KIHP (1310 AM) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is 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 ...

licensed to

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the most populous city in the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community ...

, serving the

Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix Metropolitan Area – also the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, or Metro Phoenix (known by most locals simply as “the Valley”) – is the largest metropolitan area in the Southwestern United States, centered on the city ...

. It is owned by Relevant Radio, Inc.

History

The station signed on in 1946 as KTYL on 1490 kHz, owned by the Harkins Theater group. It was the second station in Mesa, signing on 3 days after KARV (1400 AM). Both stations ran 250 watts full-time with non-directional antennas — the maximum power allowed for Class IV (now Class C) stations at the time. Two years later, KTYL bought and shut down KARV; its frequency was reactivated in Phoenix in 1950 as KONI (now

KSUN KSUN (1400 AM) is a Spanish-language radio station broadcasting out of Phoenix, Arizona and serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. It is locally owned by the Marques brothers and operates a regional Mexican music format under the branding "La ...

). Harkins also put Arizona's first FM station (KTYL-FM 104.7, now

KZZP KZZP (104.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Mesa, Arizona, and serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. The station airs a top 40 (CHR) format and is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. Studios and offices are on East Van Buren Stree ...

) on the air in 1950; this was followed by Phoenix's second TV station (KTYL-TV channel 12, now

KPNX 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 ...

) on the air. As with the AM station, both stations were originally located in (and are still licensed to) Mesa. KTYL moved to 1310 in the early 1950s, and eventually increased its power to 5,000 watts day and 500 watts night. It became KBUZ, a

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 ...

station, in February 1958, with the slogan 'Drive with care, and KBUZ, everywhere'. At that time, it moved to Thomas Mall on the east side of Phoenix. The format was simulcast on 104.7 FM, by now KBUZ-FM. On January 1, 1977, the station became KQXE, with a very successful personality oriented oldies format For three years it dominated Eastern Phoenix radio, going up against market leader KOY. Management assembled a group of talents from the Phoenix radio region and added experienced, market leading individuals such as Phil Barry (Detroit) and Phil Gardner (Cleveland) https://archive.org/details/KQXEPhoenixPhilGardiner1980. After owners Southwestern Media sold the station to Western Cities Broadcasting, KQXE transitioned to a pop format under the calls KZZP, which is shared with sister FM station 104.7. After a precisely 10-year-long simulcast, 1310 AM split from the simulcast of KZZP-FM on February 19, 1990 and became KXAM. Initially an adult standards station, KXAM later became an independent

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

station, airing syndicated shows including Laura Ingraham, Dave Ramsey and

Matt Gerson Matt Gerson is an American talk radio host heard in Phoenix, Arizona on KIHP, the radio station owned by his family, and on nearly ten additional stations nationwide. His shows include ''Person to Person'', ''Book Browse'', and ''Matt's Angle on ...

. Gerson was part of the family that controlled KXAM's owner, Embree Broadcasting, and hosted a political talk show until March 2009. Soon afterward, Embree announced that KXAM would cease operations. Two of the station's local programs, ''Culinary Confessions'' (a food show) and ''The Bandwagon'' (a sports show) moved to

KAZG KAZG (1440 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an oldies format. Licensed to Scottsdale, Arizona, United States, the station covers the Phoenix metropolitan area. KAZG is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. and licensed to Phoenix FCC License Sub ...

soon after the announcement. Although KXAM employees had offered to buy the station, the Gerson family turned their offers down, insisting at that time on returning the license to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

. The station went silent April 16, 2009. On June 1, 2009, the Gerson family backed off from its plans to surrender the KXAM license and sold it to

IHR Educational Broadcasting IHR Educational Broadcasting dba Immaculate Heart Radio operates a network of radio stations in the Western United States, airing Roman Catholic religious programming. The network provides a 24-hour a day schedule consisting of call-in ta ...

for $1 million. It returned to the air as KIHP, with Catholic programming from Immaculate Heart Radio, on December 17. The station assumed the

Relevant Radio Relevant Radio (corporate name Relevant Radio, Inc.) is a radio network in the United States, mainly broadcasting talk radio and religious programming involving the Catholic Church. It is the largest Catholic radio network by owned station base. R ...

branding when IHR Educational Broadcasting and Starboard Media Foundation consummated their merger on June 30, 2017.https://ihradio.com/2017/06/relevant-radio-immaculate-heart-radio-complete-merger/

Translators

References

External links

* *
FCC History Cards for KIHP
{{Relevant Radio

IHP Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

Catholic radio stations Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in Arizona Relevant Radio stations