Arizona State Fair The Arizona State Fair is an annual state fair, held at Arizona State Fairgrounds. It was first held in 1884, but has had various interruptions due to cotton crop failure, the Great Depression era, World War I & World War II years & the COVID-1 ...
. By April 1923, it was described as the third-largest station in the United States west of
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, and by 1924, KFAD was broadcasting nightly programs. In early 1925, the station was assigned to the frequency of 1000 kHz, which was changed a short time later to 1100 kHz. That same year, ownership was changed to Electrical Equipment Company (McArthur Brothers Mercantile Company), and the station was rebuilt, with two towers topping the Electrical Equipment Company building at 312 North Central Avenue complete with lit "KFAD" letters. In early 1928, KFAD was reassigned to 930 kHz, a change that Phoenix radio listeners found hindered their reception of
KOA KOA (short for Kampgrounds of America) is an American franchise of privately owned campgrounds. Having more than 500 locations across the United States and Canada, it is the world's largest system of privately owned campgrounds. It was founded ...
in Denver and
KFI KFI (640 AM) is a radio station in Los Angeles, California, owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. It began operations in 1922 and became one of the first high-powered, clear-channel Class A stations. It was the first U.S. station west of ...
in Los Angeles. On November 11, 1928, as part of a nationwide reallocation under the provisions of the
Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...
's
General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
, the station moved to 620 kHz, which has been its assignment ever since.


''Arizona Republic'' ownership

On September 15, 1929, it was announced that the '' Arizona Republican'' newspaper and the Electrical Equipment Company had filed articles of incorporation creating the KAR Broadcasting Company, which intended to take over and upgrade KFAD. An initial report said the station's new call letters would eventually be "KAR"; However, earlier that year, those call letters had been assigned to a government coastal station located in the U.S. territory of the Philippines. Ownership was transferred to the new company in November 1929, and the call sign on record briefly changed to KREP, representing the newspaper ownership. The new ownership also began the process of rebuilding the station to operate with 1,000 watts during the day from the
Heard Building The Heard Building (alternatively the Greater Arizona Savings Building) is a 7-story high-rise building in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, it housed the offices of The Arizona Republic (formerly the Arizona Republican) and the Phoenix Gazette ...
, where the ''Republican'' was located. Instead of KREP, the new owners received permission to change the call sign to KTAR, which it began using on January 1, 1930, in advance of the new facilities being activated on February 4. June 1930 brought about another milestone in Arizona radio history, as KTAR joined NBC on June 8 with the presentation of a multiple-hour national program, ''Arizona on NBC Parade''. In the early 1930s, KTAR collaborated with
Phoenix Union High School Phoenix Union High School (PUHS) was a high school that was part of the Phoenix Union High School District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, one of five high school-only school districts in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1895 and closed in 1982, th ...
and the Phoenix Adult School to present the KTAR School of the Air. An article in ''Broadcasting'' magazine recognized the program's success after two years' operation, noting that, in 1932, students "were scattered in 61 Arizona cities and towns and in California, New Mexico, Utah and other adjacent areas in the southwest ... ncludingmany of the disabled World War veterans quartered in the veterans' hospitals at Prescott and Tucson." By 1933, KTAR was on the main
Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
and
Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
networks from the east and NBC's west coast Orange network, giving it access to the vast majority of NBC programs. After being lured over to radio from the ''Republican'' ad sales department,
John Howard Pyle John Howard Pyle (March 25, 1906 – November 29, 1987) was an American broadcaster and politician who served as the ninth governor of the U.S. state of Arizona from 1951 to 1955. An opponent of polygamy, he authorized a raid on a Fundamental ...
became KTAR's program director in 1930. Five years later, for the first time, KTAR fed an Easter sunrise service from the
Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...
to the NBC network. The Easter sunrise service, narrated and written by Pyle, became an annual tradition for KTAR and NBC, presented for 25 years to a national and international audience. In the late 1930s, KTAR began to look outside Phoenix in its quest to grow as a statewide broadcasting force. KTAR agreed to acquire
Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
station
KVOA KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its primary transmitter is located ...
in 1937, and once the deal closed in early 1939, that station joined NBC, giving rise to a statewide network under the auspices of the Arizona Broadcasting Company (ABC). KVOA was joined later that year by
KWJB KWJB (1510 AM) is a terrestrial American radio station, licensed to Canton, Texas, United States. It broadcasts a full service format consisting of local talk, classic hits and adult contemporary music. The station is owned by Butler7Medi ...
in
Globe A globe is a spherical Earth, spherical Model#Physical model, model of Earth, of some other astronomical object, celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but, unlike maps, they do not distort the surface ...
, KCRJ in
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
, and KUMA in Yuma. The latter was replaced by the newly built KYUM in 1940 after KUMA lost its
broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...
. The network became the Arizona Broadcasting ''System'' at the end of 1945; the change came as the new
American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...
sought to claim the ABC acronym for itself and settled with other groups using the ABC acronym. KTAR filed with 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 ...
(FCC) in 1939 to relocate its transmitter to a site at 36th Street and Thomas Road and increase power to 5,000 watts. ( Guide to reading History Cards) Broadcasting began officially from the new site in February 1941, having been testing the increased power since the start of the year. Studios remained in the Heard Building.


John J. Louis ownership

In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation as to whether newspaper cross-ownership of radio stations within the same community should be restricted. In 1944, the ''Republic'', sensing a possible ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and radio stations, sold its 77 percent majority stake in the KTAR Broadcasting Company for $375,000 to John J. Louis Sr., of Chicago advertising agency Needham, Louis, and Brorby; Louis had been wintering in Phoenix for seven years. In addition to KTAR, the deal gave Louis ownership stakes in KVOA, KYUM, and
KYCA KYCA (1490 AM "The News 1490") is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format in Prescott, Arizona. It is owned by Jason Zinzileta and Janice Derks, through licensee Prescott Broadcasting, LLC. KYCA is powered at 1,000 watts using a non-d ...
in
Prescott Prescott may refer to: People Given name * Prescott E. Bloom, American lawyer and politician * Prescott Bush, American banker and politician * Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist * Prescott F. Hall, American lawyer, author and eugenicist ...
. That year, the
Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the ...
, having been split from NBC, affiliated with KPHO (1230 AM), which had gone on the air in 1940 as the first new radio station in Phoenix since the early 1920s. In 1945, KTAR sent Pyle as a war correspondent to the Pacific theater of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
to report on Arizona servicemen fighting in Asia. Pyle's deployment proved timely, as he witnessed some of the key moments in the final months of fighting in Japan, seeing the surrender of
Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore. His conquest of Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earned him the sobriquet "The Tig ...
firsthand. He also was aboard one of the first planes in the invasion of Japan and the USS ''Missouri'' when the Japanese surrendered. By the time Pyle successfully ran for
Governor of Arizona A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
in 1950, according to one columnist for ''The Republic'', "his name and his voice were as familiar in Arizona homes as the family radio", and he was the vice president of the KTAR Broadcasting Company. After purchasing a parcel of land further north on Central Avenue, at Portland Street, ground was broken in June 1952 for a new, $500,000 studio complex. One wing of this building, completed the next year, was left empty and designated for future use by a television station.


Expansion into television

After World War II, KTAR began planning for an eventual expansion into television. As early as 1945, it had negotiated with the city of Phoenix parks board to obtain access to South Mountain, a prime location for a television transmitter facility. The KTAR Broadcasting Company applied for one of Phoenix's VHF television channels in 1948, proposing to build atop the Heard Building. Its application would have to await the end of the FCC's four-year freeze on new TV stations to be authorized. When the freeze was lifted in 1952, KTAR declared it would be on the air within three months of a
construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
grant, with the new studio complex about to start construction and having already contracted for equipment to furnish it. What KTAR did not anticipate was a
comparative hearing The comparative hearing process was used by the United States Federal Radio Commission from 1927 to 1934 and its successor, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), from 1934 to 1994 for the evaluation of mutually exclusive applications for b ...
for channel 3, the last VHF channel to be awarded in Phoenix, in which it was pitted against a group backed by a political heavyweight: former United States senator
Ernest McFarland Ernest William McFarland (October 9, 1894 – June 8, 1984) was an American politician, jurist and, with Warren Atherton, one of the "Fathers of the G.I. Bill". He served in all three branches of government, two at the state level, one at the ...
, a lead stockholder in the Arizona Television Company. In February 1954, hearings were held on the channel 3 assignment. The channel 3 contest ended in April 1954, when KTAR announced it would buy
KTYL-TV KPNX (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Mesa, Arizona, United States, serving the Phoenix area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios at the Republic Media building on Van Buren Street i ...
(channel 12) in
Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...
for $250,000, a decision that cleared the way for the Arizona Television Company to build
KTVK KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power station KPHE-LD (channel 44), a grouping known as "Arizona's Fam ...
. In announcing the purchase, Louis explained that he wanted a television counterpart to KTAR without going through hearings. When the sale closed in July 1954, KTYL-TV became KVAR; immediately, KTAR-purchased equipment was added to the studios, which were then moved to Phoenix in 1956 over KTVK's objection. The KTAR-TV call letters were not available to channel 12 because it was licensed to a different city from the radio station. After a change in FCC regulations, channel 12 became KTAR-TV in 1961. Louis built KVOA a television sister,
KVOA-TV KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its primary transmitter is located ...
, in 1953. He then sold the two Tucson stations to Clinton D. McKinnon in 1955. In the late 1950s, KTAR sold much of the land surrounding the tower site to be used to develop a new suburban shopping center, known as Tower Plaza and designed by local architect Ralph Haver. John J. Louis died at the age of 53 while at a business event in
Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
, on February 19, 1959.


Combined with Eller

In December 1967, the KTAR Broadcasting Company announced it would merge with Eller Outdoor Advertising, controlled by
Karl Eller Karl Eller (June 20, 1928 – March 10, 2019) was an American businessman and entrepreneur. Early life Eller grew up in Tucson, Arizona. He played football collegiately at the University of Arizona where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Del ...
, to form Combined Communications Corporation, with John J. Louis Jr. as chairman and Eller as president. The deal was approved by the FCC in October 1968. Bill Heywood moved over from KUPD (1060 AM) to be part of the station's morning show, marking the first of four separate stints with KTAR. The Combined Communications era would lay the groundwork for the station's shift from music and entertainment to news and sports. When the
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 ...
of the
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
began—with Eller as a founding investor—KTAR radio and television were the team's first local broadcast partners. Four years later, KTAR hired Al McCoy, already a Phoenix market veteran having worked for several local radio and television stations, to announce the Suns games. On September 17, 1973, KTAR shed its remaining middle of the road music programming, from a format adopted four years earlier, to take on 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 radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...
format under the guidance of news director Roger Downey, who would become an anchor at
KPHO-TV KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside independent stations KTVK (channel 3) and KPHE-LD (channel 44), a group known together as "Arizona's Family ...
. The original format featured network newscasts from NBC and ABC, as well as the Suns,
Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...
sports, and
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
baseball.


Pulitzer ownership

In 1978, Combined Communications agreed to merge with the
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
. The merged company opted to retain channel 12 and divest the Phoenix radio stations; Combined's ownership of the KTAR stations had been grandfathered earlier in the decade when the FCC forbade common ownership of television and radio stations in top-50 markets, but with the Gannett merger, the KTAR cluster lost its grandfathered protection. The radio stations were traded to Pulitzer Broadcasting, whose newspaper division owned the morning ''
Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is an American daily newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, and owned by Lee Enterprises. It serves Tucson and surrounding districts of Southern Arizona in the United States. History 1877–1925 L. C. Hughes was the ...
'' in Tucson, in 1979 for KSD radio in St. Louis and $2 million. KTAR-TV then changed its call sign to KPNX on June 4, 1979, since the radio properties had held the KTAR call letters first; at the time, broadcast stations with different owners could not share the same call letters. Meanwhile, radio personalities who would become staples of KTAR for years or decades were added to the lineup. Preston Westmoreland joined from KXIV in 1978, and he was joined four years later by Pat McMahon, already a veteran radio and television personality in Phoenix. KTAR's sports programming was revamped in 1981; sportscaster
Lee Hamilton Lee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the ...
moved from Ohio to host the ''620 Sportsline'' program until 1987, when he left after becoming the radio voice of 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 ...
after leading the show to high ratings. His replacement was
Greg Schulte Greg Schulte is an American sportscaster, and is best known as the radio play-by-play voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks Major League Baseball team, a position he has held since the team's inaugural season in 1998. Schulte's nickname is The Gub' ...
, who had worked at KTAR in the 1970s, was fired in a round of cuts in 1980, and returned in 1982. KTAR's 1988 coverage of the impeachment of
Evan Mecham Evan Mecham ( ; May 12, 1924 – February 21, 2008) was an American businessman and the List of governors of Arizona, 17th governor of Arizona, serving from January 5, 1987, until his Impeachment by state and territorial governments of the United ...
won the station its only
George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in ...
. That same year, it became the first radio home of the newly relocated
Phoenix Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The team play ...
; the color announcer, Tom Dillon, was also the voice of the Sun Devils on KTAR and other stations from 1973 to 1997. (The Cardinals departed after the 1993 season for
KESZ KESZ (99.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, featuring an adult contemporary format known as "99.9 KEZ". Owned and operated by iHeartMedia the station serves the Phoenix metropolitan area. For much of November and ...
, which was co-owned with
KTVK KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power station KPHE-LD (channel 44), a grouping known as "Arizona's Fam ...
, then the team's TV partner.) In 1991, a traffic helicopter contracted by the station crashed, killing the pilot. Pulitzer added a second Phoenix AM station to its portfolio in 1996, when it acquired KVVA (860 AM) at bankruptcy auction. It became sports talk outlet KMVP, but ratings were poor, as was the facility's nighttime signal. The new sports station also took on some of KTAR's heavy sports rights load, with ASU moving after 13 years on 620 to the new 860. KTAR was also a charter investor in the expansion
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 ...
, whose games aired on KTAR (except for several on the new KMVP) and were announced by Schulte.


Three sales in five years

In February 1998, Pulitzer put its broadcasting division on the market; this included its nine television stations, Phoenix radio properties, and the firm's only other radio stations, AM outlets in Kentucky and North Carolina. Hearst-Argyle Television, the broadcasting division of the
Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
, agreed to acquire Pulitzer Broadcasting for $1.15 billion that May, with the deal being consummated in March 1999. Hearst-Argyle's short ownership of KTAR, KMVP, and KKLT was consistently marked by speculation that a sale was imminent, given the corporation's heavy concentration on local television stations. In 2000, it entered into an agreement with
Emmis Communications Emmis Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for "Truth" (''Emet'') was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR ...
by which Emmis would trade a television station within three years to Hearst-Argyle or pay $160 million in cash while taking immediate programming control of the stations. Emmis also added KKFR (92.3 FM), which was sold as a result of the merger of Clear Channel Communications and AMFM. In 2004, Emmis then traded three of the Phoenix stations (KTAR, KMVP, and KKLT) to
Bonneville International Bonneville International Corporation is a media and broadcasting company, wholly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation. It began as a radio and TV networ ...
in exchange for WLUP-FM in Chicago—allowing the company to realize a longtime goal of having two stations in that city—and $70 million. The next year, Bonneville reacquired the Cardinals radio rights, returning them to KTAR after an 11-season absence.


News and sports split

When Bonneville announced in May 2006 that it would purchase KKFR from Emmis for $77.5 million, it also announced its intention to move KTAR's news-talk programming to the FM band. The second frequency set in motion a plan to split KTAR into two stations, a news/talk station on FM and a sports talk outlet on AM, with the latter serving as an effective replacement for KMVP. KTAR began simulcasting on AM and FM on September 18, 2006, and on January 1, 2007, the AM station became "Sports 620 KTAR", taking on KTAR's sports rights to the Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Suns, and ASU. KTAR-FM was used for sports overflow and to simulcast the Cardinals, which aired on AM and FM. KTAR's sports talk lineup largely mixed ESPN Radio programming and local shows, with personalities including Ron Wolfley, Doug Franz, and John Gambadoro. By 2014, KTAR held the rights to all four major professional teams in Phoenix—the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Suns, and
Coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...
—as well as ASU. In the case of the Coyotes, who have departed from KTAR on several occasions to find another partner, their doing so has been cited for reducing coverage of the NHL team in the local sports media.


Second sports split

After decades of airing a musical format on 98.7 FM, Bonneville ceased airing its "The Peak" adult hits format and flipped that station to sports on January 6, 2014, initially simulcasting 620 AM. Local sports talk then moved exclusively to FM on September 15. KTAR became mostly a pass-through for national
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 ...
programming. However, it also airs Suns, Diamondbacks and Sun Devils games in the event KMVP has a conflict. Beginning January 6, 2025, KTAR AM became the new home of ''Roc & Manuch'', featuring former NFL quarterback Dan Manucci, which had aired on KGME from 2019 to 2024. The station continues with its ESPN Radio and overflow sports play-by-play outside of this program.


Notes


References


External links

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FCC History Cards for KTAR
(covering 1927-1980 as KFAD / KREP / KTAR) {{Authority control
TAR Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...
Sports radio stations in the United States ESPN Radio stations Radio stations established in 1922 Bonneville International 1922 establishments in Arizona